Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday (A)—Psalm 118:1–2, 19–29; Matthew 21:1–11

Palmesel, 15th c, 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Collection 1955

Psalm 118:1–2, 19–29

 

Our Parentage

O Church! Do not forget our parentage,

Our roots in Israel of old;

Our parents cried "Hosanna" to the LORD,

A plea to save—and now! So bold

Were they, they cried it yet again that day

When Jesus rode his donkey in,

While from the city's other side, the king—

Who did not save—with pomp and din

Of horse and armor tried to claim the power

That oft has captured human hearts;

But in this fam’ly tree we’ve seen a love

Passed down which still is off the charts.

Scott L. Barton

(Here's one way you could set these verses as a response between leader and congregation.)

L: O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; 

his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, 

P: "His steadfast love endures forever.”

Open to me the gates of righteousness, 

that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD.

L: This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.

P: I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

L: The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

P: This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

L: This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

P: Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!

L: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD. 

P: We bless you from the house of the LORD.

The LORD is God, and he has given us light. 

L: Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.

P: You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.

ALL: O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

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Matthew 21:1–11

The Donkey in the Room

We like to keep our politics

Apart from Sunday church;

And woe to preachers who would dare

The worship to besmirch

With commentary on the powers

That tend to rule the day;

(And yes, it can be overdone—

And peoples' trust betray;)

But Jesus, on parade that day,

Lampooned the power and might

Of all, like Caesar, who in great

Display would take delight;

He's making fun of those who lord

It over people's hearts;

This Jesus, not just meek and mild,

Is brave, and heav'nly smart.

Scott L. Barton

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 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. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately." This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 

"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." 

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 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!" 

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."

Fifth Sunday in Lent (A)—Ezekiel 37:1–14 and John 11:1–45

 

Rembrandt: The Raising of Lazarus (1642)      

Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet

God Enamored

"O mortal, can these dead bones live?"

"O Lord, my God, you know;"

I wonder which came first—the trust

Ezekiel, despite woe,

Embodied?  Or—the vision, which

Appeared, and made him brave

Enough he might proclaim the news

That Yahweh yet would save?

And which comes first, belief in Christ,

So, dying, one still lives?

Or—when you've seen the hopeless, change—

Know God enamored gives?

Perhaps it doesn't matter how

From death you might come out,

Just listen to Love's call, who still

By grace, all dying flouts.

Scott L. Barton

(The phrase "God enamored gives" is from a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Come, My Beloved, Hear from Me.")

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” 

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 

Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

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Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 

Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” 

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.