Preaching Thoughts on a Non-Preaching Sunday

For the last decade or so I've used something called The Lectionary Bible.  It is a spiral bound collection of the lectionary readings for each Sunday.  Having it allows me simply to turn the page and see the Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday.  Normally all these readings take up two pages or less, but when you flip to the readings for today, there are more than six.  The readings alone would take longer than my normal sermon.

These readings have  two distinct sections.  There is the "Liturgy of the Palms" which has eleven verses from Matthew describing Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, along with a portion of Psalm 118.  But then comes the "Liturgy of the Passion," and along with a reading from Isaiah, Psalm 31, and a bit from Philippians, it includes the Matthew's entire Passion story.  From Judas agreeing to betray Jesus, to the Last Supper, to the arrest in the garden, the trial, the cross, and finally Jesus' burial, it's all there.

When I was growing up today was just Palm Sunday; no Passion included.  I suppose that somewhere along the way it was decided that jumping from one celebration to another, from "Hosanna" to "He is risen!" left out too much.  It was as though we could get from joy to joy without all that messiness of the betrayal, denial, and the cross.  And so Passion was added to Palms.  I think that's probably a good idea, but I'm still not sure what to do with it all.  The only time (very early in my career as a pastor) that I tried reading nearly all the lectionary texts, it was not well received by my congregation.  So how do we combine Palms and Passion?

In preparing for a class the other day, it dawned on me that I had never actually seen a crucifix when I was growing up.  I had virtually no exposure to Roman Catholicism as a child and youth.  I was Presbyterian through and through, and our cross was empty.  Jesus had died once for all, and then he was raised.  No crucifixes for us. 

And yet Paul proclaims "Christ crucified."  Here God's power and wisdom is most fully seen, says Paul.  Here God is most clearly seen by us, a God who enters into human brokenness and pain and suffering.  We encounter God most fully in this Crucified One.  But how, if we do not linger for a moment at the cross, at the Passion?

I have no plans to suggest any crucifixes for the sanctuary or chapel.  Christ is risen!  And every Sunday is Easter!  But I wonder about getting one for my office, a small reminder that God is often most powerfully present in the midst of pain and suffering, that the cross wasn't a speed bump on the way to Easter, but it is the shape of God's love for the world.  It is the clearest picture I have of God, and perhaps the ultimate depiction of what it means to be created in God's image.

Hosanna in the highest!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord as he journeys on his way to the cross.