Success

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
March 28, 2021

Palm Sunday 

          A pandemic definitely challenges our notion of success.  Many of us practice what we do in a way so different from before the pandemic that measuring success has become quite relative.  In the church world, measures like Sunday attendance, number of people are involved in various activities or ministries, and ways we connect with the community have been replaced by questions about how adaptable a congregation is, what has been done differently, what new ways have we found to serve others, and how we define our community when everything we do is online.  I imagine this is true in many other vocations, from teaching to parenting, to the practice of medicine, real estate, or owning and running a business, and on and on.  When it comes to the last 12 months, many of the standards by which we measure success have changed.

          Palm Sunday also turns our notions of success upside down.  The people gathered as Jesus made his way into Jerusalem can taste the words of the psalmist this morning.  “Hosanna, Lord, hosanna!  Lord send us now success!”  Clearly the people expect success as they spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches they have cut from the fields.  I can see rejoicing and dancing in the streets as the people sing “Hosanna” and proclaim Jesus as the one who comes in the name of the Lord and the coming kingdom of their ancestor David.  Some kind of success is close at hand.  Can a band of people armed with leafy branches following their leader on a colt really expect to bring in the mighty kingdom of David?  And yet Jesus has fed thousands of people with a small bit of bread and fish.  He has cured the sick and calmed the water.  So are the people’s expectations really unreasonable?  And yet, on this same Sunday, anticipation and excitement turn to shock and sorrow as we move from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the cross.  What happened to “Hosanna, Lord, Hosanna.  Send us now success?”  What is success?

          In all of our Palm Sunday scripture readings, God is the primary actor, not humans.  In addition to “Hosanna Lord, hosanna.  Lord send us now success,” we also hear the psalmist say “This is the Lord’s doing…on this day the Lord has acted.  God is the Lord; he has shined upon us.”  God is the one acting in this psalm, not the psalmist.  In the reading from Isaiah, which is one of the Suffering Servant passages, God has given the servant the tongue of a teacher.  God has opened the servant’s ear.  God helps the servant.  God is working through the Suffering Servant and any credit for the endurance of the Suffering Servant belongs to God. In the reading from Philippians, Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself, and became obedient even though he was in the form of God so God could work through him. 

          Palm Sunday reminds us that God’s measure of success is not what we accomplish by ourselves but how well we come alongside whatever God is doing and allow ourselves to be used as part of God’s activity in the world.  We are challenged to come alongside God in whatever our vocations might be, whatever the circumstances of our lives might be, watching and listening for how we can be part of what God is doing in the world.  We are challenged to come alongside God in the shouts of praise on Palm Sunday, in the tenderness of the Maundy Thursday meal and the betrayal in the garden, in the horror of Good Friday, and in the bewildered joy of Easter morning, watching and listening for how we can be part of what God is doing in the world.    Hosanna, Lord, hosanna.  Lord send us now success.

                                                                                                Amen.