Dear Friends.
Here we are on the brink of Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week and the end of Lent. To me, it seems like only yesterday when we began the Lenten journey back on Ash Wednesday, March 5. Perhaps you were here at Grace Church on that day to receive the imposition of ashes on your forehead, and hear the bracing words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” We all repented of our sins, and vowed to make a new beginning. Many embarked on Lenten disciplines. We aimed to cut back on calories, drink less, pray more, or reach out to the marginalized of our community through an outreach project. Ideally, the larger goal of these endeavors was a closer walk with God. Now, at the ending of Lent, it is time to ask, “How did it go?”
When Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, I imagine that he was asking a similar question. The great city, and the people who dwelled within it had a mission to be a light to enlighten the nations. As God’s chosen people, they were to be set apart, and disciplined in walking in the ways of the Lord. How was it going? The answer was, not well. In fact, just beyond the reading we will hear at the beginning of the services on Sunday, Luke, the Gospel writer reports that when Jesus “saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace!’” What did Jesus do? Did he throw his hands up in despair? Did he run in the opposite direction because the people would never know the things that make for peace? No, he entered the city. He came to offer them a new beginning.
One of the great blessings that I glean from the entire Bible, but especially in the life of Jesus, is always the chance to begin again. Perhaps Lent did not go well for you. The things you embarked upon did not remove the mark of ashes from your forehead, and you feel no closer to God today than you did back then. Perhaps life itself is not going well for you. Take heart, here comes Jesus, again, with the offer to begin anew. When I think about it, the message of Palm Sunday is much the same as the message of Easter, Pentecost, Advent, and Christmas: here comes Jesus again, offering you and me a new beginning.
God is not going to give up on any of us, no matter how badly we fail, no matter how ferociously we resist. For this reason, on Sunday we will shout, “Blessed is the King, who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”
See you in Church.
Don