Palm Sunday

 

Philippians 2:5-11

Growing up, my family attended church services twice, and occasionally even three times each Sunday. My dad had a few points in his parish and the main two, St. John’s Pincher Creek, and St. Aidan’s and St. Chad’s Cowley, we attended every Sunday. There were certain times of year when the two congregations would come together. Palm Sunday was always celebrated in Cowley. The Cowley church was a creaky old place with really uncomfortable pews, flies literally coming out of the woodwork, an extremely worn out organ, and a very small congregation. It was always exciting to see it full on Palm Sunday. Everyone seated on the aisle got a large dried palm leaf to wave, and one lucky kid got to ride in on a hobby horse.

It was the most perfect place to celebrate Palm Sunday, when you really think about it. Jesus is always entering in the most humble ways. At Christmas, in a stable, then today, on a donkey. The church in tiny little Cowley is certainly nothing grand or important. Even on its busiest Sunday of the year, it remained a humble place, filled with humble people.

Yet, our humble Saviour is as present in Cowley as He is in the grandest cathedral, and we are blessed to be able to worship in both types of places here on earth. In one, we can’t help but be awed by the beauty and wonder of all of God’s great works. And in the other, we remember that Jesus chose a donkey and humbled himself far beyond what most of us can imagine. This is the spirit we should all carry into Holy Week: that what is humble will be exalted and that Jesus has set the example for us. He is there for us to call upon whether our lives resemble the Triumphant Entry of Palm Sunday, or the darkness of Good Friday, or anything in between.

Ceri Penner

Ride On! Ride On In Majesty
King’s College, Cambridge



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