1) The speaker notes that the past year has been filled with loss, worry, and division due to the pandemic, but that simply returning to how things were is not possible nor desirable. 2) When Christ entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he entered humbly and called others to love and forgive, knowing he would die but be reborn. This pattern of life, death, and rebirth is one we must embrace to avoid being stuck in the past. 3) The speaker's granddaughter Bloom has taught him to truly listen and see with new awareness, as we must do to address societal issues and changes, and embrace God's renewal through love.

1. 28 March 2020 Palm Sunday Princeton, NJ
1
Deacon Jim Knipper
We gather this morning as we enter the holiest of weeks of our liturgical year – a year
that has been filled with loss, worry, anxiety and hope. And it is easy to remember that
this time last year the pandemic had us all focused on getting things shut down as
quickly as we could, while attempting to grasp how much our lives would
change...without little comprehension of how many deaths would take place and much
division would occur in our country. Leading us to all ask, “When will things go back to
being normal?” But over time it has become clear that returning to business as usual –
going back to what once was - is just not an option…nor should it.
When Christ entered Jerusalem, he left behind what was his ‘normal’. He entered the
city, with all its splendor, not riding on a great white stallion as would a king, but rather
as a servant leader riding on the back of an ass. He entered with great humility and with
a continued call to love and forgive others – no different that he had lived his entire life.
And knowing full well what lied ahead of him, he entered the city knowing that he would
live – and die the great pattern that is repeated everyday of our lives - one of: life, death
and rebirth.
For when we ignore this pattern of life, we become stuck and attached to the walls we
have each created around us – walls that we spend our lives fortifying…latching on to
the life we have constructed around us to what we feel and have determined is “normal”
and all the while hoping that nothing will change – ignoring the reality that the walls will
crumble…and all will die away. Last year in his message to the world, Pope Francis
noted that the COVID virus "exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and
superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our
projects, our habits and priorities. It shows us how we have allowed [ourselves] to
become dull and feeble [in] the very things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives
and our communities.”
I fear that with a combination of COVID fatigue and expanding vaccine programs we
may lose all that we have each learned about ourselves and about our society and
attempt to just return to what we once called status quo…but in reality, the goal of that
journey is misplaced. Rather this is a time to look at what we are doing, how we are
doing it and who we are doing it to and to look for new ways to move the Gospel
message of love and acceptance into what we will be the new normal.
And to do that we need to move away from dwelling on the past or what may happen in
the future and to be present to the here and now by listening with new ears and seeing
with new eyes. These past three weeks my wife and I were blessed to spend time with
my son and his wife and our beautiful granddaughter, Bloom. And while we spent much
time remembering and grieving over the loss of Bloom’s brother Julian, we gained so
much by holding onto and being present to each other as a family.

2. 28 March 2020 Palm Sunday Princeton, NJ
2
Deacon Jim Knipper
It had been only a few months since I had last seen Bloom, so it wasn’t too long before
we reconnected and soon she and I were enjoying daily morning walks around the
neighborhood. Bloom relished seeing the birds and gopher tortoises and burrowing
owls. And even though I thought I was focused on our present surroundings I began to
notice Bloom calling to me and placing her finger to her ears. I soon realized that she
was so present to the present that she was hearing the faintest sounds that I was
missing. She was picking up bird calls that were originating blocks away or planes that
were nowhere in sight…sounds that simply escaped my personal awareness because I
was listening with ears and seeing with eyes that were focused on anything and
everything – except the present – and thus the presence.
It was soon I realized that Bloom was teaching me, her Buelo, how to hear with new
ears and to see the wonders around us with new eyes…as once did her brother.
This past year and this period of Lent and this Palm Sunday reminds us that we are
never in control and thus we are reminded of the need to let go and to begin to relook at
how we see ourselves and others. To relook at how we spend our time and our money.
To relook at the needs around us. To relook at the poverty levels, relook at the religious
and political polarization, relook at the economic and social inequalities, relook at racism
and various cultural phobias…and to relook at all that is needed to change in and
around us as we collectively and perpetually live this pattern of life, death and rebirth.
You see, my brothers and sisters, there is no return to the false sense of what we
thought was stable and normal and so instead we need to be open to the changes in
our lives all around us – our families, our communities, and our Church and to embrace
all of God’s creation and ever-loving Spirit, which we are told will “renew the face of the
earth.”
The lesson Palm Sunday gives to you and me is that the path to salvation is not one of
relying on our own greatness or achievements or giving deep concern over the mistakes
and faults we have made. Rather it is fully acknowledging and giving thanks for Jesus
the Christ, sent to us by a loving God – the Christ who, as we will relive and be
reminded this Holy Week – will wipe away every tear from our face and will show us the
way, the truth and the light by which we will are invited to embrace what is new, by
seeing with new eyes and hearing with new ears so that we may go forth imitating and
replicating the abundant love of God.