I pray along the road of Via Dolorosa,
to experience the love that led you here.
I pray along the road
that brought you to the cross.
I pray among the silence
of no retaliation.
I listen for the answers that
never came,
and the lack of words that spoke
a greater word
all the same.
I pray beside the taunts and
jeers that lined
the road of each step you took.
I pray as I hear a man called
from out of the crowd
to carry this cross for you.
I pray to see the deeper meaning
of the road you traveled.
I pray to hear the hammering in
of nails and the rolling of the dice.
I pray to hear the gambling voices
and to see the sign above your
head, a crown of thorns.
I pray to hear the words
of men on either side, crucified.
I pray to see your eyes,
to see your eyes, and love
poured out from your side,
blood and water words,
Father forgive them, they know
not what they do.
I pray to know the power in
the blood you shed,
your sacrifice, your giving over,
your choice to humble so yourself
that stars bowed down and
the sky lost its way
as it plummeted down
on the final breath you breathed.
I pray to see beyond the
silence that then fell,
the chaos that ensued,
your Beloved ones
weeping with the grief
they never knew could be.
I pray to hear the shouts
from the soldiers looking
up aghast with revelation:
Surely, this man was the
Son of God.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I pray to see the morning
beyond this day, the fullness
of your grace,
your resurrected face
among the flowers and the dew.
Before returning to your Father,
appearing to your waiting friend,
there to pour out on you,
anointing oils for burial.
I pray to feel the surprise of that day,
as face to face, she mistook you
for a gardener.
I pray to once again be
astonished by the vanquishing
of sin, as the sun arose
differently from that day forevermore;
upon your resurrection.
I pray to hear the words
you spoke, on the light of the morning
to the friend who gasped with recognition,
receiving the first message
from the One who rose again,
I am ascending to my God and your God,
to my Father and your Father.
Photo by Jenneth Graser of a sculpture by Right Mukore of Right Sculptures, Montebello Design Centre, Newlands, Cape Town, taken with permission.
Journey through Lent with this downloadable bundle featuring Prayer Cards, 40 Daily Ideas Guide for Lent, and our Lenten devotional – A Journey Into Wholeness: Soul Travel from Lent to Easter. Bundled together for convenience and savings!
by Christine Sine
For the joy set before him he endured the cross,(Heb 12:2)
Last week I talked about the tears of blood Jesus shed and the agony he endured, but this week “the joy that was set before him” has held my attention because the expectation of the healing and restoration that his sacrifice would bring to all humanity and in fact to the whole world is, I am sure, what held Jesus’ attention for a lot of that final week of his life.
For the joy that was set before him, Jesus paraded into Jerusalem on that fateful Palm Sunday, knowing that it would totally alienate him from the Roman rulers who were also coming to Jerusalem with all their pomp and ceremony to demonstrate their power and might at the upcoming Passover feast. I love to imagine this joyful parade, with kids dancing and singing and their parents waving palm fronds and shouting hosanna, probably dancing and singing too. I wonder if at times Jesus got down to dance with them. Certainly no pomp and ceremony but as one of the people.
This was a joyful celebration of hope and expectation, a glimpse of God’s eternal world of joy and wholeness that was to come. Yet for Jesus there must have been sadness as well. He knew how fickle these crowds were. He knew that in a few days they would reject and crucify him. Yet for the joy that was set before him he entered into their joy and endured what was to come.
For the joy that was set before him, Jesus goes to the temple, overturns the tables, and heals the sick, further alienating the Jewish leaders and priests. Here too we catch glimpses of the joy that was set before him as the children circle around singing and shouting “Hosanna to the King” (Matt. 21:14,15) I love that the children were filled with the joy of what Jesus was doing. I think that they were the only ones who really delighted in the wonder of what he was doing. It certainly seems as though they are the only ones shouting hosanna now. Where I wonder are the adults that a few hours ago were shouting with them?
Then for the joy that was set before him, Jesus celebrates what he knows will be his last Passover with his disciples, enduring what must have been a bitter-sweet celebration for him, knowing that in one of his companions was the seeds of betrayal. The joy of feasting with his friends must have been tinged with the knowledge of Judas’s treachery.
