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Worship
Service for April 10, 2022
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Lord God, we seek some sign of Your Holy
Presence.
P: As we begin our worship, draw us to You.
L: Let us glimpse You at work, not only here
in this house, but in the world.
P: You bring hope and life to all of Your
children.
Opening Hymn – All Glory, Laud, and Honor Hymn #88 (Blue Hymnal)
Prayer of Confession
Lord Jesus,
we are a fickle people, quick to turn away.
We are quick to flock to You when all is well, but we are prone to
scatter when there is opposition or criticism.
Too often we have kept silent before You, afraid to proclaim Your
praise. It is easy to join the crowd as
You ride triumphantly into Jerusalem – singing our joys and expectations, dancing
our hope and dreams. It is far more
difficult to stand by You as the crowd cries for Your crucifixion. Forgive our weakness when we turn away. Strengthen us for the journey ahead as we
relive Your suffering and death, that we might stay beside You to the end. Give us the courage to shout our hosannas,
not only today, but each and every day. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: The Lord is our strength and might. Jesus is our salvation. In Jesus our cries are answered, our
salvation is at hand.
P: In Jesus our sins are forgiven. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the
third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the
resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN
Choir: See the Savior Ride
Into Jerusalem
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Gracious
God, the author of salvation, we give you thanks for Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who came in your name and turned the lonely way of rejection and death into
triumph. Grant us the steadfast faith to enter the gates of
righteousness, that we may receive grace to become citizens of your heavenly
kingdom.
Holy Father, who gave his only son so that we might find life and live it
abundantly, awaken in us the humility to serve wherever creation is broken and
in need. By your Spirit, call us into the world as a holy people, dying
to the things which separate us from your love, and being raised with the
abundance and joy of hope and peace. Through humility let us crucify our
pride. Through simple living let us crucify poverty. Through
solidarity let us crucify suffering. Through faith let us crucify
despair.
Sovereign Lord, everlasting and almighty, in your tender love for your
children, you sent your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon him our
nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great
humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering,
and also share in his resurrection.
We pray this day for our loved ones;
we pray for…
And in silence we offer up our
unspoken prayers to you…
We pray
this in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever, as we continue 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. 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, forever. AMEN.
Hymn – Hosanna
Hymn #296 in Brown Hymnal
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Psalm
118:1-2, 19-29
Second Scripture Reading – Luke
19:28-40
Sermon “And
the Stones Will Cry Out”
In Luke’s account, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt, a
young donkey, a crowd starts to gather. Jesus
knows he’s heading toward his painful death on a cross, but the people don’t
know that, and at this point, the crowds are excited to see him. It turns into an impromptu parade of sorts. They throw down their cloaks for him to ride
over, treating Jesus as they’d treat royalty. And they start to praise God. Luke tells us they say, “Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace
in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Again, the first part of their chant is
something meant for a king, words from the Psalms meant for a festival day. The crowds are greeting Jesus like a king, but
Jesus arrives on a donkey, not a war horse. The second part of their greeting to Jesus
echoes the words from Luke’s gospel that the angels sing when Jesus is born:
“Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Luke reminded us when Jesus was born that
Jesus is no earthly king, born in a palace surrounded by luxury. Jesus’ authority, his reign, is one of true
peace.
John Crossan wrote in his book, Render Unto Caesar: The
struggle over Christ and Culture, that “On our Palm Sunday, Jesus mounted
(pun intended) a public demonstration against Roman imperial control, starting
from ‘Bethphage and Bethan, near the Mount of Olives’ and going toward
Jerusalem (Mark 11:1). In an
anti-triumphal entry, he rode into Jerusalem from the east on a donkey in a
symbolic subversive demonstration against the Roman governor Pilate, arriving
from the west on a stallion. Pilate came
from his headquarters at coastal Caesarea to overpower the Passover crowds if
necessary. Jesus came from Galilee to
empower those same crowds — if possible.”
“…Jesus was greeted as the Davidic Messiah, as a New David:”
“As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the
road. As he was now 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, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest
heaven!”
The Pharisees are upset by this demonstration. They say to Jesus, “Teacher, order your
disciples to stop.” We don’t know
exactly why they want to settle the crowds. We suspect they’re jealous of Jesus’
popularity, threatened by his clear authority that seems to overlook their
wisdom and leadership. But, more likely,
I think they’re afraid: Jesus being greeted as he enters Jerusalem like some
sort of king, even if Jesus wasn’t asking to be so treated - well, that would
draw a lot of unwanted attention on the people - both from the Jewish King
Herod, seen as a puppet of Rome, and from the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. Jerusalem was occupied by the Roman Empire,
and such an event like this was dangerous. No one wanted the Roman authorities to get
more involved in the lives of the Jewish people than they already were. And here was Jesus coming into Jerusalem on
the back of a donkey with the crowds gathering more and more praising him as
king on the very same day at the very same moment that Pontius Pilate was
entering Jerusalem on the back of a war horse expecting crowds to gather
for his own entry. What do you think
would happen if Pilate learned that all the people were on the other side of
Jerusalem shouting, “Blessed is the king” while no one shows up to his own parade?
