“Living without expectations is hard but, when you can do it, good. Living without hope is harder, and that is bad. You have got to have hope, and you mustn't shirk it. Love, after all, 'hopeth all things.”

- Wendell Berry

Mark 11

“Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and his followers came to the foot of Olive Mountain at House of Figs (Bethany) and House of Unripe Figs” “(Bethphage) near Village of Peace (Jerusalem). From there he sent out two of his followers.

“Go on into the village just ahead of us,” he instructed them. “Right when you enter the village, you will see a donkey colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it to me. If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ say to them, ‘Our Wisdomkeeper is in need of this donkey and will soon return it.’”

His followers went where they were told, found a colt tied by a gate near the village pathway, and untied it. Some of the people standing nearby said to them, “What are you doing untying that colt?”

They answered them just as their Wisdomkeeper had instructed, so they were permitted to go. They brought the young donkey to Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and laid their deer skins and Pendleton blankets on the colt, and then he sat down upon it.

GRAND ENTRY

A crowd gathered around, and some of them laid their buffalo robes on the road, while others spread out branches with large leaves they had cut from the fields.

“The people were hoping he would be a mighty warrior chief, like their ancestor Much Loved One (David), to set them free from the People of Iron (Romans). But he did not ride a warhorse on that day, as one might expect. Instead, he rode a small, humble donkey colt. He came weeping over the Village of Peace (Jerusalem), but even this could not silence the hopes of the crowd.”

“The people encircled him, front and back.

“Hosanna! Set us free!” they shouted. “Blessed is the one who comes representing the Great Spirit! The good road of our ancestor Much Loved One (David) has arrived! Hosanna, to the One Above Us All!”

Creator Sets Free (Jesus) rode into Village of Peace (Jerusalem) until he came to the sacred lodge. He went into the lodge and looked around at everything—then he left. It was time for the sun to set, so he returned to House of Figs (Bethany), along with his twelve followers, to the place where they were lodging.”

Excerpt From

First Nations Version

Terry M. Wildman

This material may be protected by copyright.

Mary Oliver - To Begin With, the Sweet Grass

1.

Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat
of the sweet grass?
Will the owl bite off its own wings?
Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or
forget to sing?
Will the rivers run upstream?

Behold, I say—behold
the reliability and the finery and the teachings
of this gritty earth gift.

2.
Eat bread and understand comfort.
Drink water, and understand delight.
Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets
are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds
who are drinking the sweetness, who are
thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.
Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

And someone's face, whom you love, will be as a star
both intimate and ultimate,
and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.

And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:
oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two
beautiful bodies of your lungs.

3.
The witchery of living
is my whole conversation
with you, my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.


Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.


It's more than bones.
It's more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It's more than the beating of the single heart.
It's praising.
It's giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life—just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe
still another.

4.
Someday I am going to ask my friend Paulus,
the dancer, the potter,
to make me a begging bowl
which I believe
my soul needs.

And if I come to you,
to the door of your comfortable house
with unwashed clothes and unclean fingernails,
will you put something into it?

I would like to take this chance.
I would like to give you this chance.

5.
We do one thing or another; we stay the same, or we
change.
Congratulations, if
you have changed.

6.
Let me ask you this.
Do you also think that beauty exists for some
fabulous reason?

And, if you have not been enchanted by this adventure—
your life—
what would do for you?

7.
What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.
Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.
That was many years ago.
Since then I have gone out from my confinements,
though with difficulty.
I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment
somehow or another).

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.

Questions to consider:

How do you define expectation? How do you define hope? How do each show themselves in your life?

What is a "small” thing that has made a big difference? What is a “large” thing that may not mean much?

Talk about a time you were delightfully surprised. Delight being defined as, to be greatly pleased.

Palm Sunday is about the ushering in of the Divine. What does the phrase ushering in of the Divine stir in you?