The Garbage Parade
We LOVE parades! At least I know, I do. And if the prevalence of parades in our country is any indicator, there are many others who feel the same way. We have parades for just about every holiday. There’s the Thanksgiving Day parade, St. Patrick’s Day parade, Fourth of July Parade, Christmas parade. There’s Halloween parades, Mardi Gras parades and New Year’s parades. We have political parades like the inaugural parade. We have parades for sporting events like the winner of the world series parade and the Rose Bowl parade. We have special occasion parades like the cherry blossom tree parade and homecoming parades. There are even some places that just make up reasons to have a parade.
In Ocean City, NJ there is a parade called the Do-Dah parade. It’s basically a made up parade that exists for no other reason than to simply have a parade. Apparently it consists of a lot of really random participants. For instance, this parade has a wind chime band. If you have a wind chime and can walk the parade route, you can be in the wind chime band. There’s even a dog show in this parade that rides along on one of the floats. We are a society that loves parades. Parades are fun and celebratory. They bring the community together.
Maybe that’s part of why this passage is so popular and well known. It’s the Jesus parade! It’s a day when we get to put ourselves in the place of the disciples. We get to reenact together the triumphal entry of Jesus parading into Jerusalem while we wave palms and joyfully shout our loud hosanna’s . Today is a day where the excitement and enthusiasm of the scripture is contagious. We want to be there. We want to be the ones to lay our coats on the donkey or to lay our palms out for Jesus. We want to be a part of the energy and excitement that builds in a crowd like that. We want to be the ones shouting “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” We love parades, and we want to be a part of the Jesus Parade.
Reading this passage over and over again this week must have left parades on my mind. As I was driving to visit a parishioner, I passed by three or four trucks in a row driving the opposite direction that I was. Each of these trucks were carrying about 8 port-a-potties a piece. And as I drove by I chuckled to myself and thought, “It’s a port-a-potty parade.” I drove a little farther and it wasn’t long until I came across a line of men, all in orange vests, walking along the narrow road picking up trash. And I laughed even harder as I thought to myself, “It’s a garbage parade.” As I was chuckling to myself about these two very unusual parades I had just witnessed, I couldn’t help but think, “Neither of those are parades I’d want to be in!” I would MUCH rather be in the Jesus parade than the garbage parade.
I know I’m not alone in that. Most Christians I know would rather be in the Jesus parade than the garbage parade. Often as Christians we think our whole life is going to be one big Jesus parade, one big triumphal entry into the promised land. Or at least that life OUGHT to be like that. We sometimes think that because we believe in Jesus and have a relationship with God, that we should be exempt from the messiness of life. It shouldn’t be our family member that’s diagnosed with cancer, or our child that wrestles with addiction. It shouldn’t be us who gets laid off, it shouldn’t be us that’s in danger of having our house foreclosed on.
But we know from our own life experience that it doesn’t work that way. A lot of times life feels like we’re in the garbage parade where we’re forced to lug around other people’s sewage. Many people who are facing foreclosure right now didn’t do anything wrong, but rather were victims of predatory lending or were simply laid off. Anyone who’s had a love one who struggles with addiction knows the garbage that gets thrown into their own lives as a result. Lots of people have been laid off because of mismanagement or corruption of CEOs. Even youth applying to colleges are having a harder time being accepted because the colleges have to make budget cuts. A lot of times, even as Christians, life feels like we’re forced to clean up the garbage that others have thrown into our lives.
But just because sometimes life feels like we somehow ended up in the garbage parade, doesn’t mean that we aren’t actually still in the Jesus parade. Peter Marty, a Lutheran Pastor, says if we expect our spiritual life to be one euphoric experience after another then we would probably never come back. He says instead it’s more like a verdant garden we are going to feast on. It’s full of sweet corn and manure. It’s holiness and a holy mess.
Even Jesus himself never promises that being Christian will be easy. We’re never told that we won’t have to experience pain or suffering in life. In fact Jesus tells us just the opposite, that there will be trying times. Jesus tells us that if we choose to follow him there will be times when we will be persecuted. Jesus tells us that following him will lead us to the cross.
For those of us who have read this story before, we know that’s exactly where Jesus is headed. Before the week is out, Jesus will be in his own garbage parade as he’s led to the cross. The loud hosannas of today will turn to curses and jeers. In this garbage parade, Jesus willing carries all our sewage, and all the garbage that’s been thrown into our lives. He takes it all. I’m so thankful Jesus knew that the garbage parade had to happen, he knew he had to go through all that. Jesus knew he had to go to the cross to get to the resurrection.
In this economy, with unemployment at a 25 year high, foreclosures all around us, major industries in danger of bankruptcy and the world’s leaders struggling to figure out what to do about it, it’s easy to feel like we’re in the garbage parade. It feels like everywhere we turn, something else is going wrong and we are forced to pay the consequences for other people’s mistakes. And we know that things will probably get worse before they get better. We know we still have to go through Friday before we can get to Sunday.
We know there will probably be more job lay-offs before things get better. The stock market will probably continue to vacillate back and forth. We’ll still have family members that get sick. We’ll still know people who suffer from addictions. There will still be times we’re looked down up for being Christian. There will still be people who persecute us. There will still be times when following the Christian path feels more like the garbage parade than the Jesus parade. We still have to go through Friday before we can get to Sunday.
But Sunday is coming, and with it the resurrection. There will be a time when more jobs are available. There will be a time when the housing market will go back up. There will be a time when all are freed from their addictions. There will be a day when there will be no more sickness or death. There will be a day.
This week as a community, we remember the whole Jesus parade. We celebrate together the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and we journey in solitude with Jesus as we remember the garbage parade he endured on our behalf. We’ll stand at the foot of the cross this week, and then we’ll walk along side Mary as she discovers the empty tomb. Sunday is coming and with it the resurrection.
Life in the Jesus parade is full of triumphal highs and garbage parade lows. It’s holiness and a holy mess. If you’re feeling weighed down and like you’re in the garbage parade, take heart. Jesus has walked this parade route before you. As we endure the garbage parade, sometimes all we can do is lean into the side of the one who has walked this way before us. Sometimes all we can do is put our trust in the one who has already made it through. The garbage parade is not the end and does not have the final say. We have to go through Friday to get to Sunday. But Sunday is coming, and with it, the resurrection.
Amen.
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