WWWD

There were choices for the people of Jerusalem. Likely, there were two parades that Palm Sunday, religious historians tell us. Through the city’s West Gate passed the royal entourage, Pontius Pilate making his traditional, grand entrance for the beginning of Passover.

Armored soldiers on foot marched with mounted cavalry and carriages in a long, noisy procession rich with imperial pageantry that no doubt attracted a throng of waving and shouting citizens.

On the other side of town passed a smaller, far less imposing gathering of peasants preceding a young man riding a young donkey, almost a counter-demonstration of its time. People cut palm branches, waved them and put them on the path. And they shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Two processions: one popular and imperial with trumpets blaring; the other ragtag and anxious with songs of praise and anticipation. Imagine yourself in Jerusalem that day. Which procession would you have joined?

We recall a favorite aunt, whose choice for 92 years was to devote her life to others. There’s no question which procession she would have followed. Her choice was the essential fact of her life, a life dedicated to her family and to serving, the communities, especially women, where she lived – in Puerto Rico, Wisconsin and southern Ohio.

She embraced people wherever she and her husband, a doctor, lived, when they ventured to the then-remote town of Humacao in eastern Puerto Rico, or when they developed a health clinic in rural Wisconsin. During her last 16 years, she lived at a senior community in southern Ohio. Before she died, she was a caregiver there too. She continued her message of the importance of choices: “You can spend the day in bed complaining about the parts of your body that no longer work, or get out of bed and celebrate the ones that do.”

She was also a favorite of all of the wives of our family, each of whom had shared moments of counsel and inspiration with her in the quiet of her home, walking the streets, or studying a lesson of nature. She could easily have chosen a more popular path of comfort and success in the Ohio community where she was raised. Instead, she chose service. A choice between saluting imperial power and following her Master was easy. A choice between serving herself and serving others was no choice.

On this Palm Sunday and on all days, we are confronted with choices. Will we take the popular path? Or will we join the counter-demonstration. Self or service? What Will We Do?

— Jim & Haydee Toedtman

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist