“My kingdom is not of this world,”
ST ANDREW’S CHURCH PALM SUNDAY
APRIL 10th 2022
LIGHTING OF THE CHRIST CANDLE
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Thank you Rev. Shirley Cochrane for leading us in worship this Palm Sunday. May this service be a blessing to each one of us and bring Glory and Honour to God.
We hope you will join us online for a repeat of last years Good Friday Stations of the Cross service.
CALL TO WORSHIP
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death
– even death on a cross.
Hosanna! Blessed is our King who comes in the name of the Lord!
Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name.
Blessed is Jesus, our Saviour and our friend!
Glory to the Creator and the Spirit, ever three and ever one!
HYMN 218 Hosanna, loud hosanna
Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang;
through pillared court and temple the joyful anthem rang.
To Jesus, who had held them close folded to his breast,
the children sang their praises, the simplest and the best.
From Olivet they followed amid the shouting crowd,
the victor palm branch waving and chanting clear and loud;
Messiah, God’s anointed, rode there in humble state,
‘Hosanna, in the highest!’ rang out their praises great.
‘Hosanna in the highest!’ that ancient song we sing,
for Christ is our Redeemer, the Lord of heaven our King.
Oh may we ever praise him with heart and life and voice,
and in God’s joyful presence eternally rejoice!
PRAYER OF INVOCATION
Holy God, Source, Saviour and Spirit of all life, Holy Three and Holy One, In you, we confront the mystery of mercy and the courage of compassion. As we face the Cross on which Christ gave himself, we confront your willingness to die for us so that we might find new life. As the Spirit speaks to us through the story of your amazing love, spilled out in the blood of Christ, our hearts are moved to praise you. Words cannot express our awe, the grief and the gratitude stirring within us, for all you have given us, and for all you will give us through such unspeakable love. We fall silent in wonder and praise, Holy God. Merciful God, Filled with wonder and praise, we acknowledge to you how often we fall short of your purposes for us. Together we lift our confession to you ………………..
UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God: We confess it is easier for us to follow the crowd
than follow Christ; we prefer to avoid conflict
rather than stand up for your mercy and understanding.
We allow strident voices in our times
to drown out your wisdom and truth.
Forgive us, O God.
Fill us with the courage to take up our cross and follow Jesus,
even when the cost to follow is high
and reputations are at stake,
for we pray in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
The Apostle Paul wrote: “This saying is sure and worthy of our full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. It doesn’t matter how big or how small our sins, God’s forgiving love in Jesus Christ can cover them all. Trust that, in Christ, we are forgiven.
Be at peace with God, with yourself and with each other.
THE PEACE
HYMN 217 Ride on, ride on in majesty
Ride on, ride on in majesty;
hark, all the tribes Hosanna cry.
O Saviour meek, pursue thy road
with palms and scattered garments strewed.
Ride on, ride on in majesty;
in lowly pomp ride on to die.
O Christ, thy triumphs now begin
o’er captive death and conquered sin.
Ride on, ride on in majesty;
the angel hosts beyond the sky
look down with sad and wondering eyes
to see the approaching sacrifice.
Ride on, ride on in majesty;
the last and fiercest strife is nigh.
Thy Father on the sapphire throne
expects thee, loved, anointed Son.
Ride on, ride on in majesty;
in lowly pomp ride on to die.
Bow thy meek head to mortal pain;
then take, O God, thy power and reign.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Psalm 31: 9 – 16
Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors
and an object of dread to my closest friends—
those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.
13 For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!”
They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
Luke 19: 28 – 40
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.”
SERMON
As we enter Holy Week, we pray that God will stir up within us gifts of hope, love, faith and understanding so that we can serve and praise God in our lives.
The story of Jesus in the gospels is fascinating. Every gospel concentrates on the same story but brings us many different details and viewpoints . So it should be. We are all aware of the same scene witnessed by several folks and the results their testimony gives, Such recounting brings not only colour but authenticity. Even oral tradition – the handing down by telling information from generation to generation is -as a rule- quite accurate.
