Palm Sunday 2022

 


Today is Palm Sunday for Christian's all over the world.  For me, Palm Sunday means singing "The Palms"  ( https://youtu.be/Cu90sp8Pfts comes closest to how I remember it), the waving of palms, wearing spring clothes (today was NOT a day for spring clothes, despite being 20 days into spring) and celebrating Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.  For me, this needs to be a day of joy and festivity.


I know that this day marks the beginning of Holy week.  A week that will be solemn and challenging.  A week where the pendulum swings from the high of Palm Sunday to the low of Good Friday and then back to the triumph of Easter Sunday.  I know what is to come.  I know that this week will be one which will end in sorrow.  However, that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) negate the celebration of today.


I also know that the past several years of been ones of challenge.  I think back to the Palm Sundays of the past two years where we could not gather together to sing and rejoice.  While I love and appreciate all that my congregations have done to keep the spirit alive during this pandemic, as we (hopefully) reach the end of this long road, I am ready to sing again.  Even as I know of terrible atrocities that are going on in our world and watch in horror and grief at heinous actions that are occurring in Ukraine, I need to celebrate this Sunday. 


I need to feel what those people in Jerusalem must have felt.  I need to shout and sing.  I need to rejoice!  I need to know that no matter what has come before, that today there is hope, joy and love.  I need my heart to be full.  I need to feel the love of the universe; I need to cover me like the warm rays of the sun.  I need all of this on Palm Sunday 2022.


So for this Sunday, I will find the rays of sunshine to warm me (even as the temperatures hover in the 40s), I will take my palm branches and decorate my front door with them.  And I will sing. I will sing "The Palms" even if no one else is listening.  And will dance to the sound "Hosanna" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD6FMNrVJHM is currently my favorite performance of the song; although I have to admit this 2020 sing along performance comes close to topping it.  What do you think?)  I need this day.  We need this joy; even as we know that this perfect joy will not last.


Sing "Hosanna” and rejoice!


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