The Final Four
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Holy Week offers such a wide range of texts and approaches that for this installment of The Immediate Word we're dispensing with our typical format of a primary and secondary article. Instead we're providing you with a choice of material that will hopefully allow you to find some useful resources for whatever you might need. Since four of our team members are contributing pieces this week, one each addressing Palm Sunday, Passion Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday, we're calling this week's installment "The Final Four." Of course, that brings to mind "March Madness" -- i.e., the recently concluded college basketball tournaments -- and this week we'll take you from the "one shining moment" of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, to the communal "team meal" that many congregations will celebrate on Maundy Thursday, to the crushing sense of disappointment, loss, and seeming ultimate defeat of the crucifixion. But as we all know, that's not really the "final score." Amidst the death and despair we experience this week, there's so much more hope on the horizon.
A common theme running through each piece this week is the question of who Jesus really is -- and of what part we are going to play in the events of Holy Week. Roger Lovette starts us off with a meditation on our need to think about who is in our Palm Sunday crowd. If we were lining that road into Jerusalem today, people with all sorts of real problems would be represented. Roger points out that the entrance into Jerusalem was only part of the story. If we follow it all the way to the end, even beyond Easter, we will find a word of hope for those who still line the streets today, desperately hoping for a miracle in their lives. Mary Austin follows with a contemplation on the difficulty of celebrating Passion Sunday instead of Palm Sunday. Mary suggests that thinking about the question Jesus posed to his disciples -- "Who do you say that I am?" -- may allow us to find a common thread between the competing Palm and Passion emphases. It leads us to a deep sense of mystery about who Jesus is, and why he suffers... and Mary concludes that the same sense of the unknown and the mysterious carries us through life. Dean Feldmeyer offers an interesting approach to Maundy Thursday, providing an outline for planning a commemoration of the Last Supper in the context of a congregational meal. Dean focuses on the role food plays in our lives and includes several thought-provoking illustrations for stimulating table talk. Finally, Ron Love addresses the events of Holy Week, and specifically the Good Friday crucifixion narrative, by pointing out that we can all find our individual places in the story. Are we the faithful ones who shout "Hosanna," or we those who scream "Crucify him"? We can stand at the foot of the hill, looking up at the cross and shaking our heads in disbelief that an innocent man is being crucified, just as easily as we can stand alongside the self-righteous high priest. Ron concludes that the central question we must ask ourselves is: "Where will you stand?"
THE FINAL FOUR
A 2011 Palm Sunday
by Roger Lovette
Matthew 21:1-11
THE WORLD
Palm Sunday -- they lined the roads, Matthew said. In the original text we read that "most of the crowd" waved palm branches. Some spread them on the ground welcoming Jesus. Many screamed at the top of their lungs, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord!" One translation says, "Welcome the Son of David." But back to the text: "Most of the crowd waved palm branches." And this Palm Sunday, as children parade down the aisles waving palm branches and wondering what it means, who is in our Palm Sunday crowd? If our world were lining the road today, most of the crowd would still wave palm branches. Who particularly? There would be folk there that had lost their homes, and some who were afraid of foreclosure. There would be some in their fifties looking for a job. There would be Japanese there -- some coughing from radiation, some still looking for lost relatives, some wanting all the horror to just go away. Who is in our crowd? A 16-year-old boy struggling with his sexuality, and a woman married 15 years and wondering if she can escape a brutal relationship. There might be Tea Party members that hope to solve all our economic woes. And in that company perhaps a multitude of employees: teachers, policeman, carpenters, painters, plumbers, and others who wonder about the security of their jobs in the future. And in that long line there would also be politicians of all persuasions shouting hallelujahs for more reasons than we can name. But we could not leave out those Libyans and some women from Afghanistan still wearing burkas and living in bombed-out ruins. Here and there, there might be the parents of some girl or boy who will not come home from the war ever again. So this Sunday crowding the road -- hoping to get a glimpse of the Son of David -- we will be there as well.
THE WORD
The story begins with the disciples. Note the setting: the Mount of Olives. We will find ourselves there again later on in the week. But there on the edge of Jerusalem, Jesus asked his disciples to go and find a donkey. No, he said, not a horse but a donkey -- maybe the same kind of an animal his mother sat on years before on her painful way to Bethlehem. The disciples must have muttered to themselves, "A donkey? Why a donkey, of all things?" After a search they found the animal -- and a couple of followers took off their outer cloaks and placed them on the donkey's back and smoothed out the wrinkles. Jesus sat sidesaddle on the animal... and the journey began.
The crowd went wild. And looking back when the church told this story, they might have remembered those words in 2 Kings -- that when Jehu was crowned king they threw their garments on the road where he would ride (2 Kings 9:13). The church surely remembered those other words in Zechariah: "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" (Zechariah 9:9).
