North Queensferry Church

28th. March. 2021. Service.

March 28th 2021

Palm or Passion Sunday

Prelude: Open your eyes see the glory of the King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z6zZey0opE C

Let us Worship God

This is the day that the Lord has made
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXZwW0D2OZ4  C

 The Collect for today
Almighty and ever living God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

 Hymn: “All glory laud and honour”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBfJyjDolwA   C

Prayers are courtesy of the Church of Scotland Faith Nurture Forum composed by Rev Jenny Williams, Minister of Drylaw Parish.

Call to Prayer
Give thanks to God
Hosanna to God, hosanna in the highest
God’s steadfast love endures forever
Hosanna to God, hosanna in the highest
God has come, answering prayer, bring joy and hope
Hosanna to God, hosanna in the highest

Opening the gates of our hearts
Hosanna to God, hosanna in the highest
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord
Hosanna to God, hosanna in the highest
Give thanks to God.
 
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
Approach to God
Living God,
as we step into Holy Week,
open our hearts and minds.
May this coming week will be holy for us.
May we live this time expecting that in some way You will meet us.

In whatever way we live this week,
give us the times and spaces to ponder again,
that You know and understand suffering
and You offer to meet us and hear again – our struggles over this past year
and old pains that have not healed for us.
Inner struggles that never quite seem to go away.
May this week help us to name and offer to You our wounds.
Help to ask and tune in to Your wisdom and response to us.
Loving God,
we may not have the words for our prayers.
We may not understand ourselves as much as we would like,
but we step into this week trusting in the tradition of which we are part –
that by pondering Your walk towards the cross,
by focussing on Jesus’ last journey;
Somehow You will speak to us on our journey.
You will honour our effort and intention
and draw us closer to You.
So, in the quietness of our hearts now – we speak to You
of our intentions for this Holy Week.
 

Confession
And as we observe again the sacrifice of Jesus,
His willingness to live with effects of the violence and hate of human beings,
To the point to death;
Help us to know that this act in history,
points to an eternal truth of God always willing to forgive;
to give people a chance to begin again;
and to free us all from things we regret;
mistakes we have made;
inadequacies that we struggle with

Help us take seriously that like the crowds around Jesus
we can be fickle
And sometimes unintentionally allow ourselves to be dragged along
by the views and thoughts of others
without noticing that we are joining in with consequences
that lead to death and not life.
Forgive us.

Reveal to us our attitudes that are not life giving.
For You are always calling us on a path of greater self-discovery,
of greater clarity about who we are and what our purpose is.
As we walk alongside Jesus, facing the consequences of His call,
illuminate Your will for us, and what new life You are calling us to live.
Bless us.

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
may the Lord make His face to shine upon you,
the Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
and bring you peace.

Prayer for Understanding
God of truth and wisdom, Jesus, your Living Word, confronted those who stood against him with your truth. Send us your Holy Spirit to hear your truth again in his story. Inspire us with his courage and conviction that we may love you more fully and serve you with wisdom and truth. Amen.

 The Lords Prayer (in the words familiar to you)

Hymn “Hosanna, loud hosanna the little children sang” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGRakE8KnFU  C

 The Readings

Psalm 118

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures for ever.

2 Let Israel say:
‘His love endures for ever.’
3 Let the house of Aaron say:
‘His love endures for ever.’
4 Let those who fear the Lord say:
‘His love endures for ever.’

5 When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord;
he brought me into a spacious place.
6 The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?
7 The Lord is with me; he is my helper.
I look in triumph on my enemies.

8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in humans.
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
10 All the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the Lord I cut them down.
11 They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the Lord I cut them down.
12 They swarmed around me like bees,
but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns;
in the name of the Lord I cut them down.
13 I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my strength and my defence[a];
he has become my salvation.

