Week 6 The Cross of Christ

Pastoral Welcome

Call to Worship

We come to prepare for the holiest of weeks.

We will journey through praise, with joy on our lips;

we will travel through betrayal and death,

cradling hope deep in our hearts.

Jesus leads us through this week, and we will follow,

for he is the life we long for,

he is the Word who sustains us.

We wave palm branches in anticipation,

we lay our love before him, to cushion his walk.

Setting aside all power, glory, and might, he comes:

modeling humility and obedience for all of us.

Hosanna! Hosanna!

Blessed is the One who brings us the kingdom of God.

Pastoral Prayer

God of the cross, tottering down the streets of Jerusalem on a donkey,

You are not the savior we expect.

Your power doesn’t look like the power we want our God to have.

Your wisdom makes no sense to us.

In our lives this week,

we turned away from your triumphal entry.

The words in our heads and on our lips have been,

“Can’t” “Won’t” “Never” “Impossible”.

Believing our problems are too deep for you,

we have underestimated your power

and stewed in our own misery.

We repent of this hardheartedness.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Too often we pray only for ourselves and our own needs.

In spite of ourselves,

you walk a road straight to the heart of us.

You heal us, help us, hold us.

Help us to be thankful for your presence in our lives.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

You place people in our road

who are in desperate need of your good news,

and we have walked by on the other side.

Help us to be your hands and feet in this world.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

God of grace, we long to be dear disciples,

washing each other’s feet.

We long to be faithful companions,

awake in the darkest hour.

We long to follow in your footsteps,

even if they lead to crosses on a barren hillside.

These are the desires of our hearts.

We raise them to you in this moment of silent worship.....

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Inspire our hearts, O God,

to follow where Christ walked,

for Christ has marked us as his own.

Let us all take new willingness

to carry our cross

and be led through sacrifice and suffering,

but also to the glory and triumph

of the Risen Life of the Savior.

Grant that we might walk in your grace,

We need you to go with us on this journey.

Grant us clear vision,

Courageous hearts,

Persistent steps.

Even though we know what this week will bring, we sing:

Hosanna, hosanna.

And as we pray the prayer that you taught us saying:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.

Celebration

Malawi

Offertory

Sermon

Me

We

God

John 12:12–16 NRSV

12 The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: 15 “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” 16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

Palm Sunday

Time of celebration, and of lament

Christ lamented over the city

It is an in between time, the crowd is celebrating that Jesus is the king

immediately after they celebrate Jesus laments over the city of Jerusalem.

He sees the sin that is in the city

So palm Sunday we remember the joy that the believers had, but we also remember that we are under the power and the authority of Sin

Seeing Palm Sunday in the shadow of the cross

We see the cross and we see Palm Sunday and they feel like completely different story lines

The very people that were shouting “Hosana” were the same that would soon be shouting “crucify him”

It is in the now and the not yet

Palm Sunday Christ is in the middle of the action

He stands aware of the pain of the world

but victory is not quite yet

In a way he stands in awe of the past and the future has not yet arrived

Christ stands in a place that is familiar to us

When we have the happier holidays in the church Easter, Palm Sunday, we can often forget the shadow side that accompanied them

We see the sin of the world in the very same way that Jesus did

In the now and the not yet

Lead into the second scripture

Romans 5:12–21 NRSV

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— 13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Cross shows victory over the sins of all of humanity

Adam was not an individual he was a representative of humankind

It wasn’t that adam gave us the capacity to sin it was that through sin actually all of humanity sinned

Christ is a representative of all of humanity

Sports fans will walk around they will say “we won the game this weekend” but in fact I didn’t do anything.

I will say the phrase “my team won” but I didn’t do anything.

Christ is not representative of our salvation, Christ is our salvation

It has already been done

Perhaps that was why on the cross Jesus said “It is finished”

He died to save us from a mortal disease that effects everything in society

P. John - The work of the cross is small when it is just about me

God moves us towards Resurrection when all we can see is death

We are in the now and not yet

We will have to give the story of the in-between

Even though Christ has victory it might not feel like that to us all of the time

Grief

anger

Sin struggles

systematic problems

Our identity is in process

We do however have a hope for the trajectory that we are moving

We have hope because we know how the story turns out

When you read or watch something the first time and you don’t know if the main character makes it out alive and it is tense

Whereas when you have seen it several times before the specific type of anxiety is a little more mellow

It shows the depth of God’s love for us

You

You should know that God is with you in the middle of your pain

Us

Christ’s victory gives us our identity

It is a communal identity that we have

It is Christ’s victory not just over my sin but over our sin

It is for all time and for all people

We can have hope because we know Christ has won

Through the messiah God has not just restored his people back to their former glory God has done far, far more

Benediction