Hosanna, a Protest Song

Hosanna is a Protest Song
Sung
in the words
Of the meek

it starts from the back door
with a murmur
a request
for a healing for a friend
an opening in a roof
a touch on a cloak
a plea for an (unnamed) daughter at home

Hosanna is a Protest Song
it bends the norms of society
blurring the lines between
Samaritan and Jewish
Sadducees and Pharisees
Male and female
Salve and Free

Hosanna is a Protest song
Reshaping the very bounds of our understanding
allowing children to come in freely
valuing the widow like the rich man
seeing no difference between the younger and the elder
calling the eunuch to God

Hosanna is a Protest Song
Forgiving Peter before he even denies Jesus
Reminding of Thomas bravery more than his doubt
Telling the story of the Resurrection straight from the women’s lips
Reminding us all that if we want to see Jesus
He is already here, among the poor, the imprisoned and the hungry, Go and serve and you will surely see Christ

Hosanna is a Protest Song
That the world should not be like this
We know it, and we are not going to try violence to bring Jesus back
Because our God is the disarmed God, the one who hung their bow permanently in the sky, to remind us that they are the God of Peace
And when we didn’t Get the message
Sent Jesus to walk the walk of peace even unto the cross again

Hosanna is a protest song
It says
Save us
Saving us
Salvation is worth it
Kin(g)dom is an active verb
It is embodying the prayer
Thy Kin(g)dom Come, Thy Will be Done

Reminding us that Our God wants to save
most likely, probably everyone
And hard as that truth is
That God doesn’t need us to protest for Christianity
Instead, we protest,
To save EVERYBODY
And we need our actions
to fit those words

Because God Loves every stinking one of us

Hosanna
Save us
Indeed

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”

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Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. She now works at Capital CFO plus as the Non Profit Director. All opinions expressed on this blog are her own and do not reflect those of Capital CFO plus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.

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