Palm Sunday

WELCOME

CALL TO WORSHIP

We look for an all-powerful king,

but Jesus confidently comes among us

as an ordinary commoner.

How extraordinary!

Are we still looking for God in the wrong places?

HYMN

StF 1: All people that on earth do dwell.

PRAYERS

Living God, we bring you our ‘hosannas’ –

for you are an almighty God.

We bring you our ‘alleluias’ –

for you are a wonderful God.

We bring you our dreams –

for you are a faithful God.

We bring you our discipleship –

for you are an encouraging God.

We bring you our hearts –

for you are a loving God

in whom we can trust. Amen.

A PRAYER OF CONFESSION

We are sorry, Lord Jesus, for the moments

when our hosannas are loud but lacking in love,

when we chase the lure of worldly power,

but miss the signs of heavenly glory

when we choose popularity over integrity,

when we would silence those who speak the truth

and are silent when we could speak out.

Forgive us, and inspire our steps as we follow you to the Cross…

and beyond. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF FOGIVENESS

God of all that is,

your power is both mighty and vulnerable,

and you both judge and forgive.

Your son is both King and servant,

and he both teaches and serves.

You hear our words, and you understand our silence

and you both accept and inspire.

Loving God,

thank you for this day,

for this journey,

and for your son who draws us closer to you. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

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,

the power, and the glory

for ever and ever.

Amen.

HYMN

StF 262: All glory, Laud and honour

READINGS

Psalm 118:1-2,19-29

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

2 Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.”

19 Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. 20 This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. 21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.

22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 23 the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes. 24 The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.

25 Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you.[b] 27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up[c] to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you.

29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Luke 19: 28-40

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”[a]

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40 “I tell you, “He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Luke 22: 47-53

Jesus Arrested

47 While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, 48 but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

49 When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” 50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

51 But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? 53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

HYMN

StF 265: Ride on, ride on in majesty

SERMON

I read a story about a plainly dressed man who went into a church in the Netherlands one Sunday and took a seat near the pulpit. Soon, a woman came along and curtly told the man that he was seated in her seat. She then asked him to leave the seat. The man apologized and apparently moved away to a pew reserved for the poor, from where he took part in the service.

When the service ended, a friend of the woman came over and asked her if she knew whom she had ordered out of her seat. The woman replied casually that she didn’t know who it was. To her great dismay, she was informed, “It was King Oscar of Sweden!”

In the same, many people turn what could be a life-changing moment into a negative situation because of bad choices the woman in the story could have spent the morning sitting with a king. That was the situation in Jerusalem and in our country our towns today. When we have the opportunity to meet our God but miss out by failure to recognise his call.

Have you ever been to a football match? I must admit I am not a football fan, but I have heard Liverpool singing “you’ll never walk alone”

There is chanting and singing, people waving scarfs, I don’t think there are many who use rattles these days!

Or you may attend a festival or a procession with floats and bands playing children dancing.

The crowd gathers around cheering the display and we can feel drawn into it or as our reading says we may well feel “stirred up”

That’s what we heard about today, in reading Psalm 118, with the people waving palm branches and singing.

Psalm 118 was a triumphant psalm that people sang as they approached Jerusalem for the Passover festival, it became a psalm for pilgrims because of its references to the city gates, but it was written originally to celebrate military victories. The festal ‘procession with branches’ (v.27) was to honour the returning armies; the one ‘who comes in the name of the Lord’ (v.26) was the king or general who led them.

Under Roman occupation, the crowds had no victories to celebrate. But they sang the psalm anyway, partly to celebrate the ‘steadfast love’ of God, and partly to express their longing for the Messiah – a new David to restore the nation’s fortunes a saviour. In fact, In the other Gosples it tells us the crowds shouted “Hosanna” which translates to SAVE US.

And from this Psalm v.22 ‘The…stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’ became a key text in the Early Church – one reason being that it pointed to the resurrection: ‘I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord’

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In our New Testament we need to ask what’s going on amongst the people? This is a major festival people had travelled far and wide to attend and now something has attracted their attention.

Someone is coming through the crowd riding on a donkey, surrounded by a mass of followers shouting and cheering.

But what has led to this?

Let’s roll back a little and move into Mark’s gospel chapter 8. Jesus is with his disciples in the village of Caesarea Philippi, now they walked up to an area where people gathered to worship various Gods, some even worshiped Caesar!

Jesus asks them who do the people say I am, they answered “Some say John the Baptist some say Elijah and others one of the prophets”

Then he asks directly, who do you say I am?

Peter answered “You are the Christ”

They had followed Jesus for three years, and it now dawns on them, a light bulb moment.

This is the messiah the promised one!

The fulfilment of the scriptures, the one who would take back God’s city for his people.

All the expectation, the things to come, he would take up his seat of power, and they would be there with him.

But not long after he told them plainly what was going to happen, it was not going to be what they expected.

In fact, he tells them three times. Did they understand? It seems obvious to us what Jesus was says.

But if you or I were there, what would we do? How would we react?

How often are we told something but only hear what we want to hear?

Trust me though if Jesus tells you something three time you should listen to what he has to say.

The first time we find in Mark 8:31 when Jesus tells them he must suffer many things!

What does Peter do, here was Jesus’s right hand man, he felt he was destined to rule alongside his master. so, he began to rebuke Jesus.

Jesus says to him “Get behind me Satan” because he knows what must be done.

