Palm Sunday - a pilgrimage in the Psalms

Text of the Week:  Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem; and the battle-bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations … Zechariah 6:9-10

Welcome to our services on Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. Today is Sunday Special so the younger members of the congregation will be meeting in the hall to begin with and joining us for the last part of the service. Do join us through the week as we walk the way of the cross. On Tuesday we shall have our Messy Easter, celebrating Easter at Messy Church. If you’ve not been before it would be great to welcome you! Afterwards we are showing the film ‘Risen’ with Joseph Fiennes telling the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. After lunch on Wednesday we shall reflect on the Easter story. On Maundy Thursday we meet at 7-30 to share in a simple communion service. Good Friday at 10-30 is a quiet meditation at the foot of the Cross and is followed by our walk of witness from the Imperial Gardens at 12-00. Saturday afternoon is our Family Film Club. Then on Easter Sunday we celebrate resurrection at 8-00 on Cleeve Hill – meet at the Quarry Car Park and then in our celebration services at 10-30 and 6-30. Be sure to spend time in quiet reflection and follow the Easter trail outside the church. In all we do this week let’s take time to imagine what it was like ‘being there’ and let’s remember again that Jesus is with us here and now and forever more

Morning Worship

Welcome and Call to Worship

120 All glory, praise and honour

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

It has been a week when we have been only too conscious of the troubles of the world around us.

We live in difficult times.

We live in troubled times.

They were difficult times then, 2000 years ago that first Palm Sunday.

They were troubled times.

What was needed more than anything else was a prophetic voice to speak truth to power.

The Jewish people like so many peoples around the Mediterranean world were in thrall to the Roman power. It was an awesome power.

The Romans knew exactly how to do to power and authority, kingdom and majesty – they were a brutal power who knew that the way to the peace they could offer was through military might.

There were all sorts of ways of thinking among the Jewish people.

Herod the Great and his successors, the Heordians, wre quite content to go along with it. That’s the kind of power that was all important for them. Military might. The might of grand designs fortresses, cities,  temples

And a sizeable number among those Jewish people looked for a different kind of kingdom – they looked for someone to take the Romans on. To meet force with force. They looked for another Judas Maccabaeus who would replace Roman power with a the Jewish power – and it was the power of the sword.

These were difficult times.

These were troubled times.

What was needed more than anything else was a prophetic voice to speak truth to power.

And that’s when John the Baptist came on the scene.

Have a whole new way of thinking was his challenge. For the kingdom of heaven has come near – God’s rule is breaking in. God’s rule is what is needed.

They had him arrested. He was too dangerous. And not long after he was executed – a barbaraic beheading. Though his followers saw to it that he was buried.

They were difficult times.

What was needed more than anyting else was a prophetic voice to speak truth to power.

And that voice was not silenced.

Jesus took up the mantle.

Have a whole new way of thinking was his challenge. For the kingdom of heaven has come near – God’s rule is breaking in. God’s rule is what is needed.

And through his teaching, through the love he made real in so many people’s lives, in the way so many hurting people found healing the kingdom of heaven had come – God’s rule was breaking in. The very rule of God that was so badly needed.

It was such a different way he knew he had to follow.

He knew it was a way that was nothing less than God’s way.

He knew what it takes to rule in God’s way.

And it was not with the brutal force of the Roman Empire. Neither was it with the brutal force of another Judas Maccabaeus. There were s

What he stood for, all that he was, was rooted in the Bible he had grown up with – he knew there were parts of the Bible that could taking up force of arms.

Those were not the parts of the Bible he went too.

He modelled what he did on other parts of the Bible. On those passages in particular in the prophets that spoke of that coming kingdom of heaven, that spoke of that rule of God that would transform people’s lives and transform the world.

And as he drew near to Jerusalem and the final days that would, he knew, lead to his death, a death that would not be the end but instead herald a resurrection victory all could follow he turned to one of those great passages.

This was it … in Zechariah 4:9-10

Reading: Zechariah 9:9-10

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!

   Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!

Lo, your king comes to you;

   triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on a donkey,

   on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

   and the warhorse from Jerusalem;

and the battle-bow shall be cut off,

   and he shall command peace to the nations;

his dominion shall be from sea to sea,

   and from the River to the ends of the earth.

And it’s what he did.

It was quite deliberate.

He knew what he was doing.

He had been speaking of the need for people to have a whole new way of thinking. He had been speaking of the kingdom of heaven breaking in, of the rule of God coming in to transform people’s lives.

It was a long pull up from Jericho – more than 4,000 feet in seventeen miles or so – and a terrible heat.

Coming towards the city he knew he wanted to make a statement.

So many of his parables had been all about the kingdom of heaven.

This would be one of the most powerful, one of the most telling – an acted parable if you like.

Reading: Matthew 21:1-11

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.’ This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

‘Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
   humble, and mounted on a donkey,
     and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking,

‘Who is this?’ 

The crowds were saying,

‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’

In that moment the crowds had got it.

They were difficult times.

They were troubled times.

What was needed more than anything else was a prophetic voice to speak truth to power.

And speak truth to power Jesus did – in the temple symbol to him in the way it had been rebuilt of such a different way of thinking –

He said to them in a voice they ever afterwards remembered

 ‘It is written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer”;
   but you are making it a den of robbers.’

This was it.

This was the voice they needed to hear.

This was nothing less than the Word of God for their generation … and for every generation since and for our generation too.

For these too are difficult times.

These too are troubled times.

What is needed now more than anything else is a prophetic voice to speak truth to power.

119 Ride on, ride on in majesty

I want us to spend a few moments.

Thinking about our world – its many troubles. The stuff we see on the news. The stuff that goes on in people’s lives we are so aware of in the local news. The stuff that goes on in our own lives and in our own hearts.