However, I do think it is interesting that at least some of the Pharisees
are here with Christ and his followers, rather than at the other procession.
Jesus responds to those Pharisees, “I tell you, if these people
were silent, the stones would shout out!” Those words are words found in the writing of
the prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk was
writing during a time of great distress in Israel’s history. The Assyrians were destroying city after city,
and the people lived in fear. Habakkuk
cries out to God, “How long? How long
will we cry for help, God, and you won’t listen?” Habakkuk waits for God’s answer.
God does answer, and God makes it clear that
every injustice the people have suffered at the hands of enemies - God has
seen. God promises that their
deliverance is coming. They have to
wait, but deliverance is coming, and God sees all that is happening. It is God
who says to Habakkuk, “The very stones will cry out from the wall, and the
plaster will respond from the woodwork.” God says that even these inanimate objects are
crying out at the injustice and pain and hardship that has been visited on
God’s people. And God hears, and
responds.
So, when Jesus uses these words from Habakkuk, he’s telling the
Pharisees that in the face of injustice and oppression, like the Jews of Jesus’
days were experiencing from the Roman Empire, nothing can stop people from
crying out from deliverance. And if the
people’s voices were somehow stopped, then even the rocks would take up the cry
instead. And when the people cry out,
when the rocks cry out for deliverance, for help, when they’re crying out, “God
save us!” whether it is with Hosannas and palm branches or with cloaks laid on
the ground and stones crying out instead of human voices, God hears. God listens. And God promises deliverance will come.
It is here that I cannot help but think of all those who have
cried out for deliverance in the past.
Peoples who have been oppressed by nations, by the majority of culture,
by rulers who have wanted to silence the voice of those who have wanted justice,
but who have been treated badly. Over countless
generations, this has occurred to many different groups of people; the Jewish
people for example have been persecuted and oppressed throughout history, but
other minorities and groups have been as well.
And this has occurred because of skin color or eye shape or a belief
system, or lifestyle, or types of clothing they wear, or just something that
has set them apart from others in order to keep one or more groups down in order
to raise the influence, wealth, and power of another group.
Often the cries of the oppressed people have gone unheard,
unnoticed, or unattended to for years. And
here in this passage from Luke, Jesus speaks to this. If the people in power will not hear the
voice of those who have suffered under persecution, if those who have been
oppressed can not find justice from those who hold influence, if those who have
been ridiculed for their very lives from those whose wealth silences them –
there will be justice - even if the stones have to cry out for them.
In our day, I find that those stones aren’t literal stones, but
rather pictures. It isn’t until we are
faced with the truth in pictures, that we often finally get it and make changes;
pictures of atrocities committed against other fellow human beings. Sometimes words mean nothing, but when we see
it, we are moved to change.
Such as pictures of gas chambers and mass graves, pictures of lynching
and hoods over faces, pictures of brutal beatings and nearly unrecognizable
human features, pictures of bombed buildings and children running for cover,
pictures of stark discrimination in signs such as whites only over a water
fountain. These are the stones that cry
out for justice when voices will not be heard.
And the picture that should rend all of us mute before God, on
our knees seeking justice for every human on earth is the one that God did on
our behalf. The one picture that shows our
equality in the eyes of God and therefore should make us equal in the eyes of one
another.
And that picture, that stone that cries out, is the one that
comes at the end of this week when God hung on a cross to save us from our
sins.
Whose parade should we be a part of? Pilate’s parade? Or Christ’s?
Will we shout for justice and be held accountable for our sins? Or will we have to wait for the stones (or
the pictures) do it for us while the atrocities against our fellow human beings
continue to mount?
Offertory – Hosanna (Choir)
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Glory be to you, O God, for the gift of creation and for your
everlasting mercy. Praise be to you, O
Christ, for your redeeming love and the promise of new life. Thanks be to you, O Holy Spirit, for
guidance, counsel, and abiding revelation.
We honor and worship you in presenting our offerings this day. Take not only these monetary offerings but
also our very lives and let them be consecrated to you, O God. AMEN.
Closing Hymn – Hosanna, Loud Hosanna Hymn #89/297
Benediction –
And now may
the Grace of God, the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and the love of Jesus
Christ be with each and every one of you, those that you love and those that no
one loves now and forever. AMEN.
Postlude
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