Katharine Jefferts Schori

The 26th Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church

Palm Sunday, Newton Grove, NC

April 17, 2011
Katharine Jefferts Schori

Many churches are celebrated today with a special type of palm leaf. Palmas Eco are collected by workers in Mexico and Guatemala, sorted, and sold through cooperatives that help their members keep more of the money paid for their palms. Instead of paying a dealer to sort and pack the palms, the cooperatives do the work themselves. Members also learn to harvest palm branches in ways that help preserve plants and the forest. Elsewhere, the palms will soon disappear from overexploitation. Cooperative members receive five or six times as much income for each branch. In these communities, men often do the work of collecting the palms and women often do the sorting and packing. With greater access to employment and better wages, families enjoy greater financial stability. The development of cooperatives has been the result of collaboration between a university in Minnesota, an environmental organization, and many churches.

The move from a system that pays workers very little to one that empowers workers has a connection to the procession that we are celebrating this morning. Jesus got into trouble with the Roman government and religious leaders for their most uncomfortable questions about who was struggling to survive and who is getting rich from other people’s work. His story of the widow who gave her last two coins to the temple treasury comes right after his criticism of the religious leaders “devouring the houses of widows.” When Jesus reverts to the merchants’ tables in the temple, he is doing a similar criticism. His prophetic words to bring good news to the poor are about economic injustice, and when others complain about him healing the sick on the Sabbath, he asks, “What is more important to God? – The rules or the healing of man? ”The kingdom of God means that the rules and systems of our common life are helping and healing human beings. That is what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves.

The Episcopal Ministry for Farm Workers refers to the care of all human beings, and their access to abundant life. Jesus came to us because God loves us all. Jesus was engaged in the same kind of ministry “” feeding and healing and teaching the peasants of his time, and challenging systems of injustice.

Many of the people who followed him were people who had been driven from their lands because of taxes – or taxes that had to be paid to the Roman government or religious taxes that had to be paid to the temple. The small ranchers became increasingly indebted, eventually finding no way to earn a living. Some of the former farmers hit the road, traveling in search of whatever work was available. Some cultivated land belonging to other people, or roamed with their dwindling herds.

Today’s parade is a powerful statement about the identity of Jesus. He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, which is a farm animal, not a war horse. It is used in peacetime, not for war. He rides into Jerusalem just before Passover, at the same time when the Roman army is bringing reinforcements to the city, as Passover was the usual time for Jewish peasant rebellions.

Palm branches are a sign of victory “but not a military victory, and the mantles and branches spread on the road are the way a king is received. The Jesus parade is a counter-demonstration. Jesus is entering the city at the same time that King Herod is entering Jerusalem from the other side, with a large cohort of Roman soldiers. Jesus comes in peace, as the king of peace, in contrast to the forces that come to defeat rebellion.

Pilate is the Roman governor, but he has heard that Jesus is being treated as the king of Israel. he he is worried about a new peasant rebellion. However, when Pilate asks Jesus directly if he is the King of the Jews, Jesus simply says, “That’s what you say.” And then Jesus refuses to answer any more questions. He does not confront Pilate in a violent way, but they do respond in a way that he upset his expectations.

Jesus is a master of non-violence, and he is the true king of peace. It is difficult for kings, governors, and generals to understand why anyone would be willing to choose the path of vulnerability. However, the life and death of Jesus, his ministry and his leadership, are all about life not defended. God chooses to enter the human and fragile body of Jesus. Jesus chooses to live on the road, without a stable family life or a permanent home. He rejects armed conflict, even aggressive verbal argument. He chooses the road to Jerusalem, knowing that it probably means his own death. And in the process he disarms those who rely on violence.

Palm Sunday is a sacrament of non-violence, an invitation to renounce the mundane life of the use of power. God’s ability to carry out a new life from death begins in vulnerability. The only question is whether we have the courage to live that way. Palmas Eco are a testimony to the capacity we have to claim the power that God has given to each one of us “” to see the possibility of a new life, even in the face of old and deadly customs. Jesus came to set us free “” free from our own sin and sins of injustice that keep some poor and make others rich.

That kind of freedom is evident in the tradition in many peasant cultures of partying, even when the world seems darker. Jesus and the people around him knew how to party, even on the road to death “” at the Last Supper, and today’s parade in Jerusalem.

When we can celebrate “despite suffering” we begin to weaken the devil, and punish the power of the oppressor. We salute each other, and we shout: Hosanna in the highest! knowing that the road is difficult and full of pain, but the justice of God will prevail.

Hosanna in the high! Blessed is someone who comes in the name of the Lord, bringing good news of abundant life. Hosanna in the high!

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