MISSING THE POINT, AGAIN, ON 'PALM SUNDAY'.

    Tomorrow will be, in hundreds of thousands of churches around the world, Palm Sunday. There will be songs of triumph and the welcoming of Jesus as Saviour, King, Messiah and, the deliverer of forgiveness from our sins. In many churches, small palms will be distributed and many (if any are available) children will be involved. Jesus will be portrayed as a conquering hero, welcomed by the masses.
   Of course, the whole picture has less to do with the reality of two-thousand years ago, than with our reality right now.
   We do so much need to make a king or divine figure out of our heroes. In that, we are the  same as the people back then. They needed a Messiah, a king who would rid the land of the hated Romans, a king who would be righteous and do the will of Yahweh, who again, would rule over the land as a true ' Kingdom of God'.
    Several times the people had tried to make Jesus accept the role as messiah. Most of his disciples had urged him to 'go for the crown', so to speak. Most had simply not accepted the fact that his vision and calling did not follow that road of violence. He had not been able to convince them of his Other Road and Way of love. Even his most trusted followers could see no other way than the usual.
   His entrance to Jerusalem was no triumph of the will of God, but an admission of failure, for Jesus  was very alone as he sat there on the donkey, being welcomed by a crowd that was full of adoration and worship, celebrating a victory that would only come with violence and more hatred, everything that he was against. Had he ever asked for adoration and worship? Had he ever asked to be more than a voice and prophet? Hadn't he always pointed toward Yahweh as the giver of life?
  In every way, he must have viewed his surroundings as failure, proof of the smallness of people and  his inability to convince them of the larger vision and love of God. He had accepted, at last, the cloak of the messiah, knowing that only if he accepted it, and then rejected it, would the people have a chance of knowing and understanding that that path of power and violence was not the path of God.
   But, here we are, once more, still denying the reality of what happened, joining, not Jesus and his reality, but of the people then, once more living in denial and illusion, in our own wants, needing Jesus to be our messiah, or even better, a God, to do it all for us. Not one who urges us to become God's children ourselves, to take for ourselves the power and responsibilities that are offered us.
   There are so many songs that I simply will not be able to sing tomorrow morning. I will be there, even in the choir. For me, it will be a day of mourning, but I will still be there, surrounded by people, good people all, joining in the praise and celebration. I am one of them, but I will feel so different, for I know that their way of thinking is part of the problem that is so limited and is keeping the simple message of Jesus of Nazareth from reaching the world today.
   I will share the sorrow and tears that Jesus shed, even while others shouted with joy, hoping that some day, even one day soon, they will begin to understand the deadliness of their ways and the hope and love that is their's if only their eyes and ears will open to God's love and call.
  But for now, it is still the tears, for the churches simply will not see and try to understand.