Palm/Passion Sunday

**Please note this is based on the format of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW). Hymns and other prayers have been sourced to give appropriate credit.

**This is for personal use at home as the church is unable to gather in our houses of worship but together we can worship in our own homes.

GATHERING

The Holy Spirit calls us together as the people of God.

ACCLAMATION

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

BLESSING OF PALMS

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray.

Silence

We praise you, O God,

for redeeming the world through our Savior Jesus Christ.

Today he entered the holy city in triumph

and was proclaimed messiah and king

by those who spread garments and branches along his way.

Bless these branches and those who carry them.

Grant us grace to follow our Lord in the way of the cross,

so that, joined to his death and resurrection,

we enter into life with you;

through the same Jesus Christ,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.

Amen.

PROCESSION 

Let us go forth in peace,

in the name of Christ. Amen.

Hymn – Ride on, King Jesus by Steve Bell, performed by Tom Buxton

Verses 1-3 and 6 by Hilda Carper / © 1974 Reba Place Church Inc.Box 6017, Evanston IL 60204 USA

Listen Here

Ride on King Jesus
No one can a-hinder thee
Ride on King Jesus ride on
No one can a-hinder thee

King Jesus rides to Jerusalem
Hosanna to King David’s son
He rides upon a donkey small
The King of peace the Lord of all

Chorus

The children sing and they dance and shout
If they won’t praise the rocks cry out
King Jesus done just what He said
He healed the sick and He raised the dead

Chorus

The light of God shines on His face
He offers all His pardoning grace
Come join the throng your voices raise
The King of love deserves your praise

Chorus

PRAYER OF THE DAY

As we now enter into the contemplation of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and meditate on the salvation of the world through his sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection, let us pray.

Silence

Everlasting God, in your endless love for the human race you sent our Lord Jesus Christ to take on our nature and to suffer death on the cross. In your mercy enable us to share in his obedience to your will and in the glorious victory of his resurrection, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

A reading from the book of Isaiah                                             50:4-9a

The servant of the Lord expresses absolute confidence in his final vindication, despite the fact that he has been struck and spit upon. This characteristic of the servant played an important role in the early church’s understanding of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

 The Lord God has given me
  the tongue of a teacher,
 that I may know how to sustain
  the weary with a word.
 Morning by morning he wakens—
  wakens my ear
  to listen as those who are taught.
 The Lord God has opened my ear,
  and I was not rebellious,
  I did not turn backward.
 I gave my back to those who struck me,
  and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
 I did not hide my face
  from insult and spitting.
 The Lord God helps me;
  therefore I have not been disgraced;
 therefore I have set my face like flint,
  and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
  he who vindicates me is near.
 Who will contend with me?
  Let us stand up together.
 Who are my adversaries?
  Let them confront me.
 It is the Lord God who helps me;
  who will declare me guilty?

Psalm 31:9-16

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I | am in trouble;
 my eye is consumed with sorrow, and also my throat | and my belly.
For my life is wasted with grief, and my | years with sighing;
 my strength fails me because of affliction, and my bones | are consumed.
I am the scorn of all my enemies, a disgrace to my neighbors, a dismay to | my acquaintances;
 when they see me in the street | they avoid me.
Like the dead I am forgotten, | out of mind;
 I am as useless as a | broken pot.
For I have heard the whispering of the crowd; fear is | all around;
 they put their heads together against me; they plot to | take my life.
But as for me, I have trusted in | you, O Lord.
 I have said, “You | are my God.
My times are | in your hand;
 rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who | persecute me.
Let your face shine up- | on your servant;
 save me in your | steadfast love.”

