24 March 2024
Palm Sunday
God Invites Us To Gather
Words of Welcome
Today is Palm and Passion Sunday. We will be celebrating communion near the end of our service so if you are worshiping online please have something ready. Here in the sanctuary we are using our cups …
Also I have palm crosses for all of you, please be sure to get one from the greeters on your way out.
Acknowledgment of the Land
Lent is a journey we are called to walk,
So too is the path to reconciliation with the first peoples of this land.
And so we acknowledge that the land upon which we are worshipping, creating our church home, and making our Lenten walk, is the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the credit. We give them thanks for welcoming us on this common journey toward peace and reconciliation.
Our Christ Candle is lit. We give thanks for the light of Christ in our life and in the work and worship we do together. If you are at home I invite you to light your own candle to celebrate the light that lives in our world. Let us prepare our hearts and minds for our worship, as we listen to our prelude.
Prelude:
Call to Worship
We join with the crowd that eagerly awaited the coming of Jesus.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!
Jesus entered the city
riding humbly on a donkey.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!
Like the crowd in Jerusalem 2000 years ago
we celebrate, sing, and welcome Jesus,
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God!
Hosanna in the highest!
Hymn: Hosanna Loud Hosanna. VU 123
Prayer of Approach & The Lord’s Prayer
God we welcome you this day in hope and appreciation.
We feel the excitement of the crowds and we cannot help but sing, and hope and wonder at all you are prepared and able to do in our world.
We are so ready for hope
So ready for change.
But we know too God that this day will lead to a week filled with questions, filled with soul searching, filled with shadows.
And so we pray that you will fill us this day with strength and wisdom to begin our Holy Week journey.
as we make our way through fog and shadows to the sunrise of Easter morning,
Give us we pray, on this bumpy and tension filled journey, signs to remind us we are not alone.
May echoes of the hope of this morning, stay with us.
In the name of Jesus and in words he taught us we pray
Our Creator
in heaven
Hallowed be your name
Your kindom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
for yours is the kindom
The power and the glory
Forever and ever
Amen.
Anthem:
The Word of God Proclaimed
Prayer of Illumination (Karen Kerr)
Holy God,
Through all of life’s trials and tribulations
your Word sustains us for the journey ahead.
Send your Spirit upon us
that we might listen, discern, and take heart.
Amen
Reading: Luke 19:28-40
After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 Now as he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,
“Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon: Hope Happens
Hymn: Ride On! Ride On in Majesty! VU 127
Our Response to God
Introduction of Offering: Now let us take time to offer to God and give thanks for the gifts that have been given to our church community throughout our week, and here today. Our offering will now be received.
Offertory Music: Giver of the Perfect Gift. VU 116 v. 1 & 4
Giver of the perfect gift,
Only hope of human race,
Hear the prayer our hearts uplift,
Gathered at thy throne of grace.
Oh may these our Lenten days,
blest by thee with thee be passed,
that with purer, nobler praise
we may keep they feast at last.
Offering Prayer
The crowds offered you their coats to walk on,
they waved palm branches, honouring your presence.
Today we honour you, God,
with our offerings and our love.
We lay these gifts before you,
humble tokens of our love,
a public display of affection for you, our hope.
Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Jesus, your arrival in Jerusalem was welcomed with a
show of palms and a shout of praise.
Yet soon you were abandoned. Even your closest friends left your side.
We confess that we too make a joyful noise at your
coming, but that we often turn our back on you when the
going gets rough.
We often serve you with our lips instead of with our
whole lives.
We intend to follow you wherever you go, but we often do not. Instead, like Peter, we deny you. We try to fit in with the crowd. We avoid risking ourselves and living into our faith.
Forgive us God for being timid,
Forgive us God for our part in the suffering of others and our world.
God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
God have mercy.
Sung Response: Kyrie MV 67
Kyrie eleison
Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie elei – Kyrie eleison (sing 2 x)
Assurance of Pardon
Friends, believe the good news of the Gospel.
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven!
Let us shout our hosannas with joy!
We are forgiven! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!
Communion Liturgy
Holy God as we enter Holy Week we know the shadows and turns that lie further down this road.
It is natural for us to be frustrated as the joy of earlier turns to concern, and then fear,
as the authorities come, arrests are made
and the one in whom we put so much hope faces trial and the cross.
But we know God that you have been with your people
through all of the trials they have faced, throughout millennium.
As the Israelites made their way out of bondage,
You were there.
As the people were taken captive by the Babylonians,
You were there.
As your church received your Spirit
and faced opposition and oppression again,
You were there.
When we fell,
When we sinned,
When we failed to notice you,
Throughout our doubts,
Throughout our wars
Throughout our pandemics.
You are there.
Never leaving us.
Forgiving us despite the pain and hurt we inflict.
You are there.
Through whatever pain we face, wherever the road ahead leads … you have been there, and you will be here.
With us.
And so now as the week’s journey begins
We follow the one who,
On the night he was sold into the unknown
By one of his friends with whom he ate,
Took a piece of bread
And after giving thanks
Tore it apart saying
“This is my body,
I give it for you.”
In the same way, after supper
He took a cup of wine
And shared it with them:
‘This is my blood,
poured out as a promise
that I will always go before you.”
And so we give you thanks
You who have walked the path before us
You who have known the pain and suffering
You who have hoped and feared
You who have shared the anticipation of what is not
But what may be.
We give you thanks
And we take the cup
From your hands.
We give you thanks
And break the bread
to share with your children
And we remember in awe
the love which death could not extinguish
And pray
For the justice
Which still eludes our grasp.
You who put your life into our hands
We put our lives in your hands.
May your spirit come to us
and through this meal may we be nourished for the journey ahead.
Go before us to light the way,
Go behind us to comfort and encourage
God with us
Go with us
Sharing the elements
Jesus Christ, the bread of life.
Jesus Christ, the cup of hope.
A PASSION LITANY
It is true that the people welcomed Jesus into their midst.
Their hosannas rang out, they called upon him as a saviour,
a mighty king.
They hoped that that he would cast the oppressors out of
their land and bring them glory and honour as did King David
before him.
But Jesus walked a different path and worked in a
different way to bring God’s salvation to the people.
The people did not understand this way –
and when Jesus was
betrayed into the hands of the authorities
and did not fight, they turned on him,
seeing him as a failure.
Even as he lay down his life for them, those closest to him
fled in fear.
Music for Reflection
Prayers of the People
God of the journey,
as our Holy Week journey begins we pray that the nourishment we have received this day will see us through.
We pray that you will give signposts for our way,
to remind us that we are not alone as our feet tread where we’d rather not go.
We pray that you will strengthen us as we falter, that you will forgive us for the times we turn away in fear.
We pray that you will make us even more mindful of one another and the individual crosses that are carried everyday by your children.
This year God, make us stronger than we have been
and more capable of love than we ever imagined.
Be with us God we pray
as we make our way through the shadows to Easter morning.
Amen.
*Hymn: Lift High the Cross. VU 151
*Benediction
As we go out into this world
Filled with hope but mindful of the twists and turns of this path we are on
May we feel the Spirit of God close
May we know that with each step we take
We are not alone.
Sung Blessing: Love Us Into Fullness MV 81
Love us into fullness, touch us with your grace;
Jesus in your mercy, draw us to your face.
Love us into fullness, hold us in your care,
Cheer us with your presence, here and everywhere.
Love us into fullness, and we will be strong;
Jesus walk beside us, fill our hearts with song.
