Calendar

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.

Hi all, as we continue on the next step to Holy Week, let us take time to follow Jesus to the Temple.  Blessings and peace be yours in abundance, Pastor Jessica

Holy Monday

Called to action:  overturning tables and prayer for the nations

Action: find Coins from other countries in your home or on the internet

We don’t find it easy to talk about money. It might invoke in us a reaction of embarrassment or even anger.  It crosses the line between our public faith and our private lives.  Yet Jesus often did precisely this in many of his parables.  He spoke of what to do with our money.  On holy Monday we come to reflect on our relationship with money, our money worries, and what our money choices say about our relationship with God.

Prayer

God of true value and worth, in a world of fools gold and counterfeit currency, may we discern your hallmark of love, to find our treasure.  You quiet our hearts and minds as we still our bodies, slow our breathing, and open ourselves to you.  Amen.

Scripture

Psalm 56; mark 11:15 – 19

How many of us struggle with money worries? Jesus taught so much about money but we can be afraid too afraid to mention it.  When Jesus came into Jerusalem, the first thing he did was to go into the temple; the most holy place of the Jewish people.  He was appalled at what he found there: moneychangers who made a profit because people had to change their money into temple coinage to make the offerings. Dealers and animals exploited the people’s need to make sacrifices. Instead of being a place of worship to the glory of God, the temple became a marketplace, a robber’s den.  Instead of being a place where God’s grace was available to all, the temple was being used as a way to exploit people’s fate, instead of to explain peoples faith, and to make money at their expense.  Jesus overturned their tables and drove them out of the temple.  Our fears about money can run deep.  Will I have enough? Can I pay the bills? Will I be able to afford the care I need when I’m older?  These worries can loom large, even when there is a safety net provided by the state.  And, of course in many nations of the world, there is no such protection; many people earn too little to live on; many people struggle to feed their families today, let alone set aside money for the future.

Jesus calls us to overturn the tables of injustice and oppression in our world. Sometimes, we think of faith as a private matter; they appear really spiritual.  But in reality Jesus shows us that faith changes how we act; faith without deeds is worthless. He challenges injustice and inequality, coming to cast down the mighty from their thrones and raise up the humble and meek.  So we have to look onwards in decided deciding how we use our money responsibly.

What does it mean to have enough beyond that?

Is our disposable income simply available for our own leisure activities?

Are we making choices that are generous and outward-looking?

Will we acknowledge that our money is not narrowly ours but is held in trust from God to wisely and generously be used?

How does that change things?

Money is the crunch point where we choose to put our principles into practice or not.

Look up online or find a coin in your home from another country.   Share what we know about that country as we focus on money and acknowledge inequality and injustice.

What practical action can we take in response?  Where do we need to overturn tables? Where do we need to take a stand? Is our church outward-looking, engaged in the struggle for justice?  Personally is there a trusted place where we can honestly be held accountable for the way we choose to spend our money?

Is there any way that we want to change our own use of money as and we embrace the challenge to use it responsibly

Will you pray that this house will be a House of prayer for all nations?

Think of the many different countries they represent –

Prayer

Bless all the countries of the world, rich and poor, strong and weak, and give us courage to challenge and change injustice and inequality, both locally and globally.  We pray for all who are constrained by debt, living under the weight of money worries, feeling unable to break free from the burden of the past. We pray for people who are hungry today because they cannot afford the food they need and for all who struggle to pay the bills.  We pray for all who are afraid today; we pray for all who fear unemployment, for all who are fearful that they will not have enough money to provide for their needs. We pray for all those who are afraid of the future; we pray for the changing face of finance, for those who are offering fair terms of finance, for all who are working to encourage a good practices of money management, and for all who are supporting people in moving through debt to get their finances on a firmer footing.  Oh, God, overturn the tables of our false values, where there are unfair trades or unjust systems.  Recruit us to the cause of justice, to unfreeze our fear,  undo our Indifference, unlock our compassion, and enable our hands to work and act a move for you.

Silence

In silence we reflect on what one thing each of us could do to over turn the tables of injustice or to use our own money more responsibly.  could we join a credit union or volunteer with the food bank? Could we offer to support to a charity or commit to buying fairly traded goods or perhaps decide to review our own income and expenditure with a trusted friend?  In silence we place the coins back around the table around a candle as a sign of our commitment to this one action; once all the coins are placed on the table, the candle is then lit.

Scripture

Matthew 7:21

Prayer

Lord of all nations, overturned the tables of our hearts; drive out all selfishness and complacency that we may be a living temple for your glory.  Strengthen us with the resolve we offer today; may we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you.  Amen.

Holy Tuesday 

Called to forgive – debts and debtors, perfume and tears

Suggested Action: have ready olive oil or perfume

Opening Prayer

God of sinners and Saints, in a world where many are looked down on, many are afraid of rejection, help us to see with your non-judgmental eyes; quiet our hearts and minds as we still our bodies, slow our breathing, and open ourselves to you. Amen.

Scripture Psalm 63:1-4; Mark 14: 3-9

Reflection

Have you ever felt undervalued or look down on?  If we’re honest, we are also sometimes guilty of looking down on others, perhaps without even realizing it. We all make judgments because of their background or their reputation. Jesus was looked down on because he was provincial ‘can anything good come out of Nazareth?’.  And in so many encounters, Jesus challenges and overturns prejudice and judgment, teaching us to see people for their true worth. 