A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Philippians 2:5-11

Paul uses an early Christian hymn to help us comprehend Jesus’ obedient selflessness on the cross and how God has made Christ lord over all reality. The perspective of the cross becomes the way we rightly understand God, Christ, our own lives, and fellowship within the community of Christ.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
 who, though he was in the form of God,
  did not regard equality with God
  as something to be exploited,
 but emptied himself,
  taking the form of a slave,
  being born in human likeness.
 And being found in human form,
  he humbled himself
  and became obedient to the point of death—
  even death on a cross.
 Therefore God also highly exalted him
  and gave him the name
  that is above every name,
 so that at the name of Jesus
  every knee should bend,
  in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue should confess
  that Jesus Christ is Lord,
  to the glory of God the Father.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Christ humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above ev’ry name. (Phil. 2:8-9)

The holy gospel according to Matthew.                                       21:1-11

Glory to you, O Lord.

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 fulfill 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.”

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

SERMON

   The story that confronts us in Matthew’s Gospel that we call the Triumphal Entry, upon close examination could be renamed King for a Day and demonstrates the fickle nature of those who would follow Jesus.

There were two and a half million people in Jerusalem that day. They had returned from all over the Mediterranean Basin for the Passover Feast.

   They knew that Jesus was at Bethany and what he could do. It was expected that he would proclaim himself Messiah sometime that week.

   With Jesus in town, this was going to be a Passover to remember.

   His disciples had borrowed a donkey for his ride into the city. That alone told the people that he was a man of peace and that he was not in the mold of the Roman generals who always rode into town on a warhorse. He was a servant.

   As he rides into the city of Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, the people crowd the streets to hail him Messiah: "The One who comes in the name of the Lord!" and they place palm branches in his path.

   This event begins Holy Week, a week that is eventful and revealing. In it we can see how the tide of popular opinion turns against him as the week progresses.

   On Monday he cleanses the temple of the money changers. This violent scene provokes the Jewish leaders to intensify the effort to get rid of him.

   On Tuesday he engages in discourse with the Jewish leaders and curses the fig tree for being barren, a clear message to Israel.

   Wednesday, he was anointed in Bethany much to the discomfort of Judas.

   Thursday, which we call Maundy Thursday, he was preparing for Passover. It was also the evening of the betrayal, arrest in Gethsemane and the beginning of the trials. On this day, the crowds call for his crucifixion.

   Friday was the day of the crucifixion.

   Saturday was in the tomb and Sunday, the day of the resurrection, the day of victory.

   The same crowds that cried "Hosanna" on the first day of the week cried "Crucify him!" at the end of the week. Why? Could it have been because they wanted an instant kingdom, and he offered them an eternal kingdom? Or could it have been because the crowds wanted entertainment, not enrichment? Or simply, when during the week, they saw the demands of his kingdom and they were not willing to change their lives, much less their lifestyle for him?

   Jesus resisted any attempt to make his message or ministry a handmaiden to the culture, to the government, or any other religious group. As this became clear, the crowds began to melt away.

   But Jesus would not adjust his message to the popular ideas of the messiah that prevailed in his day. He called his disciples to a life-time commitment and not to a short-term ministry. He would not adjust his message to their whims or gain following by stroking their prejudices.

   However, we are no different than the crowds on that Jerusalem street.

   God calls us to repentance. We want to make a deal.

   God says the kingdom is forever, and we say it is as long as I need it or can use it.

   God says all things are mine. We say try and get them from me.

   I do not think God is particularly concerned with how we find our happiness, but I do think God is very concerned with our holiness. God is concerned with our commitment and not our pleasure.

   God is not interested in being king for a day, but God does want to be Lord of our lives.

   Holy Week invites us to look deeper at our commitment. It invites us to decide. The Bible is sure in its assertion that commitment is the way of faith. It calls our first-rate commitment to second-rate causes into question.

   The triumphal entry invites us to re-examine our understanding of the mission of Jesus and our commitment to him. As we see the crowds melt away as the week becomes more difficult and the challenges to commitment become more intense, we must ask ourselves, "Have we made him king for a day or Lord of our lives?"