Today’s text brings us to the beginning of the week of. Passover — the sacred celebration that is beginning to fill up the city with travelers from all over — all wishing to join in the prescribed rituals
It is a strange week because everything that happens is not what one would have expected to happen.. The start of the week – Jesus’ triumphal procession into Jerusalem is unconventional. We know the story so well that we overlook how strange it must have appeared to those first century Jews and Romans who witnessed it. Passover is a very sensitive time and the Romans will be on red alert.
But let me step back a bit and ask the question: What would it have felt like to be a Jew in first Century Palestine?
Judas Maccabeus – in 167 BC. Called the hammerer –had risen up against Antiochus IV when Antiochus had had the affrontary to sacrifice a pig on the Altar in the Temple.
Not a politically good move by Antiochus, but he had wanted to rub the faces of the Jews into the dirt. The Jews hated the Romans and are expecting an all conquering Messiah/ King to free them from the tyranny they are suffering But it backfired and Antiochus was driven out of Israel For about 100 years Israel had been free – living under the rule of the Hasmonean Kings – descendants of Judas Maccabeus.
But in 67 BC, Pompey the Roman general, was asked to mediate between two rival claimants to the Hasmoneam throne. That wasn’t a wise move because instead, Pompey decided to conquer Israel and incorporate it into the Roman Empire. That remained the case during Jesus life time and for many centuries after. The Jewish populace thus resented the Romans and were looking for a Messiah who would boot the hated Romans out. For the Jews that is the only type of Messiah they can understand and are expecting at the beginning of Holy Week.
In fact if the crowds have been watching carefully they would have realized that something wasn’t quite right.
Jesus chooses to ride into Jerusalem. They have no problem with that as, Yes, many are expecting him to rise up and throw the Romans out of Israel. What was entirely UNEXPECTED is that Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. People – in Jesus day – would expect a king who will lead an uprising to ride in – in a triumphal procession – on a powerful war chariot pulled by four stallions. This is the normal display in a Roman triumph.
We need to remember that the Triumphal Entry as we call it was the fulfillment of an Old Testament Prophecy from the Book of Zechariah. This Old Testament prophet 900 years earlier had written ;Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zech 9:9)
The crowds on that first Palm Sunday in Jerusalem don’t get what they want. Caught up in the fervor surrounding this itinerant preacher from Nazareth, they want someone who will lead a revolt against Rome. They praise God “for all the deeds of power that they had seen” and cry out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!” The people are ready to rise up at Jesus’ command
That takes some chutzpah, to cry out “blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” when Pilate is in the city, his informants everywhere. Of course, they are quoting Psalm 118, a royal psalm which comprises part of the Hallel—the collection of psalms (113-118) sung during the three great pilgrimage festivals, including Passover. Sadly the crowds who hail him today will shout “Crucify him” by the end of the week. Still, it can’t have endeared Jesus to the Roman authorities that they use this ancient blessing to hail him as “king.”
Jesus does not fulfill the wishes of the crowds in Jerusalem. Instead of leading an armed revolt against the Romans, he turns on the Temple and overthrows the money changers. Jesus’ solution is different. He is a king all right, but his kingly mission s to give his life for his followers. He is truly the Servant King.
Now t might seem a small detail but I don’t believe that this event – the Triumphal Entry simply happened. Jesus came to Jerusalem to fulfill Zechariah’s prophecy –that one day the true King would come, not on a magnificent war stallion, but on a young donkey.
I think it was well planned. Why? Well it is a small detail – but you will recall from our reading that Jesus tells his disciples to go into the next village, Bethphage and find a small donkey that is tied up – and that they are to bring it back to Jesus.
So have you ever wondered WHY the owners would have parted with the donkey to complete strangers ? The disciples will be strangers to the donkey’s owners – otherwise Jesus would have simply told them to go and get the donkey from “Fred So-and-so””.
