THE WIDE AND NARROW WAY (Palm/Passion Sunday)
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Matthew 21:1-11
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
‘The Poet Thinks About the Donkey’ by Mary Oliver
On the outskirts of Jerusalem the donkey waited. Not especially brave, or filled with understanding, he stood and waited.
How horses, turned out into the meadow, leap with delight! How doves, released from their cages, clatter away, splashed with sunlight.
But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited. Then he let himself be led away. Then he let the stranger mount.
Never had he seen such crowds! And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen. Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.
I hope, finally, he felt brave. I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him, as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.
Let’s pray: words of my mouth, meditations of all of our hearts and souls, be acceptable in your sight, O God, Our Rock
Riding on a donkey, to fulfill a prophecy from hundreds of years before. A nursing donkey no less, her colt tied to her mother’s halter. Peasants from the east of Jerusalem, Bethphage, near the Mt. Of Olives, that place of grand transfiguration, just a few months before. 200,000 jammed in a city of 40,000. Cloaks and branches thrown down, All Glory Laud and Honor sung to this very different kind of king, Jesus. Like street theatre! Empire protectors take note, their reports prepared to complete the case against Him.
Trampling boots, bloody swords, Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate in the lead, on top a silver steed, a war horse, rides in from the West, power of Caesar’s Rome wind at his back. Soldiers ready to exact retribution for any infraction of law and order, political or religious. Clubs in hand, weaponized souls and bodies, they itch for violence.
“Hosanna, Save Us” the crowd shouts, as the donkey, the colt and the rider pass. We’ve waited for a Messiah for ever. Hosanna! (Pause)
He did not count equality with God as something to grasp, but emptied himself, becoming a slave, even unto death… He declared, “I Am the Resurrection and I Am Life!” He lifts up His disciples with His words; He heals with His touch; He is absolutely clear that the current way of the world is not of God, it is pagan, stripped of mystery and certainly hope. He shows the wideness of God’s mercy, a gathering for those pressed down by empire’s bullies. His table expands to include all the wretched, broken, lonely folk marked ‘outcast’. He feeds everyone bread and fish; He casts out demons; He heals women’s blood flows; Blind see, lame walk; His baptism of liberation pours out like fine wine, plenty for everyone.
The Wide and Narrow Way
His death warrant secured by His gift of eternal life. He is a threat to empire’s reach, the rich and powerful governance threatened by the urgency of love. There is something about this man: it is why 2,000 years later we remember His death. It is the very heart of mystery, the nature of God exposed, sacrifice and obedience joined.
His death ushers in a new way of life. And continues to strike against the powers that be. Think about this with me. Slaves in this country were not allowed to read or hear the gospels’ story in church for fear of uprising. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his ‘I’ve Been to the Mountain Top’ speech in church 50 years ago, the night before he was murdered by empire. Poor peasants in Central America are set free by liberation theology. Feminist Christians sit at this man’s feet and find freedom for thought and voice. GL BTQ communities gather to hear the simple message, “For God so loved the world…” a word that includes rather than destroys. He became the lowly of the lowlies, lifted up on an instrument of destruction and hate, His death politically expedient, patriarchal religion exposed for its lies, the marriage of cross & crown defeated.
somehow in the grand plan of salvation, God raises Him up to new life, which lifts us all up to new life, when we believe. A radical promise in the moment of greatest despair, the empire of God rejoices. But first it weeps, earthquake rumbles, the cloth protecting the holy of holies rent from top to bottom, angels rage across the skies. A cosmic death, the final scapegoat. Once and for all, the Lamb is slain.
The Wide and Narrow Way Amen