The Liturgy of the Palms and the Liturgy of the Passion stand together in this week’s lectionary. The options that this offers are varied – either one can be used alone, or they can be combined to create a service that moves from celebration to solemnity. This means that, in preparation, you may want to consult both this post and the next one, and draw from both sets of resources. And, in spite of the gravity of the content, there is space for much creativity in the presentation.

READINGS:
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29: A celebration of God’s goodness and faithful love, answering prayer, turning the rejected stone into the capstone, and inviting people into God’s presence.

Luke 19:28-40: Jesus rides into Jerusalem as the people offer praises. The Pharisees though are unimpressed, calling on Jesus to silence the crowd.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
The heart of the Palm Sunday celebration this year is God coming to God’s people in faithfulness and love. Jesus enters Jerusalem as the one who will suffer – this is the doorway to his passion – and in his suffering invites people into God’s grace and presence. And this arrival of God will not be resisted or stopped. It can only be received and enjoyed.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: This week we are startled into seeing God’s reign afresh, as the subversive, empire-challenging reality that it is. Even as the Pharisees try to silence the praises, and as the people fail to understand what they’re celebrating, Jesus just keeps coming, embracing the suffering to come, and manifesting God’s new way of being and reigning. The reign of God continues to infiltrate our world; its message still being proclaimed and revealed; and the powers-that-be still try to silence it – with death if necessary. But, our call, as followers of Christ, is to refuse to be silenced. To continue to challenge unjust empires and to hold open the door to God’s reign to all who will come, refusing to bow to the threats of factions, religious exclusivity or political expediency.

LOCAL APPLICATION: In every life and community, the reign of God enters as a disruptive and invitational influence. It subverts every petty power-struggle, turf-war and personal empire that we might set up, and calls us to embrace this new self-giving, inclusive, God-connected way of being. The challenge for us is to take this message seriously, and strive, daily, to embody God’s reign in every interaction, every decision, and in how we live together in community. When we allow our faith to be drawn into the service of political, economic or even religious, agendas other than God’s reign, we are guilty of trying to silence the praise, and we find ourselves outside of God’s transforming purposes. The work of justice is done as much in the small unseen conversations and justice-supporting actions as in the big moments.

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
The King Is Coming
Calls For Allegiance

Hymn Suggestions:
All Glory Laud And Honour
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
Rejoice, The Lord Is King
Ride On, Ride On, Majesty
Prepare The Way (Link to MySpace video)
Hosanna (Link to YouTube video)
Servant King (Link to YouTube video)
God Of This City (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for Palm Sunday

Video Suggestions:
From Palms To The Cross
Peace On Earth – Palm Sunday
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry

Additional Resources:
GBOD

Lent moves toward its conclusion, and this week, offers us a surprising invitation – to extravagant, celebratory adoration of the Incarnate One. In the midst of this sacrificial journey, this week is both refreshing, and deeply challenging, refusing to allow us the luxury of depression, cynicism or hopelessness. May you know the joy of celebration in the midst of your Lenten fast this week.

READINGS:
Isaiah 43:16-21: The God who has saved Israel in the past invites God’s people to believe that a new salvation is coming for them in their exile.

Psalm 126:  A psalm celebrating the return of exiles to Jerusalem, and asking for God’s grace as they seek to rebuild their lives and their homeland.

Philippians 3:4b-14: Paul, who has every reason to trust in his goodness under the law, explains why he chooses rather to trust in Christ for his righteousness, and how he commits to continually striving to reach the reward that is promised in Christ.

John 12:1-8: In Bethany, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. Judas, however is unimpressed.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
In a rather startling turn, right before Jesus’ enters his period of suffering, the Lenten readings move us to a place of joy and celebration. Isaiah promises the exiles a new salvation of God; the psalm celebrates this salvation as it is realised; Paul celebrates the righteousness he has found in Christ, which far surpasses the value of the “goodness” he enjoyed under the law; and Mary celebrates Jesus and her extravagant love for him through this almost embarrassing public display.This can be quite shocking in the midst of the discipline and confession that usually characterises the Lenten period. But, the message is clear – the journey through the desert is a journey toward life and joy, for it leads us to recognise, and own for ourselves, the truth that Christ brings us salvation – life in all its fullness. Mary, Paul and the people of Israel all received this gift with tremendous joy, and wild expressions of love. This passionate worship of the Saviour, is a challenge to us to allow our faith to be not just of the head, but of the heart, and not just of the way of justice, judgment or righteousness, but also of the way of joy, celebration and appreciation.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
“All [people] will be called to give an account for everything good thing they beheld in life and did not enjoy.” – The Jerusalem Talmud.

GLOBAL APPLICATION: Two characteristics of our current world that contribute to injustice and suffering: 1) Inappropriate or extravagant celebration that ignores the cries of the poor, while squandering resources on frivolous and selfish pleasure. This injustice is rife throughout the world. 2) Judgemental asceticism that frowns on all light-hearted, fun and pleasurable experiences. This, too, is rife. However, authentic Celebration is a necessary discipline in following Christ, and in the fight against injustice. Poor and suffering communities often use singing, dancing and celebration as a way to rise above their circumstances, as did the slaves, the Civil Rights activists, and the anti-apartheid strugglers. As followers of Christ, our witness and work in the world is strengthened when we find ways to celebrate in inclusive, appropriate and life-affirming ways. What might it mean for our world if we took the call to celebration more seriously?

