This year we began Palm Sunday in the parish hall. The room buzzed with conversation as people milled around in no particular order, getting their palm branches and programs from the ushers and waiting for the service to begin. And then the choir burst forth in a loud "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!" that startled the congregation. And I thought: This is what it must have been like. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was not a carefully planned parade, with everyone lining the route in an orderly fashion and joining the songs on cue. It must have been pure chaos, with the streets packed full of Passover pilgrims. A few noticed Jesus and began to hail him, and then others came running to see what was going on, and soon the crowd all pressed around him, hoping to see this new king. Someone got the idea to lay down a branch or a cloak, and then more wanted to do it, so that the crowd spilled into the road and got in the horse's way.
We spend a lot of time in the church trying to create dignified, beautiful, perfect worship services. But sometimes the places where we truly meet Jesus are the accidents, the surprises, the disorderly moments of real life.
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