Sunday worship 9 April: Palms and Passion

PALMS AND PASSION: 
journeying to Jerusalem and through Holy Week

As has become our practice, Palm Sunday is a time for remembering, in Scripture and through meditations, the events from the entry into Jerusalem, up to and including the death and burial of Jesus.
Below are the texts used this morning, and various meditations and prayers...

PREAMBLE/
With the sun high in the sky,
the smell of herbs and roast lamb from the Passover hang heavy in the shadowed alleyways of the city;
the sound of children crying mingles with the whispered questions
of the people meeting between doorways.
Down the escarpment in the Kedron valley
Jesus stands, watching, in the heat of the day.
This is the time,
this ...is the place where Jesus needs to make his decision
to trust love or turn his back and walk away.
And as the city ceases to hesitate, unaware of the decision being made,
Jesus turns to the donkey,
pauses for the length of a prayer,
and climbs on its back...
Let us go with Jesus, to Jerusalem.
*adapted from Spill the Beans

CALL TO WORSHIP/ ...

1st Hymn/ Hosanna, loud hosanna

PRAYERS OF ADORATION/ CONFESSION/
The King is coming.
Our God arrives, clothed in frail human flesh,
riding a humble donkey...
This is not the first time 
You have come to us, O God
The history of human affairs 
is the history of Your arrival among us,
As Creator,
Purpose-Giver,
Liberator,
Prophet's voice and
Priest's desire.

The story of each of our lives 
is the story of Your coming to us,
As Comforter,
Friend,
Example,
Challenger
Abundant-Life-Provider,
And so we praise You...

God, made flesh:
it is relatively easy for us to roster someone
to go and gather palm leaves
to spread in the church today.
And we can easily find music
and a few good words
to help us to remember
and re-enact Palm Sunday.
But what if You arrived
inviting us to really lay down
something important to us
to acknowledge Your arrival?
What if we knew the imminence
of the danger that accompanies You,
or sensed that the authorities
were watching us as we worship?
How then, Jesus, would we meet You today.
and what would we spread before You?
And how would we regard humility
from the One we hope will save the world?

Palm Sunday Jesus, help us to see
how and where You enter our world today,
and what You ask us to lay at your feet,
and how we may welcome You in.

Gathering for worship today,
we are like the crowd that lined the streets,
witnessing your entry into Jerusalem.
Some of us gather here, full of enthusiasm.
Some of us gather, 
wearied by what life has thrown at us.
Some of us have come out of curiosity.
Some of us out of habit.
Some of us gather with great expectation.
Some of us with no particular hopes.

It is here, O God, that you meet us and greet us and, if we will allow,
it is here that you surprise us with your love and your grace.

So open our heavy eyes, and tired minds,
steal into our closed hearts 
and surprise us today with joy.
Quell those unrealistic expectations,
but open us to the possibility of hope
and allow us to glimpse the goodness of your purpose for us.
Even when we cannot name it ourselves, you know what ails us.
We submit to your knowledge of us
and we open ourselves to the need for your forgiveness,
a forgiveness that comes freely and abundantly.
So with cleansed hearts and open minds,
we join in the cry 
Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest...

THE LORD'S PRAYER/ Our Father...Amen.

1st READING/ Luke 19:28-44 Entry into Jerusalem

REFLECTION/ Fool’s errand
It started with the search for a donkey:
a fools errand for the disciples.
It ended with a parade
a clown's procession for the common people.
For Jesus used that donkey
to laugh in the face of the authorities;
taunting them,
flexing his muscles of influence and popularity.
He really should have been keeping a low profile.
But, throwing caution to the wind,
he took himself into the city
and, enjoying, momentarily,
the protection of the crowd
he pushed his enemies over the edge.
And ...he knew it.
He looked around, saw it was late, and left.
Late on so many levels.
Late in the day.
Late in the journey.
Too late for him.
His boats were now burned
and the salvaged timber
already fashioned into a cross.
A simple request: ‘Find me a donkey,’
set in motion a whole series
of truths and dares,
of arrest and trial,
of betrayal,
...and denial.
His fate was sealed
and so was our redemption
as palms dissolved into passion.
A fool's errand indeed!
*adapted from Spill the Beans