For the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the agony of his prayers in the garden of Gethsemane. Theologian Willie James Jennings said “I look at joy as an act of resistance against despair and its forces.” I know he entered into the full extent of the sorrows of the world as he literally wept tears of blood. But I also think he spent time savoring the joy that was set before him as he remembered the glimpses of God’s joyful world he had experienced and brought into the lives of others through his healing, feeding and teaching. Part of his resistance to all the pain and suffering he would endure was his joy at the thought that through his suffering all pain, not only in his life but in the entire world was being vanquished by his sacrifice.
For the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross. With Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, there must have been a loss of joy, not just for him but for his followers too. Joy seemed to have gone out of all the world. Now there are no shouts of hosanna, not even from his disciples. This was a time for endurance and a willingness to accept the path laid out for him.
Then came Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection and the return of joy to the world. This was the birthing of the full joy that Jesus looked forward to. This was the joy of a new world healed and made whole through his suffering. Once again there are shouts of hosanna at least by his disciples. Hosannas that echo through the centuries as we now join in with their shouts of praise. I think of that as I remember the suffering of the Ukrainian people. They are enduring this horror because of their hope for a joy-filled future in which their country is liberated from the bondage of oppression and set free.
Cole Arthur Riley reminds us when the temple of God is rebuilt after being destroyed during the exile that the people celebrated with joy but the elders wept because of their memories of the original temple. “No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy for the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. (Ezra 3:13, NIV)
As Cole Arthur Riley says “I have found no better portrait of joy. Sorrow and celebration all mixed together in a holy cacophony. A collective so loud that weeping and laughter are made one. A sound so loud that it is heard by others, even those far away.” (This Here Flesh, 169)
I can imagine that God’s eternal world is a little like that. The sorrow and celebration are mixed together to create a cacophony of sound. Jesus’ hands are still scarred as are all of us, but bubbling up inside is the exuberant joy of the seeds of a new world birthed.
Today I look out on our cherry tree, now in full bloom and I rejoice at the beauty of it, as I do at the beauty of all the glorious spring flowers around Seattle. This Easter season, this season of blossom and greening is one that is birthed out of the darkness of winter but it is only a beginning, just as Jesus’ resurrection was. Springtime offers us hope for a future abundant harvest. Similarly, Jesus’ fortitude offers the hope of a future of abundance of healing and justice and peace. The full joy that Jesus’ endurance gave birth to is yet to come. Hallelujah.
*Note the Special Time!* Join Christine Sine and Tom Sine for a FB Live discussion about Earth Day on Wednesday, April 20th at 11 am PT. You can join us live in the Godspace Light Community group, or catch us later on YouTube for the recording!
An beautiful contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize for Palm Sunday.
Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below:
“Magnificat”, “Christe Lux Mundi (Christ You are Light)” Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
“Watching, Waiting, Hoping” Music and Lyrics by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“Be Thou My Vision” Traditional Irish hymn, public domain. Arrangement by Andrew Myers and Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
Perhaps unusually, when I think of Palm Sunday I remember two stories. One is a biblical one – Michal in 1 Samuel 6. Her husband, King David, is returning from a procession where the Ark, the symbol of God’s presence, is finally being returned, carried into the capital. He has danced, exuberantly, with joyous abandon, not a response of duty or kingly restraint, but of openness to God in the freest of worship. But Michal, who has watched the celebration from the isolation of a window, greets him with sarcastic ridicule. There is no celebration for her. Lest we are too quick to judge, hers is a tragic story where she has been the pawn, the victim, of political events in which her husband and father were enemies.
The second is a few years ago when a friend of mine was receiving a series of blessings from God in a season where she was experiencing the Holy Spirit in new ways. I felt on the outside, envious of the sense of closeness to God others seemed to find so easy. I had not meant to be scathing, but clearly something in my attitude reflected my feelings. A good friend, she told me that my stance was hurting her heart. I apologised, and the relationship remained strong, but I retained a sense of looking in from the outside, like the Match Girl glimpsing the beauties others experienced.
And so to Palm Sunday. Again there is a huge celebration as Jesus – the bodily presence of God – is carried into the city. But not everyone can join in. The Pharisees are disturbed, and ask him to rebuke the disciples. Jesus says if they are quiet, the stones will celebrate. Creation must recognise the arrival of the creator – if people don’t, the stones will!
