The rocks are gonna cry out

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Amigas del Señor

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Apr 14, 2025, 9:29:11 PMApr 14
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A Palm Sunday "sermon" from Sister Confianza

Yesterday, Christians around the world celebrated Palm Sunday. (In fact, in a rare occurrence, Orthodox and Western Christian calendars converge this year so that Easter will be celebrated next Sunday by both traditions.)  On this day, we commemorate Jesus' "triumphal" entrance into Jerusalem, the center of institutional Jewish religion, and the seat of the prefect who ruled over this province of the Roman Empire by wielding military power.  Jesus' followers arrive in visible contrast to these official hierarchies with their special uniforms and worldly authority.  This motley group is made up of mostly rural folks, who live close to the earth, planting, harvesting, and fishing -- many of whom have lost their own plot of land because of high taxes and a devastating cycle of debt -- brought together by this man who has touched their lives through his radical message of justice.  They may not yet have called Jesus the Son of God or God Incarnate, but they saw in him a Spirit of Love that had the power to heal those who suffered, that fed crowds hungry for food and for truth, that included the outcast, that spoke up and spoke out against hypocrisy and corruption, that showed how nature manifested God's ways, that taught how to live in peace, that shared his power with others and that brought people into community.

All these people had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover,  the Jewish holiday commemorating their ancestors' escape from slavery in Egypt.  They gathered to imagine an alternative way of life, outside the oppressive structures of Empire.  Saturday, April 12 was the beginning of Passover this year, and Jews around the world gathered for Seder meals, retelling the stories of how God gave their forebears freedom.  In Honduras, Saturday was Garifuna Day, commemorating the anniversary of their Afro-Caribe ancestors' arrival to the shores of this country on April 12, 1797, after being removed from their homeland, the Caribbean island of St Vincent.  Limón is one of 36 historically Garifuna settlements in Honduras. The traditional drumming, singing, and dancing that Sister Alegría and I heard on Garifuna Day is their way of celebrating freedom from and resistance to Empire.

That first Palm Sunday, the people cut branches from the trees and palms around them -- trees that by their very nature point to a higher power and share their greenery, oxygen, and fruits with all those around them.  The crowd lay the branches and their cloaks on the road in front of Jesus who rode a humble work animal, a donkey.  They joined in nature's praise by waving the branches in the air and cheering -- cheering for this man who represented a different way of life, who led people directly to the Divine, and showed how to live in harmony with God's ways.  They were resisting Empire.  When detractors asked Jesus to get his followers to stop, he replied, "If they stay quiet, the rocks will cry out." 

Friends, in our world today, the rocks are crying out.  Nature is speaking through the melting icecaps, disappearing species, and wild climate events, telling us that something needs to be changed.  How will you join the trees to point toward the Way of Light and Love?  How are you standing up to and resisting Empire?  How do you speak truth to power?  How are you caring for the Earth?  How are you creating communities that include the disenfranchised and oppressed?  How are you working and singing and dancing for freedom and justice and peace? 

Standing up for justice has its consequences.   The people in the crowd lay down their cloaks in the road, subjecting their only piece of outerwear and their blanket for sleeping to be trampled in the muck.  Jesus was seen as a threat to order, and executed.  His frightened disciples hid in a locked room for three days until he appeared among them, having risen from the dead.  Jesus gave them his peace and a Spirit of power, energizing them and giving them hope and the courage to go forth and continue his life-giving ministry.  Can you see the signs of hope all around you?  The places where people are resisting Empire and celebrating the joy of life?  Are you open to receiving that same Spirit, to be empowered to stand up for what is right in the context where you are, even if it means discomfort, persecution, economic loss, and possibly the loss of your life or liberty?

Don't leave it to the rocks, but, emboldened by God's Spirit, do your part to help bring about the world that Jesus envisioned -- a world of beauty, joy, love, acceptance, freedom, healing, and justice for everyone.

Bendiciones,
Sister Confianza

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