Tag Archive for: Palm Sunday

Pivot point -The time has come

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: The time has come…

Early on in Jesus’ ministry we learn of a wedding feast that takes place in the town of Cana of Galilee. Recorded in the second chapter of John, Jesus is there with his mother and disciples. The weddings is about to come to a halt because the wine has run out.

The Blessed Mother mentions this to Jesus, who responds, that his “hour has not yet come.” (vs. 4) Nevertheless he changes water to wine so the feast can continue. The Evangelist John remembers this miracle in Cana of Galilee as, “The first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” (vs. 11)

Several times in the Gospel narratives Jesus is telling his followers that his time has not come. But things change when he enters Jerusalem on the day we refer to as Palm Sunday. St. John tells us that “…there were certain heathens among those who came up to worship at the feast.” (12:20) They requested an audience with Jesus to which he answers, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” (12:23)

This marks a pivotal point in the ministry of Christ. His hour has come. With the presence of the heathens, the preface to John’s Gospel is now finding definition.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:10-12)

On this Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost, the day the Armenian Church designates as the Second Palm Sunday, the Holy Universal and Apostolic Church branches out of Jerusalem. On Ascension the Apostles are given a commission to go to the world and on Pentecost, with the reception of the Holy Spirit, receive the tools – the language skills – to do their work.

Jesus is recognized as God of the Universe. This is why in the Armenian Church his icon has ethnic characteristics of an Armenian, in the Greek Church he looks Greek, and in the churches in Africa, Asia or South America, Jesus is pictured with ethnic characterization that help us understand that his Divinity is beyond ethnicity or human characterization.

The Church, which Jesus Christ offered as His body was finding form in the time of the Apostles. Today, we repeat the words of the Nicene Creed every Sunday, “We believe in one, universal, Apostolic Church,” as a reminder that Jesus message belongs to humanity, and it is through that message of love and peace that we come to understand one another in this complex world.

We pray today, O Lord our God, You have planted Your Church as the living Body of Christ, the place where heaven touches earth, where Your Word becomes action, and where Your love becomes service.

Make Your holy Church the radiant center from which Your healing, justice, mercy, and truth flow into every corner of the world. Unite us in the bond of peace, keep us steadfast in apostolic teaching, and send us forth as living instruments of Your will. Amen.

Another Round Around the Palms

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: Another round around the Palms

The Sunday between the Feast of Ascension (40 days after Easter) and the Sunday of Pentecost (50 days after Easter) is referred to as Second Palm Sunday in the Armenian Church.

The Second Palm Sunday designation is unique to the Armenian Church and is referred to as such for a few reasons. Following the Feast of Resurrection, all four Gospels are read in the Church in order, up to the day of Pentecost. (Luke in the morning, John at noon, Matthew during the evening hour and Mark at night). The Palm Sunday narratives coincide with this Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost, hence the name “Second Palm Sunday.” And if you’re counting, this is the seventh Sunday of Easter.

But there’s more to the Second Palm Sunday moniker. Palm Sunday is when Jesus entered triumphantly into Jerusalem. All four Gospels record this event. On Ascension, Jesus enters the eternal Jerusalem. The Apostles witness Jesus ascending into heaven, as we read in the Book of Acts, with the promise that he will be with us to the end of the ages.

According to Church Tradition, while St. Gregory the Illuminator (4th century) was imprisoned in the dungeon called Khor Virab an angel would visit him daily to bring him nutrition and spiritual comfort. On the Sunday following Ascension, the angel does not appear. The following day, Gregory asks the angel its whereabout. The angel replies that the angels celebrate in heaven, the feast of the return of Jesus, taking his place at the right hand of the Father.

Jesus’ entry into the eternal Jerusalem is a reminder to us all that life is much more than the tangible realities that consume our time and energy. There is a spiritual side that needs to be nurtured.

During the Artemis II mission, which took men back to the moon after over a half-a-century, the NASA astronauts witnessed sites and visual phenomena could not be expressed by words. NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman, in an interview following the mission said, “I’m not really a religious person, but there was just no other avenue for me to explain anything, so I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship (this is the boat that picked up the astronauts after splashdown) to come visit us for a minute.” Wiseman admitted, “When that man walked in … I saw the Cross on his collar, and I broke down in tears.”

The birth of a child, falling in love, losing a loved one, illicit similar overt outpourings of emotions. There are senses beyond the five physical ones, which every so often, if we put our guards down and allow the spirit to move with us, can and will be experienced. The Armenian Church, long before space exploration – try two millennia before – pointed to those ultra sensory expressions in its theology, by referring to mystery, Khorhourt khorin anhas anuzgisbn =Mystery Deep, inscrutable, without beginning… (From the Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Church)

The Second Palm Sunday feast reminds us that there is more to life than the tangible and the physical. We pray, Lord, open my senses wide to the events and expressions all around me, so I may be a participant in all the wonders you bless upon us in this world. Amen.

