hosanna?

A couple Fridays ago, as part of a board meeting for The Mosaic Center (click on the link on the right to find out more about TMC), I slept overnight at the Fred Jordan Mission in Los Angeles’ “skid row” (if you want a cushy board member gig, don’t join a board that’s concerned with social justice). I was awakened by a recording of the worship song “Hosanna” being played outside on the street. I looked outside and saw a line of people a block long waiting in the rain for breakfast.

Listening to “Hosanna” in a comfortable sanctuary as it’s played by a high-tech worship band is worlds away from hearing it in a line of homeless people waiting for food in the rain. The word “Hosanna” means “save us”. It was the people’s cry of reliance on their king. Over the millenia it's come to be associated mostly with hymns being sung by people in suits and dresses or anthems sung by choirs in beautiful cathedrals. But it takes on a whole different meaning when you’ve been run over by the world system instead of enjoying the benefits of being one of the world’s privileged.

Our God has chosen to identify with the poor rather than the privileged. What did Jesus experience when he was on earth? He was part of an oppressed minority and spent his ministry years as a homeless person. But in the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed (and of which his followers are ambassadors) there is no favoritism. No one will be excluded, marginalized, ignored, or taken advantage of. Hosanna.