Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” – Luke 19:39-40
I cannot imagine a more beautiful and inspirational Palm Sunday than the day we enjoyed this weekend here in Tarboro.
Waking up in our new home for the first time; a spectacular spring day full with sunshine, flowers, blue skies and temperatures in the low 60’s; a powerful and uplifting worship experience where I was presented as a new member along with eight others and their families; walking a half-mile through the historic district for lunch with church friends at the lovely home of Edward and Susan Roberson; the walk back through the town common; unpacking some more. Such a good day.
Palm Sunday tells the story of the sense of momentum that carried Jesus into Jerusalem with throngs of people singing loud hosannas. “If my disciples were not celebrating,” Jesus told the critics, “the very rocks would cry out!”
“I believe they did,” Rebekah said in her message at Howard Memorial, “if we listen closely we can hear the entire creation singing God’s praises with joy!”
But there was another momentum at play that week in Jerusalem, two thousand years ago. It was the cascading sequence of events that brought the balance between Christ’s message and the ability of the status quo to tolerate that much goodness to the tipping point.
And this is the story of Holy Week. A week, Rebekah said, bookended with praise. Let us not forget how dangerous the message of Jesus is to those who love power, who broker in intimidation, who try to legislate other people’s morality and who are afraid of truth.
Our opportunity – our mandate – is to be light in those dark places, to extend grace instead of retribution, to walk humbly with God and to love relentlessly.
This, of course, is the Jesus way. It is the way of the cross – DEREK
The day in photos, beginning with Rebekah walking to church from our new home:
