Palm Sunday

Called to follow: lay down our cloaks, and take up our cross

Suggested action:  Make newspaper or green colored palms

Opening Prayer

Jesus, You enter our life humbly riding on a donkey, staying at our level.  You center our hearts and minds.  Still our bodies be present now on Palm Sunday.  We remember Jesus entering Jerusalem to great acclaim and popularity.  People lined the streets, calling and shouting.  They thought he was their Liberator, their Savior, at last their Messiah.  They lay down a carpet of palm branches to welcome him but Jesus was not what they expected. He was far from the conquering hero making a triumphal entry.  In their excitement, they lost who Jesus really was.  He was lost in the crowd; for he laid aside Majesty,emptied himself of power, and entered Jerusalem as the servant King, humble and gentle, riding on the back of a beast of burden.

Today, we take up that challenge of Palm Sunday to be like Jesus and to lay down our pride and take up our cross. Today, we come to lay down our cloaks, all the things we have to protect ourselves from our fears, layers of protection that distance us from one another and from God.  We lay down all the layers of self interest and hardness of heart; we lay them down so that empty hands and open hearts receive the peace and joy and love and hope of God.  Amen.

Read Mark 11:1-11

Silence:

Reflect on this question what are your cloaks that you want to lay down today?

Prayer

We bring to God our cloaks, all our layers of protection, the ways we keep others at a distance.  We lay them down.

we wait for the Lord.

Keep watch take heart.

We bring to God our impatience and our expectations, our frustrations, and our unhappiness.  And we lay them down.  We bring to God all that we are hoping for and longing for, all that we are waiting for.  And we hold it all in the stream of God’s grace.  We bring to God all things that we could be the hidden, both potential and possibilities in our lives; and we hold it all in the streams of God’s grace.

Holy Spirit of God, we wait for you speak to us with your still small voice; quiet our fears; and hold us when we are anxious. Comfort us when we are distressed; renew our strength; restore our faith; refresh our vision; help us to wait with you through these days of Holy Week to make space in our lives to receive you.  Lord Jesus, when we lose sight of you, crowded out by our fears and anxiety, search us out with your piercing gaze; find us and hold us in your undefended heart of love.  And so may welay aside our false selves finding that in you.  Amen.

Blessing

In You, we are made whole.

God in our longing, strength in our waiting,

love in our fearing, peace in our stillness,

be now with us and among us.

Jesus our brother, bring us your blessing now and always.Amen.