Palm Sunday

Gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Shauna, Beth, Amanda, Cor, and Heather!

PRELUDE: “Far Away Friend” (Springer)

OPENING PRAYER:

We join with the crowd
that eagerly awaited the coming of Jesus.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!
Fulfilling prophecy, Jesus entered the city
riding humbly on a donkey.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!
Jesus’ followers were excited, filled with anticipation.
Yet, within a few short days,
they were scattered, disillusioned, and frightened,
unwilling to follow as far as Christ would have them go.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!
We, too, long to join the triumphal procession,
only to find ourselves burdened by the past, fearful of the future,
reluctant to accept the way of the cross.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!
Yet this Palm Sunday, we receive palm branches,
a reminder of the welcome offered to Jesus
as he travelled toward the cross.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!
Like the crowd in Jerusalem 2000 years ago,
we take our palm branches and greet Jesus, shouting:
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!

HYMN OF PRAISE: “Hosanna, loud hosanna”

Hosanna, loud hosanna
the happy children sang;
through pillared court and temple
the joyful anthem rang;
to Jesus, who had blessed them
close folded to his breast,
the children sang their praises,
the simplest and the best.

From Olivet they followed
‘mid an exultant crowd,
the victory palm branch waving,
and singing clear and loud;
the Lord of earth and heaven
rode on in lowly state,
content that little children
should on his bidding wait.

‘Hosanna in the highest!’
That ancient song we sing,
for Christ is our Redeemer;
earth, let your anthems ring.
O may we ever praise him
with heart and life and voice,
and in his humble presence
eternally rejoice!

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

We love a parade!
We love to get what we want.
We love for things to unfold
according to our plan
and not the divine plan—
a plan that remains a mystery to our eyes.
Help us to trust in you, O God,
and help us to set aside our desire for your desire,
and our will for your will, now and always. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God will give us what we need:
strength for today,
hope for tomorrow,
and forgiveness
for all that is past.
Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” (Maker)

FIRST READING: Psalm 118

Open to me the gates of the temple,
that I may enter and give thanks to God.
This is the gate of God;
through it the righteous shall enter.
I thank you for you have answered me;
you have become my salvation.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This is God’s doing, marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day that God has made,
let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Save us, O God, we pray;
God, we pray, give us success.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.
We bless you from the house of God.
God, our God, has given us light;
with palm branches in hand let us march to the altar.
You are my God, and I will thank you;
you are my God, and I will extol you.

SECOND READING: Mark 11.1-11

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

HYMN: “The glory of our King was seen”

The glory of our King was seen
when he came riding by,
and all the children waved and sang,
‘Hosanna, King most high!’

The glory of our King was seen
when, with his arms stretched wide
to show his love to everyone,
Jesus was crucified.

The glory of our King was seen
on the first Easter day,
when Christ rose up, set free from death,
to love, to guide, to stay.

REFLECTION

Jesse Owens had one. Ben Hogan had one. Amelia Earhart had two, and should have had more.

I hope I have you stumped. Theodore Roosevelt had one, as did Queen Elizabeth and the future Queen Beatrix. John Glenn had two, and the New York Yankees had too many to count. Finally, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins had one—Michael Collins the astronaut, not the Irish revolutionary.

If you guessed ticker tape parade, you would be correct. Funny thing, the ticker tape parade. Shower tons of ticker tape upon adoring crowds (and the source of their admiration), then let someone else sweep up the mess. The good news (for them) is that the work is getting scarce. In the 1950’s there were over 60 ticker tape parades in New York, but in the last decade there were only three. Maybe there is less to celebrate.

And since someone reading or listening today has no idea what ticker tape is, I suppose I should explain. Ticker tape is a continuous printout of stock prices, named (of course) for the tick-tick-tick sound of the machine that produced the tape. All over the city, businesses had these remote read-outs of the stock market in great quantity, and they in turn became a very handy way to celebrate. Think of it as long confetti.

I share this because the ticker tape parade may be one of the best modern examples of what happened that day in Jerusalem. It certainly wasn’t a parade in any sense that we might know. It wasn’t a military parade—think Red Square or Bastille Day—since those are really a show of force. It wasn’t an event parade like St. Patrick’s Day, though you could argue it became one. And it wasn’t a victory parade, since the outcome of the next few days was yet to be revealed.

The reason the ticker tape parade is a good parallel begins with design. A ticker tape parade, like our palm parade, is a planned event, carefully choreographed for maximum effect. This is not to suggest it is disingenuous somehow—it simply acknowledges that these are not spontaneous events. Jesus gives his disciples specific instructions on where to go, what to get, and what to say if anyone has questions.

