Sunday service for 5 April 2020 — Palm Sunday

5 April 2020: Palm Sunday
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri C Peterson,
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Contact: tpeterson@churchofscotland.org.uk,

Welcome and Announcements
Though we cannot be together in person, we can be together in spirit! Please note the following announcements:

1. Today is Palm Sunday! If you would like to join our palm parade, you can download and print your very own palm branch by clicking here. Colour it in and hang it in your window, so we can all join in welcoming Jesus together!

2. Churches across Scotland are calling people to join together in prayer on Sunday evenings at 7pm, placing a lit candle in the window and spending time in prayer for others. We will have a prayer service Live on our Facebook page at 7pm. In addition, the moderator of our Presbytery has asked us to pause each day at 11am to pray for healing, health care workers, and our community.

3. During Holy Week, there will be a Facebook Live devotion each day at some point during the day (some will be morning, afternoon, evening…). In addition, Holy Week At Home activities have been sent to families with young children — if you would like an emailed activity pack for P1 and younger, please email Teri and she’ll send it to you!

4. Feel free to share this with others, with the attribution information at the top. If you know someone who does not have access to the internet and who also does not receive the tape ministry, you can either print this service out and share it with them, or let Teri know via email or phone call and we will be sure they receive a printed copy.

5. Mid-week there is a devotional email that goes out, it will be printed and included with the following Sunday’s sermon distribution. You can subscribe to the email here.

6. Also mid-week there is a facebook live video devotional on the St. John’s Gourock Facebook page.

7. If you or a church member you know is in need of friendly phone calls or help with anything while they self-isolate, please contact Teri. Elders are already in contact with people in their districts as well, and you can pass information to them! We are hoping to continue and even deepen our connections to one another, building up the Body of Christ even when we can’t be in the building.

Call to Worship: Psalm 118.19-29 (NRSV)
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
   that I may enter through them
   and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
   the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
   and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
   it is marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
   O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
   We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
   and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
   up to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
   you are my God, I will extol you.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever.

Song: Hosanna / Praise is Rising

Prayer and The Lord’s Prayer
Holy God, we come with hosannas and palms,
seeking your passion.
We seek to know your heart,
and to follow your way.
And yet we enter this week with trembling,
for we know it holds things we would rather avoid.
But you have promised never to leave us nor forsake us—
so walk this journey with us, Lord.
Or rather, guide us to walk with you.
For we confess that often we would prefer you to walk our way,
not the other way round.
We confess that we find it difficult to understand your intentions,
and sometimes your symbols are lost on us.
And we admit that we use our opinions as if they are your facts,
to keep others out and to silence other voices.
We come with hosannas and palms,
seeking your passion…
forgive us when we seek our own passion rather than yours,
when we turn our eyes from the cross
and, through our silence,
give power back to the violent status quo.
May your forgiveness take root in us,
that we may turn and re-turn
until we are transformed into your people of love.
Open our lips, O God, that we may declare your praise.
We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, Love Incarnate, who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Sung prayer 382, verses 2-3
(tune: Passion Chorale, O Sacred Head Now Wounded)

O Lord of life and glory,
what bliss till now was thine!
I read the wondrous story;
I joy to call thee mine.
Thy grief and bitter Passion
were all for sinners’ gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.

What language shall I borrow
to praise thee, heavenly Friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
O make me thine for ever,
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never,
never outlive my love to thee.

Scripture Reading: Mark chapter 11, verses 1-11 (NIV)

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 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. If anyone asks you, “Why are you doing this?” say, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.”’
They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, ‘What are you doing, untying that colt?’ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
‘Hosanna!’
‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’
‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!’
‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
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.

For the word of God in scripture,
for the word of God among us,
for the word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: The story is in the details

I have some friends who have said that in these days of “distancing” and “lockdown” and “isolation”, they notice more than ever when there are crowds of people in, for instance, television shows. It has already been so drilled into us to stay two metres apart, even after just a few weeks, that it’s startling to see crowds jostling each other on screen. It feels almost like a different world.

This story of Jesus entering Jerusalem feels a bit like that, as it’s full of things we can’t do right now….there are people moving about, going from town to town, and then lining the streets like a crowd at a parade, shaking out clothes and laying them down, handing out branches, shouting near each other without face masks….it’s startling how quickly something like this starts to feel unusual.