Perhaps we are too harsh on the Pharisees. After all they refer to him as teacher, and they don’t ask him to stop the procession, just to quieten his disciples. Perhaps they were scared it would be deemed an uprising and bring down the wrath of the Romans. Certainly they were concerned to keep the tradition, the laws which they saw not as a means to win God’s approval but as a sign of his love and grace. Whatever the reasons, they cannot celebrate. They love God, want to serve him, but as Jesus is carried into Jerusalem they just can’t join in. And they want to stop the joyous celebration of others
Sometimes even for good people, joy can be elusive. This is a break-out moment. It does not take away from the sadness which will come. Indeed only a few moments later Jesus is racked with sobs over the city he loves which will reject him. Jesus knows this entry is provocative and what will ensue. But biblically celebration and sadness can sit side by side. For a moment we can let go our sadness to celebrate the exuberant goodness of God – his presence in our midst. All worship comes from joy, but a joy forged sometimes from the darkest of places. When there’s ‘pain in the offering’ – as we sometimes sing perhaps too lightly or with too little understanding – there is a profound depth in worship.
Joy perhaps needs to be distinguished from noise. It may include it at times – it clearly did on this occasion – but joy can break out in gentleness even in environments where we are quiet, or through the quietest of personalities. There are sadnesses that no work, no duty, no striving or attempt at denial can heal. But joy is still a possibility. It is a possibility because the king has come. The presence of God is here.
Imagine how different it could have been if Michal could for a moment laid aside the disappointments of her life and made her way down, hitched up her own skirts and danced. If the Pharisees could have left aside their worries about getting it right and joined hands with the children. If you or I could leave aside all the valid and huge concerns of our times and simply, for a moment, enjoy the presence of the King, our extraordinary Saviour.
It can be hard to really open ourselves up to the celebration, the joy of God. It may be personal circumstances, quiet hurts and pains, known or unknown to others. Communion is a good way to again recognise and receive the presence of God into our lives no matter what. Or perhaps we worry about our reputation, or that of the church, or about doing things right. Yet maybe God is calling us to joyous celebration. This is about the heart more than what we do. And certainly, let’s decide we are not going to criticise those who express their joy differently from us, with more or less exuberance. We can celebrate together as we enjoy our differences.
So today let’s open ourselves to the joy of God. He comes to us again: our King and our Saviour.
- https://www.thoughtco.com/little-matchstick-girl-short-story-739298
- Matt Redman Blessed be your name
Photo by Poppyette on Pixabay
Check out our Lent, Holy Week, and Easter resource page for inspiring posts, helpful products and resources, and gathered lists of liturgies and more to help you plan an Easter service, a solo journey through Holy Week, or a family adventure.
Holy Week is almost here.
And if you are in shock that the Calendar has sped through March and is already deep into April, you are not alone!
As one friend said … I can’t believe it’s Palm Sunday THIS Sunday! And as another friend said at the beginning of Lent, “I’m not doing Lent this year, we’ve been living Lent for the past two years!” This is so true! The layers of Lent, the layers of trauma and exhaustion are many! Thanks pandemic, thanks politics, thanks 24/7 news! And it still grows for some of us daily. We really do need to baby step into Holy Week.
Originally Lent started now … living into the last week of the life of Jesus rather than a whole 40-day fasting experience.
Tradition says that Mary, Jesus’s mom was the first to walk the Way… what became the stations of the cross to remember the suffering of her son.
How can we remember and engage in the Story this week?
You might find some stations of the cross to pray with at your local Catholic Church.
Start with Palm Sunday…
Start by reading Luke 19:28-48
After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. 29 As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. 30 “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32 So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. 33 And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?”
34 And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” 35 So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.36 As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. 37 When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
38 “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”
39 But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” 40 He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. 43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side.
44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did notrecognize it when God visited you.[b]”
45 Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. 46 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”47 After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. 48 But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.
- After listening/reading the gospel, picture the scene. Imagine the crowds. What do you see, smell, notice about the things happening around Jesus. How are you feeling? What do you notice? Take some time to consider this and talk to Jesus about how you are feeling. You might journal about this.
- It’s Palm Sunday this Sunday at the start of year three of the Pandemic and as a war rages in Ukraine. Are you cheering today or feeling more like jeering this Palm Sunday? No emotions are wrong. We are loved by Jesus just as we are. Talk to Jesus about where you are today.