2nd Hymn/ Ride on, ride on in majesty

2nd READING/ Luke 19:45-48; At the temple/
                            and 22:1-6 Judas agrees to betray Jesus

silver coins are scattered on communion table
REFLECTION/ Bystanders at the Temple
The evening sun hollows out the temple courts with long shadows.
Motes of dust float through the beams
of tired sunlight in rhythm
to the piling of temple coinage.
A rapid flap of wings from a caged dove
adds to the regular soundscape
of Solomon’s house:
shoes shuffle, voices hush, prayers are made, expensive sacrifices given:
the sound of the poor being milked
in the name of God who himself
despises such a vulture’s feast
by those who claim to serve him.
In the flow of sound comes another, unexpected: a single table upended,
coins scatter in a jangle of light
caught in the orange beams of sun,
a whip cracks from an angry young man
who means new business in the temple,
the crowd suddenly hush
cowering back among the shadows
making space for heaven’s entry;
traders shout, the whip cracks once more,
another table overturns, guards hesitate,
the man roars like a caged bear,
sweat being shaken from his long hair
as he turns his head towards them.
And, as suddenly as it happens... it stops.
The man of light is gone
and darkness falls deeper now,
...a single coin rolls and settles
and the rapid flap of wings
among cages now strewn and broken
echoes round the court,
as a dove frees itself
and takes to flight,
rising over the offering,
escaping into the evening sky. ...
*adapted from Spill the Beans

NARRATIVE/ Thursday...preamble/
With tables turned, and the day ended,
so the week unfolds...It is Thursday:
bread/ bottle of wine– placed on communion table
In an upper room,
the table is made ready for the feast.
He is eager, they are puzzled;
wine is poured and bread is blessed.
The One who is the Word
speaks into startled silence:
breaks bread, and says it’s his body, broken;
pours wine,
talks of the shedding of his blood.
This, a meal, not soon forgotten.
At the table, tempers fray:
ambition unmasked, they fight for power.
The beloved teacher watches as they squabble.
Three years
and yet they’ve missed his point entirely.
Quietly, he pours water into basin,
takes a towel,
and kneels before them:
gives them the place of honour
with his servant’s heart.
There is still a little time to learn.

bowl, towel, and a jug of water are placed on communion table
3rd READING/ John 13:1-17 Jesus washes the disciples’ feet

water is poured into the bowl, towel draped over
REFLECTION/ Washing
Jesus, my Lord.
What are you doing?
You must stop this now.
Now!
Look, everyone will see.
You can’t do this to me.
Not me.
You’re the guest of honour.
Not the servant.
You’ll get your prayer shawl dirty.
Look, it’s going to trail in the water.
Dirty water for washing feet.

Are you mad, Lord?
Please get up now before everyone notices.
It’s not your job to wash hot and dusty feet.
That’s the servants’ job, not yours.
Come on, get up.
Please Jesus, please get up.
I lean on your shoulder,
glance down, and see your own feet.
I don’t think I’ve ever noticed your feet before.
These are strong feet, I realise.
They bear witness to your active life, tramping and travelling over rough roads and hillsides.
Bare, calloused, raw,
...There is something so vulnerable
about the sole of a foot.
There is something so vulnerable about you kneeling here at my feet.
Why would you do such a thing?
What are you trying to teach me?
It’s so... menial, this job you’re doing.
I don’t like the feeling of being reliant on someone else.
Not at all.
I like to be in control, thank you very much.
Is this what you are trying to teach me?
Or is it something else?
Is it about hospitality, learning to serve?
Is this what I need to learn?
But I’m a man!
It’s not my job to serve, to offer hospitality.
That’s a job for the women, the servants.
Not a man’s job!
Is this what you want us to do?

Yet here you are…
Here you are doing exactly that.
You, my Lord and Master, my friend and brother,
kneeling right here.
Are we to serve too?
Are we to do this to others?
You know, I don’t know if I can…
But if you can, then I must.
As you wash my feet,
I wonder who else you will do this to.
Will you do it to everyone, each one of us?
Surely not just me, Lord.
Will you do it to Judas?
Will you?
Are we to reach out to everyone?
To wash the feet of all?
The homeless?
The addict?
The diseased?
The weak and the hungry?
Those different from us?
Those from a different country?
Those from a different faith?
Surely not... them?
And then I see your eyes,
reflected in the water of the bowl.
And our eyes meet.
...Lord, ....I’m trying.
I’m really trying to understand.
Give me time and I’ll get it.
I know I will.
Just let me get my head round this awesome thing you’re asking of me.
Of us.
None of us are ready, Lord.
But we’ll try.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, let us serve you as you have served us.
*adapted from a piece by Ruth Innes

3rd Hymn/ The Servant King

OFFERING 
AND PRAYER OF DEDICATION/
You had little of your own to give, Lord.  
What money you had was probably a loan.  
What food you ate was usually given.  
What bed you had was always offered.  
Even your grand arrival was on a borrowed donkey.  
You had little of your own to give, Lord, and so you gave yourself instead. 
Accept our gratitude, embodied in these gifts;  
borne out of our bruised faith  and your unblemished faithfulness,  
for it is the least we can offer.  Amen.

