Don’t rain on my parade

A Sermon for Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025
For the congregations of Summerland United Church and
St. Stephen Anglican Church, Summerland BC
The Very Rev. Ken Gray

Everyone loves a parade; at least I do, and I have very special memories of a few.

Growing up in Victoria I remember as a kid watching the Victoria Day parade, an hours long adventure in albino  sunburn, a festival of army trucks, fire engines, clowns throwing candy (you could still do that then) and marching bands, lots of bands, some Canadian but mostly American (we were better friends then), all 100 or more of them. Love Victoria; Rule Britannia. See you next year.

Working as a missionary in Fort Nelson in northeastern  BC in the 1980s I remember one particular parade. Local churches wanted to promote a youth centre project. So we placed a large model atop a trailer and joined the parade. I still have the picture somewhere. The funny thing was that in small towns, everyone wants to be in the parade. There were virtually no spectators along the route. We were all in the parade together.

During our time in Sooke I met Larry Rumsby, a local electrician and devout Roman Catholic. He once told me of his first time attending a peace march, and of his reluctance to step off the sidewalk and join the parade. Well he eventually did, and the rest of his life was characterized by a passionate social justice advocacy.

My own step away from the curb came in Montreal in 2005 when I joined about 10,000 marchers demanding climate justice as the United Nations Climate conference met in the city. It was one of the better UNFCCC conferences, which isn’t saying much. It was however a great parade.

As I reflected on what Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem might have looked like I searched out the movie series The Chosen, and in particular Season 4, Episode 8 titled “Humble.” The episode begins with a huge parade, resplendent with cheering crowds all throwing red petals . . . on King Herod’s carriage. This is not the parade of Jesus, nor of the governor, Pilate who did enter the city through a different city gate. It seems however, that I need to wait until next year to see how The Chosen portrays Jesus’ entry as that episode is not yet available.

Instead, I watched the episode Humble which beautifully portrays how Jesus’ reputation caught the attention of both pharisees and the populace. The story of the raising of Lazarus has (in today’s terms) gone viral. Some call it a ghost story; others suspect skullduggery; others simply believe. In the words of the prophet Zechariah we hear preemptively: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Lo, your King comes to you; triumphant and victorious, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.” In Jesus we witness only humility. Paul would later express this idea in an ancient hymn:

“Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as fully human
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8)

Jesus, the One who imbues creation with life and love, as in the beginning, now, and for evermore, a real presence in our lives and in the life of the world. No pomp or circumstance, just a leisurely trot on a colt, a simple passage that will change the world. And heaven knows, the world needs changing, right now, and everywhere.

And so we sing, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”