Prayers for Speaking Truth to Power - Palm Sunday

“The glory of the triumph of Easter can make it easy to move past the oppressive systems and institutions that ensnared and extra-judicially executed Jesus, those which survived his death, and endure in the aftermath of his resurrection, still taking lives, still placing the tortured pierced bodies of daughters and sons in the arms of their mothers. After all, crucifixion continued after Jesus’s death, perhaps the next day, week, or month. Crucifixion continued after his resurrection. James Cone tells us that crucifixion continued in the lynching trees of the American south and in the north, including right here in Texas. Black Lives Matter activists keep telling us that crucifixion continues whether bullets or nails pierce the bodies of the crucified. And our trans siblings are crying out in their crucifixions, often at the hands of those they trusted to love them, all too often fathers and brothers. I know its Eastertide, but the world is still crucifying and crucified. After all we are singing our alleluias under armed guard in a sanctuary in which bullets as well as blossoms can be found. We are singing these alleluias while bombs are dropping on Syria, devastated by slaughter that has left half a million dead yet the doors of this so-called Christian nation under God are shut to all but eleven refugees.”

Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney

Today is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Passion Week, a time when we remember the culmination of Christ’s work and witness in his suffering and crucifixion, and resurrection in power over the last enemy - death. This morning I am reading and repeating - for my own health and remembrance - that this celebration of Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” as it’s called in scripture, is made meaningful by its peculiar elements.

The humble staging, the bitterness prophesied to come, and the disruptive joy; all of these make the Palm Sunday story real to me right now right now. Even when I feel I have little to celebrate, when I am weighed down by impending loss and frustration, while I feel surrounded by storm after battle after storm, I am yet invited to praise. 

The King of Peace and Redeemer of the Cosmos comes to us- riding on a colt, not a clydesdale. He comes to us - fully aware that his death is a few days away. He comes to us - receiving a welcome from the same people who very soon will express rejection and doubt.

So if we have it in us, let’s praise as loudly as we can. Let’s lift the same cry as the people who saw Jesus ride the young donkey- “God. Save us”, which is Hosanna. 

We praise because we can do so honestly, because praise not exclude petition, because praise is disruptive. Praise disrupts the regular activity of its participants and it disrupts the attitudes of the observers. Praise is an instrument of resistance. Didn’t it vex the corrupt religious leaders of his day that Jesus was followed by crowds? Didn’t the Pharisees find a way to arrange a state-sanctioned lynching for Jesus? Praise is a reprieve in the midst of pain. Didn’t the Lord tell his followers he was about to be assassinated and executed before their very eyes?

Praise is part of divine preparation. Jesus had the most bangin Palm Sunday processional, then preached what has to be the most dismal Palm Sunday sermon. He said “Now the prince of this world will be driven out” and told the crowd that had just welcomed him as King that he was coming to town to die. A voice thundered from heaven. The crowd cried buzzkill and confusion. It was not all rainbows and warm hugs at the Jesus Joy Parade. The Lord had work to do. 

This praise break was brought to the people by the Holy Spirit of purpose, and Jesus’ purpose was clear; to overturn the oppressions of his day by overcoming their ultimate end. In his one body, the Lord would redeem the corruption of every political, material and physical condition experienced in creation. And he would do it in bold opposition of arrogance. His humility was a disruption to the normalized structures of power and its display. His honesty disrupted his followers who had to come to terms with their own misinterpretations of power. His defense of joy was a threat to the Pharisees whose answer for everything was to snuff it out.

My prayers this morning are for a worldwide Hosanna experience, for the freedom to dance and to be weary. My prayers are for a kingly entrance, we need a transformation of the power structures of our day, this day right here and right. Now. In the story of Jesus, which is yet being written on our bodies as we live and move and find purpose in him, this Palm Sunday promise is fulfilled in us today.  Let’s pray together.

Lord, we come to you this morning, pensive and fatigued from mind-melting statistics, long days and sleepless nights. We are empty pitchers who need to be carried to your fullest fountain.

We come bearing the passions, petitions and praises of all your children. We come remembering the sacrifices that have secured our sanctification, and pleading the power that you have emboldened us to employ. Lord, you have made promises to your children. You have told us that you are able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. 

Listen, Lord: we believe you. We receive your promises, so we would ask you to have your way in this world on this day. And we would ask you to hear us, Lord. Listen. Because it’s messed up out here, more than we can bring ourselves to say. We know you’ve told us and taught us to wait, but you also told us to come to you… and to be honest with you. So we are doing that today, O God. Because your children hate it here, so we submit our plea for rescue. 

Listen Lord, we will perish at the hands of corrupt and incompetent people in power.

We live in a country where the president believes that scarves are more helpful than face-masks. 

There are governors in our country who confess to be unaware of how contagious the coronavirus is. 

ICE raids are continuing despite danger of exposure. 

Prison guards and administrators are allowing people to die.

Mayors are dragging their feet on providing protections for essential workers.

Educators are run ragged trying to balance school-system bureaucracy and student well-being.

While everyone everywhere yells at us to wash our hands, the world’s most impoverished people are still in need of access to clean water, or water at all. 

