Walking on Both Sides
Palm Sunday
Christ Church Poughkeepsie
The Rev. Richard C. Witt Jr.
20 March 2005
This
morning I offer three meditations - I trust that the Spirit will weave a thread
between them.
*
* * *
The
First: A few years ago I was invited to
preach in a church. I felt honored about
the invitation and I welcomed the opportunity to speak. As I was sitting up front listening to the
lessons I was suddenly filled with a terrible thought: I can’t preach! Its not that I wasn’t prepared, nor did I
think that my message wrong - rather I thought to myself: “I am a sham and a
hypocrite. How can I possibly preach when I have been faithless and done things
wrong this week . . . I would be talking out of both sides of my mouth! Or as they say: trying to wlak
on both sides of the street. It was all
I could do to drag myself up into the pulpit.
Do you
ever have a similar type of experience?
One where you are living into the Faith - celebrating its power and joy
and then all of the sudden the next moment you blow it. It is easy to then feel
estranged from God. . . . For many of
us, we then give up - feeling unworthy of God’s love. We dare not venture forth for fear that we
will be exposed. We become pessimistic,
reserved and hopeless.
Life is
opposites - all wrapped into one package: life and death, good and bad, joy and
sorrow. . . .Building the Community of Faith and then doing something to tear
it apart. One moment we are a true
disciple the next moment we are doubting Thomas or even Judas.
Jesus
knows this. He knew what life held for
him. He knew that he would be
betrayed. He knew of the weakness of
those about him. But he also knew of the
strength, the gifts, the talents of those about
him. He did after all choose Judas to be
one of his disciples - and I find it hard to believe that he did so just so
Judas could betray him. Jesus knew that
“God so loved the world” and that the Community of the Faithful had the
wherewithal to bear God’s love throughout history.
A few
weeks ago, I mentioned to a friend, who is also a minister, that
I wanted to get up and say I had no sermon to offer. He told me that he
sometimes felt the same way, and that once he witnessed someone who got up and
apologized for the sermon they were about to give. As he listened to their sermon, he said he
felt cheated - not because it was a bad sermon, he said in fact it was good -
but because he spent the whole sermon waiting for it to fall apart. He realized that the preacher had cut off the
possibility of the Spirit taking a hold of the words and those who were listening
and using them to touch people. God is
always present - no matter if we are faithful or have built a wall.
* *
* *
A
Second: A long time ago a very
thoughtful man came humbly riding into a huge city. Nobody quite knew why he
was there - but he sure caused a stir.
There was a solemn festival so the city was filled. Many people gathered around standing on both
sides of the street as he passed by riding a donkey. Some were curious both about him and his
followers. There were of course the stories and rumors - Some of those gathered
thought he was fake . . . . others
were scared to death that he was going to take over . . . . a few who thought:
“great another parade in the city to tie up traffic - how rude!” And there were a lot who didn’t give a hoot.
But there
were also those who were his followers and those who were ready to believe in
him. Many believed he was the answer: the answer to a stifling Roman
oppression, or to their own needs. And
some simply just believed in him.
He
arrived in town and went to the Temple where he proceeded, in a great burst of
anger, to overturn the tables that money changers and vendors had set up in the
Temple. “My house shall be called a
house of prayer and you make it a den of robbers.” Then .
. . he did another outrageous thing . . . he proceeded to heal the blind and
the lame.
And then
he left.
Now that
really caused a stir. It confirmed the
fears of the authorities, and roused the hopes of those who were ready for
change.
At the
end of the week he was killed. . . Those
who had been on one side of the street cheering him, crossed over and betrayed
him - some of his followers even betrayed him and others felt helpless to do
anything to help: and many others still didn’t give a hoot: “Ride on, Ride on in majesty. In lowly pomp ride on to die. Hosanna, Hosanna . . . Crucify Him!”
Palm
Sunday is hard to take. Our liturgy
begins with such a glorious fun procession, and then we are reminded of our
capacity to succumb to fear and hopelessness as we hear the Passion narrative.
Leave it to the Church to ruin a good party.
*
* * *
A Third:
I went to
a funeral this week for the Cornell Migrant Program. The Program was closed
down by Cornell University after thirty years of offering leadership programs
for farmworkers. The University succumbed to pressure
from agricultural interests and has decided to create a new program in the
College of Agriculture where it can report to Ag-business and “help farmworkers become better employees” At the service where
there was much sadness as we heard stories from farmworkers
and others as to how the Program had changed their lives.
At the
end of the gathering a young woman said: “Often we spend so much time and
energy looking at the door closing that we fail to see the one that is opening
up to us”
As we
look around us in this world of ours, in this community, in this parish are we
seeing the opening doors? Today we
process with Jesus. We do so with
expectation and awe. We do so knowing that those who see us might scratch their
heads - Heck, we scratch our own heads.
As we
process we know that the world is still threatened by love, still disquieted by
peace. Still prone to quick answers and the murmurs of the
crowd. It is a world filled with ego, greed and thirst for power. And we still process. We process with Jesus in expectation and
hope. We process knowing that we are
entering Holy Week with all of its expectations, hopes, tragedies,
disappointments and opportunities. It
is Holy Week, and yet it is always Holy Wee.
In other words this is the world we live in. It is our world. It is us.
And we
walk on. We walk in the midst of doubts,
of betrayal, of jeers and persecution. We walk on in faith and hope- trusting a
vision that has been handed down to us.
We walk on down the center of street together. We walk on knowing that the only true way is
to love, to be loved; to forgive, (ourselves and others), to be forgiven
We yell
Hosanna! . . . And we will yell Crucify him!
And after that, in the days to come - we will be left at times with only
a shred of faith, of hope - that God’s love will prevail and life shall
vanquish death.