St Philip & St James Church

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Palm Sunday 2019: Manchester and Jerusalem

Some of them got up very early that morning. They wanted to be there when he arrived.  So they got up early in the morning and walked into the big city from all the little towns and villages round about.

Some had brought banners with slogans about the hopes and dreams they had pinned on this man and everything he represented.  One banner said ‘Unity & Strength’.  Another banner said ‘Liberty and Fraternity’.

They gathered in the city alongside many people who lived there who had come onto the streets and how they cheered when the man they had come to see came in.  They looked forward to what he had to say even though most of them knew what he was going to say already.  ‘One man one vote.’  ‘Secret ballots’ ‘Annual elections to parliament.’ ‘The voice of the poor must be heard’.

But before he could speak, pandemonium broke out.  First constables forced their way roughly through the crowd to arrest the man who had come to speak.  Then men on horseback rode through the crowd slashing with their swords.  People began to scream with fear.  They ran and crushed each other.

Fifteen people died and hundreds were wounded.  The youngest to be killed was a two year old boy.  One man who was killed was an ex-soldier who had survived the battle of Waterloo.  You were more likely to be injured if you were a woman in the crowd.

I’ve been talking, of course, about the Peterloo Massacre that took place in Manchester almost 200 years ago. 

What is the similar and what is different about the story of the Peterloo Massacre and Palm Sunday?  They are both stories about a big gathering in a city.  They are both stories about the hopes and dreams people had all being focussed on one thing.  Both were a massive coming together of our hopes and dreams. 

The people who gathered in Manchester hoped that if we could all elect a parliament at least we would be listened to.  The people who gathered in Jerusalem had seen Jesus heal the sick and tell about how there was room for everybody in the Kingdom of God.

And the people in Peterloo story in Manchester knew the story of Palm Sunday.  They held the meeting on a Monday because Sunday, their only day off, was for going to church.  The people who gathered in Manchester knew about Palm Sunday and they knew about Easter.  They believed that their peaceful protest would be heard.  They believed that they would overcome the powers that opposed them.  They believed that their hopes and dreams would come true.

But their hopes and dreams didn’t come true.  At least not for them.  Instead soldiers were sent in to cut them down and trample them.  And with them their hopes and dreams were cut down and trampled on.

But actually, their hopes and dreams have been fulfilled at least in part for those generations who came after them.  It took over one hundred years but we do now have a system where every adult person in this country has a vote and has a small way at least of making themselves heard.  And although we sometimes wonder if that has really made much of a difference, things are a lot different to how they were two hundred years ago.  I think the people who gathered in Manchester on that day would be well pleased with what we have achieved.

So maybe, their suffering was not in vain.  Who suffered on Palm Sunday?  Well, nobody seems to have suffered on that day.  But we know what happened later that week.  The powers that be had to do something about the man who rode into the city on a donkey.  They sent the soldiers in.  And one man suffered and died.  One man suffered and died for all the people. And it seemed that all the hopes and dreams of the people died with him.  That’s how it felt on the first Good Friday. 

But then came Easter and Jesus rose from the dead.  And then came Ascension and Jesus ascended into heaven.  And then came Pentecost and the people were filled with the Holy Spirit.  And the Holy Spirit has been working in the lives of the people ever since.  The Holy Spirit has building the kingdom of God through them.  The Holy Spirit has been making their hopes and their dreams come true.

 

 

You can go and see the film about Peterloo.  If you watch the film, you will feel that you are on the side of the people who went to the meeting in the city.  You will feel that you are on the side of the people who suffered.  You might ask the question, if you had been alive at that time, would you have gone to the meeting?  Would you have taken a banner with you?  Would you have been one of the people who was killed or wounded or put in prison?

And what would you have done if you had been alive in Jerusalem when Jesus rode in on a donkey?  Would you have been one of the people who came out to cheer and wave a palm branch?  Or would you have stayed at home?  Or would you have been one of the people who shouted ‘crucify him!’ when Pontius Pilate couldn’t decide what to do with Jesus.

The fact is that we are not the people who lived in Manchester and the towns round about 200 years ago.  And we are not the people who lived in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.  We are the people who live in Alderley Edge and the places round about and we are living here today.

We live in a country that has a democratic system which gives every voice a chance to be heard.  We live in a world that is filled with the Holy Spirit that is working through our lives, building the Kingdom of God.  Our hopes and dreams have come true, at least in part.  We know our hopes and dreams are precious to God.  We believe they will come true in his Kingdom.  We give thanks for that and commit today to open our hearts to that Holy Spirit because we know that the Kingdom is coming closer to us.  Amen.

Page last updated: Thursday 22nd August 2019 1:35 PM
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