It’s interesting that it is Peter who recognises or verbalises the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, is now rebuked for going against God’s plan.

In Mark 9:30 A second time Jesus predicts his death and resurrection. But they still didn’t get it.

And again, in Mark 10:32 Jesus again predicts his death.

What happens.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee ran up to Jesus and askes, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you”

Jesus says “what do you want me to do for you”

“Grant us to sit one on your right hand, and one on the left” when you come to your glory.

They still believe that when Jesus gets to Jerusalem the people will rise up, and that the Romans would be thrown out and Jesus would take the crown.

Again, they hear what they want to hear, as for us do we sometimes try to manipulate our faith to our own end no matter how pious our request.

We need to ask the question Is the God you believe in, there to serve us, or are we here to serve him?

So, we come to this morning’s Gospel reading, we start on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

When you were young were you ever an apprentice, if not you may never have experienced the challenges of?

Sent for a left-handed screwdriver

To fetch a tin of tartan paint

Or go and bring the long stand

You may well have fallen for one or more of these, but what if you were told to go and find a donkey, and fetch it?

That’s what Jesus tells two of his disciples to do. Go to such a place you will find a donkey and colt and take them.

Does Jesus sometimes ask us to do some things that seem silly or pointless to us. But there is always a reason.

Blind obedience is not very popular, but Jesu’s followers obey even though it may seem a strange request. Just imagine what was going through the disciple’s minds, put yourself in their place as they sent off to collect a donkey?

We can only imagine their conversation.

“Did Jesus give you any money to pay for this Donkey?” “No did he give you any?”.

Hmm no money just a message “tell the owner the Lord needs it”

What does it mean to be obedient to God? Can you think of examples in your own life, or in that of others, of times when you have felt God wanting you to do or say something that feels uncomfortable? Are there times in our daily lives when we know that God would want us to follow a pathway, but it feels to challenging? The passages here shows that Jesus knew in advance what would happen. We too can be reassured that God will give us the words and the strength to obey.

Luke’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is laced with irony. It is not the victorious king entering the city, that was expected by his followers, this is not the Messiah who will throw the Romans out.

This is a man on a donkey, who has come to die. To make the point, Luke leaves out the palm branches unlike the other Gospel writers, he doesn’t show the crowds acclaiming Jesus in the words of Psalm 118

In Luke, it is only Jesus’ disciples who make that connection. This links in with the prophecy in Zechariah 9.9, ‘Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey.’

Yet this is a king and a kingdom that shatter expectations. Again, we are in the upside-down world where the powerful are brought down from their thrones and the lowlay are exalted (Luke 1.52).

Luke adds a footnote to the story, in which the Pharisees ask Jesus to restrain his disciples. Presumably they feared that the Romans would see this as a revolution. Jesus dismisses their objections. Even if the disciples fell silent, ‘the stones would shout out’ (v.40). The image comes from Habakkuk 2.11 where the walls of Jerusalem poetically cry out against the injustices and corruption of the city, none of which have been challenged by the leaders of the day. This is the Pharisees’ final appearance in the Gospel. Inside the city, the Temple authorities have the final say on matters of faith, and from this point in the story they become Jesus’ main adversaries.

This is the beginning of the end or more like the end of the beginning as in a few days Christ would face crucifixion.

I heard that there is a Church or sect, who says sin is not that important it’s not a problem, the reason they give is they that God’s grace far exceeds our sins.

Which is true, God’s grace is boundless, but that is not the point.

If this was the case, there would be no need for Christ to suffer the pain and agony on the cross.

I have one more, short video to show this morning. I know this day is a celebration a joyful occasion, but it is in the shadow of what is to come.

So, as we leave this morning we think of today’s reading, the palm leaves are a reminder of the celebration of the Passover and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, but also a reminder of what lay ahead for our Lord. His ultimate sacrifice that he bore for each one of us.

So, we need to give thanks for all that God has done for us and ask God for forgiveness for our sins.

But also ask God what we can do for him.

Even if he asks something that may seem uncomfortable and on the face of it silly.

Amen

HYMN

StF 277: My song is love unknown miss 5&6

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

Lord Jesus,

you journeyed to Jerusalem many times,

as a child and as a man,

touching many lives along the way as you taught and healed and challenged.

Thank you for inviting us to journey with you today,

for showing us the depth of your courage and the power of your love.

Thank you, Lord,

for being our King and Saviour – and our friend.

You are worthy of all our praise. Amen.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION

For all those who, tonight, will go to bed hungry.

for those who rely on food banks.

for those whose harvest has failed.

for those whose family members are too ill to work

– gracious God, mercifully hear us.

For all the places in the world where there is war,

where people must leave their homes because of violence.

for families and friends separated by the trauma of conflict and migration,

that they may soon be reunited

– gracious God, mercifully hear us.

For all the different communities within the Church throughout the world.

that they may have vision to serve in imaginative ways

offering compassion and hope to those to whom they relate

– gracious God, mercifully hear us.

For us; for those we love easily and those who challenge us;

that we may be strengthened and supported

– gracious God, mercifully hear us.

Amen.

HYMN

StF 317: At the name of Jesus

BLESSING

May God grant you

exuberance of the Palm Sunday crowd,

and the humility of Jesus riding a donkey.

the energy and excitement of the crowd,

and the calm holiness of Jesus.

the expectation of the crowd,

and the understanding heart of Jesus

who journeyed to Jerusalem for love of us all?

Amen.

END