Of course, that day was unusual. Not because of the parade aspect — that may actually have been the most normal part of the day. At Passover there would be throngs of people coming to Jerusalem, making their pilgrimage to the holy city for the holy festival. And often those already in the city, whether residents or pilgrims who arrived earlier, would line the streets and welcome them. Normally they would do so by singing psalms, and the pilgrims would respond…and there are several psalms set aside for just this purpose, for going up to Jerusalem and for welcoming others in. Notice in our opening psalm today, Psalm 118, there is a line for those who are in the city already: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.” And there is a response from those who are entering: “The Lord is God, and he has given us light.” The psalm even mentions the branches!

But the details of the day…they were unusual. Mark’s gospel is renowned for its details, things that you wouldn’t expect to hear, as when he notes that during the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus had people sit down on the green grass, or when Jesus was asleep on the boat during a storm, he had a pillow. So I want to just explore a few of the little details Mark gives us in this story, details that we might usually gloss over. Why do these little details matter? Mark is a good storyteller, and he is the most concise of the gospel writers. He never wastes a word in conveying the point he wants to get across, so he would not have included them if he didn’t think they were important for some reason. Each of these seemingly insignificant details must tell us something about Jesus, and about the drama that is unfolding in Jerusalem.

• Bethany was about 2 miles from Jerusalem. There Jesus sent his disciples to look for a donkey — which would have been the normal mode of transport, of course, aside from walking. But this wasn’t just any donkey, it was a young, unbroken, never-been-ridden-before donkey. Why does it matter that the donkey is, shall we say, new?

In the prophets of the Old Testament we read that God’s anointed one will come, not on a warhorse, but on a donkey, a humble everyday pack animal. In contrast to the Roman emperor and his officials, Jesus enters God’s city in God’s way, and anyone who knew of his teaching and healing and then saw this entry would understand the reference. But why a young donkey that had never been ridden? Even the most humble person shouldn’t need to subject themselves to an unbroken colt. Then again, in the prophets we hear God saying “behold, I am doing a new thing…”. Could there be some symbolism here, of a new thing entering the holy city? Completely new, and maybe a little awkward to watch….. Not just a new king, but a completely new way of living, of understanding the world, of knowing God.

• Most homes at the time had a space at the front of the ground floor for animals to live. But this donkey was tied up in the doorway….not inside the house, not somewhere separate outside either. It was in in-between space, public and private at the same time. Why does it matter that the donkey was tied up in a doorway?

This week, Jesus is in and out of Jerusalem every day. The whole week feels a bit like the city and the disciples and even Jesus holding their breath. We are at the threshold of something big, but it isn’t all the way out in the open just yet. Each moment of the week takes us in and out…big public moments in the Temple, private moments in back rooms, and in-between in dining rooms with friends. There’s a lot of coming and going, as if we need reminding that Jesus and the ways he is changing the world affect every arena, not just public life, not just private life, but all of life.

• When the disciples untied the donkey from its doorway parking space, people questioned them, and the next unusual detail emerges: they said the teacher needed it, and would bring it back shortly. When exactly was Jesus planning to return the donkey?

I confess that there is a part of me that wonders if that detail is actually answered in the next bit:

• Jesus entered the city, and went up to the outer court of the Temple, and looked around…. “but since it was already late” he turned right around and went back to Bethany for the night. Why was it late? Did they get a late start? Did the unbroken donkey colt take longer to ride than he anticipated? Was there a big crowd and they couldn’t move fast enough? And why simply look and then turn around and go two miles back up the Mount of Olives to the very place they’d just left?

…was he late returning the donkey?
It does seem as if Mark is trying to tell us that the procession into the city took a very long time, not just the 45 minutes or so you would expect if you were making the journey in normal circumstances. Sadly, I think this might be one detail whose background we will never know for certain, but it is interesting to think about why it might have taken such a long time to go two miles! Perhaps it’s a reminder that we cannot control God’s timing.

• And one last detail, which all the gospel writers give us, and which is even in the Psalm if we know what to look for, but which often escapes us as modern readers in English translation. The crowd was shouting Hosanna — which we sometimes use as if it’s interchangeable with Hallelujah, but it isn’t really. Hosanna means “save us” — did you see it in the psalm? “Save us, we beseech you, O Lord” the psalmist wrote. Though, interestingly, in the responsive use of the psalm, those are the words said by the people approaching Jerusalem, and in the gospel story of Palm Sunday they are the words said by the crowd welcoming him into Jerusalem. And, of course, the name Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew) has the same root as Hosanna….Jesus means “God saves”. So there is no one better for them to shout “Hosanna — save us!” to than the one whose very name is salvation.