LOCAL APPLICATION: The message of Jesus is good news indeed, but unfortunately this truth is all too often obscured by those who seek to follow it. Through failure to celebrate – while frowning on the joy and play of others – and claiming a joy that we restrict only to those who look or believe like we do, we have left the impression that following Christ is about judgment, hatred, displeasure and legalism. As so many people seek to pour out the perfume of their lives at the feet of Christ, we stand by, like Judas, and judge, while hypocritically keeping life’s abundance for ourselves. Is it possible that this Lent we are being called to true celebration, allowing ourselves to be surprised and moved to passionate joy by the truth of the reign of God, while inviting all who will to join us in true celebration wherever and however we may find it?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Good News
The Healing Power Of Celebration

Hymn Suggestions:
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
Rejoice, The Lord Is King
I Surrender All
Sing Sing Sing (Link to YouTube video)
Hosanna (Link to YouTube video)
Extravagant Worship (Link to YouTube video)
Undignified (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy For The Eucharist

Video Suggestions:
Mary Anoints Jesus
Celebrate

Additional Resources:
General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church

The call to repentance continues this week. Although the focus shifts just a little bit, to themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. Often these aspects of the spiritual life are viewed primarily from an individualist perspective. This week’s readings, however, bring together the individual and the communal. Our reconciliation with God leads us into the “ministry of reconciliation”. Our forgiveness brings wholeness, not just to ourselves, but to others through us. This connection between the “me” and the “we” is such an important theme of the Gospel, and a good place to linger in this week’s worship, while also looking at the implications of the practice of forgiveness for justice in our world.

May you and your community know this forgiveness and reconciliation in this Lenten season.

READINGS:
Joshua 5:9-12: The Israelites celebrate the Passover, as God proclaims that the “disgrace of Egypt” is removed from them, and have their first meal in Canaan. The day after that the manna stops arriving.

Psalm 32: A celebration of the joy and healing that confession brings, and the restoration that God offers those who admit their sin. God’s promise to instruct and guide those who trust in God.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21: In Christ we are reconciled to God, and we are called to invite others into this reconciliation – both between people and God, and between people and people.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32: Jesus’ parable of the loving and forgiving father who welcomes back his wasteful and repentant son, and seeks to reconcile him with his resentful elder brother.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
The theme this week stands out very clearly in these readings – God removes disgrace; God forgives and restores; the prodigal is welcomed home and reconciled to his family; God reconciles us to Godself, and to each other, and we are called to do the same. Forgiveness flows from God’s infinite and unconditional grace, and is received through honest confession and repentance. But reconciliation with God, as much as it brings personal healing and restoration, is not only personal. It is also social, drawing us back into reconciliation with others, and into passing on to others the healing and grace we have received.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
“Christians are people who hate those who sin differently than they do.” Source unknown.

GLOBAL APPLICATION: Forgiveness and reconciliation are a global necessity, but are, unfortunately, a very scarce resource. Denial, projection, deflecting blame, and covering up appear to be the strategies of our age – in governments, in corporations, and even in the Church. The inevitable consequence of this is that those who are victimised and damaged, are generally left to bear their pain alone, with no hope of restitution, and no acknowledgement, apology or offer of help from those who have inflicted their suffering on them. We have seen this during the economic meltdown; we have seen it in third world countries, where exploitation by wealthy nations have left these countries bare of resources, and in deep debt (Haiti is a good example of this); we have seen it in the Church, where victims of abuse have been silenced or accused to protect the institution. As long as this remains the practice in our world, we will remain broken, and we will continue to break ourselves and others. Now is the time to proclaim that forgiveness is possible, is necessary and is the way to healing for us all. How can we call our world to honest confession, true, practical repentance, and into the life-giving way of forgiveness received and shared?

LOCAL APPLICATION: Our churches and communities are ripped apart by anger, hatred, vengeance and deceit. We know that when people live together – whether in a town or in a household – there will be disagreements, differences of belief and culture, and hurt inflicted on one another, whether intentional or not. We also know that maintaining the cycle of pain through broken relationships, grudges, judgment and paybacks only brings greater suffering. Jesus has offered us both the principle and the role model – in his teaching and in his actions Jesus demonstrated the healing and restoration that comes when we forgive and reconcile. It is a shame that we find it so hard to live this teaching out. But, if we, as followers of Christ can’t learn to admit our sin, repent of wrong action, and reconcile with those we have hurt – or have hurt us – what hope is there for the world?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Skeletons
The Tyranny Of Vengeance
Reckless Prodigals and Self-Righteous Siblings

Hymn Suggestions:
Amazing Grace
And Can It Be
Saviour Thy Dying Love
Grace Greater Than Our Sin
Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace (Link to YouTube video)
Your Grace Is Enough (Link to YouTube video)
Grace Like Rain (Amazing Grace) (Link to YouTube video)
Amazing Love (Kendrick) (Link to YouTube video)
Amazing Love (You Are My King) (Link to YouTube video)
Prodigal (Link Amazon download site here. Or to the Every-God Beloved Life CD site for preview and chord chart)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for the Agape

Video Suggestions:
Prodigal Daughter
Prodigal

Images:
PowerPoint Backgrounds from CrossDaily.com here & here

Additional Resources:
General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church

The theme this week is a powerful follow on from last week. The issues of suffering, judgment, repentance, compassion, and justice all come together in ways that are both comforting and disturbing.

