Celebrate
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Click to download the sermon manuscript
Scripture
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Read more…
Luke 19:28-40
After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
Six years ago, Palm Sunday was my very first Sunday as part of Walmer. We gathered in the very large Sanctuary. Everyone who wanted one had a palm branch to wave in the air. Despite some close calls, no one had an eye poked out by a neighbour’s waving palm branch. At one point the musicians began playing the parade-like song, We Are Marching in the Light of God. People of all ages left their seats to march around the Sanctuary, moving up into and through the balcony and back down and around the main gathering area. There was an air of celebration all through that service.
This Sunday is also Palm Sunday. Some of us will gather in Walmer’s Theatre. We probably won’t have a parade. Others of us will gather over Zoom from the privacy of our own homes. Maybe there will be some dancing, but there probably won’t be many parades. This is the third year COVID has impacted the way we celebrate and remember the events of Easter. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling awfully tired of COVID. I’m feeling awfully tired of not being able to gather, all of us together, chatting over coffee in the lobby, singing our hearts out in the Theatre, praying together and sometimes laying hands on each other in blessing and intercession.
The thing is, there is still reason to celebrate. Even as a new COVID variant keeps us feeling insecure and frustrated, Palm Sunday reminds us that our hope – our reason to celebrate – is not rooted in our ability to gather in our building or our freedom to drink coffee in the Theatre lobby. Our hope is rooted in our eternal God whose “steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 118:1)
As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps make a list of every good thing you know about God. Read your list out loud as an act of worship and prayer. Give thanks for the ways you have experienced God’s goodness in your life and the lives of the people you love. Imagine yourself as part of the crowd on the road into Jerusalem that day long ago when Jesus rode a colt, and the people waved their palm branches and shouted their Hosanna’s! What are the hosanna’s you would shout to Jesus? Can you see all those good things from your list, imprinted on Jesus as he rides by?