There has to be a clue in what the disciples say to the owner: “The Lord needs it.”. It seems to me that the most likely explanation has to be that it is a pre-arranged code word. If this is so, Jesus has put a lot of meticulous planning into this event.
Thus if Jesus has planned the event, what is the point that He is making by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. I think Jesus is challenging the folk religion of his day. Remember – again I say folks are looking forward to a Messiah who is going to be an all conquering hero throwing the Romans out and re-establishing Jewish sovereignty.
Indeed this might well have been part of Judas Iscariot’s motivation when he betrayed Jesus. He might well have been trying to force Jesus’ hand – and make Jesus the leader of a Maccabean style revolt.
I also think Jesus is keen not to let his opponents among the Pharisees know what he intends to do. They will have been well versed in Scripture and once they realize that Jesus has ordered a donkey they certainly would try to stop him fulfilling of the well known prophecy –the Messiah coming into Jerusalem on a donkey
However, once the Pharisees do actually realize what Jesus is doing – it is too late as the crowds supporting Jesus are out on the streets and it would have caused a riot had they tried to intervene.
The scandal of Holy Week for many is this. Jesus – God in human form – didn’t come as a King in the way we would expect a king to come. He comes as a servant – a suffering servant. He comes to take away the sin of his people. And the simplicity of the Gospel is this– That we don’t have to jump though hoops to please God.
Jesus rides into Jerusalem to topple the powers that be, but those powers are not the Roman empire, or any other earthly empire. “My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus tells Pilate later this week. The powers that be, the old order of things that underlie all human empires, are Sin and Death and Satan. These are the enemy. These are the ancient, and most potent enemies of the whole human race. Sin, death and Satan have the power to break our hearts, to take our lives and those of the people we hold most dear. It is these enemies that are defeated, by God’s power, through Jesus’ death on a cross, and through his glorious resurrection, when God says the final “YES” to Jesus’ life and ministry.
This talk of kings and empires and earthly power brings to mind the war in Ukraine.. Our screens are filled with the images of bombed-out buildings and bloodied civilians, refugees crowded onto trains and buses, trying to escape the brutal and unprovoked invasion of their country by Russia. We cheer the bravery and resolve of President Zelensky and the army and ordinary citizens of Ukraine who are fighting against tyranny. These images are very hard to see. Citizens are without food, water, and fuel — a stark example of where earthly power takes us. One man’s delusional bid to resurrect an empire long gone has led to the deaths of probably tens of thousands, many of them his own soldiers.
Despots act as despots—they have for millennia, agents of evil and death. Pope Francis referred to Putin this week as a “potentate” who has unleashed terrible things:. We have thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats are grim memories of a distant past. However, the icy winds of war, which bring only death, destruction and hatred in their wake, have swept down powerfully upon the lives of many people and affected us all.
The grim reality of war has engulfed the lives of millions of people, not just in Ukraine, of course, but in ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. We had hoped that a conflict like the one in Europe, where the threat of nuclear weapons is real and terrifying, would never happen again; but such is the result of the sin of overweening pride and greed.
Perhaps as we remember Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, let us remember that the kingdom he ushered in is a counter-cultural kingdom. A kingdom in which “whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Mt 27:7). The Question I would like to leave you with in Holy Week is this ; Is that the sort of kingdom that you have signed up for when you became a Christian? Or what you expected when you grew up a Christian?. May we be willing to embrace the changes Jesus wishes to bring to our lives. May we be his willing servants.
Let us use the time we have in Holy Week to reflect on what it cost Jesus to go to the Cross for our sakes – he didn’t go to the Cross for his own sake because he was sinless and did not need to be justified before God. As we think on that – let us celebrate and give thanks that we are children born of God. Amen
HYMN 216 Hosanna
Hosanna, Hosanna Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna, Hosanna,Hosanna in the highest! Lord we lift up Your name with hearts full of praise Be exalted oh Lord my God!Hosanna in the highest! (Glory to the King of Kings!)(second time around) Glory, Glory Glory to the King of Kings! Glory, Glory,Glory to the King of Kings!
