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Hear the devotional: https://bit.ly/4cjUiCu
View the devotional: https://bit.ly/3Prnmy6
Filled with excitement, all the happy throng
spread cloaks and branches on the city streets.
There in the distance they began to see,
riding on a donkey comes the Son of God.
From every corner a thousand voices sing
praises to him who comes in the name of God.
With one great shout of acclamation loud
triumphant song breaks forth:
“Hosanna to the King!”* (UMH 279 Mantos y Palmas)
Happy Wednesday, my dear Friend. May this Wednesday truly be a Wonderful Wednesday for you and those whom you hold dear. May this day fill you with hope and peace. The time is quickly approaching when we shall gather to praise God for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; His victory and triumph over sin and death. I pray God's joy be your strength and your peace. Pray for those for whom we have been praying and may God answer all according to His will. I pray all is well with you.
Today's devotional will give me away. I can't hide it. I am a child of hymns. My Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday evenings, were times we would gather for worship, singing and praise, and all gathered around whatever hymnal we had at the time. I can even say that my wife and our daughters as well are products of singing hymns. From my birth until 1998 I sang en español. Many of the himnos are directly from hymns; and many trigger the waterwells found behind both of my eyes.
I was blessed to have served on a committee of the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church to interpret the "new" hymnal published in 1989, which allowed me to hear some new incredible hymns. Later I was on the actual committee that put together Mil Voces, the Spanish language hymnal of the UMC. There, it was an emotional time of hearing old and new hymns sung by the awesome voices of representatives from across the denomination. During those experiences, one hymn stayed with me for its power and ability to re-create that day we will celebrate this coming Sunday, Palm Sunday.
The hymn was written by Rubén Ruíz Avila, and translated into English by Gertrude C. Suppe. The actual hymn was written in 1972 with a mariachi and dance-like feel not found in the traditional Palm Sunday hymns from the 17th and 18th centuries. If you re-read the lyrics shared above you get the idea of what Mr. Avila had in his heart as he wrote the hymn. Key words like "excitement," "happy," "a thousand voices," and "great shout of acclamation loud" wow me (and I have to confess I sing this or hear this several times more than just that one Sunday for which it was written. It does beg me to ask myself, and to ask you: Which of the words I quoted reflect how you approach that Sunday? One year, when I was a senior pastor of a church, I kept thinking had I known then in the actual year of Jesus entering Jerusalem, I would have paid money to be a part of that Big-Ticket event, and so I went to my computer and designed a ticket which I printed out on letter sized paper and took it to Kinko's (remember them?). I asked them to put it on a huge foam poster. Viola! I had my big ticket! I used it that Palm Sunday and for many years later as a reminder that we did not need a ticket had we been there, nor do we need one now, but if we did, we would pay whatever price to have been part of that throng who shouted and sang, "Hosanna to the King!"
What will we do this coming Sunday? I know some will go "through the motions," and that's fine - no better place to be, but think about it. Jesus paid it all. Jesus suffered all, and it started on this false premise of people thinking He entered the captial city as a military and political king. And that in and of itself would have been sufficient, but it was more! Jesus came and knowing He would be dead by that following Friday, yet on He rode on this donkey. He knew that because of our sinfulness; our doing, thinking, and acting on things we should never have even thought, done or acted on! And even those done to us by ones we thought we never do such things to us - and still He loved us, and yes, even them! We should quit having our pity parties and start singing, no? Hosanna sounds better when we mean it because we feel it.
PRAYER: Lord, make us people of the hosannas that lift spirits, especially ours. May this Sunday be just about You, and may it bless us to the place we know we should be. Bless those who don't seem worthy of being blessed (myself included!), and let us all be blessings to all, especially You! In our King Jesus' strong and holy name, amen!
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Shout Hosanna now and Sunday. Repeat Often.
I love you and I thank God for you!
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
View one church's Palm Sunday use of "Filled With Excitement" here: https://bit.ly/43lm25u
