On a Point of Intersection
March 29, 2026
Palm Sunday
Rev. Traceymay Kalvaitis
Psalm 118: 28-29
The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you. O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Matthew 21:1-11
When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
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Today’s sermon is titled On a Point of Intersection.
I woke up early to write this sermon. It is Thursday morning before Palm Sunday. I am in my hometown of Durham, North Carolina and the rest of the house is asleep. The birds are wide awake, though, and so are the squirrels, as they chase one another through the treetops. I am waking up, too, after my cup of black tea. All week, I knew this moment would come when I would need to begin the sermon (it is always the most difficult part for me…sensing how to begin). Sometimes I have a strong sense, sometimes none at all, and sometimes the strong sense evolves in a different direction, unexpectedly. That is what happened this morning. I chose a mug from the cabinet and while waiting for the water to come to a boil, I was looking more closely at the mug. I chose one, the only one, that had the Duke University emblem printed. My childhood home was close to the university campus and I lived there until I went to college down east. I delivered flowers to both hospitals and to every dorm at Duke. I have seen this emblem all my life and yet I had never really looked at it carefully. The prominent cross in the middle was familiar, but I had never paid much attention to the motto inscribed along the base that reads, Eruditio et Religio …translated “knowledge and religion.”
We begin here today, Friends, here where knowledge and religion intersect. This point of intersection between knowledge and religion is a moving point, different for each one of us, and because we are here together, in this moment, learning together, the point of intersection between knowledge and religion is likely to move and to keep moving, as long as we continue to remain open to learning and to perceiving…learning and perceiving…I choose these two words carefully because in perceiving, in recognizing some truth in what we learn, we then take in that knowledge, we begin to understand, and from a growing understanding we begin to form beliefs that (we might go as far as to say) constitute a religion. In the United Church of Christ, we are not encouraged to fit our beliefs into an already established religious doctrine; we are encouraged to follow the example and teachings of Jesus beyond established religious doctrine.
When we meet Jesus in our scriptures today, he is leading his community beyond the established religious doctrine of his day not because it was inadequate or unclear, but because some of those in positions of authority within the temple were choosing allegiance to the occupying Roman forces and were therefore complicit in the oppression of the Jewish people. Jesus was seeking to correct the course, just like the long line of Jewish prophets that came before him. Many of those prophets were also put to death for speaking truth to power. Jesus was not the first; he was just the first for whom the attempt to silence and to disappear immediately and thoroughly failed.
Jesus was not seeking to start a new religion; Jesus was seeking to lead his community as a humble servant, as a healer, as an example of what life under the reign of God would look like.
Life under the reign of God would look very different from life under the reign of the Roman Emperor. Life under the reign of God would not have crippling taxes; life under the reign of God would not have the structure of empire where some would prosper at the expense of many. Jesus was committed to bringing about the reign of God, where people would be free from oppression because he knew, as we are apparently still struggling to learn, that freedom and peace are interdependent. Without freedom there can be no peace; without peace there can be no freedom.
Jesus came into Jerusalem to offer himself as a humble servant, committed to peace and freedom for his community. Jesus came into Jerusalem to offer a different power structure, power with instead of power over. Jesus came into Jerusalem as a different kind of king, one like the prophet Zechariah imagined. Listen to these words from the prophet Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem was in large part political theater; it was a display of opposites, a juxtaposition between servant leadership and the authoritarianism of empire. So let’s be clear, Friends, as we move into Holy Week, that our teacher was put to death in a gross display of what happens when power and influence is used to oppress, to restrict, to deny and to deprive.
In closing, on this Palm Sunday, and as we turn toward Easter, I invite us to be aware of the points of intersection and how those points may be moving in our own lives, in our family systems, in our community, in our nation and in the world at large. Where is the point where our knowledge and our religion intersect at the moment? More importantly, how can the intersection of our knowledge and our religion guide us as individuals, and as humankind, towards a reality where power and influence is used for the betterment of all, to liberate, to empower, to enlighten. This is what Jesus gave his life for…a better future for us all. So be it. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer
God of Grace, we pray for Your healing light to shine on us this morning. May our bodies and our minds and the depths of our souls be illuminated by Your brilliance. With You working in and through us, we are limitless; help us to love with a divine love that leaves no room for fear. Help us to access knowledge beyond our knowing, so that as we follow Christ we carry His wisdom within us. May we be the peace that overgrows violence. May we be the caring that overgrows apathy. May we be the welcome that overgrows isolation. God, we pray your healing light upon our world and upon every brother and sister in the family of humanity. In sensing our worth as recipients of Your love, may we become more able to love one another. This we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
Benediction
I leave you with the following words from Ephesians 3: 17-19:
(May) Christ dwell in your hearts so that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The Poet Thinks about the Donkey
On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.
How horses, turned out into the meadow,
leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
clatter away, splashed with sunlight.
But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.
Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.
I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.
-Mary Oliver