We had just been to the actual site where Jesus would have entered the city walls on a donkey. Soon after we went to the Holocaust museum of Israel. It may not be Palm Sunday yet, but I've been hearing those words, "The King is Coming" in my mind since our guide in Israel took us to the entrance to the Holocaust Museum and shrugged his shoulders. A Jewish Christian, he talked about how we must remember history and know that it repeats itself. That we must do what we can to avoid that, but to know that whatever happens on earth, to know that the King is Coming.
In the museum, where there were no pictures allowed, I saw an inscription taken from a Holocaust survivor, saying something to the effect of, "Though there was so much suffering, there was a certain happiness even there among us who follow the Christ." They knew the King is coming and that they had Him with them even there. Yes, even there.
I read an article lately that pierced my soul about how a huge number of German Christians supported Hitler and how there was no uprising among Christians as the horrors of the concentration camps became known. Of course there was the media blitz whitewashing the truth, and there was probably the element of fear if they spoke out. But the fact remains.
Today, I see Christians take views of today's political situation from all points of view - protect unborn babies on one side, protect the minorities and refugees on the other. What can we do about the state of the world? What should we do? I saw layers upon layers of civilizations in Israel. Here today, gone tomorrow. Ancient opulent fortresses, remains of cities once flourishing, those kings and subjects long gone. The sermon series of Ecclesiastes we're in brings to mind the lament of Solomon describing life as "Meaningless, meaningless, " though he had everything under the sun. In one of these sermons we learned that meaningless can actually be translated as fleeting. I'm studying Isaiah, with whole peoples being warned, but then destroyed.
I've been pondering all this for days, and I think about the traveling we've been so fortunate to be able to do. Who would have thought it - two schoolteachers traveling the world? Is it because we have been blessed - why us? - when my friend is in the hospital facing maybe her 30th or so surgery? Why us when refugees are fleeing persecution in far parts of the world that I come near in a tour bus?
But in the quiet of this morning, the King came to me once again. He whispered through the words of one of my favorite writers, Anne Voskamp. In the journey of her devotional, Abundant Life, she also ponders some of these type of thoughts. She writes about the second time in the Story of the Bible, where we see Jesus weep, where pain breaks Him, and "as the palm branches wave, our God weeps: when Jesus approached Jerusalem, He wept over it and said, 'If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace'..." And I think surely He is looking down from heaven saying the same thing even now.
Anne Voskamp writes and I piece together sentences that jump off the page of her book, The Abundant Life: "If only you had known what would bring you peace...We want more comfort, and He offers us a cross. We want more position, and He offers us purpose. We want more ease, and He offers us eternity...Don't believe things can change? Just look at Palm Sunday, to Good Friday, to Resurrection Sunday. Always believe, always keep hoping things can change....There are days when Christ comes to me in ways that look as lowly as coming on a donkey, and I'm the fool who doesn't recognize how God comes. He enters every moment the way He chooses and this is always the choice: wave a palm or a hammer...Maybe the call of Holy Week is simply about carrying your own daily cross...The cosmic truth sealed in the wounds of the broken God is that the greatest brokers of abundance know an unspoken broken...What makes us feel the most disqualified for the abundant life is actually what makes us feel most qualified. It's the broken and the limping, the wounded and the scarred...that may know best where to run with wounds. It's only the broken who know how our broken wounds can be the very best cracked, thin places that reveal God...and allow us to feel safe holding His hand. Those who've known an unspoken broken can speak the most real healing. Stay weak and dependent. This is how you stay strong with God. "
She then brings Romans 8:28 alive, how God can miraculously us ALL things, even the bad and the suffering for good: " and this Holy Week, there's the woman who wipes the drool from her father's chin and carries him down the hall to the toliet. And the mothers who lays down bit of her life to wash the bowls and underwear of the teenager calling her a whore. And the missionary in the jungle, in a brothel, in slum, and nobody applauds.... Maybel the realest sacrifices of praise are not the ones shouted at the beginning of Holy Week, but the secret, sacred rites that are gifts of praise given back to Him, gifts to Him and the world, offered with no thought of return on the investment, just given where the only spotlight is His light, and your one flaming heart."
And she ends the chapter on Palm Sunday with this bit of pure poetry: "The way to worship Christ is more than raising your hands like you're waving palm branches: it's stretching your arms like you're formed like a cross."
And I get my answer to my churning heart this morning, though it is still Lent, though the air is still cold, though the birds are just beginning to know it's spring: to simply be the light in my little circle of the world. To choose to wave palm branches instead of a hammer. And know that maybe I don't have to have politics and world affairs all figured out. That unlike Ahaz in the 7th chapter of Isaiah who refused to trust even though God had promised Him safety and in story after story in the bible, that we can trust Him...the King is coming. That He wants our dependence, not our self-reliance in having everything figured out. That righteousness comes not from being perfect or knowing how to save the world as we know it, but it comes from just walking with Him - taking our daily marching order to love where we can, make a difference where we can - but doing it always knowing He will place those opportunities like palm branches before us - and that no matter what suffering we are riding into on our own lowly donkeys of potential or present suffering. we can know...THE KING IS COMING!
