Most years we celebrate Palm Sunday beginning in the church yard, blessing the palms, carrying them singing and shouting Hosanna around the neighborhood and then into the church nave. It feels like we move from light into darkness as the full liturgy progresses and we hear the Passion narrative and celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

This year many congregations are focussing on the Liturgy of the Palms because it keeps the worship out of doors in these waning days of the Pandemic. So it’s a good time to focus on the part of the Palm Sunday liturgy that is often forgotten by the time we preach in a typical service – just after the Passion narrative is read or sung.

Hosanna doesn’t mean what most of us think it means. And it carries a message that the Church as a whole might do well to shout in these difficult times.

BTW: During the filming of this sermon, I noticed that the sun movement changed me from standing in bright light to standing in a gloomy shadow. Rather than re-recording, I decided it wasn’t a bad symbol for the whole of Holy Week.