I want us to hold in mind the kingdom of heaven that was ushered in by Jesus – that rule of God that transforms our hearts, our homes, our community, our world.

And then I want us to go up to God and seek again his help, his blessing, his presence in our lives.

The place we go to should be a house of prayer.

Let this be for us in these few moments a house of prayer.

And for our prayer let’s draw on some ancient prayers of pilgrimage used long ago in Jerusalem.

  

Psalms 120 to 132 are described in the Book of Psalms as Songs of Ascents. They were pilgrimage psalms, used by people as they made their way up to Jerusalem, as they made their way up to the Temple, as they made their way up into the presence of God.

Some of us have done that pilgrimage walk up to Jerusalem – but it matters not

In our minds eye let’s think of ourselves as going up into the presence of God so that we may sense the presence of God with us in this troubled world that cries out now as ever for a prophetic voice that will speak truth to power and bring the presence of God into our hearts

Let’s draw on these songs of Ascent and seek to go up into God’s presence from that world of distress.

Our prayers begin with lament – at the evil around us in the world – at the things that trouble us

It is a lament from the heart.

120

In my distress I cry to the Lord,
   that he may answer me:

‘Deliver me, O Lord,
   from lying lips,
   from a deceitful tongue.’ 

Too long have I had my dwelling
   among those who hate peace.

I am for peace;
   but when I speak,
   they are for war.

Let’s turn in our thoughts from the troubles of the world to the God of creation, to the God whose presence is with us come what may. It is the God who is there for us. It is the God who cares for us. It is the God whose love will not let us go.

121

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
   from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
   who made heaven and earth. 

122

I was glad when they said to me,
   ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ 

123

To you I lift up my eyes,
   O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants
   look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
   to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
   until he has mercy upon us.

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
   

124

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
   who made heaven and earth.

The God we believe in is a God who is there in the weeping.

The God we believe in is a God who transforms the weeping into laughter.

The God we believe in is the God who surrounds us – who is before us and behind us, above us and beneath us, around us and within.

125

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
   so the Lord surrounds his people,
   from this time on and for evermore.

126

The Lord has done great things for us,
   and we rejoiced. 

May those who sow in tears
   reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
   bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
   carrying their sheaves.

How important it is for us to build our lives on the ways of God and not on our own plans and counsel

How important it is for us to look to God and find in God the sure foundation for the living of our lives.

How important it is that God is there in all that we do

127

Unless the Lord builds the house,
   those who build it labour in vain.
Unless the Lord guards the city,
   the guard keeps watch in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early
   and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
   for he gives sleep to his beloved.

128

Happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
   who walks in his ways.

129

‘The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
   We bless you in the name of the Lord!’

In the business of praying all is not changed in an instant.

We live in a world that expects instant gratification.

Praying is not like that.

In our praying in one moment all seems well.

And in the next moment we plumb the depths once more.

This is as it has been and as it shall be till the world’s end.

But the God we believe in is the God who can take our prayers, our longings. He is the God who looks with mercy. He is the God who forgives and cares and loves with a love that will not let us go.

130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
   Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
   to the voice of my supplications! 

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
   Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
   so that you may be revered. 

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
   and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
   more than those who watch for the morning,
   more than those who watch for the morning. 

Hope in the Lord!
   For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
   and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem us
   from all our iniquities.

There is a gentleness in the God who is the God of love

He knows us in all our troubles.

He comforts us in all our sorrows.

He is with us come what may.

God’s love is the love of a mother for her child.

131

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
   my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
   too great and too marvellous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. 

Hope in the Lord
   from this time on and for evermore.

It is good to come together in this place and sense the love of the God who is love – it is good to come apart and sense that love deep in our hearts.

It is good to come together as God’s family – here in this place bound together in love for God, in love for one another. Bound together in the love God has for us.

132

‘Let us go to his dwelling-place;
   let us worship at his footstool.’ 

133

How very good and pleasant it is
   when God’s family live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
   running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
   running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
   which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
   life for evermore.

134

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
   who stand in the house of the Lord!
Lift up your hands to the holy place,
   and bless the Lord. 

May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth,
   bless you from Zion.

121

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
   from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
   who made heaven and earth. 

He will not let your foot be moved;
   he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep. 

The Lord is your keeper;
   the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
   nor the moon by night. 

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
   he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
   your going out and your coming in
   from this time on and for evermore.

Song: I lift my eyes up to the mountains

Being There … Being Here day by day

Each day of this week Jesus went up to the temple.

Each night he returned to Bethany.

And each day and each night he prayed.

As this week unfolds let’s have a sense of being there with Jesus.

Sharing with him in his glory.

As this week unfolds let’s read of the coming of his death.

And in things we do together – a sense of being there with Christ and a sense of his being here with us.

A service this evening of Passion tide readings and of hymns for Holy Week – being there with Christ in his passion, being here in the presence of Christ with us.;

Tuesday evening Messy Easter – join with families and sense the presence of God with us in Christ Jesus

Risen – the film in all its drama telling the story of Jesus last week.

Wednesday after lunch a short time to share for Holy Week that’s special.

Maundy Thursday – being there in the upper room as we break bread. And here in this place being here with us.

And at the foot of the cross and on the walk through the town – being there and knowing Jesus being here with us.

A film on Sunday … and on Easter morning at 8-00 in a shared breakfast together, in our celebrations – being there with Christ in resurrection victory knowing he is here with us in the mess of our world present in our hearts to strengthen and sustain.

136 My song is love unknown

Prayers of Concern

139 O sacred head surrounded

Being There … together

A Hy-Spirit song

Words of Blessing