Peter: Songs of loudest praise
March 24, 2024 Passion Sunday
The Wandering Heart called to Sing
Lighting the Christ Candle
Welcome and Announcements
Call to Worship
Sing songs of loudest praise!
Hosanna!
Sing songs that are unashamed!
Hosanna!
Sing songs without being afraid!
Hosanna!
Sing for the God of tomorrow and today!
Hosanna!
Let us worship the one who is worthy to be praised!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hymn: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
(See projection screen)
Prayer of Adoration
O Lord, you rode on.
You rode over the cloaks and under the branches, You heard the shouts and the praises. The songs of the Messiah rang through the streets, giving you the praise that you deserved, but an echo of confusion for your purpose in coming.
Yet, O Lord, you rode on. You rode towards the controversy and the cost. You rode towards the curses and the cross. You received the stripes you didn’t deserve, to give us a reward that we couldn’t earn.
You did not stop, not to receive the praises nor the scorn. You rode on through the tomb and the grave. Our bewilderment an echo of confusion for your purpose in coming.
Regardless you hear our prayers. Now, today, with a true purpose and a heart full of faith, we remember the journey you have taken as we commit ourselves to walking in the same way. Give us the strength, hope, and joy we need as we follow.
And, we beg you, give us the grace and mercy we need, as we confess before you how often we have been confused about your purpose in coming and how often our actions have betrayed that purpose.
We pray together saying:
Prayer of Confession:
Holy God, we want to run into the streets and sing your praise. We want to be bold and unashamed of this good-news Gospel. However, we too often fin ourselves standing against the wall.
Too often we stand quiet.
Too often we let others carry the song.
Forgive us for the moments when we could lead the parade but instead find ourselves standing on the sidelines.
Show us which songs are ours to sing.
Show us which parades are ours to lead, and then give us the courage and conviction to do both. With hope and honesty, we pray. Amen
Assurance of Pardon
No matter where we stand on the parade route. No matter if we waved palm branches, or stood silent, or raised our voices to scoff. Jesus rode that donkey for us. He was arrested and tried for us. He was crucified for us.
But he also rose for us, having secured our complete forgiveness from sin.
So hear these words with joy: We have reason to sing, because Jesus loved us yesterday and loves us still today. Jesus will love us tomorrow and will still love us in eternity. We are forgiven, today, tomorrow, and for all eternity. Go out and sing. Go out trusting that God’s mercy in Jesus is ours forevermore. That is how great his love for us is. Praise be to God.
Passing the Peace
Hymn: 218 Hosanna, loud hosanna
Scripture:
John 12: 12-16 p 1671
Sermon: Peter: Songs of loudest praise
All through Lent, we have walked with Jesus as the disciples struggled to learn, believe, and follow the directions Jesus was giving them for life. On that journey, we have focused on Peter and his many reactions, questions, insights and failures. I have heard from you that you have appreciated this series, because it helps us to know, that if Peter, who stumbled and fumbled along the way, could be called, then so can we.
We have seen that Peter was called from where he was, a simple fisherman, likely uneducated. We have seen his struggle to understand. WE have heard the questions he asked. We have seen him refuse to believe Jesus and stand against him. We have seen his rebellious side. We have seen his enlightenment as God revealed great truths to him.
We will continue to see all these things through Holy Week.
Today is Passion Sunday and it will mark a long week of difficult days, not only for Jesus, but also for all the disciples. As we look at the week that is to come, we will see that they still struggle to accept and understand what Jesus has been telling them about what must happen in Jerusalem.
We see this at the triumphal entry, where, as the crowds sang songs of praise and waved palm branches and greeted the Son of David, the disciples seemed to just walk alongside. We are not told if they joined the praises. And it seems they may not even have understood what was happening.
What were they thinking?
Why is Jesus riding a donkey? Only defeated kings ride a donkey, a sign of humility and shame.
What does the crowd know that we don’t know? Maybe this will be the beginning of the battle for the throne.
The final verse of the passage we read from John this morning reminds us that they were as confused as ever.
In verse 16 we read: At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. NIV
Despite how many times Jesus told them, they still did not understand.
What is interesting from this point is that Peter is not singled out. For most of the accounts of Holy Week, the references are about all the disciples, with a few notable exceptions.
I think that is important for us to remember as we move into Holy Week, none of the disciples got it.
We are not just like Peter, we are like all of them.
We all participate in group misunderstanding.
Group denial.
Group rebellion.
Group confusion.
As hard as it may be to understand, that also includes Judas.
We are like all of them, whose misunderstanding led them to take actions into their own hands.
This is a week full of sublime and horrific events.
It is a lot to take in. Even as the disciples are processing what one event means, something else is going on. Sometimes, even those of us who know the story, can fail to understand the many important things that are happening in this week, as Jesus teaches through words and actions what it really means to be the Messiah.
For Peter and the others, this not knowing or not understanding will add additional layers of pain and confusion. For that reason, as we have been saying all along, it is good not to judge Peter and the others, because we also walk in their shoes.
It will be a week of mixed messages, or what from their perspective looks like mixed messages.
The donkey ride of a loser.
The anger of the King who runs people out of the Temple for desecrating his Father’s home.
How do you reconcile those two messages?
And if you are inclined to hold fast to the concept of a warrior king, can you blame them for seeing the adulation of the crowd, and the cleansing of the Temple to be the start of a revolution.
But what kind of a revolution?
While from our vantage point in history we do see the death and resurrection of Jesus as revolutionary, the disciples only had the words of Jesus, which they needed to interpret alongside the mixed message that they perceived in the ways Jesus acted.
Yet, we can see from the view from the pew, that the message remained the same. Even as all the events of this week unfold, Jesus keeps saying that he must die, although that is not always clear in the stories. Later in John we read: 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. NIV
Okay, maybe not quite so clear.
