The Crowds That Went Ahead

Matthew 21:1-11 and Excerpts from The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas by Mahatma Gandhi

March 29, 2026

Rev. Nicole M. Lamarche

Good morning and welcome again, however you are connecting, with whatever you are bringing or holding into the room today. May you feel at home here in this house of prayer. I invite you to take some deeper breaths, in this time of war, we breathe in peace, in this time of fear, we breathe in hope.

As I share a word, join me in a spirit of prayer from Psalm 19. O God may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

A weekend of processions, protests, marches to protect who and what we love. We carried our signs and waved our flags and sang our songs, when some of us came around the corner, we sang out loud, singing and praying with my mind, stayed in justice!

In many ways, continuing to bring ourselves out into the public, I know it feels like one of the few things left to try, spilling into the streets in mass numbers is ridiculous how in the world will this shift things? It’s highly unlikely to change things at a pace and on the scale that is needed, on its own our procession of the underfunded faithful is woefully inadequate… We probably look silly to them. We don’t stand a chance.

Because there is that procession from the other direction, demanding more money for war, profiting from conflict, from highly evolved technologies designed for destruction, even betting on where will be bombed next. Slashing plans for wind and solar, plans for healthcare, plans for a future not saddled with debt, buddying up to billionaires with no intention of letting anything trickle down…(I have been waiting for that to happen) in some places, it feels like not even hope is allowed to trickle down. It’s a procession of mostly men covered in robes of decadence, drunk on imperial power, surrounded by an entourage of enrichers, clothed in hubris, emboldened by the privileges of their positions. 

How can our procession possibly stand a chance?

The socio-economic political order in which ancient Israel was situated, the structure of life in the time of Jesus and early Christianity was a system of domination of the many by a few. Using religious claims to justify the arrangement. Doesn’t that sound familiar? The procession marching toward Jesus operating entirely by domination in all spheres- political, economic, military and religious life. As scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan write, “Two very different processions…” On the hand the peasant procession, on the other is the imperial procession.

Under David’s son Solomon, power and wealth had become extremely concentrated in Jerusalem. As power struggles began to ensue among the elites, Herod started killing other elites, executing people so he could secure his place at the top of the org. chart and seizing some of their property as he went. He used this wealth along with the taxes he exacted to rebuild his temple with a, “sumptuous use of marble and gold,” constructing a most magnificent temple complex. Herod also built a palace for himself, with glittering fountains, shaded pools, ceilings with gold and vermillion. His dining room had couches that could seat 300 guests.

Into all of that, Jesus dared to whisper to others and then later he would say it louder in front of crowds, “Would you like to join this procession?” Maybe it was shocking to hear. They had started to believe it was supposed to be like this. Gold for them. Crumbs for us. And then he comes along. From another direction, there is a different procession, a mixed crowd, claiming and living a revolution of love…this procession is filled with misfits- believers in a different kind of power. In this crowd, peace is possible, because we know how to share life with people outside of our group, in this protest procession, it’s the robes of faith, it's an entourage of people with courage, clothed in the conviction of communal strength, grounded in the belief in our interdependence.  

Again from Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan again, “For Passover that year, two very different processions entered Jerusalem. They proclaimed two very different and contrasting visions of how this world can and should be: the kingdom of God versus the kingdoms, the powers, of this world.”

Which procession? Which vision of the world? Which power? 

It’s clear that in the long unfolding of history, we humans tend to repeat patterns, even harmful ones, digging up the ancient playbook, bringing out the robes of decadence again, seeking and building imperial power, growing again an entourage of enrichers, clothing more in hubris…

And now here we are…again…

Two distinct processions…

And let’s be honest, just like then, ours is underfunded. It looks silly. We have pink frogs and puppets. It does look ridiculous and doesn’t seem to really stand a chance. But yet here we are.

But still Jesus showed up and so did many others. And some even went on ahead. And I am thinking about them. Those who were willing to go ahead, those who are willing to believe when others couldn’t or wouldn’t, those who kept on when most were too afraid, those who didn’t give up when others told them it wouldn’t matter, those who marched as they cried…those who were willing to go ahead.

It’s hard to be in that crowd, but that’s where Jesus was and that’s where I believe we are called to be. I don’t mean to say the movement needs more martyrs, rather what I mean is that I believe that part of how we will hang on through this hard time, part of how our procession will prevail is when we continue to model something that is stronger, even than what Herod is trying to build.

We know where this story goes and how it ends, that the Empire wants only to keep taking, but even then we see what love can do, even in the presence of military might, we see what rises, that there is another kind of strength that we are calling upon even now. As we heard from the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, who built a movement to reorganize a crushing colonial system, he said “the weak are always apt to be revengeful” which is another way of saying that those who call upon violence to make their case or to prove their point are revealing their fragility, because revenge shows a lack of depth, it shows a deep spiritual weakness. Take that. Tit for tat. We will show you. Might makes right. Fight, fight. Get in line. Do as I say. Prevent people from voting by mail, while voting by mail. Do as I say, not as I do.

Jesus shows us another way. He models and lives something else that we all need to remember right now. We are needed out ahead showing others what is possible. In that sense, we are quite literally, placeholders, for the vision, for possibilities that is yet to be.

Hosanna! Hosanna is itself a word of hope. It means “save” or “help” but as a shout of praise. 

People are shouting this about Jesus as they lay down their cloaks and cut branches for him to ride across. It is an act of respect for a different kind of King, a man from Galilee, who came to help them save them from Empire and to help them save each other.

Which procession? Which vision of the world? Which power do you draw upon? Two very different and contrasting visions of how this world can and should be…

Beloved of God, let us be willing to be out ahead, to go out ahead, where we are called, to sing and lead out ahead, to take a risk for what we believe, to keep putting our bodies and lives out in public so God and others can see, can visualize what is possible, so we can challenge the lie that God wants it like this, that some deserve life while others don’t. 

I want to be in the Jesus procession with all of you, even though it is the harder, higher path, together we transform harm, instead of avenging it, composting hurt into right action instead of into hate, this is what the Palm Sunday procession offers us, people of faith and conscience, some of us are needed to go out ahead and show what can be, both in body and in spirit. Hosanna! We probably look silly to them. We don’t stand a chance. But we know from this story, that try as they might, they can kill bodies, but not ideas and not love and never our hope. Which procession? Let us be in the crowd willing to go ahead. May it be so. Amen.