Palm Sunday Stones

/0 Comments/in ,

Stones: Palm Sunday (Question 2 of 9 Questions to Resurrection, an Armodox journey through Holy Week)

“Do you believe this?” is the simple question posed to us by Jesus, with which we began Holy Week. Each of the days of Holy Week leading to the Resurrection presents us with a question which only you, and you alone can answer.

On the Sunday before Easter, Scripture tells us that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, humbly, but was quickly elevated by the people to the status of king, a savior who had come to liberate them from the political bonds that enslaved them.

In the Gospel of John (12) we read, “…When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

The religious establishment fearing the possibility of a religious rebellion told Jesus to stifle the crowd – to rebuke them, to which Jesus says, “I tell you that if these [people] should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19)

What is it that you fear that would make you silence voices of praise? is the second question of this Holy Week.

Tomorrow: Cleansing

Palm Sunday Addition

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: Palm Sunday

Jesus’s triumphant entry into the holy city of Jerusalem is recorded by the evangelists. It is important to read the narrative to understand that in God’s time, all things fall into place.

On Palm Sunday, all the players are moving into their positions. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. The Pharisees, the Disciples with Judas and Peter, and, of course, the mob, are all there, each one of them, bringing their participation to this passion play.

But there are a few people missing from the story. You and me. We move ourselves into the narrative by picking up the palm branches and adding our voices to the crowd: Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Jesus walks by us. He is en route to the temple, the shrine built to praise God. Instead he finds this house of prayer has been converted to a den of thieves. Merchants and moneylenders are doing a robust business under the temple walls. He turns over the tables and one by one, everyone and everything that does not belong in the temple, he throws out in an unusual display of anger. He does not stop until everyone who does not belong in the temple is thrown out and the temple is wiped clean. Needless to say, he has irritated the establishment, the people in power.

We have witnessed this episode and realize that we are part of the story. The holy temple is no further than our heart, at the center of our being. Jesus comes in today to clean the holiest of all temples. He asks that we walk with him through this Holy Week with the simple condition that we remove everything that distorts the truth, whatever prevents us from enjoying all that God offers us.

In the Armenian Church the Palm Sunday Liturgy is followed by a service called “Tur’n batzek” which means “Opening of the Portals.” It is focused on the Coming of Christ and the message is one of preparedness.

We have been through  the Lenten Journey and now at the beginning of Holy Week we pray, Heavenly Father, You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, for the salvation of the world. He arrived at the appointed time, entered the temple and removed all that did not belong there. I ask that you enter my heart and clean it of all that does not belong there, the hatred, the sickness and disease, the prejudice, the injustice and all that prevents me from seeing the goodness of life. Amen.

Stones: Palm Sunday (9 Questions to Resurrection)

/0 Comments/in , ,

Stones: Palm Sunday (Question 2 of 9 Questions to Resurrection, an Armodox journey through Holy Week)

“Do you believe this?” is the simple question posed to us by Jesus, with which we began Holy Week. Each of the days of Holy Week leading to the Resurrection presents us with a question which only you, and you alone can answer.

On the Sunday before Easter, Scripture tells us that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, humbly, but was quickly elevated by the people to the status of king, a savior who had come to liberate them from the political bonds that enslaved them.

In the Gospel of John (12) we read, “…When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

The religious establishment fearing the possibility of a religious rebellion told Jesus to stifle the crowd – to rebuke them, to which Jesus says, “I tell you that if these [people] should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19)

What is it that you fear that would make you silence voices of praise? is the second question of this Holy Week.

Tomorrow: Cleansing

Holy Week – Palm Sunday

/0 Comments/in , ,

Holy Week Day #2 – Cleansing the Temple – The players are in place as the Passion Play begins. The invitation is extended to stand in the Procession to Jerusalem and to open the portals to our hearts, as Jesus cleanses the temple and the remnants of evil within us.
Song: “In the Moneylender’s Temple” by Ian Anderson and “Patz Mez Der” by Lucine Zakarian. Photo: Palm Sunday at Youth Ministry Center, Glendale 2005
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Direct Link for Download

Where’d everyone go?

/0 Comments/in

Next Step #512: A mid-Holy Week tally of who’s who and what’s what. What happened to the thousands of friends who ushered Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and left him alone for his death only four days later? Don’t wait for Easter to be April fooled! Singling out Pilate – no Judas here – in a second-creed puts Easter in the history book and out of the connection book. Heading out to Utah to celebrate Easter and the Holy Divine Liturgy, Fr. Vazken shares a very special resurrection message.
Vem “Khatchi Ko Christos”
Palm Sunday – A Telling Expression
Jesus Christ Superstar “Pilate’s Dream”
TedX: Bible & Homosexuality
Suffering & Hope
Tamar Kabanjian Art Exhibit
Palm Cross Instruction
Engineered by Ken Nalik
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for InHisShoes.org
Subscribe to In His Shoes » Next Step with Fr. Vazken by Email
Look for The Next Step on blubrry.com
Listen via Stitcher Radio on demand!