This Sunday is what has become to be known as Palm/Passion Sunday. This is a liturgical reaction to the difficulty many people have with getting to a Good Friday service. It has taken me a while to come to grips with it but I have come around to see some real value in this move.
One of the values it provides is an opportunity to look again at the non-dual nature of human beings. We desperately want things to boil down to either/or options. We want things to be good or bad; right or wrong. The problem is, no matter how much we want things to be this way . . . most things aren’t. This Sunday pushes us to pay attention to how much we want to identify ourselves, or others, as belonging to either of the two groups in our Gospel readings today; the “Hosanna” group or the “crucify” group. Depending on how we feel about ourselves on any given day we will put our self into one or the other — feeling good? Hosanna! feeling not so great . . . you get the picture. We don’t know who made up each of those groups we read about (this year in Mark) because no one took attendance but it isn’t impossible that at least some of them were in both groups; and so are we.
The sermon title for this Sunday was “We are both.” Let me know what you think.
“We are both” Knox Presbyterian (to download, right click and select “Save Link As . . .”)
“We are both” St. Mark’s Presbyterian (to download, right click and select “Save Link As . . .”)
Blessings,
PS There is nothing for last week because I was too sick to be vertical, let alone preaching.
Thanks Barry. I’m both sides too at times. Sadly. Your words help us to understand that we are not either/or, but both.