Pondering Palms and Passion

Today begins the most solemn week of the church year as the people of God assemble to reflect upon the heights and depths of these few days.  From the cries of welcome to their King to the calls for His death to the Exsultet (Easter proclamation), Holy Week is beyond characterization.  That is partly one this first day of Holy Week encompasses both the Procession of Palms and the Passion Reading.  It is a time for us to reflect on how intimately each piece of the week is tied to the other days.  There is no disconnect here at all.  There is no Easter joy without the sacrfice of Good Friday or the lasting testament of Maundy Thursday.  Philip Pfatteicher writes, "We are reminded that we are not simply walking through the week with Jesus, with Sunday as the remembrance of the triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, but rather we are meditating devotionally, liturgically dramatically upon the whole saving event.  So the whole passion narrative is read on Sunday and again on Friday.  We are thus warned against a compartmentalized understanding of this great story."  So we reflect upon the false piety of those who would greet Christ as the King and then cry out for His death.  We consider the gift He gives to His Church as He institutes His Holy Supper.  We ponder the depth of His love as He willingly walks the path of arrest, unjust accusations, abuse, wrongful conviction, torture, and innocent suffering and death.  Then we wait in vigil for the announcement of His resurrection.  So dear friends, we begin this Holy Week pondering the Palms and the Passion.  Once again, we consider the depth of our Lord's love for us in the sacrifice He offers on the throne of the cross and the joy that awaits us as we look forward to the celebration of His resurrection.  May God bless us as we gather for the Triduum (meaning Three Days), the Holy Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.  The services for those Three Days are really treated as one as they begin with an Invocation on Maundy Thursday, but the benediction is not pronounced until the conclusion of the Easter Vigil on Saturday.  But for today, we ponder this fickle world that praises and kills and our need for a Savior from this world. 
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Lee Hagan