Palm Sunday

Hold on to the Hosannas

Let’s stay with the Hosannas for a while.

Let’s let them keep on ringing in our ears.

Hosanna!

Blessed is He who comes

in the name of the Lord.

Instead of rushing on to hear the cries

that came later in the week

let’s stay with the Hosannas.

Maybe once we’ve heard those

in a new way

will we be ready

to make the rest of the journey:

a journey that was hastened

and given new purpose

by those Hosannas.

For those Hosannas were not

simply the innocent cries

of palm branch waving children,

those Hosannas were the

war cries of adults,

tired of the oppression

of occupying forces.

Those hosannas

were the hopeful cries

of a nation seeking liberation.

Those Hosannas

were an investment of hope

in one they thought would deliver.

Those Hosannas

that we have sanitised over the years

rang out in clear insurrection,

sealing the fate

of one who rode on a donkey.

So, let’s stay with the Hosannas.

Let’s wrest them from the lips of children

and allow them to ring in our ears

and spew from our mouths

as a call to action,

a call to justice,

a call to love.

Let’s stay with the Hosannas

even as we journey

with the Christ

who carried those Hosannas

all the way to the cross

and ensured their fulfillment

as the justice and love of God.

Let’s stay with the Hosannas.