LIBERATION LECTIONARY - WEEK SIX OF LENT

Ancestral Processional

“Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need For this bright morning dawning for you. History, despite its wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, Need not be lived again. Lift up your eyes upon The day breaking for you. Give birth again To the dream” Maya Angelou

Daily Scriptures

Sunday: Zechariah 9.9 - Rejoice greatly, People of God! Shout in triumph, all God’s children! Look, your King is coming to you. He is righteous, and victorious, and humble.
Monday: Luke 19.38 - The King who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!
Tuesday: Luke 21.36 - Watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Living Lord.
Wednesday: Mark 9.31 - Jesus was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after He is killed, He will rise three days later.”
Thursday: Matthew 26.20-22 - When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. While they were eating, He said, “I assure you: One of you will betray Me.” Deeply distressed, each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?”
Friday: Mark 15.37-39 - Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last. Then the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing opposite Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “This man really was God’s Son!”
Saturday: Luke 20.17-18 - The very stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on any one it will crush them.

Reflection

Reflecting on Palm Sunday is also an opportunity to hold space for remembrance of things that happened this week in Black History. In our ancient faith history, Jesus brings humility to the revolution by marking an entrance to Jerusalem with a celebratory sense from the crowds, but a determined, perhaps even solemn tone from the Lord. Howard Thurman wrote:

“I wonder what was at work in the mind of Jesus of Nazareth as he jogged along on the back of that faithful donkey. Perhaps his mind was far away to the scenes of his childhood, feeling the sawdust between his toes in his father’s shop. He may have been remembering the high holy days in the synagogue with his whole body quickened by the echo of the ram’s horn.

Or perhaps he was thinking of his mother, how deeply he loved her and how he wished that there had not been laid upon him this Great Necessity that sent him out on to the open road to proclaim the Truth, leaving her side forever. It may be that he lived all over again that high moment on the Sabbath when he was handed the scroll and he unrolled it to the great passage from Isaiah, ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor.”

On April 4th, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, TN. Many historians and commentators point to the sermonic speech he gave not long before his murder. In it, he makes plain that he did not know if he would get to “The Moutaintop” with all the people fighting for freedom. Dr. King was tired, and often known to be suicidal. He carried such intense importance, with insights which were experienced by many as foretelling, prophetic, both hopeful and dire. He was under constant stress, and threats, including US government surveillance. As we prepare to remember and celebrate the last days of Jesus on earth, we also cry out this week about the children of God that the message of Jesus was sent to save. O God why have you forsaken your children? Where was the humble king when Dr. King’s assassin took aim and humiliated the hearts of movement leaders with one bullet? What was Dr. King thinking when he came into Memphis? Did Martin know he would become such a great martyr? Is the fanfare in vain when we are speeding towards the moments of our own perishing?

Music & Meditation

Listen as we pray together. Hosanna, Kirk Franklin and Victory Chant as performed by Donnie McClurkin

Prayer

We live in the prayerful wonderings of Mother Maya, who was cooking a grand celebration dinner on her 40th birthday, April 4th, 1968, when she heard that her friend Martin had been taken away. She did not celebrate her birthday for years thereafter. We are in search of a Palm Sunday processional that does not end in a funeral. So we pray in the words of Rev. Howard Thurman, Rev. Dr. King and Mother Maya today. 

"Life stopped for me for a few days. It was terrible. I couldn't believe that this great man, this great dream, this great dreamer, this person who dared to love everybody, could be killed." Maya Angelou

Holy God, for all of us for whom life has stopped - lead us to resurrection. For all of us who are daring to love everyone and are yet threatened, unsure and unsafe - remind us to hope in you. When we lose loved ones in shocking circumstances, and when we feel like our hearts and hopes are gone, we need your life and your nearness. 

“Perhaps his mind was far away” - Howard Thurman

Dear Lord we pray today for everyone whose minds feel far away. We ask that you would always be near to us, remind us that you are with us even when we do not feel near to you. Loneliness is hurting us, losing friends and family to illness and sadness, conflict and relational tension. Whether we, our family or friends, are struggling with mental illness, we know that you are the God who renews the mind. We ask that you will work miracles for all who need them, and grant good success for therapists, healthcare providers and support networks for everyone who is on a journey to stability and health.

“But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land….Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will…. And so I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Amen. Ashé

Sources

Interview with Maya Angelou that’s worth your time!

In this clip from Charlie Rose, Maya describes the poem “On the Pulse of the Morning”

As directly connected to the spiritual songs of 19th century Black gospel .