I thought I would add one quick word of explanation for something I regularly do on this site. With many of the contemporary hymns (worship songs) that I suggest each week, I provide links to videos on YouTube. The main reason I do this, is that it is hard to know which songs are known by readers of this blog and which aren’t. And, since there aren’t really any sites that provide good free recordings of these songs to listen to and learn from, I offer the videos simply as a way of hearing the song, and learning how it goes, in absence of any other resources. I hope this is helpful.

May you continue to be drawn deeper into the mystery of grace as you journey through Lent in worship.

READINGS:
Isaiah 55:1-9: God’s higher thoughts: food and drink for those who have no money; forgiveness, influence and life for those who have sinned and are called back.

Psalm 63:1-8: A psalm of longing for God’s nourishing presence, and of thanksgiving for God’s satisfying care and life.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13: The disobedience and rebelliousness of the Israelites in the wilderness is a warning to us to resist the temptations we face. But, God provides, and strengthens us, if we will allow it.

Luke 13:1-9: Jesus confronts the idea that natural or human-initiated disasters only befall the sinful or the evil, and challenges the self-righteousness of his hearers, calling them to repentance, even as he reflects, in parable, on God’s mercy that gently waits for us to wake up and start bearing fruit.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
This week the readings move us very powerfully from last week’s theme, into a “next step”. Last week, we were challenged to recognise that faith, on one level, is not a protection from the world’s woes, but rather, it is a call to take up the cross, and embrace God’s life even when we have to suffer to do so. On another level, though, we were invited to celebrate that faith does lead us into a life that is deeper, richer and more meaningful than one of faithlessness. This week, we are taken one step further – we are to reject the idea that suffering is God’s punishment for sin, and blessing (or the avoidance of suffering) God’s reward. Rather, we are called to recognise our own need of God’s mercy and grace, and to respond by “bearing fruit” – manifesting the life of God’s reign, and bringing grace and mercy into the world. This week we are shocked out of our complacency, and challenged to be more determined in our commitment to follow Christ, even as we are assured of the gifts of God’s presence and God’s provision to fulfil our calling.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. – C.S. Lewis

GLOBAL APPLICATION: The significance of this week’s Gospel reading, while the Haiti earthquake remains fresh in our memories, while the suffering and chaos still remains, and while the work of rebuilding is still a future hope, is nothing less than obvious. While much can be said – and has been said – about whether this is God’s punishment or not, Jesus closes the book on that discussion very firmly. But, he doesn’t close the book on the significance of this event for every person – it reminds us that we all need God’s grace and mercy, and that we cannot stand off and debate the pain of others academically while ignoring the part our self-righteousness plays in their pain. There is a sense in which Haiti is not a judgement on the Haitians – it a judgment on those who have allowed the inequalities that made them vulnerable to this disaster. We cannot help but be challenged that in 1989 a major earthquake (7.0 on the Richter scale) hit California and left only 63 people dead, but this earthquake (also at 7.0 on the Richter scale) has left over 200 000 people dead. To read more of this analysis check Julie Clawson’s blog.

LOCAL APPLICATION: There is an unfortunate tendency in our world to turn away from pain – to stop looking, to avoid it and to distract ourselves. And when this doesn’t work, we sometimes turn to judgement and self-righteousness. But suffering is, as C.S. Lewis says, God’s megaphone to rouse us. Not that God creates suffering (we can debate that another time), but that God speaks very loudly through pain. And it’s not only our own pain that God speaks through. When others are in pain, God’s voice is clear and challenging – calling us repent of our avoidance and self-protection, and challenging us to bear the fruit of caring, compassionate action on behalf of the suffering. While Haiti is still on all of our minds, it may be that God is speaking to you through this disaster to be more aware of those who are suffering right on your doorstep. Who needs you to release your self-righteousness and complacency and offer them compassion and help right now in your community?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
The Sound Of Tears
Seeing
The Call Of Compassion

Hymn Suggestions:
The Voice Of God Is Calling
How Firm A Foundation
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
O Master Let Me Walk With Thee
We Shall Go Out With Hope Of Resurrection
God Of Justice (Link to YouTube video)
Forever (Link to YouTube video)
Your Grace Is Enough (Link to YouTube video)
God Will Make A Way (Link to YouTube video)
Consider It Joy (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy Of Compassion

Video Suggestions:
Invitation To The Thirsty
You Out There?

Other Resources:
GBOD Worship Planning Helps