It was Palm Sunday at St James, the clocks had gone forward an hour but the church was quite full, the palm crosses were ready to be distributed to the congregation, and Ivan, Reader in training on placement with us from Holy Trinity Rotherhithe, was all set to deliver his Palm Sunday sermon, and then to round everything off nicely we ended with a spot of
proleptic singing.
What?
Two definitions from the online dictionary give a clue: (1) the representation of something in the future as if it already existed; (2) the use of a descriptive word in anticipation of it becoming applicable.
Our proleptic song was 'The Greatest Day in History.' We shall sing it next Sunday, too ('The greatest day in history, death is beaten, you have rescued me. Sing it out: Jesus is alive. Life eternal, you have won the day') but we ended on it for Palm Sunday (a) because every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection and Jesus is already risen and (b) because even as we travel through Holy Week, reliving the events of betrayal, mocking and death, we know that Jesus will live again
because God has said so.
Even in the depths of Holy Week we can sing the song proleptically
'in anticipation of it becoming applicable.'
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