OFFERING
On this Sunday, we remember that Christ faced down his critics, looked danger in the eye, and gave up his life on the cross for us. Now it’s our turn to find the courage to give something in gratitude for all he gave. Let us present our offering to God with grateful hearts.
DOXOLOGY
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him all creatures here below
Praise him above ye heavenly host.
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost
OFFERTORY PRAYER
Gracious God, when we look at what you have done for us in Jesus Christ, our offering seems so small. Yet the story of Jesus tells us five loaves and two fish can feed a multitude, and a man condemned to death on a cross becomes Living Bread for a hungry world. Accept the gifts we offer you today, and use them to ensure that Jesus’ story will be told for generations to come. Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Lord Jesus Christ, You came to us in humility, reaching out to all God’s little ones with mercy and compassion. You ask us to do the same. So today we pray for all those who find themselves in humble circumstances: For the homeless in our community and for refugees wherever they take shelter; For the poor and all who find themselves without resources to cope these days; For those who live in isolated communities in Canada and around the world ,lacking access to care, resources and technology others take for granted. Strengthen them in your mercy, and humble us, lest we forget how much we have to be grateful for.
Lord Jesus Christ, hear us as we pray for all those who have been humbled by life’s unexpected turns during the months of the pandemic: We remember before you those who face illness, pain or injury;(Pause)
those who have known death or disaster, fear or failure; (Pause)
and all who struggle with anxiety and uncertainty. (Pause)
We pray for victims of crime and those who suffer through the misjudgment or mistake of others. (Pause)
And we pray for those who suffer because of the consequences
of their own actions and choices. (Pause)
Embrace them in your mercy,and humble us, lest we imagine we can live lives untouched by trouble
Lord Jesus Christ, hear us as we pray for those who have not yet learned the lessons of humility:
for those who live carelessly or drive recklessly, endangering themselves and others; (Pause)
for those who abuse the trust and power in their positions, betraying those whose interests are in their hands; (Pause)
And we pray for those who mislead others for gain or indulge their fame with no thought for the example they set. (Pause)
Humble them in your mercy, And humble us if we are tempted to ignore the consequences of our own actions.
Again Lord our prayers go up fro the people of Ukraine as this week the bombardment on them has intensified and the news is becoming more and more brutal. We pray for the uncountable thousands who are taking care of the refugees – thanking them fro their service and that resources will be plenty to bring safety and peace to those who have had everything taken from them
Holy God we pray fro our congregation nad our brothers and sisters in Christ in our community as we all celebrate Holy Week in our own traditions . We life to you our community and the local community and agencies which provide for those in need .
Lord Jesus Christ, as we watch you walk to your Cross this week, fill us with humble gratitude that you go before us into any challenge or crisis we may face Give us courage to stand with others facing injustice or prejudice, and give us words to speak out for those at risk at home or abroad, for you have given us words to pray for the coming of your kingdom, your reign of justice, mercy and peace.
So we pray together:
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. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
HYMN 214 All glory Laud and Honour
Refrain:
All glory, laud and honour
to thee, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring!
1. Thou art the King of Israel, thou David’s royal son,
who in the Lord’s name comest, the King and blessed one.
(Refrain)
2. The people of the Hebrews with palms before thee went;
our praise and prayer and anthems before thee we present.
(Refrain)
3. To thee before thy passion they sang their hymns of praise;
to thee, now high exalted, our melody we raise.
(Refrain)
4. You didst accept their praises; accept the prayers we bring,
who in all good delightest, thou good and gracious King.
(Refrain)
BENEDICTION
May our Lord whose arms were spread on the cross to embrace the whole world , help us this week to take up the cross and follow him. May the grace of God, the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always
CLOSING SONG