Palm Sunday: Faith is Messy

Sunday March 24

Journey through Holy Week with daily reflections from the Rev Roddy Hamilton

Mark 11:7-11

Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Reflection

O, the history of the place
A city both faithful and faithless
Liberated and oppressed
Joyful yet carrying so much pain
A city on a hill
That all could see
Falling in and out with the Almighty
A microcosm of God and humanity
Still.

Into this story rides Jesus
And the weight is terrible
Joy is confused
Faith is messy
Hope is uncertain.
What passes as confidence
Is only show
This is a saviour
Unsure of the future.
He is taking the kingdom
To the front door of empire
Only he knows
How fragile love feels.

But God doesn’t need to win
God needs to love
Winning and losing aren’t part of the game
And as palms are waved
And cloaks laid down
Only he realises that
Still.

Prayer

Holy God
Entering this week
On the surface we see one thing,
Beneath we feel another.
In that confusion
Of hope and pessimism,
May we cling to that which is deeper still,
A truth
That will unfold,
And take root
On the kingdoms terms
And not the world’s.

The Rev Roddy Hamilton is minister of New Kilpatrick Church, Bearsden