Further, the ticker tape parade, like our palm parade, was held to send a message. City officials would select the people to be honoured (which by definition means others were not selected) as a way to align themselves with some triumph or celebrity. Likewise, Jesus enters on a humble beast, not some grand mount, sending the message that he would be a different kind of king, not the one they were anticipating.

Finally, the ticker tape parade, like the palm parade, belongs to the crowd as much as the planners or the people being honoured. Just as ticker tape parades would be meaningless without the celebrating crowd, the palm parade would be just an awkward entry without the palm-waving, the scattered cloaks, and the passionate shouting. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

So the palm parade was carefully choreographed, message-laden, and dedicated to the people who stood by that day. It was a turning point, or maybe a point-of-no-return, when Jesus truly “set his face to Jerusalem.” And it was also a declaration, a declaration that Jesus’ kingship would be unique, unlike any other. So what would it be like?

It might be helpful to think about kingship before Jesus’ reinterpretation of kingship, and the momentous change God was planning that day in Jerusalem. In the distant past, it appeared that God blessed those in power. They ruled at God’s pleasure, and then they fell when the reverse was true. And then the first big change, through Moses. Remember that God, through Moses, defeated a king and freed the people. But the king (Pharaoh) remained. He did not fall, although certainly his economy was ruined. God only acted to free his people, to end their suffering, and bring them home. Moses mounted his own parade of sorts, through the Red Sea and on into the wilderness. It wasn’t a coup or a revolution, more of a parade in the form of a successful rescue mission.

Back to Jerusalem. Jesus confronted royal power that day not with a show of force or a victory parade, but rather with symbols: kingship that should humbly serve the people, kingship that was based on biblical models of faithfulness and not the sword, kingship that was located in heaven rather than on earth. It was a carefully choreographed, message-laden, and dedicated to the people who would then witness even more symbolic action: tables turned in the temple, a clarifying conversation with the high priest about kingship, and his journey to the cross.

So let me end with that clarifying conversation, the real conclusion to the palm parade, when Jesus is asked, “are you the anointed one, the Son of the Blessed One?” (14.62)

“I am,” he said. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” This was never insurrection, rather the last stage of incarnation. Jesus entered Jerusalem to promptly leave Jerusalem, changing the nature of kingship forever. Earthly kings cannot save you, and they cannot even save themselves. Rather, we wait for the Son of the Most High to save us, now and in the days to come. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

We praise you, O God,
for your redemption of the world through Jesus Christ.
Today he entered the holy city of Jerusalem in triumph
and was proclaimed Messiah and king by those
who spread garments and branches along his way.
Let these branches be signs of his victory,
and grant that we who carry them
may follow him in the way of the cross,
that, dying and rising with him,
we may enter into your kingdom;

As we ponder Jesus’ willingness to carry
the suffering of the world,
we pray in the knowledge that there is more to share.
Listen, Lord, as we remember your children in need:
For the sick, bring healing,
or a sense that healing will come…
For the mournful, bring comfort,
or the comforting knowledge that we care…
For the lost, bring direction,
or a guide or two to help them find their way…
For the lonely, bring a sense of your presence,
or a gentle nudge to have us reach out…
For the hurting, bring hope,
or the hope that hope may come…
For the angry, bring calm,
or a sense that you hear their anger….
For the oppressed, bring justice,
or companions to share their struggle…

We pray all this, trusting in your goodness,
and the new hope that the coming day will bring.
We pray through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit,
now and forever.
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,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “Tell me the stories of Jesus”

Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear,
things I would ask him to tell me if he were here:
scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea,
stories of Jesus, tell them to me.

First let me hear how the children stood round his knee,
and I shall fancy his blessing resting on me;
words full of kindness, deeds full of grace,
all in the lovelight of Jesus’ face.

Tell me, in accents of wonder, how rolled the sea
tossing the boat in a tempest on Galilee!
And how the Master, ready and kind,
chided the billows and hushed the wind.

Into the city I’d follow the children’s band,
waving a branch of the palm tree high in my hand;
one of his heralds, yes, I would sing
loudest hosannas! Jesus is king!

Show me that scene in the garden of bitter pain;
and of the cross where my Saviour for me was slain.
Sad ones or bright ones, so that they be
stories of Jesus, tell them to me.

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

Sanna, sannanina, sanna, sanna, sanna,
Sanna, sannanina, sanna, sanna, sanna,
Sanna, sanna, sanna, sannanina, sanna, sanna, sanna,
Sanna, sanna, sanna, sannanina, sanna, sanna, sanna.

*means “Hosanna” in Swahili