- “Hosanna,” an Aramaic word that means “O, save (bring the victory), Lord!” The crowds along the road were looking for salvation from the Empire of Rome. What “elements of empire” would you like to be saved from today? What areas of your life, or problems you see around you would you like to be delivered from today? Talk to Jesus about this.
- How does it make you feel to know that Jesus weeps? He weeps for Jerusalem and for everyone who doesn’t recognize him and the peace He gives. Who in your life needs to know this peace? Pray for these people. Maybe it’s you today! ask Jesus to give you more of his peace and eyes to see Him at work.
- What things are getting in the way of people experiencing God, the church, and prayer? What things need cleansing? What is blocking, or cluttering up your temple court today and separating you from God? Talk to Jesus about this and allow Him to cleanse you!
Notice where you are today.
Be compassionate and curious.
Know that however you are
Up or down
Confused or confident
Jesus sees you & loves you!
Jesus invites you to go slowly into Holy Week and experience his last week with him.
Holy Week with your Cup
Here are some ways to get you started:
You can experience the week with your coffee cup… (explanation here)
I created a way to pray through Holy Week with your Cup. Download the Link here.
PRAY Through the Week with Art:
Palm Sunday Slide Show of Art by James Tissot
Asian and African Art for Holy Week
LISTEN AND WATCH: You might also create your own Holy Week Play List
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ACTION: Take a walk outside and imagine Jesus arriving in your city or neighborhood. Imagine the streets lined with people cheering. Imagine the city leaders or the leaders of churches getting upset. FIND A STONE/ROCK along your walk to use as a daily reminder to praise Jesus and to remind you to pray for your city & neighborhood.
Holy Week Centerpiece
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CREATE A CENTERPIECE to use throughout the week with your family, friends or on your own learn how in this post with a PDF to print out.
We are invited to walk with Jesus in his last week of life…take a walk and be with Jesus outside…what do you notice? Watch for signs of life. Breathe. Notice the clouds, the sunshine, or stars. Listen to the wind, the birds, even the traffic.
Jesus is with us in all the mess of our lives. In the Message Bible, Eugene Peterson starts the passage before the Palm Sunday/Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19:28 with the heading “God’s Personal Visit.” Jesus came to Earth as one of us, TO each of us and FOR each of us. I am grateful that Jesus knows our pain and weeps with us. I am grateful that Jesus understands our suffering and longs for each of us to know his love and peace.
Jesus, We enter the week slowly with you. Help us to walk with you daily. AMEN
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Lent continues, the season is still full of possibility and promise. Are you finding ashes and desiring beauty? Now available as an online course, this virtual retreat will help you to lay out your garment of lament and put on your garment of praise. Gather your joys and release your grief with Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin! Click here for more info!
Note: This is a repost of Let’s Get Creative With Our Palms
Sunday, April 10th 2022, is Palm Sunday and many from liturgical traditions are already thinking about making palm crosses. We love to process around the church waving our palm fronds. But after the service, the crosses and fronds are quickly discarded and the meaning of the season just as quickly fades from our memories.
This year, you might like to consider doing something creative with those fronds. Don’t throw them out, weave them into larger crosses and Easter symbols that can decorate your sacred space throughout the year as a reminder of this pivotal season of our faith. Then, when Ash Wednesday comes around next year and you want to burn those crosses, you will be able to make a substantial fire.
Here are some inspiring links and Youtube videos that might help you be creative with your own palm fronds.
Catholic Icing shares 10 Things to do with Palms for Palm Sunday. Great ideas for kids to get involved as well.
If you are curious how other cultures around the world celebrate Palm Sunday, take a look at CBC Kid’s.
Minas Thomas has created a whole series of videos on palm weaving from a Coptic Christian perspective that are well worth viewing. He instructs us on everything from a simple cross to braiding of palm fronds and, a more complex Coptic cross and a donkey. Here is the link to the first video:
Here is a beautiful video of a man teaching his grandkids how to make a palm heart, something I definitely plan to try with this year’s palm fronds.
And last, but definitely not least, I also love this video from Michael Nabil – a little more complex and requiring a little construction ability but I would love to give it a go.
