Today’s scripture: Mark 11:1-11 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message)
As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two.
My thoughts (Keith Phillips):
I hated to miss this year’s Pride Parade, but I’m taking an on-line course, “Queer Events and Identities” (an LGBTQ modern history course offered regularly by the Metropolitan Community Church), and we meet Saturdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.
When I thought about it, I was surprised at the similarity between the Pride Parade and the Palm Sunday procession. First, both were essentially political.
The crowds with Jesus shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” In doing so, they were eagerly proclaiming that there needed to be a change from the status quo of their society. And they were offering a better alternative. As they marched and chanted and waved at by-standers, they were testifying to and calling for the liberating power of God to change things from the way they’ve been. There are times when worship can be a political act and when political acts can be worship. Whether we knew it or not, that’s what the contingent from our church, at least, was doing in the Pride Parade.
There’s another similarity, too. In Mark’s Gospel, this procession was hardly a “Triumphal Entry.” In painting his picture of the event, the feeling Mark projects is more faithful than the other gospel-writers to the prophecy in the Hebrew Bible: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9, AV). Mark, whose emphasis is on Jesus’ suffering, portrays him entering Jerusalem humbly, going into the religious and political capital of the oppressed people with whom he was in solidarity. Jesus, and the crowd, knew who he was, and he was okay with that.
I think we often have a wrong understanding of humility. In Romans 12:3 (CEV) Paul writes, “I tell each of you not to think you are better than you really are. Use good sense and measure yourself by the amount of faith that God has given you.” Humility is not self-deprecating. Rather, it is being able to know ourselves as God knows us; not better than we actually are, nor worse than we actually are. We can have pride in ourselves without being haughty or proud. There is such a thing as humble pride.
Both the Pride Parade and the Palm Sunday procession were political acts, and at least some the folk in the Pride Parade, like Jesus, have that humble, confident, I-know-who-I-truly-am-and-I’m-comfortable-with-it kind of pride.
Jesus MCC’s group in the Indianapolis, Indiana Pride Parade, June 13, 2009.
Prayer for the day: Lord, help me to know myself as you know me, and to have pride, so that my worship can be political when appropriate. Amen.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.