The word they screamed -- "Hosanna!" -- meant "Save now!" It was a prayer and a hope. And those words "Son of David" surely meant that the king has come. The church, in writing these words in Matthew, left out the rest of the Zechariah chapter. But his old promises are embedded in the hopes of all that lined that road, then and now. He would cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem. He would cut off the battle bow and he would command peace to all nations. And if that were not enough, Zechariah would add: He would also set the prisoners free and restore all they had lost. This Lord would protect them all (Zechariah 9, 10, 11, 12, 15). It was a great day -- one that would begin a week the church later would call "holy."
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Dr. Fosdick preached a great sermon on "The Sin of Palm Sunday." He said those who cheered Jesus on Sunday also crucified him on Friday. Perhaps some of the same people that lined the road were there on Friday spitting and yelling anything but hallelujahs. This Jesus did not bring them all they wanted, and in their disappointment many turned away in anger -- as crowds often do.
You could preach a whole sermon on those words at the end of the text: " 'Who is this?' The crowds were saying, 'This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee' " (Matthew 21:10b-11). Every age has struggled with this question: "Who is this Jesus?" We know that he was no magician. He will not bring a quick fix for all the turbulent problems of our time. But he will bring hope and power and energy to those who continue the journey with him to Calvary and beyond. Old Zechariah saw these dreams clearly in his vision. This king would not come like the earthly kings. He would not ride a stallion and have an army to smite his enemies. His power would not be worldly power. Much of the crowd turned away because he was the wrong kind of king.
Even as we wave our palm branches, we need to remember that this event was only part of the story. We have to follow it all the way to the end, beyond Calvary and broken-hearted disciples and dead Judas. We have to even go beyond Easter. Those frightened disciples discovered a power and a presence that would be with them always. He would bring peace, or at least the dream of peace, that so many have had from that time until now. Is this not a word for those who still line the streets on tiptoe, hoping desperately for some miracle? There is no quick fix here -- but there is the promise of something for those in Japan and this troubled country of ours and all the personal problems we all carry daily. Yes, he was a king. He rode on a donkey. And he did not bring them all they wanted. But he did what the Psalmist had discovered years before: "This Lord is our shepherd and we shall not lack." He will not attend to all our wants. But he will speak to every lack of our lives. We know this is only part of the story -- but you might tell your church this is still a great day of celebration, for what he brings is more than anything that any of us ever imagined.
G.K. Chesterton was right in his poem:
There was a Man
who lived in the East centuries ago
and now I cannot look at a sheep
or a sparrow,
a lily or a cornfield,
a raven or a sunset,
a vineyard or a mountain,
without thinking of him.
Passion Sunday vs. Palm Sunday
by Mary Austin
Matthew 27:11-54 or Matthew 21:1-11
Celebrating Passion Sunday instead of Palm Sunday can be a hard sell.
The palms and the kids and the procession through the church are a lot more fun than focusing on the passion of Jesus, with its emphasis on suffering and approaching death. In recent years, more churches have added an emphasis on the passion side of this week, recognizing that Palm Sunday is more than a mini-Easter for people who will be away on Easter itself. Even for people who will be in church on Easter, traveling from Palm Sunday straight to Easter -- if there isn't a pause for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday -- can give the impression that Holy Week is only about celebration.
Still, it's hard to give up the familiar up-tempo hymns and the cute kids waving the palms. The sermon may be a place to capture both emphases -- Palm and Passion.
On the passion side of the equation, the lectionary awkwardly suggests Matthew 27:11-54 as the gospel reading. The reading has Jesus before Pilate, and then moves through the crucifixion and the centurion's confession of faith -- a surprise to anyone who comes to church expecting to hear about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. The proposed reading for Palm Sunday, Matthew 21:1-11, works equally well (or not so well) for an emphasis on the Passion.
As Veronice Miles notes in Feasting on the Word: "The Liturgy of the Palms and the Liturgy of the Passion occupy the same stage.... Celebration and praise converge with loss and grief; strength and vulnerability share one liturgical moment, inviting us to shout 'Hosanna!' while also bracing ourselves for the poignancy of the crucifixion and the mourning that follows" (Year A, Volume 2, p. 152).
As Jesus enters Jerusalem, and stands before Pilate, the same question is paramount: Who is this? Are the people in the crowd expecting that this healer and teacher is also the revolutionary who will bring an end to the Roman rule of Palestine? The disciples have been struggling with this question all along the way to Jerusalem, and now those gathered in Jerusalem must ask it, and then finally Pilate himself. "Are you the king of the Jews?" Pilate asks at the beginning of their meeting (Matthew 27:11). Jesus gives his usual inscrutable answer -- "You say so" -- evoking again his question to the disciples: "Who do you say that I am?"
That same question recurs in our world, and in our lives.