NARRATIVE/
The shadows have suddenly lengthened
and the time has come to leave behind
the bread half eaten
and the wine half drunk,
the taste of promise caught up in endings still sharp on our lips,
and to go deeper into the darkness
where heaven is handed over to the betrayer.
Indeed, as we have lingered here, the rush of the darkness has swept the light aside
and the night has already begun crush the light.
Let us go to the place where Jesus prays and the betrayer steals away the Prince of Peace...

4th READING/ Luke 22:39-53 Jesus prays, and his arrest

REFLECTION/ Gardens
As you kneel there in the garden
in the coldness of the night,
and you contemplate the terror
of the quenching of the light,
do you think back to that garden –
and I speak now like a child –
to that perfect heaven,
which was our home,
that Paradise undefiled,
and remember how you trembled
with your love for this poor earth,
as you emptied all yourself
into that lowly stable birth:
the first step of a journey
through this world of sin and power,
on the path of loving service
which has brought you to this hour?

Do you remember how you left behind
that glorious world of light,
as you kneel there in the garden,
in the coldness of the night?
As you fall in prayer upon the grass
of dark Gethsemane,
are you thinking of that story
of the serpent and the tree?
Just a story known from childhood,
now rewritten in your life –
through the agony of temptation
and the sweat of inner strife.
As you ask if God is willing
to remove the cup of pain,
does the memory of Eden
steel your heart to think again,
and to bow before your calling
as the Father’s loving Son,
and to say in calm acceptance:
“not my will, but yours, be done?”
*by Peter Dainty

5th READING/ Luke 22:54-65 Peter disowns Jesus, Jesus is mocked

4th Hymn/ This is the night

6th READING/ Luke 22:66-71; 23:1-25 The Trial

purple cloth is hung over horizontal beam of Cross
7th READING/ Luke 23:26-43 The Crucifixion
during which, we sing ‘Jesu, Tawa Pano’ in the English version:
Jesus, we are here, Jesus, we are here, Jesus, we are here, we are here for you...

REFLECTION/ The Things He Carried: The Amazing Love Of God
How could he bear all those things?
The weight of the cross.
The piercing mockery of the crown of thorns.
The burden of the sin of the world.
The dashing of the hopes of his followers.
The crushing rejection.
Each a weight more deadly than the last.
How could he carry all that and still cry:
‘Father forgive’?
How could he carry all that
and still say to the thief:
‘This day you will be with me in paradise’?
How could he carry all that and,
on seeing his mother watching
with breaking heart, say,
‘Woman, your son’?
How could he carry all that and
in the depths of rejection cry,
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
How could he carry all that and say,
‘I thirst’?
How could he carry all that and cry,
‘It is finished’?
How could he carry all that and, at the last, say,
‘Father into your hands I commend my Spirit’?
Bearing the weight of the cross,
the crown of thorns,
the sin of the world
the unfulfilled hopes
the rejection...
still Christ knew the amazing love of God
there for him and for us
there in the beginning and in the end:
all that he carried
was carried in the amazing love of God.
*adapted from Spill the Beans

PRAYERS OF CARE AND CONCERN
If the cross tells us anything, O Lord,
it is that You know and share our suffering:
You are with us,
and all those who are victims of disease,
of the violence or abuse of others,
of our own ignorance, foolishness or sin.
Help us and restore us, O Lord, we pray.
You are with us,
and all those who inflict pain on others
and on our world,
through our selfishness or greed,
through our brokenness or anger,
through our rigidity or need to be right.
Help us and restore us, O Lord, we pray.
You are with us,
and all those who are fearful of threats
to this world we call home,
to our safety and survival,
to our sense of community
and togetherness as people.
Help us and restore us, O Lord, we pray.
You are with us, Lord,
and hear the cries of our heart –
and so, in quietness, we bring before you all
who are on our minds and in our hearts this day...
Silent personal prayer

Christ of the Cross,
See our need of Your grace,
Hear our prayer for Your mercy,
And come to us again, to help and restore,
because we cannot heal ourselves.
Amen.                                    

5th Hymn/ When I survey the wondrous cross
during which, purple cloth is removed from Cross
Cross is covered with black cloth...

8th READING/ Luke 23:44-56 Death and burial

BLESSING OF THE PALMS...

6th Hymn/ What wondrous love is this?

EPILOGUE/ BENEDICTION/
The choice has been made, the way chosen,
the clash between humanity and love
comes to a head.
The story has been told,
so let us join the journey and
share that story:
of a God who can give no more so gives himself....
let us return to the world where we live
...carrying our crosses,
to wait and watch:
for a stone to be removed;
for the flame of hope to be re-lit;
...the hope that defies despair,
the life that defies death,
the beginning that defies the end.
While we wait,
remember... that no matter
how abandoned we may feel
we are not alone.
God has not, and will not, abandon us.
Thanks be to God.  
Let us go in peace,
to wait, to watch,
and to love and serve the Lord... Amen     

we leave in silence....