15 Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
‘The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!
16     The Lord’s right hand is lifted high;
the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!’
17 I will not die but live,
and will proclaim what the Lord has done.
18 The Lord has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open for me the gates of the righteous;
I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord
through which the righteous may enter.
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.

22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
23 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvellous in our eyes.
24 The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.

25  Lord, save us!
Lord, grant us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
From the house of the Lord we bless you.[b]
27 The Lord is God,
and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up[c] to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will praise you;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.

29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures for ever. Amen.

Mark 11:1-11

11 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, “Why are you doing this?” say, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.”’

4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, ‘What are you doing, untying that colt?’ 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’

10 ‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!’

‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. Amen

This is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all praise and glory. Amen.

Invitation to the Offering

As we begin our journey through Holy Week today, we remember what Jesus faced, how the crowd cheered him one day and called for his death by week’s end. Close friends betrayed him and ran away. In our offering, we declare our love and loyalty to Jesus and his ministry in the world God loves. Let us show our faithfulness to him in the gifts we offer today.

Prayer of Dedication

Lord Jesus, we offer our gifts to God in your name. Compared with the gift you gave for our sakes, what we can offer seems so small. Bless our gifts with your love so that they have power to accomplish more than we can even imagine for your sake. Receive our humble thanks and bless our lives, too, so that what we do and say will show we have the commitment to follow you, whatever the cost. Amen.

Hymn: “Ride on, ride on in majesty”  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUYCxw0quuQ  C

 Sermon

Once again, I am indebted to Dr Janet Hunt for her thoughts on today’s gospel whilst I am unwell:

We will have missed two Palm Sundays all together in one place now.

Many of you are ahead of us in terms of coming together in person for worship, I know.  If things keep moving forward in the best way, soon we will join you in that.  We are not there yet, however, and so again this year we will not do as we had done so many times before:

Among the people I serve, those who are able, gather first in the atrium with our palms held aloft.

I miss it more than I can say: the sights, the sounds, the smells, the faces of all those beloved ones.

And yet, even if we were all together in one place, it would surely not look like it did before. Not yet this year anyway, would we be standing close together, leaning towards each other. We would not be singing loudly and waving our palms as we used to do.  Indeed, for this space in time, the virus has taken a great deal from us. Or so it seems, a lot of the time. Indeed, even as we begin to glimpse an end to all of this, we still find that we have much to grieve.

Now I do not know how it is where you live and serve, but for all of my ministry there has been an ongoing tension between what many remember as the straightforward joyful tones of Palm Sunday now moving so quickly to the sombre reading of the Passion. (The reasoning behind this now decades old change is sound, of course. In an ever-busier world, fewer people are able to participate in receiving the whole story as it plays through Thursday and Friday and Saturday. And so we share it all on that Sunday before.) And yet, while my childhood reminiscences are of joyful Palm Sundays? If you are really listening to the story as it plays out before us now, the minor tones are already there foreshadowing what is to come.  Perhaps it is easier for us to hear these this year than it has been in years past.

For throughout these short verses in Mark’s Gospel, we realize that the contrast is being laid out between a normal kind of ‘king’ and the one who Jesus is, even before all that follows in Jerusalem:

And through it all, Jesus says not a word. Not since he sent his disciples to get the colt has he spoken.

It almost sounds like child’s play, doesn’t it?

And yet, it is not.

These are grown people as we hear it now, acting out a ritual ‘fit for a king’ only it is done, it seems at first, almost spontaneously with cloaks and branches and shouts filling in for what one might normally expect.

Only the story is not ‘spontaneous,’ is it?

I miss the faces of children most of all, it’s true.  Maybe this is because they cannot yet really imagine the ending you and I know so well. Because they simply raise their palms high and march behind me with such abandon. Indeed, maybe this is why we yearn still for the Palm Sundays of our youth, those of us who are old enough to remember them feeling different than they do today. Perhaps we miss it so because we would rather not look at what has been ours to see, know what has been ours to know, feel what has been ours to feel. Indeed, this year more than ever.

