April 5th

5th April 2020 (Palm Sunday)

Service Playlist:

Hymns and songs

  1. Hosanna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoM0AT8fBvs
  2. Come now is the time to worship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPWq8eM4lu8
  3. I will enter his gates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPihaH9p-Y
  4. Rejoice the Lord is King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-3sAw-QELQ
  5. Blest be the King whose coming is in the name of God!
    For him let doors be opened, no hearts against him barred!
    Not robed in royal splendour, in power and pomp comes he,
    but clad as are the poorest – such his humility.

Blest be the King whose coming is in the name of God!
By those who truly listen his voice is truly heard.
Pity the proud and haughty, who have not learned to heed
the Christ who is the Promise and has our ransom paid.

Blest be the King whose coming is in the name of God!
He only to the humble reveals the face of God.
All power is his, all glory! All things are in his hand,
all ages and all peoples, till time itself shall end!

Blest be the King whose coming is in the name of God!
He offers to the burdened the rest and grace they need.
Gentle is he and humble! And light his yoke shall be,
for he would have us bear it so he can make us free.  Tune Aurelia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mA9D8nnVY0

Readings

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Matthew 21:1-11

Prayers

Gathering Prayer

Though we have known hardship and pain, though life has not always turned out as we had hoped,
we will stand here and say: God’s steadfast love endures for ever!

Though life becomes more complex, the deepest questions remain unanswered, and the mystery of faith deepens,
we will say: God’s steadfast love endures for ever!

And though the pain of the world often seems more than we can bear or address,
we will stand firm in our faith and say: God’s steadfast love endures for ever!

~ written by Ann Siddall, and posted on the website of the Stillpoint Spirituality Centre.

Prayers for others and ourselves

We pray to you, Lord of palm-branches and the cross, for you understand us and in love you have promised not to push away any who come to you.

So we pray for people who feel pushed away: pushed away from a living faith in Jesus by pressure from friends and family; those who feel pushed away by other people in churches if they do not share the same kinds of ideas, or ways, or clothes; for people who are pushed out by those who want power, whose main love to be noticed, to have control.

We pray for your church that all those who trust in Jesus will be made able by your Spirit to follow his humility, to see and imitate his servant life, to welcome and not to condemn. Help your church to be like Jesus. We pray to you, Lord of palm-branches and the cross, for you know the warm glow of being praised and the loneliness of being hated.

We pray for world leaders, quick to stand in the limelight taking decisions which affect everyone in the world but slow at times to do the steady, less glamorous work to which they are called.

We pray for world leaders to understand their role to serve the peoples of the world, that posturing will be replaced by practical action to make a difference, and jockeying for position be replaced by genuine efforts to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and care for those who are weak.

In days when food banks are required in our land to feed families who struggle to provide the basics for life, we ask that you will re-arrange our priorities and help us to live more like Jesus.

We pray to you, Lord of palm-branches and the cross, because you know how quickly life changes to death.

We pray for those who have recently lost those whom they have loved. In the shock, confusion, pain and sorrow especially of unexpected loss, we pray for hearts to be open to the comfort of your Spirit, shown through friendship and community and as deep calls to deep.

We remember those we know who mourn in these days, who need to be sure of that you invite those in sorrow to turn to you; and we name them before you now…

We ask, God of grace, that you will make us more like some of the crowd: that we will follow Jesus and give him our praise in the way we live; that we will turn away from wrong and evil and stand on the Master’s side, that we will be faithful in worshipping the one who has come in the Lord’s name through our singing, our worship, our prayers, our attention, in giving our skills, time and means through the days of our lives;
and in the offering which we make now. Bless, we pray, all that is given to your glory and the good of many. Through Jesus who is the Saviour of all. Amen

 ~ written by Rev Grant Barclay and posted on the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website.

Sending Out into Holy Week Prayer

And now we lay down the palm branches. And with them we lay down our belief that there is another way for you to be God. As the last echo of the final alleluia fades, so does our hope that this journey can end in any other way.

The week stretches ahead glory-less and pain-full. Whether we walk with all faith or none we look towards the cross, knowing it is both the most human and most divine of all journeys. Travel the road with courage, with love, and with the uneasy peace that is the gift of faith into this holiest of weeks. Amen.

~ written by Cheryl Lawrie and posted on [hold this space]. http://holdthisspace.org.au/