† PALM SUNDAY REFLECTION † † This poor meek King is mounted on an ass. Ah! let us not blush for it! I know well that the great ones of the world would ridicule so sorry and wretched an equipage; but Jesus did not come to please them, and whatever our foolish pride may think, this lowly equipment was well…

“But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that Jesus did, and the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ they were indignant.”  (Matt 21:15) When Jesus entered Jerusalem on what we traditionally celebrate as Palm Sunday, there were two responses to Him.  The first response was…

Palm Procession around the outside of the church, Ethiopia The Palm Sunday liturgy in Ethiopia is a very elaborate ceremony. After reading from the four gospels in the sanctuary the palms are blessed and distributed to all the faithful with the following prayer for ech individual: “May God make me and you reach the next…

-Eddy Joel Silsbee Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is always King. We read simply as branches of the trees in Mark 11: 8 & Matt. 21: 8 when Jesus was entering this time in Jerusalem. Not only branches but also garments were spread out in the streets – Mark 11:…

Luke 19: 28-40    Fickle Friends and Focused Foes I love watching people when they gather at the church on Sunday mornings.  As I see people who are once again comfortable hugging, shaking hands and smiling at one another without the need of a mask it is obvious that there are many friendships among those who…

If you are 40 years old and above, you would have probably remembered how Holy Week used to be. It was very quiet, the restaurants and malls were closed, and most of us just stayed at home. With the last couple of years of Covid, history repeated itself. It was very quiet, the restaurants and…

Palm Sunday warns against the temptation to want a Savior who offers us deliverance from difficult circumstances, rather than a Savior who delivers us from sin and death. Why Palm Sunday?

Regular fasting is a good discipline, but flawless obedience to our commitments isn’t where we find our value. God doesn’t love us because of how successful we are at fasting during Lent. God loves us because we’re his children. Tsh Oxenreider, Bitter & Sweet: A Journey into Easter I never personally observed Lent until college,…

To bring a city to its sense, a nation to its knees, they welcomed Nazareth’s carpenter, waved palms cut from the trees. Hosanna filled the quiet air, they strained to glimpse a view; ‘Messiah’ they acclaimed this man whom Pharisees would sue. He turned the tables upside down, he spun their world around, he challenged…

For the last five weeks of Lent we have journeyed along the path of renewal and reconciliation with Jesus. And now we now begin Holy Week with our annual celebration of our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem. The Liturgy of Palm Sunday has two very distinctive moods. We begin with the blessing of palms, joining with…

Palm Sunday (Sunday 10 April 2022) is traditionally the day in the Christian calendar when we think about peace, and especially the peace that Jesus came to bring. Jesus rode into Jerusalem fulfilling the words of the prophet Zechariah: See, your king comes to you,righteous and having salvation,gentle and riding on a donkey,on a colt,…

by Jeannie Kendall 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,…

We’ve just had a long weekend in Jordan. Driving around I’ve enjoyed looking out for flocks of sheep and goats (sometimes with a shepherd), camels, and the occasional donkey. I’d like today to focus on the donkey ridden by Jesus into Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday. What is Jesus doing commandeering somebody else’s donkey? Is…