| When they were approaching Jerusalem,
at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he
sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go
into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you
enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never
been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to
you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The
Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” They
went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside
in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders
said to them, “What are you doing, untying the
colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and
they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt
to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on
it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and
others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the
fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed
were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who
comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming
kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest
heaven!” Then he entered Jerusalem and went into
the temple; and when he had looked around at everything,
as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the
twelve. |
|
| Mark 11:1-11 |
| Sir Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March
No. 1 is famous in the United States as our graduation
ceremony march. When Elgar was awarded an Honorary Doctor
of Music from Yale University on June 28, 1905, Pomp
and Circumstance was played in his honor after the benediction
before the guests left the hall. The complex emotions, triumphant
with an underlying quality of nostalgia, suited the emotions
of the day so well that the use of the piece soon caught
on at other universities. Elgar’s tune captured the
essence of a day when one stage of life ends and another
begins. March No. 1 was actually written as the
first in a series of five marches that Elgar named Pomp
and Circumstance. He took their title from a speech
in Act 3 of Shakespeare’s Othello: |
| “Farewell the neighing steed and the
shrill trump, |
| The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing
fife, |
| The royal banner, and all quality, |
| Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious
war!” (1) |
|
| It’s pretty amazing that Elgar’s end of war or
victory march was transformed into a graduation march here
in the United States! We link the tune with a new stage in
our lives as we graduate or celebrate a loved one’s graduation. Pompe meant “a
sending” in Greek; pompa “a parade or
procession” in Latin. Circumstance is defined first as “a
condition that accompanies, determines, or modifies a fact
or event.” Taken together the words have come to mean “a
ceremonious accompaniment or display.” (2) |
| As Jesus approached Jerusalem the crowds believed this display
meant he would be triumphant in a particular way. They were
nostalgic for the days of the kingdom of David to return! They
awaited a messiah who would come in power and might. The procession
smelt of a triumph and fulfillment through power to those who
knew the scriptures in the crowd. |
| During my first few months of work at Knoll in Washington,
DC, a number of people were out sick all at once. One day I
ended up answering the phones to cover someone’s lunch
break. A woman called in asking for Cathy Fisher. “There’s
no Cathy Fisher here in our office.” I replied. “Are
you sure she isn’t someone at one of our factories?” “No.
Last I knew she was in your showroom.” “Well, what
did she do?” I asked. “She sold leather.” The
woman replied. “Hmm. Cathy Fisher? Well I don’t
know her but a woman named Catherine Pelletier is our current
leather rep. Do you want to talk to her?” “Go ahead,” she
said. “Transfer me to her.” Later that day I found
out that Cathy Fisher and Catherine Pelletier were one and
the same. Only now she used her full given first name and had
adopted her husband’s last name after years of marriage.
I found the shift in Catherine’s name confusing. It threw
my sense of understanding within our small office out of order.
And she was still working the same job as prior years. |
| During the procession toward Jerusalem, we can hear some
of the people’s beliefs about Jesus through the names
and phrases they shouted. The people shout, “Hosanna!” This
title implores him, “save now.” Overturn the powers
that be with might and force, bring change, for you are our
salvation. They also shout, “Blessed is the one who comes
in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our
ancestor David!” The Davidic return of the king is supposed
to be one of power and military might. Here sits Jesus on a
donkey, which is also scriptural! But it is not a mighty horse
or a horse drawn chariot. Jesus wields no swords to overthrow
a government or to fight a holy war. Yet the crowd throws down
cloaks and leafy branches to honor him, as they would do for
a military procession. And Jesus lets them. It must have been
nourishing to him to witness the crowd admit their need for
salvation and restoration from the One who comes in the name
of God—even if they had him pegged wrong. |
| Jesus, the One who is sent, knows before the procession that
he will not fulfill the expectations of those who greet him
on the road. He was sent to fulfill the scriptures, but at