It’s probably obvious why the order of the psalm response would be reversed. Of course it is the crowd that needs saving, and Jesus that can deliver. There would be no need for Jesus to be the pilgrim chanting those words, of course, when he embodies God’s salvation in himself.

I wonder, if we were to join the crowd, welcoming Jesus into the city, what would we be asking of him? When we call out “save us, we beseech you!” what are we asking for? Right now, of course many of us would ask for saving from pandemic viruses. But when we take all these details into account — the threshold at which we stand, the new thing that Jesus is doing, which is all-encompassing of every aspect of our private and public lives, the fact that God’s time is not always aligned with ours — what are we asking when we pray for The One Who Saves to rescue us?

The crowds that day were likely asking God “save us from Rome!”

Perhaps some of us today are praying “save us from ourselves!” as we become uncomfortably aware of things within us that are normally masked by our activities and relationships and busyness.
Or maybe “save us from each other!” if being cooped up together is starting to get to us!
Save us from illness…..save us from death…..save us from grief….save us from despair….
Some might be praying to save our economy, save our NHS, save our planet…

Whatever you are praying for today, know this: Jesus is salvation. Not just his name, but his life, his presence, his Way, his Truth. And he turns everything around, from the order of the psalm response, to the order of the world. He is doing a new thing that no one else can accomplish, and it will involve all of us—heart, soul, mind, and strength—in his love.

May it be so. Amen.

Offering Prayer
Lord, you call us to match our giving to our gratitude.
It feels impossible, for all we have is a gift from you,
and we cannot hope to fully express our thanks.
But with you, all things are possible.
Teach us again that in giving, we are able to receive,
and in practicing generosity, we become more like you.
Bless these gifts, the fruits of our labour,
that they may in turn bless others, bringing glory to you
and a glimpse of your kingdom on earth.
We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

You are invited to place your offering envelope in a safe place until we can meet again. Or, if you haven’t already, to consider setting up a standing order so that your spiritual practice of giving can continue. Please remember: no one will come to your door to collect your offering while the church building is closed! Stay safe.

Offering Response Hymn 392, verse 4
(tune: Rockingham, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
We call out, O God…
We call out in praise and gratitude, for all your gifts to us.
For your love and mercy,
for the gift of your Son living among us,
for the gift of your Spirit living within us,
for the gift of your creation sustaining our life,
for the gift of minds and hearts that seek to serve.
We call out to you, offering our thanks
for those who are
tirelessly researching;
processing tests and scans;
working behind the scenes;
keeping shelves stocked and rooms clean;
tending the sick and dying;
assisting neighbours;
phoning friends.
May they know that they are your hands and feet,
and may they sense your presence with them,
and working through them.
…
We call out to you, O God, for you are the one who saves us.
We call out in fear, in anxiety, in grief…
We call out in hope, in trust, in love…
For those who are
ill, at home or in hospital or in care;
bereaved, and unable to grieve with friends;
anxious or depressed, and missing their coping strategies;
lonely, and feeling forgotten;
living amidst violence, and wondering how to find safety.
Send your healing, comforting Spirit to fill them,
and bring peace and hope like a light in the shadows.
…
We call out to you, O God, for you are the one who saves us.
We call out, because injustice depends on our silence.
We call out on behalf of those whose voices have been muted.
For those places and peoples in the midst of war, famine, violence, and unrest:
May your peace transform all things, in homes and streets and halls of power.
For those who are counting on our attention being diverted:
May your goodness be stronger than evil.
For those who have lost jobs, or homes, or independence, or hope:
May your kindness be evident in the hands of friend and stranger.
For all of us, in the midst of this upheaval:
May we remember that you turned things upside down,
and may your courage sustain us as we seek to do your will even now.
…
We call out to you, O God: Hosanna, Jesus.
Amen.

Song: Hosanna to the King

Benediction
Whatever is on your heart when you cry out “Hosanna, save us”, know that the Spirit of God goes above you to watch over you; the Spirit of God goes beside you to be your companion; the Spirit of God goes before you to show you the way, and behind you — to push you into places you might not go alone; and the Spirit of God goes within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine.
May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Response (tune: Gourock St. John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit, when we meet,
bless sanctuary and street.