Know Tea

I love Palm Sunday.? I brought some of the palms home the other day (they arrived Tuesday and are in the fridge at the church) so the girls could make palm crosses, which they love to do.? Our oldest has been making palm crosses since she was four, so she’s really good at it by now.? She even made a very, very tiny one, pressed it between two books, and is going to put it on a chain to wear as a necklace.

If you don’t know how to make palm crosses, there are a lot of how-to sites on the internet.? The one I wanted to link to is down right now, and it has the clearest, best diagrams I’ve seen, so check back. ? If the link is up, that means that site is back up.

Our youth Sunday School class will be making them during the Sunday School hour tomorrow so they can give them out to all the worshipers before the service starts.? On Palm Sunday, we start the service on the front lawn of the church and process inside as we read Psalm 118.? Once we get inside the church proper, we join in singing “All Glory, Laud, and Honour.”

First Presbyterian Church in Birmingham was a block away from St. Paul’s Cathedral, and those two churches used to have their Palm Sunday processional together (maybe they still do:? any First Pres. or St. Paul’s people reading this?).? I thought that was very cool.? They’d process around the block together, then the Presbyterians would go into their church and the Catholics into theirs.? Nice.

The first year I was here I suggested that to the pastor of the church next door to ours.? Next door.? It’s a Baptist church.? The pastor told me, in a sort of smarmy tone, “Well, you know, we don’t really do Palm Sunday.”? I wanted to say, “Why not?? Jesus did.”? But I managed to be Christian for a few moments.

The other night at church when the college students were there, I got some of the palms out of the fridge and showed them how to make Palm Crosses.? One of the students (who is a Presbyterian, BTW) asked, “Palm Sunday?? Isn’t that a Catholic holiday?” One of our deacons, who was making Palm Crosses with us, said, “Well, it’s a very old Christian tradition.”? It made me sad that this student really had never connected with Palm Sunday because of the all-too-prevalent idea in Reformed circles of “if Rome does it, then we won’t.”

But this absolutely broke my heart:

I was teaching music at the homeschool co-op the other day, in my son’s group.? (The group where a little girl called him a Satan worshiper for reading Harry Potter). ? Since they are learning to play the recorder, I had to make them learn “Hot Cross Buns” because I think it’s a law.? Anyway, I told them I’d be sending their parents a recipe for homemade Hot Cross Buns, because they are a fun thing to make and eat on Good Friday.

A child in the front row asked, “What’s Good Friday?” He had never heard of Good Friday.? And this is a “Christian” homeschool group.

I still can’t get over that.? But that’s the way it is for so many Evangelical Christians, who just cruise into Easter with no Lent, no Palm Sunday, no Maundy Thursday, and no Good Friday.? My question is, “What’s Easter without Good Friday?”? Without Good Friday, Easter is just an excuse to eat chocolate.

Anyway, have a blessed Palm Sunday and Holy Week.? And don’t forget to make a few palm crosses before the day is over.