This Sunday is Palm Sunday when we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in triumph and then in the next reading hear of his betrayal and crucifixion. Life can feel like that sort of teeter totter sometimes. One minute on top of the world, and the next crashing to the ground when your fellow teeter-er jumps off as a joke. Ruth and Naomi knew that sort of life experience. Naomi left Bethlehem for Moab during a famine. Things go well at first, then her husband and sons die. She crashes down to the reality of destitution as a widow, as do her daughters-in-law. We may not face quite as extreme a problem, but a surprise diagnosis or an unexpected accident can send us crashing to the ground and wondering where God is.
At the beginning of the Palm Sunday services, we hear of Jesus entry
into Jerusalem to the Hosannas of the crowds. The Gospel reading for Palm
Sunday states, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God
joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and
glory in the highest heaven! Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him,
“Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these
were silent, the stones would shout out.” (Luke19:37-40)
Even when we are faced with the unexpected tragedies of life caused by
health or disaster or weather or other exterior forces, we are assured that God
is in control. It often feels like God is distant and that is when we may
listen for the stones to shout and tell of God’s presence and action.
Ruth and Naomi make the difficult decision to return to Bethlehem.
They didn’t know what was going to happen when they arrived. Naomi hoped that
they might be able to gather enough grain to survive. The women were not
greeted with Hosannas when they got back to Bethlehem. However, Naomi was
welcomed back into her community with the question “Can this be Naomi?” Ruth,
though an outsider, found a welcome and new life in Bethlehem. God is in their
lives and we can be assured God is in any tragedy and in all outcomes in our lives.
In my book, Sacred Story: Yours, Mine, Ours, I note, “Few of us have been refugees like
Ruth and Naomi. However, we may have had to leave a job or home in a way that
makes us feel bereft and hopeless. In telling and hearing one another’s Sacred
Stories we come to a deeper understanding of each Sacred Story and build
bridges instead of burning them. Donna Schindler says we “must begin with
telling the truth, with telling stories….No sorrow is too great to endure if a
story can be told about it.” (Donna Schindler, Flying Horse: Stories of
Healing the Soul Wound, 2020) Deeply listening to the truth telling found
in Sacred Story is the start of healing of ourselves, for our relationships,
and within our communities…Acknowledging the image of God is an important way
to connect with the stranger and foreigner in our midst. Hearing their
Sacred Story with an open heart is how relationships are built.”
It is
helpful to remember that each one of us is dealing with some current or past
trauma. Pausing to acknowledge everyone’s woundedness can make us more
compassionate and empathetic. If we can enter their ‘sacred story’ by hearing
it from them, we can relate even more fully.
In my book I ask, “What is grieving your heart about the world today? Perhaps that is where
God wants you to act.”
We end with this prayer for Palm Sunday.
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
