Palm Sunday

.. what? already??

Interesting footnote to last week: as ever I went 'off piste' from the notes somewhat into a bit of a discussion about Judas, his possible motives, his role in the Passion of Christ. What was interesting was the way people picked up on 'Judas as the good disciples of Jesus' - yet the one who gets it wrong. Is it Judas' extreme fallibility which makes him interesting and attractive to people? I find myself hoping that, on another shore, Judas has the 'restoration conversation' with Jesus which Peter gets after Easter day, on the shore of Lake Galilee... but I digress.

Readings this week:
Luke 19:28-40 and Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
(for observing the procession of the palms)

We will be processing.
There will be palm crosses.
I also have a slightly wacky idea of using branches of a Christmas tree & a cross made from its trunk - something about Jesus overturning expectations, and our willingness to face ridicule as we follow. Also I have some dim idea forming of the joy of Christmas being subverted by the desolation of the cross and yet transformed by the resurrection. Annoyingly, because I'm in 4 churches i can't carry through the idea by decorating the bare cross for Easter Sunday as I know others have done before (the daffs will be out perfectly for that!). I might pass the idea 'baton' to the person who is leading worship in this place next week?

Comments

pastor cindy said…
Ruth, I am so embarrassed and SORRY if I am the one who hurt your feelings last week in the RGBP comments. I lost track of the fact that my sense of humor tends to be more on the . . . dark . . . side sometimes. I'm really sorry.
When I read your comment it just resonated so much with so many experiences I've had over 25+ years of ordination where "compromise" meant "do it my way, or else!". I just have to laugh or I'd cry.
But I certainly didn't mean to make YOU the object.
I'm in a call right now where I need to use more of your gentle listening skills. So I'm taking a lesson, and thank you.
Please, extend your generous spirit to me and forgive me.
-c
26 March 2010 at 14:55
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Faith and Guidance

Genesis 12: 1-9; Romans 4: 13-25   It’s been quite a week for politics. Whatever your party affiliations, there has been a lot of unpredictability and upheaval  - there are going to be 3 by-elections very soon - and we might all be left feeling breathless and wondering ‘what happens next?’.   We might wonder what guidance we might expect our political leaders to seek. And we might, this week, have had our own moments of wondering where to turn for guidance or direction in the turmoil of life.    So it’s rather helpful to look at the story of Abram.   Like all good stories this one is long and multi-faceted and well worth exploring.   Just before the part that we heard, we are told (in Genesis chapter 11)  that Terah, the father of Abram, took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (son of Haran, who had died) and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram’s wife, and set off from Ur of the Chaldees for Canaan. But when they reached Harran they settled there, and there Terah died, leaving Abram as the h
Read more

Abraham and Isaac - a good question!

Genesis 22: 1-14       Matthew 10: 40-42 Isidor Rabi, who was born in Austria in 1898, moved to the United States as a child and won the Nobel prize for physics in 1944. He was once asked by an admiring friend, “Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other immigrant kids in your neighbourhood?” Rabi responded: “My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: ‘So? Did you learn anything today?’ But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. ‘Izzy,’ she would say, ‘did you ask a good question today?’ That difference – asking good questions – made me a scientist.” I think we could say that living in a relationship with God – which for us means following Jesus Christ – is based on the same principle. Did you ask a good question today? What might our ‘good questions’ be as we read the scriptures today? Let’s look closely at the story of Abraham, bei
Read more

Epiphany 2: Nathanael... & Jacob

Genesis 28: 10-22 (not the lectionary reading!); John 1: 43-51 I love the Sundays of Epiphany – starting with the visit of the Magi (which we celebrated last week) and then moving on to other stories of God’s presence on earth being revealed to people. I think what I most love is the idea that we don’t just pack away the Christmas decorations and forget about God’s love being incarnate in Jesus, but we allow the story of Jesus’ coming to earth to open our eyes to other ways in which God’s love is present to us.   What can be better to start the new year than a series of reminders that God is with us and that we can expect to meet with God in 2024.   Today we heard two very related Biblical stories of God’s presence.   The first is the vision given to Jacob, when he saw angels going up and down a ladder between earth and heaven.    You might think that Jacob is a specially holy person to be given this vision: nothing could be further from the truth. Jacob is the twin who was born holdin
Read more