And yet, this year perhaps, these images carry even more meaning than ever before as we come, we hope, nearer to the end of a season which cannot help but have marked us, changed us even.

And oh, maybe more than all of this, perhaps this time following a year which has held a whole lot of silence, maybe we can better tune our ears to hear what Jesus is not saying as he makes his fateful way into Jerusalem.

For he speaks no words of empty triumph.

Nor are there words of condemnation here.

Oh, I wonder if as he rode along if his own heart quaked a bit in fear.  For himself, surely, but also in great love for all the rest who only knew Palm Sunday, but not the rest. Not yet.

It doesn’t say, he doesn’t say, of course. But this is what I am listening for as I walk alongside, hearing the shouts and feeling the exuberant breeze of branches whooshing in homage.

I’m listening to the silence and I am hearing the ominous sound of all that is yet to come —- foreboding, yes, and yet still hopeful, because like you, I know the ending.

Indeed, I find I hear the story differently this year after all that has been.  Perhaps you do as well.

And through it all I am doing all I can to stand still in the gift this day holds:

That the One who planned his own procession, who heard the shouts of his followers, who rode that colt into Jerusalem saying not a word was the One who did it all out of great love.

For the children who do not yet know, but who likely also know more than they did not long ago.

And for you and me and all of us who have seen more, felt more, grieved more, and yes hoped more than ever before.

Because we know what comes next in a way we maybe never did before.

But even more than that, perhaps because we also know our need of God in ways we maybe never did before.

Indeed, this year, and perhaps for all the years to come, it could just be that our shouted, our whispered ‘Hosannas’ will ring more true than ever before.

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

Thank You loving God,
that You know and understand us and all human beings.
As we walk again through Holy Week
may we listen again to our own hearts
and notice which part of the story is especially touching our hearts this year.
Thank You that Your Word is living; not frozen in history, but alive.
Ancient stories revealing present truths.

You know what we need to hear this Holy Week,
whether we need to hear the challenging aspects
or the reassurance and support.
You work in the layers within us we nowadays call unconscious;
we trust You to work in us so that this Easter
we might find more of Your life welling up from within our own being.

We pray for those in power who act from fear and self-protection,
who do not want to change or see the log in their own eyes,
May life reveal to them their narrow-mindedness
and open them up to the power of love.

We pray for those who actions are misunderstood
And for women across our world whose gifts go unrecognised,
who are considered second-class citizens,
whose silence is often misinterpreted
May they all be helped to find their voice.

We pray for the poor
that justice will come

We pray for those who get led astray by others who lead them on,
or by their own self-righteousness,
or because they are caught up in an ideology that promises freedom
Show them the way of love and community

We pray for those who know they have let their friends down,
who in the heat of a moment defend themselves before their friend
May they learn from their mistakes
and have people reassure and set them on their feet again.

We pray for those who are alongside someone else who is suffering
and do not know what to say or do
May they be shown how to stay simply present
and be there for others in pain without needing to do or say anything.

We pray for leaders who do not take responsibility for their actions,
who knowingly wash their hands and allow others to act unjustly and in violence
May they actions be seen for what they are and may the power of democracy be upheld.

We pray for individuals we know who are facing pain, suffering, bereavement, distress
May this story of Holy Week sustain them
and bring them comfort, companionship and hope.

God of all creation, of all humanity,
hold all things in balance for us and with us
and keep teaching us how to be people who birth peace and hope and love in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Hymn “In Christ alone, my hope is found”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn9-UNer6MQ

Benediction
Go into Holy Week, Walking in the footsteps of Christ.
May facing hard things allow transformation of your being
that Easter light might be born in you.
The blessing of God of light, Creator, Guide and Inspirer,
rest and remain with you now and forevermore. Amen.

