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Homilies by Rev. Andrew Collis unless indicated otherwise.

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Palm Sunday, Year A
South Sydney Uniting Church
April 9, 2017

Psalm 118; Matthew 21:1-11

‘The whole city stirred to its depths’

As Jesus rides into Jerusalem “without display” (from the Judean desert in the east) humbly and mounted on a donkey, ancient dreams of peace with justice are made contemporary. Many people are excited – some, we might imagine, stirred to excitement by others, by the sheer spectacle, others stirred to the very core. Some are motivated (by jealousy, fear of the authorities, fear of change or loss of privilege) to plot the destruction of this “royal” performer/pretender. It’s a noisy scene of high emotion and shouting, jostling, political and religious fervour. God be with you ...

I recall the Italian director Pasolini’s depiction of the scene in his cinema classic, The Gospel According to St Matthew (1964); the peasants and the street kids waving palms in excitement (the film is notable for its entirely non-professional cast). They get that this is parody. They get that it’s funny. They get that it’s serious. And they celebrate – they will delight in this glory, this triumph, this unmasking of imperial pomposity.

Milk Crate Theatre’s Turning Towers, performed here and at Redfern Town Hall by a largely non-professional cast, included striking moments of parody and similarly celebrated a triumph – public housing tenants expressing their needs, their resistance to manipulation and condescension, their solidarity with neighbours, their love for a neighbourhood.

There was no donkey but one of the stars was a non-human actor whose humble presence highlighted the importance of green space (in the wider context of the world as creation).

Our Gospel refers to a city “stirred to its depths”, and Turning Towers, like “(over)turning tables” in the Temple (Matthew 21:12ff.), provokes deep thinking, soul-searching questions about land, economics, diversity, hospitality (the meaning and value of home/s). Stirred to its depths that a city might come to its senses – in celebration of genuine social mix, the rights and expertise of long-term residents – their wisdom in respect of Aboriginal ownership, leadership, a proud working-class history, the inclusion of refugees and migrants, compassion for brothers and sisters dealing with difficulty or tragedy and faćing rejection.

What stirred me most was the bravery of participants – actors and “spectactors” – whose work clarified and amplified a community consensus: the redevelopment ought to be staged to allow all public housing tenants the option of staying in Waterloo with no temporary out-of-area relocations. In short: Let our people stay!

Community consensus – whether Hosanna! or Let our people stay! – is not to be underestimated. Reverberations continue.

We get the impression that Jesus is aware of what he’s doing. He’s arranged this “triumphal” entry to attract attention. When he arrives in the city he turns his attention to corruption (in the Temple) and to healing (in the Temple) and to teaching (in the Temple). We can surmise that he’s aware of the risks he’s taking.

He is taking on the corrupt powers (religious and political) in a Spirit of fairness/justice/revolution, and access to life/community for all. In a Spirit of confrontational and nonviolent love. In the Spirit who inspired the psalmist to sing: “The gate of justice is open to all who love right living. Even stones rejected by builders have a place. In God’s work a poor stone can support a corner. Blest are all who come doing God’s work. Let us make of ourselves a place of peace and light.” The latter phrase may suggest a weak or “hippy” bonhomie. Not so.

Confrontational and nonviolent love with special concern for the “rejected” ones entails gentle dignity – seated not upon high horses but keeping it on the level – relating eye to eye, heart to heart. The humble and monumental figure of Christ in Stanley Spencer’s painting [“Consider the Lilies” (1939)] shows it well – Jesus on all fours, with consideration for the lilies, which in fact are daisies, ordinary and beautiful flowers of the wilderness/city.

Is this a picture of God attending to flowers, to creation, to us?

“This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee!” God among the palms, among the daisies, the rejected stones; God among the street kids, the refugees, migrants and workers, the “spectactors” ...

What stirs you this Palm Sunday? ... Amen.

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