Palm Sunday and Parades

Parades.  What a fantastic illustration of communal love for the heroes responding to the Chardon School shooting on Feb. 27 in the parade yesterday.   As the bus arrived with the 50+ heroes from the Governor's house, love blossomed like a plam tree in the desert.  Hearing about the parade of love , watching the news and media coverage, reminded me of what is good about community.  Communities that cradle hope springing in the midst of unspeakable chaos and loss.  Communities that find courage and bravery in the face of vulnerability and fear.  The community that gathered along the parade route for Jesus' entrance was unprepared.  And yet, in their unpreparedness the community that poured and flocked to the streets gave of themselves to show honor and respect.  Coats and jackets from their backs.  Simple palm fronds which quite literally mean 'save us now.' 

What do you need to be saved from?

What habits and behaviors do you eagerly seek to throw on the ground in a demonstration of anticipation of relief?

some of the best experiences I've had with parades in my life have been from pressing flesh with humanity around the parade route.  "Pressing flesh' was my mom's term.  Communities are built from realizing our oneness even in our distinctness.  Thomas Merton once said that standing on a corner in Louisville, KY he suddenly was overcome that everyone crossing on the busy streets was his brother or sister. 

Where do you sense community?  Where is it lacking in your life?

Palm Sunday parades and April Fools' Day.  Interesting ironies of the holy.  The foolishness for believers comes from the sudden reality that our Palm Sunday parade enthusiasm quickly turned (in 5 days time) to cries of disdain and death.  A lot happens between the cries of joy, the cries of Jesus on the cross and the waiting for resurrection. 

Planning holiday feast and Easter parties cannot be done absent a thorough awareness that Easter People come from first being a parade route observer.