   I want to leave you with the reading of a sonnet by Malcolm Guite, a poet-priest who travels England and North America giving lectures, concerts, and poetry readings. He wrote this poem about the Palm Sunday:

Now to the gate of my Jerusalem,

The seething holy city of my heart,

The saviour comes. But will I welcome him?

Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;

They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,

And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find

The challenge, the reversal he is bringing

Changes their tune. I know what lies behind

The surface flourish that so quickly fades;

Self-interest, and fearful guardedness,

The hardness of the heart, its barricades,

And at the core, the dreadful emptiness

Of a perverted temple. Jesus come

Break my resistance and make me your home.

            “From Sounding the Seasons, by Malcolm Guite, CanterburyPress 2012”

Today I invite you to be with Christ, and let him journey with you on both an outer and an inner exploration that leads to the cross and beyond.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

HYMN OF THE DAY Ride On, Ride On in Majesty!

Listen Here

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
Hear all the tribes hosanna cry;
O Savior meek, your road pursue,
with palms and scattered garments strewed.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
O Christ, your triumphs now begin
o'er captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
The hosts of angels in the sky
look down with sad and wond'ring eyes
to see the approaching sacrifice.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die,
bow your meek head to mortal pain,
then take, O Christ, your pow'r and reign!

CREED

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary

and became truly human.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again

in accordance with the scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION

Turning our hearts to God who is gracious and merciful, we pray for the church, the world, and all who are in need.

Silence.

God of mercy, awaken your church to new proclamations of your faithfulness. By your Spirit, give us bold and joyful words to speak, that we sustain the weary with the message of your redemption. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

God of mercy, quiet the earth where it trembles and shakes. Protect vulnerable ecosystems, threatened habitats, and endangered species. Prosper the work of scientists, engineers, and researchers who find ways to restore creation to health and wholeness. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

God of mercy, drive away fear and anger that cause us to turn against one another. Give courage to leaders who seek liberation for the oppressed. Bring peace and hope to those who are in prison and those who face execution. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

God of mercy, send your saving help to all who suffer abuse, insult, discrimination, or contempt. Heal the wounded. Comfort the dying. Bring peace to those suffering chronic or terminal illness. Tend to all who cry out for relief. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

God of mercy, we pray for all who will prepare and lead worship in this Holy Week. In all things, show us the ways that you call us to die to self, to live for you, and to give of ourselves for the sake of others. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

Please take some time to remember and offer in prayer those that you need to pray for…

God of mercy, when we breathe our last, you raise us to eternal life. With all your witnesses in heaven and on earth, let us boldly confess the name of Jesus Christ, our resurrection and our hope. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

According to your steadfast love, O God, hear these and all our prayers as we commend them to you; through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

PEACE

The peace of Christ be with you always.

And also with you.

OFFERING PRAYER

** Although not physically at our church buildings to share our offering together I would encourage you to set your offering of money aside so that it can be dropped off or placed in the church once services resume, to mail your offering to the church, or to make donations online.** Please remember ministry is still taking place.

Let us pray.

Blessed are you, O God, ruler of heaven and earth. Day by day you shower us with blessings. As you have raised us to new life in Christ, give us glad and generous hearts, ready to praise you and to respond to those in need, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

Gathering our prayers and praises into one, let us pray as our Saviour taught us,

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.

BLESSING

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy.

The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.

Amen.

SENDING SONG We All Are One in Mission

Listen Here

We all are one in mission;
we all are one in call,
our varied gifts united
by Christ, the Lord of all.
A single great commission
compels us from above
to plan and work together
that all may know Christ's love.

We all are called to service,
to witness in God's name.
Our ministries are diff'rent;
our purpose is the same:
to touch the lives of others
with God's surprising grace,
so ev'ry folk and nation
may feel God's warm embrace.

Now let us be united,
and let our song be heard.
Now let us be a vessel
for God's redeeming Word.
We all are one in mission;
we all are one in call,
our varied gifts united
by Christ, the Lord of all.

DISMISSAL

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.