It’s Palm Sunday; it’s a big celebration, so I’ve prepared a long, long,
long, long sermon. You know, Palm Sunday is the story of an excited crowd
and a great parade, and I love a parade. Doesn’t everyone love a parade?
When I think of parades I think of the Easter parade with its bonnets. I
think of a Macy’s and Christmas parade with their floats. I think of Fourth
of July parades, usually with antique cars and stars and stripes. I think
of St. Patrick’s Day parades with marching bands and beer.

But parades don’t always work out. Once upon a time here at Christ the
King, when Margo Schorno was still alive and was our great Associate Pastor,
she organized a Halloween children’s liturgy over in the gym. The adults
and parents were all here; they were over there. The idea was that they
would meet together after Mass. But the Mass got through in the gym early
and the children all came out, and she didn’t want them all running through
the parking lot, in danger of being run over, so she organized a Halloween
parade. She said, “Let’s have a Halloween parade!” She had them costumed,
singing, marching, all around the great lawn, and came all the way around
and they came back and Mass was still going on here. They ran around a
second time – Mass was still going on here. They went around a third time
and a little fifth-grader, completely disgusted said, “This isn’t a parade,
we’re just going around in circles!”

Three things make for a good parade: One is something to celebrate, like
Halloween or like the Messiah, Jesus, coming into Jerusalem. The second
thing about a good parade is that people enjoy it. They are enjoying
themselves. That’s what went wrong with this little tyke; he wasn’t having
fun any more. He said, “This is no fun, we’re just going around in
circles.”

The Jewish people that day were having fun. So much so that they cut palm
branches down, began to wave them and they burst into song. And finally, a
parade has to be getting somewhere. And that was certainly true when Jesus
arrived; the Messiah arrived. They were saying, “Now, now we’re getting
somewhere. We have our own Messiah.” In fact, they grabbed palms which
were usually a sign for the Romans – a sign of a conqueror, a sign of a
general, , a sign of victory, a sign of the emperor. And they said, “Now we
have made it as a nation, we have Jesus with us. Now we are going to take
over; now we’re getting somewhere.”

Of course, for the authorities, it was a sign of insurrection. It was a
sign of a traitor, it was a sign of a terrorist in their midst, and
eventually, later in the week, it led to the undoing and crucifixion and
death of Jesus.

But at a deeper level, Jesus came not as a general, not as an emperor, not
as a conqueror, but as the wisdom of God, as the compassion of God, as the
non-violence of God, which through the cross would lead to lasting hope and
lasting life.

I want you for a few moments to think about the Church. Think about the
Roman Catholic Church or the Christian Church; think about the Church. How
do you think about it? The New York Times thinks about the Church as an
institution. News Week and Time think about the Church as an organization
with headquarters in Rome. USA Today did a survey and it listed the
Catholic Church as a denomination, alongside other denominations.

In the Scripture we get a different feeling of the Church. We are told the
Church is a living building, that we are the living stones of a building
with Jesus as the cornerstone. Or the Scripture says the Church is the body
of Christ. Or the Scripture says the Church is a pilgrim people.

I want you to think of the Church in a different way, because I think it’s
accurate. Think of the Church as a parade…the Church as a parade. First of
all, everyone is invited; not everyone comes; not everyone wants to come;
not everyone has to come, but everyone is invited to the parade.

Secondly, there are different levels of participation. When I look at a
parade, there’s everything from the spectators along the roads to the grand
marshal. There are marching bands; there are people who built the floats;
there are people riding on the floats; there are people driving the floats;
there are people on the fringe outside just peeking over and saying, “Well,
maybe I’m interested, maybe I’m not.” That’s the kind of parade the Church
is.

And finally, the Church is going somewhere. It has a mission; it has a
message. You know, when you go outside they’re selling books tonight. It’s
embarrassing because one of the books is mine and the other is by Father
Bill O’Donnell. Bill died five years ago and for him parades were always
demonstrations; they were marches; they were protests; they were parades,
and they almost always had a sign up that said, “No justice, no peace.” If
there ain’t justice, there ain’t gonna be peace. And it led to his arrest
many times, not a few times, many times.

I visited him in prison in Atwater at his last arrest and when he went down
there he had to turn himself in. I think it was on a Friday at noon. He
was to knock on the door and turn himself in. Well, so many supporters, and
so many admirers, and so many friends, and so many parishioners showed up
that when he knocked on the door no one answered. He knocked on the door
again, no one answered. The prison was locked down; they were afraid of an
assault; they were afraid of a grand escape going on. When they found it
was he and that they weren’t trying to free him, then they let him in. They
let him in for six months.
He was arrested close to 300 times. And at the same time he was a full time
pastor; he was a friend to the homeless, to alcoholics, and to drug addicts.
He rid the neighborhood around him of prostitution and he opposed violence,
whether it was by abortion or by capital punishment, or by war. And he gave
some advice to anybody who wanted to be in a parade – and remember, as
Church we are part of a parade. His advice was three things: show up, make
a friend, and have fun. I like that. Show up, make a friend, and have fun.
Not bad advice for being Church. The parade we are called to be Church is
going somewhere and it’s always struggling; it never gets it all right; it
never gets it all together; we are on our way. People would say to him when
they were at a protest, “How long is this?” and he would say, “For as long
as it takes, as long as it takes.”

As we enter Holy Week we have to think about ourselves as the Jesus
Movement, as the Church. We have to be Church; we have to be a people who
show up, who make a friend, and who have fun. We have to live it; we have
to stick with it; we have to work with it, as long as it takes.

Amen