Sunday March 28 Palm Sunday
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Psalm 24
While entering through the doors of the temple the poet sings a hymn of praise to God who brought order out of the dangerous primordial ocean. Appropriate for a Sunday as we enter into our worship and appropriate for the start of Holy Week—next Sunday God will have brought glory out of the ultimate violence of the killing of Christ.
Psalm 29
Astonishment at the overwhelming presence of God in nature who rules the untameable ocean and even makes mountains cavort like calves and oak trees “writhe” in a gale! We worship such a God, who makes such strength and peace available to us.
Zechariah 9: 9-12
A set of images about the gentle peace that will happen after the people have been released from exile 500 years before Jesus. Today Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a defenceless donkey to confront the military might and violence of the Roman empire with an alternative society of justice and equality. Early Christians saw in this passage from Zechariah a foretelling of Jesus’ entry today into Jerusalem and wove some of those details into that story of Jesus’ confrontation with Rome.
Mark 11: 1-11
It is a week before the Passover, the annual commemoration of God rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Jews in Jesus’ time felt equally enslaved by the Roman empire and many hoped that God would act at a Passover to overthrow Roman rule just as God had overthrown the Egyptians. To prevent a rebellion, every year the Romans sent an entire legion to Jerusalem which was welcomed by the leaders of the city and religious authorities, all of whom held their positions at the pleasure of the Roman governor. By riding into the city on a young colt, at the same moment as the legion entered the city, Jesus deliberately mocks the grand entry of the Roman general who at that moment was entering the city on a great stallion at the head of an enormous military operation. Jesus’ enacting of a peaceful society was immensely popular and the Roman authorities saw in it the beginning of a revolt against them. No wonder Jesus is executed five days later.
This week’s collect:
Almighty and everliving God,
in tender love for all our human race
you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take our flesh
and suffer death upon a cruel cross.
May we follow the example of his great humility,
and share in the glory of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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