Today we enter into Holy Week in the Christian tradition.

Our original plan for this week was to get on a plane today to head to Belgrade Serbia for a week. My amazing partner grew up in Belgrade and up until a few weeks ago, her sister was scheduled to get married in less than a week.  This would be after we would have traveled to Krakow for a weekend a couple of weeks ago and spent last weekend in Bad Schandau to hike around the forests of Germany.  But none of this could happen right now.

I was gearing up to be away for Holy Week, storing up my info for reflecting on being in Serbia during what I know as Holy Week. I would reflect on travel, pilgrimage and location…family and celebrating…grieving and rejoicing….new beginnings.

But this morning I am writing and reflecting on a totally different world as the pups cuddle around me and my partner is still in bed, snoozing on her Sunday morning.  The sun is out but it is still chilly, there is warm coffee and no palms.  There can’t be a gathering of worship in a church somewhere but the online options are starting to appear. At any point this morning I can go to the website of the church I normally attend while here and watch the Sunday morning offering for today…all on my own from the comfort of my couch.

I love Palm Sunday. I love what it represents and honor what it ushers us into this week. I love the revolution of it and the subversiveness against the empire that it starts to show. Even the stones cry out and nothing can be stopped. Pretty soon this full force train will clash with its own silence and that will take its own reflection too but for today Palm Sunday holds such promise of solidarity and a new world although this year it has to show from the safety of our locations.

Would we lay down our protective masks for Jesus to walk upon? Would we shout our hopes from all around him? I know I am. My heart is crying out “Hosanna!’ for this thing to pass so that I can hug my people and connect again out there.  I yearn for the moments that we can see our people again.  I miss explorations and connections.  Zoom can only take us so far  and pretty soon the fear of others will cause life long impacts.  Solidarity is showing up in other forms as if it just can’t be kept down, thank God and then we know the Palm Sunday procession to be true as we clap for health care workers and offer up our listening ears, as the needs fence collects more donations and face masks are being made left and right.  We know a revolution has to happen and the normal that was will be no more…it just can’t.  That’s what happens when the world shifts beneath our feet…we can never go back to the way it was.

Hosanna!