the same time he breaks dramatically away from well-known interpretations
of the Messiah’s return. The disciples have just been
told for the third time about Jesus’ necessary death
and resurrection. I’ve always imagined them walking close
to the donkey in a bit of a somber and protective mood while
the crowd cries out and cheers. Yet his closest disciples,
who have been told the way he will fulfill the scriptures,
will also desert him as he waits the week out. Some of the
other gospel writers tell us that the authorities were afraid,
right there at the parade, of the trouble Jesus could stir
up within the crowds. By the end of the week the crowds are
easily led to condemn Jesus. Pomp and Circumstance is
a fitting tune for this procession as one stage of Jesus life
ends and he waits for his passion to begin. Jesus came to deal
with the circumstances at hand, our condition of sin, which
threatens to determine the events of our lives toward death
instead of new life and reconciliation. |
| We reenact this parade each year with our own understanding
of Jesus’ person and work. One different from the crowd’s
understanding that day. Unlike the crowds we know where the
parade and the journey to Jerusalem lands Jesus. We know it
was our need for reconciliation with God and one another lead
Jesus to this last leg of his journey beyond the gates of Jerusalem
to the cross. |
| The entry into Jerusalem is a pivotal point in Mark’s
gospel. Jesus still teaches, but mostly he is waiting. There
are no more healings are recorded—for a new way of life
and healing will come as Jesus lets the world do what we will
with him. |
| Henri
Nouwen tells a story about friend who was dying. “He
was a man about fifty-three years old who had lived a very
active, useful, faithful, creative life. Actually, he was a
social activist who had cared deeply for people. When he was
fifty he found out he had cancer, and the cancer became more
and more severe. When I came to him, he said to me, “Henri,
here I am lying in this bed, and I don’t even know how
to think about being sick. My whole way of thinking about myself
is in terms of action, in terms of doing things for people.
My life is valuable because I’ve been able to do many
things for many people. And suddenly, here I am, passive, and
I can’t do anything anymore….help me to think
about this situation in a new way. Help me to think about my
not being able to do anything anymore so I won’t be driven
to despair. Help me to understand what it means that now all
sorts of people are doing things to me over which I have no
control.” |
| Nouwen writes that waiting is “a passion” of
sorts. Like Nouwen’s friend, after Jesus entered Jerusalem,
much of his time was spent waiting. The crowds’ cheers
only last a day. When he got off the donkey and entered Jerusalem
he began waiting for the other shoe to fall. One stage of his
life has ended, and another began as he went to the temple,
looked around, and departed to the hills with the twelve. That
week his teachings stirred up controversy, and he waited. The
feelings of the crowds changed as Jesus proved to be a serious
challenge to not only the authorities, but also to the people.
The twelve ran out on him when the going got tough. He waited
alone. The thing about following someone who humbly rides a
donkey in a parade—is that nobody wants to be on standby
to scoop the poop. It seems there are few who can see God’s
glory in this new way of reconciliation. This stage of Jesus’ life
challenges assumptions about the way God works in the world.
Jesus’ passion, desire, obedience and ability to wait
out the week through its end answers the crowd’s cry “save
us.” But no one understood it as such back then. |
| Nouwen and his friend talked a lot about passion and waiting
as his friend lay in the hospital dying. “Could he see
that in his being acted upon by the hospital staff he was already
being prepared for a deeper love? Could he taste the new life
in the midst of his passion?” (3) They
determined that the mystery of work, the mystery of love, the
mystery of friendship, the mystery of community and the mystery
of Jesus’ love, all involved waiting—as Jesus did
during Holy Week.
|
| God’s triumph is found as new life enters the mundane
and even the horrific in our lives through the work and person
of Jesus Christ. The palm processional must have provided Jesus
with a glimpse of the best in humanity of what he was living
and dying for as they showed their need for God’s salvation.
Saving grace for us Gentiles though comes as God lays down
arms and lets humanity respond how humanity will to God’s
only Son, Jesus Christ. God marches to God’s own “ceremonious
accompaniment,” a tune that takes a lifetime of transformation
into new life for us to grasp as we strive to open our ears
to hear its call more clearly. Yet God is at work fulfilling
the crowd’s cry, “save us” even when we don’t
fully understand God’s ways, both then and now. |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - April 9, 2006 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
| 1. www.elgar.org/3pomp-a.htm |
| 2. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary (Random
House: New York, 1998) 238. |
| 3. Nouwen,
Henri. “From Action to Passion” in Bread
and Wine: readings for Lent and Easter.
175-184 |
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