I am going to
read for you the next four verses
that come right
after the Gospel description of Jesus riding into Jerusalem.
All
his followers were getting worked up
as
they related all the wonderful things about Jesus that they had witnessed
until
they began acclaiming him as the coming king.
The Pharisees in
the crowd were getting nervous
and
they told Jesus to get his disciples in order, to rein them in.
But it was too
late, and besides
ascribing
kingship to him would be provocative enough for Jesus’ purposes
to
set in motion irrevocably the events that would lead to his crucifixion.
And if the crowd
was silent, the stones would shout.
Luke 19:41 As he came near and saw the city,
he wept over it,
42 saying, "If you, even you,
had only
recognized on this day the things that make for peace!
But now they are
hidden from your eyes.
43 Indeed, the days will come upon
you,
when your
enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you,
and hem you in
on every side.
44 They will crush you to the
ground, you and your children within you,
and they will
not leave within you one stone upon another;
because you did
not recognize the time of your visitation from God."
This procession,
down the side of the Mount of Olives
across
the Kidron gulch and up the other side into the city,
is
feeding a state of delusion for the disciples.
This is no
triumphal entry.
For Jesus it is
a one way journey towards death.
The stones, the
stones, the silent witnesses.
All through the
history of the Hebrew Bible are stories about stones:
Jacob
with a stone for a pillow had a night vision
of
a ladder connecting heaven and earth.
Joshua
and the Hebrew people freed from slavery in Egypt
coming
finally into the Promised Land
piled
up stones by the River Jordan.
Stones were stacked
in the locations of great events
to
be witnesses for those passing by
of the great
deeds done there, of God’s intervention, of God’s saving power.
What would these
stones say if they could speak?
Would
they speak of the mistake the crowd of disciples was making?
the
mistake about the Kingdom of God,
how
it does not come as a political kingdom,
but
by the Holy Spirit indwelling in each one’s life.
Would
the stones speak about death?
Would
they cry out for Jesus,
whose
face had been set like flint toward Jerusalem
and
a final denouement?
These very
stones would be torn done by the army of Titus
not
many years hence,
not
one stone left on another
as witness to
the blindness of this people.
“If you, even
you, had only recognized on this day
the things that
make for peace!
But now they are
hidden from your eyes.”
The triumphal
entry into Jerusalem was not Jesus’ agenda,
but
what the Romans would do.
So now, today,
we once again enter into the liturgies of Holy Week.
Now, today, we
again have the opportunity
to
participate in the stories and events that are at the heart of our faith.
And we have the
warning,
lest
“you do not recognize the time of your visitation from God."
I cannot stress
enough the value of attending
as
many of the liturgies of the week as possible,
as
an expression of your devotion,
as
a means of spiritual formation for deepening faith and awareness,
as
an act of worship.
March 25:
Monday of Holy Week
6-7 p.m. Holy Eucharist
March 26: Tuesday
of Holy Week
6-7 p.m. Holy Eucharist
March 27:
Wednesday of Holy Week
6-7 p.m. Holy Eucharist
March 28: Maundy
Thursday
6-8 p.m. Agape
Feast, Foot washing and Eucharist
the commemoration of the Last Supper, the foot washing, the stripping of
the Altar and the prayerful vigil keeping watch in the garden
March 29: Good
Friday
Noon Liturgy
, 4
p.m. Stations of the Cross
the Good Friday liturgy at noon, and the Stations of the Cross at 4:00
March 30
8-9:30 p.m. The
Great Vigil of Easter
lighting the Paschal Candle, The Easter Vigil, baptism and the first
Eucharist of Easter
March 31: Easter
Day
8 and 10:30 a.m.
Holy Eucharist,
Come so that you
do not fail to recognize the time of your visitation from God.
Today and this week
let
us have the boldness of heart
to
face all the suffering we experience or see around us
and
to place it all in the context of the Passion.
Walk with Jesus this week
from
the palm strewn entry into this Holy Week
to
that Upper Room where the disciples gathered
and
Jesus told them to eat him and to drink his blood
to
become him, to be transformed into his likeness
through
this very earthy, very physically intimate process of eating.
Walk with Jesus this week
out
to the Garden of Gethsemane and keep vigil in prayer.
Draw near to the Cross
and
be present at his dying
and
be present in all our own dying and in all the grief and suffering.
We are invited this week to walk through death into
life,
unspeakable
Life, which is Light shining out in the darkness,
Life
that brings light to all living beings.
In Luke’s Passion account
Jesus
said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Let us also place our lives in the hands of God.
Indeed this is the intent of the Epistle reading for
today.
Let
the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who,
though he was in the form of God,
did
not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
but
emptied himself,
taking
the form of a slave,
being
born in human likeness.
And
being found in human form,
he
humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—
even
death on a cross.
Therefore
God also highly exalted him
and
gave him the Name that is above every name,
so
that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bend,
in
heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to
the glory of God the Father.
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