“The love that stands in solidarity with the suffering of others has power no empire can withstand. Only love has the power to make us safe.”

Sermon by Sally Howard at All Saints Church, Pasadena, on Palm Sunday, March 25, 2018.

========

“When the night, has come, and the land is dark,
And the moon is the only light we’ll see,
No, I won’t be afraid, no, I won’t be afraid,
Just as long as you stand, stand by me.”

+

Today begins Holy Week, the most sacred week in the Christian tradition.  It all starts with a protest march into Jerusalem.   A protest march filled with God’s love and calling out an empire made rich by violence and weapons of war.  Jesus, God’s beloved, rode in on a donkey and God’s love was in the people.  It was abundant love, everlasting and inexhaustible love that filled their hearts and their lungs.  The people knew that God was standing with them, and they couldn’t contain their joy.

Do we need to make it clear anyone that Jesus’ march of love was a resistance march? A counter procession planned in advance?  This was no Easter parade.  It was a thoughtful and committed public action, organized to call out and challenge all those leaders who aligned themselves with empire power.  To call out leaders who had money in their pockets and blood on their hands.  Jesus rode into Jerusalem knowing full well that through an opposite gate, another procession would come.  It would be an imperial procession led by Pilate, riding the energy of oppression.  It was also planned, a yearly, full military display at Passover, meant to remind the people that any hint of rebellion would be quashed.   But Jesus wasn’t intimidated.  Jesus knew that Love that stands in solidarity with the suffering of others, has power that no emperor can even begin to imagine.

The energy of God’s love fueled Jesus and the protest movement he led into Jerusalem that day.  Jesus had been showing the people the way of love all along, not claiming privilege, but using his power for and with others.  He had shown them that only love has the power to make things safe, and only love can strengthen what is broken, and only love can heal what is fragmented.  They had experienced God’s presence living among them and standing with them in pain and darkness, so that they could learn to stand with each other.   The people were filled with Love and they were so filled with the possibilities of living in a House of Love, that they weren’t afraid of the empire powers rattling their armor at the other end of the city.  They waved branches of palms instead.  But if they had had access to sharpies back in the day, I’m sure there would have been signs like we carried on the streets this week and into church this morning, and that our youth left on the steps of the Whitehouse yesterday for our president to read.

Now the House of Love, the kindom of God, is so compelling and attractive, that the protest march grew in numbers as Jesus moved through the streets. That’s the way it is with God, because God’s love is wonderful and it pulls you in and holds you close.  God’s love was flowing through the people and flowing through the work of protest.  People followed Jesus on Palm Sunday because of his passion for justice, and they followed him because they couldn’t turn away from the Love.

And then the night comes.  And the land is dark.  And the moon is the only light we see.

After the love flowing in the streets, Holy Week turns and becomes about dark land and dark times.  Holy Week becomes a time where we try to be with Jesus, holding onto the Love that fuels life in the midst of darkness.  Where we try with Mary of Magdala; Mary, the mother of James the younger and Joseph; and Salome to hold onto hope even when things seem hopeless.

No I won’t be afraid.  No I won’t be afraid.  Just as long as you stand, stand by me.

The dark times are the times when we need to stand with and by each other.  They are times when we remember that we are always surrounded by God’s love that’s so big and is flowing so strongly that not even death can hold it down.  In the dark times, it is good to be in community, with each other and the larger community in which we live—with our Jewish and Muslim sisters and brothers, reminding each other that God’s love is more powerful than any gun lobby or pandering congress.  Spending time in the energy of Love with each other is what heals us and helps us not be afraid.  It helps us stand by others so we can be the change that will set all of us free.  So we can keep raising our voices until the children in Detroit and Chicago and Syria and Palestine matter as much as the children of Columbine and Parkland and Sandyhook.  God stands with us so that so we can stand with each other.

It is time to trust God in the way that Jesus did–to allow ourselves to be led by those on the margins.  To follow Christ through the path of Holy Week is to seek out the stories of others and hear them in such a way that their pain diverts us and moves us and alters our choices.  To follow Jesus on the path of self-offering love, is to amplify the voices that empire powers try to silence, like the–

Young #BlackLivesMatter leaders working to dismantle racism and white supremacy; and young Dreamers leading the fight for just immigration reform–
–and in these last few weeks, it has been the voice and pain of young leaders calling BS on the gun lobby and challenging all of us to be the change that will set us free of the scourge of gun violence that plagues our nation.

Young people from across the country, including young people from this congregation, have stood in solidarity with Emma Gonzalez and her classmates from Margaret Stoneman Douglas High School as they’ve shared the darkness of their grief, their anger, their loss… They’ve led us as they’ve spoken truth and demanded action to stop gun violence.

And we are working hard to hold onto Love and stand by them.  Last Sunday, a group of our teens who organized our community to march in Washington DC and Los Angeles shared their stories, their pain, their fear, and their righteous indignation at the lack of action our country has taken around gun violence.  Can I repeat just some of what our clear eyed, deep souled youth shared?
— they are anguished that they cannot reassure younger brothers and sisters, who are terrified to go to school;
— they struggle with loneliness and mental illness and lack of resources while our government spends its energy protecting the insanity of citizen ownership of weapons of war;
—and one of our 6th graders urged us to put money towards portable shields that she can carry in her backpack to protect her from bullets, and “Doors”, she said, “I know there are doors that can stop bullets, at least for a little while.”

We must commit ourselves to these young people who are standing by each other. They are calling us out, like Jesus did, to follow them in making our world safer and more compassionate, and like Jesus, they are refusing to accept an imperial no for an answer.  In Susan Russell’s words, from downtown LA yesterday, “Never doubt that our youth can change the world—look around you, they already have.”

We stand by them all-those we know and those we never knew existed.  Because Love is greater than the darkness, greater than fear, greater and stronger than anything this world throws at us.  Because love that stands in solidarity with the suffering of others, has a power that no empire can even begin to imagine.

Hosanna!
We refuse to take no for an answer!
Hosanna!
The One who created us in Love, redeemed us in Love,
stands by us to sustain us in Love.
Especially when the night has come and the land is dark and the moon is the only light we see.

Amen