Worship & Prayers for Palm Sunday

Opening Rite 

If you’re at home you might wish to light a candle, make sure you are sitting comfortably and take a few deep breaths to still yourself.  

The Lord is here.  His Spirit is with us.

Prayers of Penitence

Christ himself carried up our sins in his body to the tree, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds we have been healed.       1 Peter 2.24

Let us confess our sins.

Silence for reflection

Lord Jesus Christ, we confess we have failed you as did your first disciples. We ask for your mercy and your help. When we take our ease rather than watch with you: Lord, forgive us. Christ have mercy.

When we bestow a kiss of peace yet nurse enmity in our hearts: Lord, forgive us. Christ have mercy. 

When we strike at those who hurt us rather than stretch out our hands to bless: Lord, forgive us. Christ have mercy.

When we deny that we know you for fear of the world and its scorn: Lord, forgive us. Christ have mercy.

May almighty God, who sent his Son into the world to save sinners, bring you his pardon and peace, now and for ever. Amen

The Collect   

You might like to keep a few moments of silence

Almighty and everlasting God, who in your tender love towards the human race sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross: grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Isaiah 50:4-9a

The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.  Morning by morning he wakens -  wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.  The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backwards.  I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.   The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;  he who vindicates me is near.  Who will contend with me?  Let us stand up together.  Who are my adversaries?  Let them confront me.  It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?  All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

Psalm 31:9-16

/R: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in trouble; my eye is consumed with sorrow, my soul and my body also. For my life is wasted with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails me because of my affliction, and my bones are consumed. /R:

I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even to my neighbours, an object of dread to my acquaintances; when they see me in the street they flee from me. /R:

I am forgotten like one that is dead, out of mind; I have become like a broken vessel. For I have heard the whispering of the crowd; fear is on every side; they scheme together against me, and plot to take my life. /R:

But my trust is in you, O Lord. I have said, ‘You are my God. ‘My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. ‘Make your face to shine upon your servant, and save me for your mercy’s sake.’ /R:

Philippians 2:5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.  Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

The Gospel according to Matthew                                     Chapter 21-1:11

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord   Praise to you O Christ

Reflection

In the Gospel of John, Jesus visits Jerusalem regularly as a pilgrim at the great Jewish feasts.  The other Gospels concentrate on his final Passover visit, during which he is arrested and executed.  We might easily imagine the holy city in chaos at Passover, the most important of the great Jewish festivals. Pilgrims from all over the Jewish diaspora around the Mediterranean, together with Gentile visitors, swell the local population. Passover was the most volatile of the festivals, with its reminders of liberation from Egyptian captivity. In the law of Moses, it is instituted as a ‘day of remembrance’ that extends to future generations, who remember God’s deliverance as if it is actually happening to them (Exodus 12:14). With popular feelings so ramped up, the Roman occupying power raised its profile, as the governor moved into his residence and additional troops were drafted in. Hopes of a free, independent state of Judea had been rumbling in Jerusalem for well over a century. Passover always threatened to turn the rumble into a roar, especially when pilgrims spread branches on the road to remember Simon, who liberated Jerusalem from foreign rule in 141 BC (see 1 Maccabees 13:51).  Jesus was careful to avoid becoming the focus of popular dissent, hence his deliberately staged arrival on a donkey. Matthew’s interpretation of words from Zechariah 9:9 has Jesus riding a donkey and its foal. This is Matthew’s way of emphasising the significance of these particular Scriptures. Jesus chooses to enter the holy city at Passover as its humble king: not the son of David the soldier, but the son of David the healer (David’s son Solomon was known as a healer). The message is directed to Galilean pilgrims, including his disciples, who see him as messianic. Israel’s true king ‘comes in the name of the Lord’ (v.9) – words from Psalm 118:26, one of the psalms sung at Passover – in humble obedience to God.  Jerusalem is in turmoil, but for Matthew this is more than Passover commotion. It recalls the impact of the magi, who came looking for the ‘king of the Jews’ (2:1-3). For all his humility, Jesus has been a disturbing presence throughout Matthew’s Gospel, which continues as his entry gives way to his arrest and execution as ‘king of the Jews’ (27:11,37).

Reproduced with permission www.rootsontheweb.com 2002-2021  

Prayers

Spend a few moments praying for the people you know and love, for the world, for peace and for the relief of refugees everywhere. 

On Palm Sunday           

True and humble king, hailed by the crowd as Messiah: grant us the faith to know you and love you, that we may be found beside you on the way of the cross, which is the path of glory. Amen

Praying for the Earth                                                         Natural disasters

Help us to understand the powers at work in your creation, in the storm and flood, in the earthquake and landslide, in the snow and ice. Grant us wisdom in choosing where to live and work, to build houses and grow crops. Help us to support our neighbours around the world w hen natural disasters devastate their lives. Amen

From the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer for the Church 

Porvoo Communion: Diocese of Armagh (Church of Ireland), Diocese of Funen (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark) and Diocese of Sodor and Man

Anglican Communion: The Anglican Church of Melanesia Primate: Archbishop Leonard Dawea

Diocese of Møre: Cathedral Deanery of Molde: Parishes of Sekken and Midsund

Diocese of Newcastle: Pray for all the Honorary Assistant Bishops: Stephen Platten, John Packer and Mark Bryant 

Please pray today for Brogan Hume and the people of Cramlington, as Bishop Mark collates and inducts him as Rector of Cramlington.

From our Parish Prayer Cycle this week 

pray for peace in the world

For the sick and those being cared for in hospital or at home      

For those in residential care    

For those who have died recently

Brian Smart

For those whose year’s minds are this week 

Joe Stothard, Isabella Buston, Evelyn Graham, Richard Mark Kears, Anthony Alan Jobson, Archie Davison (priest), Caroline Morrison, Florence Dick, Jessie Pybus, Margaret Render, Jessie Scott, Jack Eales, Ann Fudge and Brian Thompson

You might like to end your prayers with The Lord's Prayer  

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. 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 thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.  Amen.

The Conclusion

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the  Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen

Let us bless the Lord! Thanks be to God!