Sunday, April 14, 2019

Jesus enters Jerusalem 4-14-2019

Worship on Palm Sunday, April 14 …



The Wilderness Journey! comes to an end as Jesus enters Jerusalem and all that awaits him there! 
╬ “Triumphal Entry”     

 The arrival of Jesus and his followers for the Passover celebration evokes a tumultuous response from the people of Jerusalem.  The very nature of his entry into the city calls to mind heroic images from their past … from the promise of the prophets and from their historic struggle against the powers of empire.  What brings hope to the people, inevitably challenges and threatens imperial authority.  But it is for this that Jesus has come:  to proclaim God’s truth and God’s sovereignty at the center of power.  He will fulfill this divine calling, regardless of consequence.  Today we enter into Jerusalem and into the celebrations of Holy Week as Jesus leads us to the cross and beyond.

  Below are the Prayer of the Day and Readings.

 Blessings to you all as we begin our Holy Week celebrations!

 - Pr. Brad Highum
bhighum@abidinglove.org

 PRAYER OF THE DAY -------------------
God of all, you have established your rule in our hearts through the servanthood of Jesus Christ.  By your Spirit, keep us in the joyful procession of those who with their tongues confess Jesus as Lord and with their lives praise his name, now and forever.  Amen.

 READINGS --------------------------

 First Reading:  Zechariah 9:9-10,16-17
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.  16 On that day the Lord their God will save them for they are the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. 17 For what goodness and beauty are his! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women.

 Psalm 118:24-29
24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!  O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!
26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.  We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27 The Lord is God, and he has given us light.  Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.
29 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

 Second Reading:  Second Maccabees 10: 1-9
 1 Judas Maccabeus and his followers, under the leadership of the Lord, recaptured the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.  2 They tore down the altars which foreigners had set up in the marketplace and destroyed the other places of worship that had been built. 3 They purified the Temple and built a new altar. Then, with new fire started by striking flint, they offered sacrifice for the first time in two years, burned incense, lighted the lamps, and set out the sacred loaves. 4 After they had done all this, they lay face down on the ground and prayed that the Lord would never again let such disasters strike them. They begged him to be merciful when he punished them for future sins and not hand them over any more to barbaric, pagan Gentiles. 5 They rededicated the Temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, the same day of the same month on which the Temple had been desecrated by the Gentiles. 6 The happy celebration lasted eight days, like the Festival of Shelters, and the people remembered how only a short time before, they had spent the Festival of Shelters wandering like wild animals in the mountains and living in caves. 7 But now, carrying green palm branches and sticks decorated with ivy, they paraded around, singing grateful praises to him who had brought about the purification of his own Temple. 8 Everyone agreed that the entire Jewish nation should celebrate this festival each year. 9 The days of Antiochus Epiphanes had come to an end.

 Gospel:  Matthew 21:1-17
21 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately." 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,5 "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"  10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" 11 The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."  12 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers." 14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became angry 16 and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself'?"  17 He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
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