Congregants at Fenimore Street United Methodist Church (FSUMC) in Brooklyn were fully immersed in celebrating Palm Sunday on April 13, 2025, singing, waving, and marching with palms during the two-plus-hour-long Worship Service.
As expected, prayers were offered, Scriptures read and a sermon delivered during the celebration of Palm Sunday, also referred to as Passion Sunday.

“We know that the palms represent the victory won for us at the cross at Calvary, but Luke’s narrative adds an element designed for every disciple of Jesus Christ to live by,” preached the church’s pastor, the Rev. Roger Jackson, in his sermon based on Luke 19: 28-40. “When we are obedient to the word of the Lord, we are supporting and promoting the cause of Christ.

“While we are not privileged to know the names of the men whom God used in the text, what we do know is that the whole crowd of disciples began shouting with loud voices: ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’” he added.

Pastor Jackson said the palms on Sunday were “signs, markers, if you will, of our faith for all to see that, when we are obedient to the word of God, a synergistic flow of the favor of God propels His plan forward, where the reign and rule of the Lord becomes a lived reality for all.

“The palms and this day are declarations to the world that we support and promote the cause of Christ because of the miraculous things that we have witnessed in both the lives of others and our own,” he said. “For it is nothing short of a miracle that some of us have lost loved ones, and yet, we are still able to declare that God is good!

“It’s nothing short of a miracle to have the good sense to know that God is still good, even when bad things have and are happening in the lives of members of our families and loved ones,” Rev. Jackson added. “It’s nothing short of a miracle to witness and, for some of us, to have experienced God’s power to restore us to good health.

“We have plenty of good reasons to celebrate with the lifting and waving of the palm, but we have no better reason than being among the crowd of post-resurrected disciples of Jesus Christ who are living in obedience to the word of God, for Jesus has declared and decreed ‘that heaven and earth may pass away, but my words shall remain forever,’” he continued.

“People of God, we have to prepare for the unexpected movement of God because we are not going to always know what God is up to,” Pastor Jackson said. “May these palms remind us all to expect the unexpected movement of God so that we live our lives as a prepared community of faith looking to be transformed by a God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways.”

During the Worship Service, the Combined Choir sang “Ride on King Jesus,” Sis. Patricia Senhouse rendered “The Holy City,” and the Sunday School children and young adults marched and waved palm branches to Kirk Franklin’s “Hosanna,” with the congregation joining in.