Palm Sunday Year B

Palm Sunday Year B
April 1, 2012
Why do we do this, year after year after year? Why do we gather outside on Palm Sunday and wave our branches in procession? Why do we read the heart-breaking story of Jesus’s betrayal, desertion, agony, and crucifixion? Why do we walk this sad and solemn way through the events and stories of Holy Week?
Why do we do this, year after year after year?
We do this so that we may remember. The church has a fancy word for this remembering that we do. It is called anamnesis. And it is a sort of holy remembering. Anamnesis means so much more than just a cognitive exercise or an exercise in recall. This holy remembering means telling the story, remembering, and in some mysterious way participating in the story of God’s salvation of all people, past, present, and future. Holy remembering means recalling the power of the stories of the past, and through our engagement, participation, and giving our lives over to them, God makes present the power and the reality of that past event in our current life together.
Through this holy remembering, this anamnesis, we are, in some mysterious way, participating in the story and receiving God’s blessings.
Why do we do this, year after year after year? Why do we walk this sad, lonesome, heartbreaking way?
We do it to remember and to participate in the fullness of this story that is the love story of God for all God’s people. We do it to remember and participate in the Paschal Mystery that is the heart of our faith and which gives meaning to our own individual and corporate heartbreaks, failures, and disappointments.
Not too long ago, I was visiting with one who was dying of cancer. She had been suffering greatly in those last weeks, and she told me that on the worst days, she would pray, “Lord Jesus, I know that you suffered so much more than I….” There is comfort to be found in the corporate remembering, even in the midst of our individual sorrows and sufferings and search for meaning.
And so we gather today and in the coming days to remember and to participate in the truth: that Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
May we walk closely together this week, following the way of Jesus's suffering so that we may share in his resurrection. And may we remember.