A Sermon in a Vase

Last night, Monday, I went to the "Bridegroom Service ". The Bridegroom Services are generally held on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings of Holy Week in the Orthodox Church. On Sunday evening, the Gospel reading contained the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. I didn't hear it Sunday night because I was having Easter dinner with my family (wife & kids are Baptist). But, I was able to hear it being recalled during some of the readings from the service book. As I heard it recalled, I saw a vase sitting next to the royal doors of the iconostasis which held some palms from the morning of Palm Sunday. As I was staring at the vase hearing about the withering of fig tree, I could see the withering of the palm leaves--however, their circumstances were much different. When the fig tree was cursed, in a short matter of time the whole tree withered up and died. The fig tree withered because it was cursed. The palm leaves, OTOH, were blessed Sunday morning by our priest and yet they were still withering albeit much more slowly than the fig tree.

I didn't have a chance to look into the bottom of the vase to see if it was out of water. I thought, "maybe the palms just need water?" But, I had another thought, "these palms demonstrate the life of Jesus followers and of the church." In case you didn't know it, Palm Sunday is one of the most highly attended services in the Orthodox Church. Sometimes it can even have more attendance than Pascha/Easter since the one Pascha service is long and typically runs from 11pm to 1:30am--and sometimes even later. Understandably, some people with young children, might show up for Palm Sunday, but not for the marathon Pascha service. .....but, as I was attending the Bridegroom Service, attendance was pretty sparse. On Monday, all the excitement of the Palm Sunday service, the procession of the children with the palms, and the Palm Sunday dinner were forgotten in the midst of the humble Bridegroom Service. I guess it was quite like Jesus' ministry where he had moments of great excitement and crowds (like Palm Sunday), and then great moments of loneliness and abandonment like Gethsemane and Golgotha. It is easy to imagine all the palm leaves drying up and turning yellow shortly after Jesus' triumphant entry. In our lives it seems pretty easy to get caught up in our normal business and forget/ignore the fervor we experienced and felt during spiritual "highs". It is easy for our life to become like a palm branch in which the life in it slowly leaks out, withers up, and turns hard and yellow even though it was previously blessed.

The liturgical life of the church is designed to foster our spiritual life but how often do we/I neglect it? Let us be like the wise virgins who kept oil in their lamps waiting for the bridegroom to appear.