Sunday Stretch: Palm Sunday 2026

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

A note from me: this year is one of those scheduling quirks that can make life difficult for people like me who are pastors/church leaders and parents of school-age kids. Our kids’ Spring Break falls over Holy Week this year. I’m incredibly blessed to serve in a congregational call where I have pastoral colleagues who are taking the lead on most of our services this week, which enables our family to get away to the mountains for a few days. Given that, I’m going to share with you again here my post from Palm Sunday, 2023. I find the words still be quite resonant for me this year.

And also - as we remember Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem, riding not a chariot but a colt (or maybe a donkey) - and traversing on top of peoples’ humble cloaks they lay down in front of him - together we say: NO KINGS!

Except the one who wore a crown of thorns and came to bring justice for the poor, and liberation to the captives.

From 2023 (another year when Spring Break coincided with Holy Week): True confession here. I consider myself a fairly easygoing person most of the time, especially when it comes to things like the liturgical calendar. I’m not necessarily picky about which candles to light on which days, which color to use on optional weeks, or specifically which Bible passages to preach on each Sunday.

I am not so easy going when it comes to the final Sunday before Easter.

I’ll just lay out my cards here: I’m a fan of Palm Sunday; not so much a fan of Passion Sunday.

Holy Week is a journey, my friends - a fact not entirely negated by the frustrating truth that my children’s school district Spring Break falls over Holy Week this year, meaning we will be traveling over Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday and I’m not sure I’ll make it to the services … but I will try!

I digress. Holy Week is a journey, the culmination of the journey of Lent. And if you think that journey is quite possibly a word that’s overused in the Church during this season of Lent - well, you too would also be correct.

Nonetheless, I think it’s an important point. Resurrection is impossible if death doesn’t come first. And I think so much of modern Christian culture in America is all about glory and resurrection and power (think Christian Nationalism and flashy Easter signs and even the church I read about who’s hiring jugglers and circus actors for their Easter Sunday children’s sermon) and not enough about the ways in which God works through pain, suffering, and the Cross — and about the truth that God dwells most deeply in solidarity with those who, like Jesus, are poor, oppressed, marginalized, and treated unjustly, even arrested, imprisoned, and killed for their truth-telling.

Aha! You might say. Why then do you prefer Palm Sunday to Passion Sunday? Passion Sunday is all about the Cross.

Well, OK, here’s where I get out the part of me that has always been a bit of traditionalist and a stickler for rote practice and procedure (I know, I surprise myself sometimes, too). Passion Sunday misses it. It feels like an unnecessary concession to a world that insists the Church (and Jesus himself) fits into boxes the world prescribes for us, without bleeding into uncomfortable parts of our lives where we think the Church or Jesus might not belong (like Thursday and Fridays). This is a Holy Week. Each part of it is critical, though admittedly I do typically skip the lengthy Easter Vigil. (Feel free to make your own choices about where you’re spiritually fed this Holy Week as well).

But still. There’s something about moving from the triumphant, yet humble, riding on a donkey (or maybe a colt) journey into Jerusalem - to the quietude and humility of the Last Supper bread, wine, and washing of feet - to the ignominy, injustice, and tyranny of the Cross and crowd on Good Friday - to the surprising delight of the resurrection on Easter morning.

After this drama-filled week, replete with betrayals and proclamations and rock-bottom grief, I’m so ready for Easter. I read about the disciples running toward the tomb after the witness of the women, and I feel like I want to run, too.

Jesus Christ is risen today! Alleluia!

I’m so ready.

But not yet. Not yet.

I wrote last week about the invitation God gives us each Lent, and I’m going to issue it again to you at the start of this Holy Week. You’re invited on the journey (there’s that word again). You’re invited to experience the story anew this year. Because Jesus always shows me something different, each and every single year.

There’s the Palm Sundays when my male pastoral colleagues indulged my children sermon idea to have my fellow Pastor pretend to be a donkey and have a young child ride on their back into the sanctuary.

There’s those memories from childhood, with dirty spring snow on the ground in Minnesota and the improbable palm branches in our hands, waving them frenetically, until parents whispered in the pew: “That’s enough!” And then you turn the palm fronds into swords and fight with your brother until it’s time to come up for Children’s Church.

There’s the Palm Sunday of 2020, during COVID, when one of my parishioners in rural Minnesota took it upon himself to actually ride his donkey, complete with First-Century Middle Eastern costume-approximation, with his wife videotaping and narrating, and the poor donkey doing its best impression of the grand entrance into Jerusalem.

I always preach against the theology of glory, for the ways it which it reinforces an idolatrous idea that we are meant to be God - and that God is only God insofar as God increases our own worldly power and esteem.

But each Palm Sunday, I sing anyway:

All glory laud and honor, to you redeemer king

To whom the lips of children made sweet Hosannas ring

You are the King of Israel and David’s royal son

now in the Lord’s name coming the King and Blessed One.

