On that first Palm Sunday huge crowds welcomed Jesus with great rejoicing. The people were overcome with joy and they shouted their praises as loud as they could; throwing their clothes in front of the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem and tearing palm branches from the trees to wave in jubilation.
Meanwhile, in the background there is back-biting and bitterness as things are not going according to how others would wish. Whispered conversations and plans are made to forestall this threat to positions of power and influence. Secret meetings are made to discuss Christ behind his back, and plots are hatched to hijack his agenda and impose their own….. thus it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be….
Unfortunately Christians are not immune to this problem and can easily succumb to the spirit of negativity unless they are vigilant. Something wonderful happens in parish life and then the negative person tries to raise a problem or cause a distraction to the general rejoicing. Even when such a person expresses gratitude you know that there is always a “but” coming. The spirit of negativity is, of course, the devil’s plaything as it prevents us from doing what we should be doing as we are always dealing with the problems caused by this spirit of negativity. So engaging in worship, mission and pastoral care is interfered with, as is any planning for the needs of future generations for the spirit of negativity is solely concerned with its own wants and desires. So any new endeavour or initiative is deemed not acceptable and any old reason is dragged up as an objection to its implementation. The spirit of negativity is totally self-absorbed, but often wears a mask of concern for charitable giving when it wants to stop money being spent locally on an endeavour it disagrees with. This carping spirit will cheerfully malign the reputation of others for its own ends too, it will make scurrilous suggestions and most of all loves to spread its tentacles of negativity in the hope that it can draw others into its web of deceit. When others have more sense than to fall for its blandishments this spirit stays where it is, self-righteously thinking it has a duty to prevent others from not realising that there is much to be negative about. Eventually it gets to the stage where it sees itself as the voice of conscience and mistakes people’s silence as agreement with it. Its end is much worse than its beginning as it runs the risk of declaring that which is good to be bad - which is the sin against the Holy Spirit.
In reality the spirit of negativity is the work of the devil. He will woo you to believe him, question your positives, deny their validity, lead you to follow him, and try to make you his slave. But Christ died and rose again in this Holy Week to set us free and give us a new vision, a new heart and, of course give us the Holy Spirit who is the very opposite of negativity as he leads us out of the darkness of ignorance and unbelief into the light of Christ where the world of the past is gone and God is making everything new.
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