The story of Palm Sunday … the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, the donkey, the branches, the coats and cloaks spread like a carpet upon the road, the shouting of “Hosanna!”—is featured in all four Gospels. It has center stage in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Making the cut in all four gospels is a big biblical deal.
Alleluia! Christ is risen
Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
Well, that’s saying something! Risen from the dead, eh? Astonishing. Dazzling. Head-spinningly-fantastic.
You probably thought you’d escaped. May 21st came and went and not one, single Old South minister stooped so low as to preach on the Rapture … not Liz, Jack, not Nancy … not even Quinn. You thought you were free and clear. You were wrong.
The way I figure it, a tardy Rapture permits of a tardy sermon on the Rapture.
Christians operate in two very distinct kinds of time. First there is chronos time, chronological time, ordinary time.
In ordinary time there is suffering.
In ordinary time there is illness and death.
In ordinary time there is warfare, an AIDS pandemic stalks the earth and our fellow humans suffer poverty on a catastrophic level.
In ordinary time the earth is groaning in travail under the weight of deforestation, pollution and climate change.
In ordinary time tornadoes reduce homes to splinters and devastate communities.