Sunday's coming!

Luke 22: 39-46   Philippians 2: 5-11 - I have cheated and am using Luke rather than Matthew's account of Jesus' prayer at Gethsemane (part of the passion readings), in order to bring out the comparison with the Lord's  prayer. Today is Palm Sunday – we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, on a donkey, surrounded by cheering crowds: and we know that this is the start of Holy Week. We know that the crowd which shouted ‘Hosanna’ on Palm Sunday shouted ‘crucify him’ just 5 days’ later – on Good Friday. So as we wave or wear our Palm crosses our celebration is tinged with a sense of awe – that the Jesus who was greeted as ‘the one who comes in the name of the Lord’ was prepared to go through suffering and death. And so today is not only Palm Sunday for us, but also Passion Sunday – and this has led to the choice of readings. Luke’s account of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest tells us that Jesus went ‘as usual’...

Ezekiel 37: 1-14 John 11: 1-45 Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones has to be one of the weirdest stories in the Bible, I think. It always reminds me of Sunday afternoons in front of the TV. One of my favourites was Jason & the Argonauts, with stop frame animation by Ray Harryhausen in it. One of his most famous scenes was the skeleton fight. I’ve forgotten what Jason and his crew were trying to do, but somehow they end up in a battle with a vast army made up of skeletons that just leap up from the dust & start moving towards them. That’s the sort of image I get when I hear of Ezekiel seeing a vast army, raised up by God, in the valley. A strange story to spark the imagination. But I think it’s got a lot to offer us, today. I don’t know about you, but perhaps it’s because Easter is late this year and it feels like a long time since the last holiday, I’ve been feeling tired, and in need of refreshment. Or maybe it’s because the bad news  ...