Palm Sunday Sermon, The Rev. Elizabeth Blunt: “The Passion in a Day: A Story We Need to Hear"
With almost no transition, we make a precipitous drop on Palm Sunday: from the jubilant procession into Jerusalem right into the senseless brutality of the Passion. Why do we do Palm Sunday this way? “The answer is pretty simple,” offers the Rev. Elizabeth E. Blunt. “For some of us, Palm Sunday is the only opportunity to listen to the story of Jesus’ death in the context of worship all year. And it is a story we need to hear.”
Not because the joy of Easter has to be earned, but because today is when we come to fully understand exactly what kind of a King we follow: one motivated not by personal gains but by sacrificial love; one who forgives the unforgivable and chooses to operate not through might, but through weakness; and one who keeps faith in the most dire times of trouble.” The readings are Luke 19:28–40; Isaiah 50:4–9a; Psalm 31; Philippians 2:5–11 and Luke 23:1–49.