More resources for Holy Week:
by Melissa Taft
When my two kids were little, I found myself living in a strange sort of tension around Easter. On the one hand, I did not want to ever take the focus away from the ‘reason for the season’ – Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. I wanted that to always be paramount. On the other hand, I am someone with a love language of gifts, an appreciation of tradition, and a desire for my kids to not feel bitterly deprived of fun and rituals around silly or fairy tale traditions. I had grown up with fun and traditions as a firm part of my family heritage, and so I didn’t want to give up altogether on the Easter Bunny. Strange as that may seem, I was concerned that tipping too far one way or another would end up backfiring. I wanted to find some balance. I just personally felt joy in the coloring of eggs and the giving of baskets, and wanted to pass on the fun to my kids.
Yet I was dissatisfied with the idea of celebrating two Easters – a secular and a sacred. To me, the sacred must be paramount, but how could it compete for affection with the allure of chocolate treats and a bunny bearing gifts? Wrestling with that same tension, Christine has put together a resource list for celebrating Holy Week with Kids and another resource list for celebrating Lent and Easter with Kids that have a wide range of ideas, posts, resources, and inspiration.
For my own family, I began to notice the ways I was already using secular symbols or rituals to point to the sacred. Gifts were already a spiritual practice in our home, and I already felt quite confident about our Advent/Christmas season being a blend in ways that maintained the focus I wanted. Nature afforded ample examples of the fingerprints of God and ways to know Him. Scripture was already brought into ‘everyday’ situations. So I set about dreaming and praying about how to make that happen, and an Easter basket tradition was born.
I took the traditional secular symbols of Easter and looked for how they represented the sacred. Even the Easter Bunny has stood in for some spiritual principle or a Bible verse over the years – from God giving good gifts to His children to delighting in creation to celebrating creativity and imagination and more. I used eggs to represent the Trinity, new life in Christ, spiritual and creation renewal, environmental care, and more. Even the candy had an idea or a verse tied to it – the easiest one being “taste and see that the Lord is good!” – Psalm 34:8 For example, one year I used various Easter/nature symbols to illustrate the transformative power of the resurrection. Instead of a typical basket, I used flower pots to hold the treasures which included wooden butterfly stages toys I’d bought handmade and actual butterflies to add to a butterfly habitat we had. Well, the caterpillar form anyways! Flower seeds to represent growth and transformation as well, an egg I’d made to add to their kitchen toy collection to represent the trinity, a headband with a lamb to represent the lamb of God and how that sacrifice covers our sins, a wordless book I’d made, and other treasures.
This also gave me some opportunities to think outside the box with the baskets and revelries, and to do my best to honor my own buying principles. Instead of heaps of candy, I often opted for a few quality pieces that were fair-trade and ecologically conscious – or at the very least, limited to one type of ‘regular’ candy. I found baskets on my local Buy Nothing group that I reused – when I wasn’t being clever with the ‘basket’ that is. I bought shredded paper that I reused instead of the plastic grass. I even found some biodegradable Easter Eggs! Sometimes items were thrifted. I had a lot of fun over the years coming up with themes and finding items that my kids would use and enjoy but did not betray my principles and illustrated the sacred.
As they grew, the themes matured as well. One year it was all about the armor of God – new needed boots to represent the feet shod with the Gospel of Peace, vintage second-hand bought hats to wear on Easter and other occasions to represent the helmet of salvation, special necklaces to represent the breastplate of righteousness, etc. The top photo’s theme included tools for Christian life, and the baskets themselves were sturdy fair-trade market totes. Another year we were going on a long trip via plane, train, and automobiles and they needed luggage so I used Easter as a chance to budget travel items we needed in and made the theme about taking God with you wherever you go, as He is already there. One year it was new umbrellas (His Banner over Me Is Love/Protected Under His Wings) filled with other promises and admonitions – bubbles to represent the Holy Spirit, a duck given via World Vision to represent feeding the hungry, fishy crackers since we are to be fishers of men, and more.
Whether a can of food, a pair of shoes, or even the Easter Bunny – it is possible to point the way to Christ. The secular is but a thin veil to the sacred. I hoped to encourage my children to love not only in words but also in deeds, and to see that Easter belongs to Jesus. Just as everything in creation does.
Join Christine Sine, Tom Sine, and others for Inhabit 2022 on April 29-30th in Seattle- a live conference by Parish Collective. Explore stories of hope and be encouraged to be the church in your neighborhood. You are not alone – the everyday realities are carried by us all. Click here for more info!
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