A recent movement has suggested we change references in the Church from Kingdom to Kin-dom, to move away from this Christian Nationalist and theology of glory sense that Jesus has come to create a monarchy of power for Christians here on earth, and to recognize that earthly kings have left nothing but bloodshed and suffering in their wake.

I generally agree with the sentiment of this movement.

Still here today, again, I sing these words. Maybe it’s the traditionalist in me. Or maybe it’s the hope of Holy Week, that God can transform even our basest instincts into something altogether different. That this Messiah, this (King) if you will, is going to change forever the hope and meaning of King of Israel. He comes to the holy city of Jerusalem on a lowly donkey. Those who cheer his coming are not generally the rich and powerful, or the religious leaders and government officials, but the ones who have to remove their cloaks to create a makeshift royal path, because they don’t just have spare cloth sitting around. On this morning, Jesus enters Jerusalem and begins to usher in an entirely new way of being human in the world.

The end is coming. Jesus knows its pain, and so do we, all too well. But the journey is just beginning. Happy Holy Week.

Love,

Angela

Palm Sunday by Evans Yegon

This special edition of the Sunday Stretch for Palm Sunday is offered to all subscribers free-of-charge. To receive the Sunday Stretch each week in your inbox, please prayerfully consider a paid subscription. Additionally, because this is a special edition, I won’t do our usual in-depth study of each of the Lectionary Bible passages. Instead, I’m going to share below - in entirety - the text for Palm Sunday. Then, I’ll include our prayer and prayer requests. Thank you (all!) for being a part of this community, whether you subscribe, or you read occasionally, or you got this newsletter from a friend. I’m grateful to be on this journey (there’s that word again! Lent is almost over) with you.

Palm Sunday Gospel

Matthew 21:1-10

Matt. 21:1    When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,  ² 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.  ³ If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.”  ⁴ This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

⁵ “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.”

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them;  ⁷ they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.  ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  ⁹ 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!”

¹⁰ When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?”  ¹¹ The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

PRAYER

Dear God,

I want to imagine that I would have been there - with the crowd - having heard you were coming and laying down my cloak to meet you, riding on a donkey. I want to think I would have shouted Hosanna! and known that you were the Messiah. But then I read verse 10 about the turmoil of the city, and about the many who still did not know who you were. There will always be many who are ready to stand up for your name and your justice, and also many who shy away from your existence, or claim you are not where you have told us you will always be: on the margins. This Palm Sunday, God, help me to lay down my cloak - and then await your presence. Help me to be unafraid to shout with joy and confidence when I know You are here.

In Jesus’ name we pray,

AMEN

An Invitation

A Community that prays for one another is transformed by the power of the Spirit. We’ve been praying for and with each other now for more than three years! About once a quarter, I will re-start this space for prayer requests and praises. Please email with your own requests and I will share here with your permission!

Welcome to Lent, a new season in the Church Year. For each new season of the Church Year, I go through and refresh our prayer requests. If you’d like to add your request to the list - please hit REPLY to this email. I can also keep requests private but pray for them, too.

1. For all churches and church leaders and volunteers working hard to prepare and lead Holy Week services in the midst of challenging times.

2. For the Iranian people, that their land and lives might be preserved, and that they might have respite from targets both external and internal.

3. For American and Israeli military members, that they might be able to exercise individual conscience, and evaluate the justice of orders they’re asked to carry out. And that their lives might be preserved and protected.

4. For all living at risk of war and bombing in the Middle East, from Palestine and Israel to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, Oman, Dubai, Iran - and many other countries in the wake of war - may God protect civilians and slow the murderous rage and bloodthirst of politicians, especially Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth and Bibi Netanyahu.

5. For all those who have family members and loved ones serving overseas, with the military or living overseas as civilians, may God provide comfort in the midst of fear and worry for all those in the path of missiles and bombs.

6. For those who have lost their lives already in the conflict with Iran, Israel and America, especially schoolgirls who lost their lives in Iran, after all that women and girls there have already faced in their struggle to get an education and maintain their human freedom.

7. For Iranian democratic protesters who are glad to see Khamenei gone, but who still face huge challenges in overturning the theocratic and fundamentalist regime there.

8. For the loved ones of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, tragically murdered by ICE agents in South Minneapolis this month. For their families who must listen to the tarnishing of Alex and Renee’s good names by powerful people. For all those who risk their lives to be legal observers and document and challenge the violent tactics of ICE. For all in South Minneapolis rocked by tragedy after tragedy, from George Floyd to Melissa Hortman to Justine Damond to Annunciation - and too many more deaths to name.

9. For immigrant communities in Minnesota, especially Hispanic and Somali communities, for their leaders, for all who risk arrest and violence from ICE. For faith leaders who step out in bravery to care for neighbors.

10. For Venezuelans as their country is in turmoil with Maduro in custody in the U.S.; for American military personnel in the midst of uncertainty. For national leaders who respect the rule of law and a check on vigilante justice and extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean.