What does he mean by glorified?
And what does the death of a seed have to do with glorification?
Is Jesus the seed?
Are we the harvest?
Will we have to die as well?
Well in that case give me a sword, I will fight for Jesus.
Then Jesus says that we must serve him, but at the Last Supper, he washes everyone’s feet, which in their culture was a job only the lowliest servant did.
And again, they must be confused because it came after the celebration of the Passover, in which Jesus took the fourth piece of bread, which was reserved for the Messiah.
That was an action that could only lead to more confusion.
What was the broken body?
Whose blood would be shed?
What did he mean that Judas would betray him?
We see that confusion amply displayed in Peter, who immediately refused to allow Jesus to wash his feet. And when convinced that if wanted to be a part of Jesus, he had to comply, immediately asked for his head and hands to be washed as well.
We see and can appreciate his confusion and bewilderment.
Then after the supper, they went to Gethsemane, where Peter, James and John, fell asleep when Jesus asked them to pray.
How many times do we fall asleep instead of praying? Or forget to pray when we say that we will?
Then, when they return to the group, Judas arrives with soldiers and all sorts of other authorities, who promptly arrest Jesus.
The disciples react.
It has been attributed to Peter, but many accounts simply say one of the disciples took a sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest.
What were they thinking?
Were they expecting the Sunday crowd, to come running into the garden with swords and spears?
Was the revolution about to begin?
How shocking that Jesus reattached and healed the man’s ear, and peacefully went away to be tried.
Peter, with misguided loyalty followed and immediately started denying that he knew Jesus.
Then they watched at Calvary as Jesus died.
Then they did not believe the women who saw him alive on the third day.
This misunderstanding persists and continues.
What was written about the day of the Palms, while the sound of the Praises still rang in their ears, is so true. They do not understand.
At first his disciples did not understand any of this. Only after Jesus was glorified, did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. NIV
As we bid farewell to this journey with Peter, we see that it continued in much the same pattern it always has. Even as he was instrumental in starting the Church, he stumbled along the way.
All of us know that we follow in Peter’s footsteps.
We have moments of great enlightenment, followed by moments of denial and even rebellion.
We are bold and we are fearful.
We are full of faith, and even fuller of doubt.
We see in ourselves those same ups and downs and struggles that marked Peter (and the others) as leaders in the Church.
That is the truth we have been learning. The journey of leaders in the Church is marked by ups and downs and struggles.
None of us are perfect.
None of us understand perfectly.
Our own ideas or needs can conflict with what Jesus is calling forth from us.
We are comforted to know that we do not need to be perfect.
Therefore, we rejoice, singing songs of praises. Because in all of it, God still calls us as a servant of Jesus, and a priest among many as this congregation continues to develop and grow.
You and I, we are servants of Jesus, and we join in the priesthood of all believers.
We don’t have to be perfect, just willing.
We will stumble and fail and fall; but God will keep pulling us up.
God will keep setting us on the right path.
God will keep making a way for us in the wilderness.
And we, like Peter and the disciples, will know those days when it is only as we look back that we will know that God has glorified Jesus through our witness and that we were unaware of it.
Certainly, that is reason enough to sing songs of Praise.
May God continue to rely on our witness and our stumbling efforts to glorify Jesus, as we occasionally, frequently, or maybe even daily get it right.
It’s all good. As long as we continue to go forward with Jesus, with praise and confidence, and thanksgiving it will all be glorified by God.
Let us sing praises. Amen
Hymn: 221 O Dearest Lord
Offering and Doxology 830
Offertory Prayer
Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
God of all hopefulness, God of life, on this holy day of Palms and Passions and through this the holiest of weeks, when our Lenten journey finds its completion, may we still sing songs of praise to you.
May we have the courage to follow through pain
sorrow
despair
illness
losses of all kinds,
through fear
anger
hatred
vitriol
and finger pointing
We come to recognize the varied ways we work against you, O God, against your hopes and dreams for creation against your love poured out in flesh and blood, we hang our heads and bow our hearts seeking your forgiveness, yearning for your guidance, and desiring your compassion.
Fill us we pray, with the ability to turn to you, kneeling before you, may your grace open our spirit that we may let you in, receive you and take you into our hearts and minds and souls
We turn to you now with our prayers for your people, your Church and your world.
Your people
With gratitude With concern
Your Church
May we, as your congregation with the Church, be open to your leading and teaching. May we be faithful to your calling. In all that we do may Jesus be glorified.
Your world
Climate change, world water day
A world at war
A world filled with inept leaders
The Royal Family
We pray for King Charles, and for Princess Katherine who are both undergoing treatment for cancer. May their right to privacy be respected. May the treatment work to heal their bodies. Most of all, God, be with them both and all their families to encourage, to heal and to surround with comfort.
Transformed once more by our worship this day, and this week, may we become a new people, a gentle people, a people of love and compassion, born anew from our deepest sorrow through the breadth of your forgiveness and love. And then, may we do likewise. Forgive. And, love.
We ask this in Jesus name, who taught us to pray saying: 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 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, for ever. Amen
Hymn: 214 All glory laud and honour
Unison Benediction
Beloved wanderer, as you leave this place, may you carry your curious heart on your sleeve. May you look for God in every face. May you find the courage to get out of the boat, to run to the tomb, and to speak of your faith. And when the world falls apart, may you hear God’s voice deep within, saying, “Take heart, it is I, be not afraid.” You are called. You are blessed. In both your ups and your downs, you always belong to God. Go now in peace. Go trusting that good news. Amen.
Let us go from here, to sing songs of praise as we serve God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
Blessing Song: 209
O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee I give thee back the life I owe that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.