Kahu's Manao
Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)
Sixth Sunday in Lent
Palm Sunday
Sunday, March 16, 2008
The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika
“In the palm of God’s hands”
Philippians
2:5-11 & Matthew
21:1-11
Nicholas stuck his hand into the ground and pick up a ball of dirt. “Look!” he said with obvious glee as he tossed the ball of dirt into the air and watched it as it plummeted back to the ground. It sent up a dark cloud of dust as it disintegrated upon impact.
Nicholas and I were with others not far from here on Friday. I was invited to offer a blessing for a groundbreaking ceremony for a house that is to be built over the course of the next year.
Nicholas was there as a guest. He was probably all of three or four years old and about two and a half feet tall. He didn’t seem to mind the dirt at all. Neither did his mother.
As the blessing got underway he settled down a bit and was surprisingly attentive. I offered my words of blessing using the lau kī or ti leaf and pi kai or water from the ocean. When the father and son of the family for whom the land blessing was being offered broke ground with a pair of shovels, I instructed his daughter to pour the water into the ground.
The sound of water falling to the ground and then bubbling up caught Nicholas’ attention. After I acknowledged to everyone that the blessing was pau or completed, Nicholas wasted no time in digging his hands into the mix of dirt and water. Within moments both of his hands were caked with mud, mud that was the color of dark chocolate.
For a second I worried that he might think the same and decide to give it a taste by putting some of it in his mouth. But thankfully even at three or four years old, Nicholas knew the difference between mud and chocolate.
I had a chance to speak with his mother. “I see how children are today,” she said, “there’s too much electronic games to play, too much television.”
“I remember playing outside when I was a child,” she added. “We didn’t have a television or running water or anything like that for a long, long time. We managed and we were happy.”
“After my father died,” she explained. “I had electricity and plumbing put into their home. My mother enjoyed it for only a year and then she died.”
“Yes,” I said, “I remember playing outside too – in the trees and in the dirt.”
I was reminded as I watched Nicholas play that there is great joy in the simple things of life – like playing in the dirt. But I was also reminded that Nicholas was oblivious to what we have come to know – that playing in the dirt and getting “stuck in the mud” are two different things.
The world is a messy place and we have experienced that mess. Sometimes the mess is mixed with despair and doubt. That is what we are aware of today as we gather to commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday centuries ago.
It is likely that there were three and four year old boys like Nicholas who were among the many who had gathered outside the gates of the city of Jerusalem to greet Jesus. I imagine as they waited they may have found delight in their own play. There was great anticipation and great joy.
But the joy of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was more than watching a good parade. The joy was that many had come to believe that he was a prophet from Nazareth in Galilee; that he was the Son of Man and the Son of God; that he was the Messiah and Savior.
Two weeks ago we talked about the blind man who was healed at the pool of Sīlō‘am. Jesus spat on the ground and made mud with his saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, and said to him, “Go and wash in the pool of Sīlō‘am.”
The blind man went and washed and came back seeing.
When Jesus asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he.” The blind man said, “Lord, I believe.” (John 19:35-38)
Today is a time of great joy because we have come to share that same conviction of faith. We shout our “Hosannas” as they did.
But we also cry out as they did, “Why?” “Why must the joy of this day give way to the sorrow that is to come?”
In the days ahead we will remember Judas’ betrayal. We will remember how the disciples fled into the night when Jesus was arrested.
I know we want to hold onto the joy of this day. We want the “Hosannas” of this day to be followed by the “Hallelujahs” of Easter Sunday morning. Anything else in between, we would rather do without.
No Passion Sunday. No Last Supper. No Good Friday or Easter Vigil. No betrayal. No suffering. No death, please.
We know too much of that stuff already in our own lives and as we look at the world in which we live. We are stuck in the “muck and mire” of our own doing. There is no joy. There is no healing.
Nicholas reminds us that there is joy in the mud; that there is healing. We owe it Nicholas to remember that there is also sorrow and pain and that through it all we are always in the palm of God’s hand.
For the Irish among us and for all people, let us pray (Adapted from an Irish blessing):
May the road rise up to meet us.
May the wind always be at our backs.
May the sun shine warm upon our faces,
And rains fall soft upon our fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold us all in the palm of his hand.