HOSANNA?
Richard B Gillion
2000

ONE	It’s a shame and a sin.  It wasn’t like this in my young days.

TWO	Nor mine neither.  You knew where you were then.

ONE	That’s right.  Kings rode on horses and lived in palaces, and pilgrims came to the feast to see the temple.

TWO	Now this lot arrive from up north and turn everything upside down.

ONE	The call their friend a king and sit him on a donkey, on their cloaks, and start hailing him.

TWO	Not to mention the crowd, who cut branches from the trees and start waving them and paving his way with them.

ONE	And shouting Hosanna as if he were God.

TWO	 “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

ONE	“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

TWO	“Hosanna in the highest.”

ONE	Stirring all the city.

TWO	Getting all the children shouting praises.

ONE	It’s not dignified.

TWO	It’s not what we were brought up to do.

ONE	No, we never shouted praises or danced around waving our arms in the air, not to mention the branches.

TWO	No, we stood still and prayed.

ONE	Or sat still and heard the scriptures read in reverent tones.

TWO	“Clap your hands all you nations, shout to God with cries of joy.”

ONE	“Come let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.”

TWO	“Praise him with tambourines and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute.”

ONE	What we need is more scripture reading.

TWO	Then people would know how to behave.