Intimations Friends, it is with sadness that I intimate the death of one of our elders, Hugh Young, on Saturday 28th March. Please keep Ina, Pamela and Alan, Jan and Charlotte and all Hugh’s family in your prayers. Last Sunday evening we were invited to light a candle and pray at 7 pm. As we begin another week of ‘lockdown’ we are once again being asked to join together in prayer on Palm Sunday. I invite you to do so using the words on the Church of Scoland’s website, https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/news/2020/churches- to-join-in-prayer-on-palm-sunday-evening If you are looking for more about this weeks readings: www.rootsontheweb.com/adultsathome5apr www.rootsontheweb.com/familiesathome5apr © ROOTS for Churches Ltd (www.rootsontheweb.com) 2002-2020. Reproduced with permission. This morning I have chosen to focus on Jesus’ entry in to Jerusalem. During the week to come I invite you to journey through Holy Week to the cross, reading from Matthew 26: 14 - 27: 66 We gather in our homes in the presence of God to worship Him. From Psalm 118 Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good and his love is eternal. Let all who worship him say, “His love is eternal,” The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid. Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good, and his love is eternal. As I have prepared these short acts of worship, I have tried to use well known, well loved hymns that you might want to sing out loud… CH4 367 Hosanna, loud hosanna Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang; Through pillared court and temple the lovely anthem rang. To Jesus, who had blessed them close folded to His breast, The children sang their praises, the simplest and the best. From Olivet they followed mid an exultant crowd, The victor palm branch waving, and chanting clear and loud. Bright angels joined the chorus, beyond the clouds sky, ‘Hosanna in the highest! Glory to God on high “Hosanna in the highest!” that ancient song we sing, For Christ is our Redeemer, the Lord of heaven our King. O may we ever praise Him with heart and life and voice, And in His blissful presence eternally rejoice! Let’s pray, Lord God, let us approach with shouts of praise: hosanna in the highest! Let us draw close to you on this day that caused disturbance and disruption. Let us approach the throne of the one who came as a humble servant, who came to set us free, to change things for ever. Hosanna to the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Today as we look on our world we do not recognise it but you Lord are the same, yesterday today, for ever. Lord Jesus, you came to serve, not to be served. Forgive us when we put ourselves and our needs before those of our brothers and sisters. Lord Jesus, you came to bring peace. Forgive us when we cause more fights, more trouble, and more wars than peace. Lord Jesus, you came to set the captives free. Forgive us when we don’t stand up for justice and freedom for our neighbours. Lord Jesus, you came to meet us where we are. Forgive us when we don’t stand with each other through the pain and struggle. Help us to live in this changed world by serving one another, by being kind to each other and walking with our fellow pilgrims. Help us to live in a world when we can no longer offer the touch of a caring compassionate hand, help us to find ways of sharing your love with others Hear us now as we join together in the words Jesus gave his followers, 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 debts as we forgive our debtors, And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever Amen Readings: Matthew 21: 1 - 11 If you don’t have a Bible to hand then visit https://www.biblegateway.com Reflections Some of today’s reflection is taken from Roots (© ROOTS for Churches Ltd (www.rootsontheweb.com) 2002-2020. Reproduced with permission.) and some is the words of Charlotte Methuen (from the Church of Scotland website) The story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is a familiar story for many of us, bringing with it memories of Palm Sundays past, with children waving home made palm branches, with palm crosses handed out. (They are in a box on my study floor - for once I was organised!) But this is not to be. In our reading we hear of a community on the move and a city in turmoil. As we look around us, we see not just a city but a whole world in turmoil (and a community stuck at home!). After their long journey from Galilee, Jesus and his disciples finally reach Jerusalem. They must have been fearful. For, however enthusiastic the reception was as they approached the city gates, this was the place where both secular (Roman) and religious (Jewish) authorities had their headquarters. Not everyone is a fan of the film, but Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ does seek to show, in horrible detail, the brutality of the Roman occupation as well as the deep unease of the religious leaders of that time and place. In our time and place, most commercial flights cancelled, many people are still seeking to make difficult journeys home from far flung places; and others have cancelled holidays or long weekend breaks. Indeed, travelling of any kind is now denied for most of us (except for local exercise and ‘essential’ journeys). Also denied to us are the enthusiastic welcomes from families and friends we expected to see over Easter. In these circumstances, it is hard to imagine the enthusiastic welcome which Jesus received. But did the claps and cheers for NHS workers on the evening of 22 March perhaps reflect something similar? Do the many skilled people returning to jobs in the NHS give us another image of similar enthusiasm? And can we all take a moment to remember and thank the many who are keeping essential services running in these challenging times? Among them are those who work in food shops, those who deliver the mail, those who keep the electricity flowing and the broadband functioning, those who collect our rubbish, who drive the trains and buses so that essential workers can get to work. Then there are those keeping the children of key workers safe in nurseries and schools, and those working with the older and vulnerable in care homes. And more… Not long after Jesus and his friends entered the city, came the fateful week – leading to that last meal together on Thursday, Jesus’ arrest, his trial and the horribly brutal punishment of crucifixion. The disciples were fearful. Most of whom were nowhere to be seen as the final events unfolded. Yet among that fear, someone lent them a room for the Last Supper. And it was during that week (according to Matthew 22.34-40) that Jesus gave the teaching on the greatest commandments, which together with the ‘new commandment’ - ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ (John 13.34). This so influenced the development of our faith. And, just before he begins the story of the Passion, Matthew reports Jesus as telling the story of the sheep and the goats (25.31-46), including the words: ‘as you did to one of the least of these…you did it to me’ – another image and message which many of us hold dear, and which seems so resonant as we are each challenged in the present circumstances to love our neighbours in new ways by staying apart from them. Whether we receive a palm cross today or not, and however we are forced to spend Holy Week this year, we can all spend some time this week reflecting on Jesus’ Passion, on the Cross, and on its significance for us. I would invite you to do so by reading over the course of the week Matthew 26: 14 - 27: 66 If we allow them to, the events of Holy Week will confront us with our own expectations of life and faith, our own hopes, our fears and our doubts; show us where we have had faith in ourselves, our own structures, instead of in God, and call us to change, to a new understanding of how God works in our lives. It might take us to the cross too. “Be our hope / in our stations / of forsakenness,” prays the German poet Hildegard Nies. Be our hope “in our waiting rooms of anxiety / in our suburbs of desolation.” And that is what the cross promises us. The cross, Christ crucified, is for some a stumbling-block, for others foolishness, as St Paul puts it, “but to those who are called ... the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Christ, who rejoices with us when we rejoice; Christ crucified who, when our lives are filled with mourning, with pain, is there with us, accompanying us, sustaining us, with us. This is what Holy Week offers us: the way to the cross, a way with Christ which reminds us that He is present with us in pain, in grief as well as in joy and rejoicing.