May God’s blessing surround you each day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3O_N49GiU  

 Postlude: “I want to walk as a child of the light:   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QISk0oYYpuk

 For Children

 Do you have any celebrations this month?  In our family, we have three birthdays coming up in April. This morning, we are remembering a special celebration. It is not a birthday, but it is a celebration of the coming of a king. Let’s celebrate that we are here today to worship and praise Jesus. Let’s all give three cheers for Jesus by saying “Hip, hip, hooray” three times.  Are you ready, Here we go! “Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!”

Wow! That was great, and I think this is a good day for us to celebrate Jesus, because today is Palm Sunday. It’s a day when we remember how people celebrated when Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a Sunday around two thousand years ago. You may have already heard the story but let me tell it again.

Jesus was walking with His disciples toward Jerusalem. As they came near to the city, Jesus told two of his disciples to go on ahead into the town. He told them that they would see a young donkey tied there that had never been ridden. “Untie the donkey and bring it to me. If anyone asks you what you are doing, tell them, ‘The Lord needs it. He will send it back to you soon.’ ”

The disciples did what Jesus told them to do, and it happened just as He had told them. They found the young donkey, untied it, and started to lead it away. Some men were standing nearby, and they said to the disciples, “Where are you taking that young donkey?” They told them what Jesus had said, and the men let them take the donkey.

The disciples brought the young donkey to Jesus, and they put their coats on it to make a soft place for Jesus to sit. As they made their way into the city of Jerusalem, people went ahead of Jesus shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Others followed behind, and they were also shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna in the highest!” All the while, people lined the streets cheering and waving palm branches.

It was a wonderful celebration as people cheered loudly for Jesus.

Just as those people celebrated two thousand years ago, we have come here today to celebrate Jesus. What better day to do that than on Palm Sunday? The Bible says, “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)

Dear God, we celebrate today just as those people celebrated in Jerusalem two thousand years ago. This is the day that You have made; we will rejoice and be glad in it! In Jesus’ name, amen.

 Here are a video and a chorus for you

Palm Sunday for children
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbAYBv8rCi8

“We have a king who rides on a donkey”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJqFuiafDf8

 Intimations

Permission has been received from the Presbytery of Fife for worship services to resume in our church buildings. We will meet for worship on Easter Sunday at 10:00 am in North Queensferry and at 11:30 am in Inverkeithing. We will celebrate the Sacrament of Communion during the service.

We will still need to restrict numbers and have COVID precautions as before. It may be advisable to let Joan More or Colin Bain know if you wish to attend.

Just to remind everyone –

Do NOT come if you have COVID symptoms

Keep 2 metres apart (as in a shop)

Masks must be worn in the building, covering nose and mouth

You will be asked to cleanse hands as you enter

Your name and contact details will be noted as you enter

We may ask you to sit in a particular seat (if you wish, we will try and close up seats for families)

We will meantime NOT be able to operate our Sunday School “Sunday Funday” or Children’s Church.

PLEASE at the end, when leaving, do not gather to chat in the Church or at the vestibule, but exit and leave room for others to keep their distance (where “catching up” is somewhat safer)

The minister asks you to note that, despite receiving a first Pfizer vaccination in early February and continuing to use masks and precautions, he still acquired the infection, possibly during a supermarket visit. Please do not relax your hygiene and distancing vigilance after receiving your first dose of vaccine.

CHRISTIAN AID

The Forth Bridge Cross obviously won’t take place again this year.   Here is an alternative!

Christian Aid Kilt Walk 23-25th April 2021.

Every pound raised will be topped by 50% from the Hunter Foundation.

Register on Kiltwalk website.  Choose a local walk, run or cycle and ask family and friends to sponsor you.   On the day wear your CA t-shirt if you have one and get going.  Once you register a Just giving Page will automatically be set up for you.  Events Officer Lauren will give support where required and answer any questions you may have.   Don’t hesitate to get in touch – lmcfarland@christian-Aid.org Or contact Liz Hunter 416820