Palm Sunday

We gather together today to celebrate Christ's entry into the city of Jerusalem. Today we celebrate Christ as the king who enters our own personal Jerusalem - our hearts. This is a momentary feast of joy and celebration, because tonight we begin the final part of our journey towards Pascha-Easter. Our mood changes from one of joy this morning to one of solemnity, almost of sorrow this evening as we lead up to the great sacrifice that Christ performed for us on the Cross.

The feast of Palm Sunday has been celebrated in our Church since the earliest days of Christianity, but the use of Palms in connection with religious celebrations goes all the way back to Old Testament times. Oddly enough palm trees did not grow around the city of Jerusalem, and people would often buy imported palms for religious celebrations, in particular The Feast of Tabernacles celebrated at the temple in Jerusalem. The palm branch was used as a visual tool proclaiming the sovereignty of God as the true king of the Israelites.

On this Palm Sunday we raise our palm and willow branches to celebrate Christ as the king who enters our hearts, our own personal Jerusalem. But is Christ able to enter? Is there room in our hearts for Christ to rule as king? Often the doors of our hearts are locked. Often Christ is unable to enter because there is already another king of the heart - ourselves. And how do we solve this problem of trying to let Christ in? How do we instill within ourselves the one thing that is missing - God? The answer is to surrender. Surrender to the will of God. Surrender your life to the one who gave you life. We are constantly bound and held captive by the temporal things of this life. We are prisoners of our own selves, of this world, of our careers, of money, of the politicians who rule over us, we are even slaves to our own passions. The only way to find peace, to find true happiness, to experience true love is to surrender yourself to God, to make Him your king, to live in total communion with Him.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy you will receive palm and willow branches, let us take them to our homes and place them somewhere where we can always see them. Let the palm and willow branches remind us that Christ is the king of our families, that Christ is the king of our hearts, that Christ is the only true answer to happiness and meaning in our lives. Amen.