Magazine /

Mar 24, 2009

Volume 126, Issue #6

Lectionary

Reality check: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 11:1-11; 14:1–15:47

When I was a child, I loved Palm Sunday because we got to act out the biblical version of a ticker-tape parade. Later I learned of the ephemeral quality of stardom and parades and decided that Palm Sunday and Passion Week belong together. As a pastor, I have accepted the dismal fact that most of our people skip Thursday, Friday and Saturday, slipping from parade pandemonium to Easter ecstasy with none of the suffering and pain.

Suffering and salvation: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-12; John 12:20-33

Psalm 51 does not let any of us off the hook—not the progressives, the evangelicals, or the feel-good agnostics.

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