We hold them both
Today is Palm / Passion Sunday . . . again. I don’t want to come across as complaining about today because I am not complaining. I am being faithful to the feeling of “What do I do with today?” The last Sunday in Lent, the last Sunday before Good Friday is a tricky Sunday. How do you as a worship leader and preacher balance the two demands? How do you do justice to both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday (virtually a Good Friday service)? Of course, the short answer is you don’t. Or more correctly, you can’t. It is impossible to balance these two radically different ideas.
This was much easier when “everyone” attended a Good Friday service. When I was growing up Palm / Passion Sunday simply was not a thing. Palm Sunday was a thing and Good Friday was a thing and no one was suggesting we combine them. That was then, and this is now. We fulminate against people not attending Good Friday services to what end? No one is going to change their behaviour in response to being scolded. Instead, the compilers of the Revised Common Lectionary very wisely combined them.
This Sunday we celebrated the Liturgy of the Palms and then the Liturgy of the Passion and I revel in the fact that I didn’t balance them. I revel in it because I am a human and no human being can balance them. What I hope I did was give us all a chance to think about what today might mean.
Blessings,