11. For all those enduring war and suffering in Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia - and so many other places around the world - that world leaders might prioritize human lives, peace, and safety over profit and power.

12. For protesters for democracy and human rights in Iran, that they will be protected and their voices will be heard by their leaders and by the world.

13. For churches, volunteers, musicians, and church leaders who are creating additional services for the Lenten season: give them energy and support in their work, and may they be guided by the Holy Spirit.

14. For all those who have risked their lives to protest and resist the violent and unjust tactics of ICE. For local clergy leaders and activists. For neighbors who care for neighbors. For all those who continue to build networks of compassion and trust in resistance to violent authoritarian rule. For all immigrants and migrants who are unjustly detained and separated from their families.

15. For all those, especially parents of young children and caregivers for young children, who are weighed down by the pressures and stresses of anxiety and relentless financial pressure. Help us to find ways to care for one another as communities, in faith communities and beyond, and as neighbors.

16. For comedians, artists, musicians, and all those who dare to criticize those who hold worldly power. Help us to protect the truth-tellers, and not bow to threats against them.

17. We cry out with grief and lament for the loved ones of all who were victims of the school shooting at Annunciation in South Minneapolis at the end of August. We pray for healing and repair for all those who continue to heal and suffer from injuries experienced during the shooting. We pray for mental health resources and support for all who were impacted, and for government leaders to take action against the easy availability of deadly automatic weapons.

18. We pray for Minnesota legislators as they weigh a letter signed by more than 1,200 clergy members in the state, asking for a ban on assault weapons and a special session to address gun violence.

19. We pray for all who have been victims and impacted by gun violence across America, especially throughout the summer. May we continue to value each and every single human life, and work together to care for our communities.

20. For teachers, students, and all who are facing illness as Covid and other infectious diseases continue to spread at higher rates and affect the vulnerable. God bring healing and support for all those who work in healing professions. May our government leaders be humbled to listen to scientists and doctors, and prioritize health and life over profit and grift.

21. We pray especially for all those in Minnesota and beyond who mourn the deaths of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. We also pray for continued healing for Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, after they too were victims of an attempted assassination. We pray for all those who were listed as potential targets of this politically-motivated shooting, and for all those who find themselves continually at risk of violence for their political beliefs and leadership positions in government. May all government leaders prioritize caution, care, and truth in condemning all violence, including violent and hate-filled rhetoric against political opponents.

22. Thank you for the blessings and support I’ve received as I have launched my new book and traveled to speak again. Please continue to expand this community of listening, understanding, and inspiration - and may my words be received with open hearts and new questions and opportunities for growth.

23. We pray for immigrants, migrants, and all those who are undocumented. May they be given sanctuary and support in America. May our churches find ways to resist the politics of demonization of immigrants.

24. For American federal government employees: may they continue to do their work with dignity and honesty and without the threat of political retribution. Also for aid workers and organizations who have been threatened and who have lost their funding access: that they may be given pathways forward to continue their work.

25. For brave faith leaders who dare to speak out against powerful political leaders, including those who wrote a new courageous faith statement in Idaho.

26. May all those who are providing aid and food, and seeking assistance in Gaza be protected in the midst of violence around food distribution. For the protection of journalists in Gaza.

27. For all immigrants and migrants around the world, far from home, seeking a new and safe homeland. Might they be embraced where they go, offered assistance and solidarity and friendship.

28. Be with all American lawmakers in this time of political upheavals and corruption by business leaders and wealthy individuals. Give them courage to speak truth and govern with care for humanity and life.

29. For so many loved ones of mine who have recently been diagnosed with cancer and are undergoing treatment. May they have caring and high-quality care, rest as needed, and loving support of family and friends.

30. We also pray for all those who are caring for loved ones who are going through myriad health challenges, including mental health and addiction. Grant them rest and relief in the midst of difficult and tiring times.

31. For all those who don’t have a safe place to live or enough food to eat, that they might be first and receive what they need.

32. For all around the world who face persecution for their religious beliefs, especially for religious minorities in places where governments sanction religion-based violence

33. For Christians to be emboldened to speak out courageously against anti-semitism and to acknowledge how we have been complicit in anti-semitic actions and speech against our Jewish siblings

34. For governments and leaders to prioritize climate change solutions and not be only ruled by profit or big business

35. For journalists, who risk their lives and livelihood to write and report truth - even against the wishes of media ownership and administration

36. For all the concerns deep on our hearts, that you hear and know and acknowledge, we pray …

From Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday to Good Friday, dear God, we pray for our awareness of your presence, and for our patience as we await resurrection,

AMEN

This was a special FREE edition of the Sunday Stretch. This newsletter is typically available only to paid subscribers. But for this Lenten season especially, I wanted to make these Sunday meditations available to all.

Thank you to the paid subscribers who help make this work sustainable; I am so grateful for you!

Angela

P.S. …

A Few Notes:

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