Thursday, March 17, 2016

Palm Sunday: The little kids lead the church

One of the awesome, yet overlooked, facts of Palm Sunday is that in the scripture it is children who first take up palm branches and praise Jesus on the way into Jerusalem.

The kids get it.   They get how great this guy Jesus is - that he deserves our praise.
They aren't held back with false modesty or self-consciousness.  The kids go all out shouting, praising and expressing their love, joy and praise.

One of the running jokes is that mainline Protestants are the "Frozen Chosen" because we have a hard time expressing our religious faith.  Yet we have no problem expressing ourselves at ballgames.  Or at political rallies.  Why can't we cheer for Jesus??

We have been told that church is a quiet place -- but these ideas are not in the Bible.  They come from Puritan beliefs of the 1700's and were renewed in the 1930's on as protestant churches got wealthier and wanted to be "proper".  No where does Jesus tell us to be "proper".  In fact when the children are praising him, he tells his disciples that if people didn't give praise then the rocks would cry out.

Self-consciousness is a result of feeling judged, and the church is no place for judgement - we all have feelings.  Feelings aren't right or wrong, they just are.  And we need to accept each other's feelings as they are and as we express them.  

We need to let our inner child express its faith in our amazing wonderful God.
We need to let out our feelings whether joyful, sorrowful and everything in between.
Let the children lead us!