On this Holy Tuesday, we reflect on the way we judge and undervalue one another, recognizing how Jesus showed us a different way of relating. Jesus is eating a meal with Simon the leper when a woman comes to anoint his feet with costly perfume; others are scandalized because of the costly waste.  In other accounts, Simon is critical of the woman’s reputation and thinks less of Jesus because he accepts her gift. 

As a leper Simon himself knew about it exclusion; he would have been looked on down on.  But despite the fact he knew the pain of exclusion, Simon still chooses to judge and exclude others, dividing the world into respectable people and sinners, the sort of people you don’t you invite to supper. 

The woman is looked down on; she is judged and condemned, either for being a Center for being too emotional and wasteful.  But Jesus stands up for her, saying she will always be remembered for this. Jesus keeps on including people, whether others look down on them or not; and he helps Simon to understand this:  that we all need forgiveness, that we can never be good enough or respectable enough, to earn God’s love.

God’s love comes as a pure gift of Amazing Grace.  It is one of the hardest things to accept: that there is nothing we can do to make God love us anymore and there is nothing we can do to make God love us any less.  God longs for us to recognize that love and to allow that love to transform us for us to be forgiven and healed, at the depths of our being.  Like the woman with the alabaster jar, that deep healing of our past hurts, often evokes tears and an overflowing generosity that reaches out to others.

Silence

After a time of silence, anoint one another’s hands with costly perfume or oil, making the sign of the cross and saying, ‘May God’s love overflow in you.’

Closing Prayer

Forgiving God, you long to heal us with your touch; open our hearts to your gift of unconditional love; anoint us with the tears of your spirit; wipe away the hearts hurts and harms of our memory, that your love may overflow in us and through us. We pray for all who are undervalued, looked down upon or despised because of their nationality, color or religion; for we are your children, made in your image and likeness.  We pray for all who are undervalued look down on or despise because of their poverty, disability, or background.  We pray for all who are undervalued, look down on, or despised, because of their past mistakes, failures or wrongdoing.

Blessing

Peace in our hearts; peace in our homes; peace in our nation; peace in our world. 

God longs for us to know peace peace of the Lord.  May peace be with you also.  

God is generous sitting in judgment, welcoming all people, seeing God’s image. 

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

Holy Wednesday

Called to trust seeing changers second fiddles and learning humility healing and wholeness

Suggested Action:  kneel or sit, lay hands on or pray

Opening Prayer

God you know the worst in us, our fearful betrayals or weakness and our frailty. You go on trusting us. Quiet our hearts and minds as we still our bodies slower breathing and open you to ourselves. Amen.

Scripture  Psalm 55:12 – 14; Mark 14:10 – 11 and 17 – 21

Reflection

In the last week of his life, Jesus had to face terrible suffering; but perhaps the hardest experience was to be betrayed by his friends.  It is those who are closest to us that have the greatest capacity to hurt us. Judas is remembered for his great betrayal, but Peter and each of the disciples also betrayed Jesus.  On Wednesday in Holy Week we come to face up to our fears, recognize our betrayals, and to ask for healing and wholeness to be reconciled to God to ourselves and one another.

Have you ever been betrayed? Are you afraid of being betrayed? We think of the many ways that we can betray the trust of others, such as relationships through infidelity and friendship when we let someone down is in business when we serve our own interests at work when people are overlooked or treated badly.

in our Bible reading, we hear of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus; it is so hard to understand his motives:  was that money, the 30 pieces of silver, or the money Judas said he took from the common purse? Was it power wanting to be on the winning side and not just getting caught up with the losers? Or did Judas feel that he would have to force Jesus’ hand and begin a rebellion?

In the end the motives don’t really matter; the betrayal happens.  Of course Judas isn’t the only one who betrays Jesus; all the disciples let him down, filled with fear.  They all ran away; Peter even denies knowing him.  And it is that fear behind betrayal that fateful evening.

Fear can bring out the worst in us; it can undermine our confidence, our best selves, and leave us to act in ways we deeply regret.  Fear of growing older can lead to a midlife crisis; fear of hardship can lead to a betrayal of trust; fear of losing status can lead to selfish actions.

Silence

Use this as a time for the laying on of hands and prayers for healing and wholeness

Those laying on hands may pray the following:

Spirit of the living God fill you heal you and make you whole in Jesus name, Amen

Lord Jesus, you know our deepest fears and hurts our darkest secrets our least attractive traits; you choose to trust us and to love us.  You choose to see the best that we can be; help us to face our hurts and fears, and trust you with them.  Help us and others to inhabit the best of ourselves, to live with your confidence in us, and when we do fail, when we betray ourselves and others, forgive us and help us to start again.  Amen.

Blessing

God, in Your healing trust, in the face of failure, another chance when we betray, You love us, despite everything.  Be now among us, Jesus our brother.  Bring us your blessing now and always. Amen.

Good Friday is the day we remember Jesus’ crucifixion. The hours of noon to 3 p.m. are particularly significant as these commemorate the time Jesus hung on the cross. It is an especially important time to pray for the church and the world for whom Christ gave his life.