Lord, You told us that you were the wellspring of life that never runs dry. Because you are the living word, the living water, the living bread. So we are coming to you today, Lord, because your children are dying - and we know that so many of them could have been saved. Your children are dying at the hands of world leaders who hoard health equipment. We are dying because we are sick while Black. Our hopes are wasting away because we are afraid to be alive while Asian, as the US president makes fools and racists further convinced that the virus is our burden.

We are watching our parents and mentors, our teachers and loved ones die. We are stricken by the death of strangers, and we know that this grief is holy, because it comes from our oneness with you. So we are coming to you now, Lord of the listening ear, Lord of the outstretched arm of might. Mount your donkey’s colt and come ride through our villages.

Ride on, ride by, King Jesus, and set the kings of this world on their knees before you. 

Overpower the administration of the current United States President, in the power of the Holy Spirit, take them out of power right. Now. Stop their mouths and end their reign of sheer stupidity. We curse their dehumanizing disregard for suffering people. We curse their abusive practices and base living. We curse their deceptions and greed, we curse their lust for spotlight over substance. We curse their so-called authority and we demand their defeat, in the name of Jesus. We ask you this moment, O God, to make us your instruments of transformation. 

Exchange incompetence for wisdom right now God. Hosanna, Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Move the minds of governors to send healing and relief to essential workers. Move them to mandate job protections. Move them to find new ways to balance state budgets. Move them to accept wisdom. Move them to stop the hypocritical practices they hide under seemingly perfect press conferences. Sway them to stay all state executions. Persuade them to set prisoners free and to change arrest policies to reduce the number of people pulled over or detained. Relieve them of shame and strategizing around social status so that they will act on behalf of the people who do not currently access their power. Convince them, O Lord, to change contracts with developers who sap precious natural resources from places that they are trying to squeeze money out of. Send your words of wisdom to their minds and paste them to their eyelids. 

Lord, let an angel and a prophet be dispatched to bring a vision to these people in power. Let your church stand up and be those who would tell you “here we are, send us!”. We believe you can do it Lord, but we must also be empowered to act in faith. 

Listen, Lord, we are asking you to snatch the wigs and wages of your under-shepherds who have no regard or respect for the health of their flocks. Convict the hearts of every church administrator and leader who is planning to hold mass worship services for these holy days. Show them the message of your gospel, the history of your saints, the wisdom in waiting and the peace that passes all understanding that is available in faith and trust. 

Lord, we need you to send Balaam’s donkey to speak with some of the pastors in this world today. They are on their way to give the wrong message, and they simply will not listen to the ordinary means of guidance, like facts, for instance. They will only stop for the fantastical… so make all the animals talk, Lord. Send an angel to stop them in the road. Set a mysterious lock on their empty buildings. Cover their minds with a mist so that they cannot find their keys. Open the mouths of their usual yes people and bid those blindfolded followers to drop the hypnosis and say. NO. Thus saith the Lord - “no one shall go out of your house.”

Lord empower us this morning, to do what you would have us to do, to stir us to make haste in preparation for the acts of righteousness and justice that must happen in our day, for the sake of your children’s freedom. 

Mobilize us Lord, to attend the people who are feeling alone. To comfort your children - little ones and older - who are isolated from their friends.

Empower our Educators, parents, Education administrators with wisdom for the well-being of your babies, Lord. 

Make us creative in our care and concern for the emotional health of people who struggle with specific mental or anxiety disorders like agoraphobia, germophobia, that are magnified due to the stresses of this time. 

We plead protection and healing for people in abusive households. We ask your covering and your liberation right now O God. Abused children are disappearing and abusers are becoming more bold. Will you prune the wicked branches from your children’s family trees? 

Will you give us a song of praise in this valley of death’s shadow and the grip of fear. Will you teach us to lift a praise to you even in our petitions. Will make your praise our passion? Help us to number our days and count our blessings to each other. Help us to mobilize our households and communities to act in just and merciful ways. 

Show us the people that we forget. And show all of your children who feel forgotten that theirs is the kingdom of heaven, which has already come to earth.

Arm the meek, O God, send your Spirit to train us in self-determination and strength. Lift up the un-liberated to break their own chains. Catch the freedom fighters who are crawling down from their crosses. Renew us, restore us, ready us to fight. Give us a testimony and a challenge to bring to the magistrates in our cities. Make our every demand come from you. 

Bring to our babies the power of Deborah, the strength of Samson, the wisdom of Solomon, the wit of Rahab, the tenacity of Hagar, the confidence of Mary, the hospitality of Lydia, and the genius of John.

We are asking you to look low as you sit high, stretch out your mighty arm to the churning planet at your footstool, and still our spinning days. Shine your light and show us wiser ways. Our Lord, our God, we hate it here. Would you bring us brighter days? Here we place our hope and trust, we lay down our cloaks and palm branches at the Mercy Seat, O God, Your Throne of Grace. Amen.

Scriptures: John 12, Zechariah 9.9

Experience: Pauli Murray’s Passion Sunday Sermon https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/12/pauli_murrays_biblical_hopes_for_displaced_african_americans.html