The riveting and fast-paced developments in the Middle East and Africa have the US government struggling to figure out the same thing. Who are the rebels in Libya? To whom do we talk with in Egypt? Who's seeking power in Syria? Is an unknown new leader in Yemen better than the corrupt but familiar leader we know? There's a sense of mystery about these new leaders and potential new leaders. Who are they? For the moment, we are free to attach all our hopes and fears to them.
That same sense of the unknown follows Jesus into Jerusalem. He's made a name for himself traveling around the countryside, healing and teaching, but very few people know the depth of who he really is. They are free to project all of their own hopes and dreams for a new kind of kingdom onto him. Is this the one to overthrow the Roman rule at last? "Hosanna," they -- and we -- call out. "God save us!"
That same sense of the unknown carries us through life. Who would ever go to college or join the military, if we really knew how hard it was going to be? Mystery carries us into a relationship with our partners, and only when the commitment is made and lived into do we come to know their deep flaws, and our own. Mystery carries us into becoming parents, and only then do we understand the depth of the labor involved, and the depth of the joy.
Even when we change jobs, move, or try out a new restaurant, a delightful sense of possibility carries us forward into the new experience. Sometimes it lives up to our hopes and imagination, and other times not -- but we wouldn't try it without some feeling that the unknown might be better than what we already know.
The passion of Jesus refers to his suffering, but it's also about a deep sense of mystery about who he is, and why he suffers. "Great is the mystery of faith," the communion service proclaims. The scripture readings through the year may present a tamer, knowable Jesus. Passion Sunday reminds us again of the mystery of who Jesus is. Revolutionary? Wisdom teacher, living an enacted parable? Savior? Galilean preacher, caught up by forces stronger and more malevolent?
"Great is the mystery of faith" for us too, and Passion Sunday calls us to the mystery of who we are as people of faith. Are we wavers of palms who fade into the crowd when Jesus' arrest comes? Or are we those who stand at the foot of the cross, and the door of the tomb, and wait?
Maundy Thursday
by Dean Feldmeyer
Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Good Friday, is the traditional commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, a Seder meal that he celebrated with his disciples in the Upper Room.
The celebration of this holy day often takes place in the context of a Love Feast, House Church, Seder, or some other common meal. The following is offered a guide for planning such a celebration.
Before the Meal
Sing hymns or songs. Then:
The word "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, which also gives us the English word "mandate," which means an order or a command.
The two commandments of Jesus that are commonly commemorated in Maundy Thursday worship services are 1) The Great Commandment of Jesus to love one another "as I have loved you," and 2) his commandment at the Last Supper to "do this in remembrance of me."
The Great Commandment is often commemorated with the giving of alms for the poor, usually in the form of canned goods, secondhand clothing, coats, cash, or other items that are needed in the local community.
The second commandment is commemorated in the celebration of Holy Communion (Eucharist).
Prayer Before the Eating (based on a prayer in The Clowns of God by Morris West)
Loving and marvelous God, we worship you this night with praise and feasting. We acknowledge that while we eat, others are hungry; while we are sheltered, others are exposed; while we are together, others are alone; while we laugh, others cry. We recognize that for us to live, something had to die. The wheat gave up its life that we might have bread. The grape gave up its life that we might have wine.
Loving God, we give you thanks that, in your marvelous and mysterious wisdom and for reasons we will never know or understand, it has pleased you to number us among the fortunate of this earth. We receive the gift of this meal and this fellowship with humble gratitude, O Lord. Bless it to the strengthening of our bodies and our wills, that we might serve more effectively your kingdom and those within it who are less fortunate than we. In the holy name of Jesus our Savior and Lord. Amen.
During the Common Meal
When all have been served, read aloud the texts for this day as the people eat their dinner. Allow time between the readings for table discussion. When all of the texts have been read, the following illustrations can be used to fuel further table talk:
In his book How Pleasure Works, Paul Bloom, professor of psychology at Yale University, says that (much to his surprise) his research has led him to the conclusion that the pleasure we derive from food has little or nothing to do with its taste, texture, aroma, or flavor. Most of the time, he says, the pleasure we get from food has more to do with our upbringing than anything else -- where we lived, what we ate growing up, what foods gave us comfort, and the way those foods were prepared are, most often, the keys to the pleasure we get from the food we eat as adults. Why do you suppose that we get pleasure at all from eating?
***
The United States Census Bureau and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) do not measure hunger -- instead they measure "food security." Households are ranked as having food security (85%), low food security (9%), or very low food security (6%). The defining characteristic of very low food security is that, at times during the year, the food intake of household members is reduced and their normal eating patterns are disrupted because the household lacks money and other resources for food. On average, households with very low food security at some time during the year experienced it in 7 or 8 months during the year and in 1 to 7 days in each of those months. Ninety-seven†percent of those classified as having low or very low food security reported that an adult had cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there was not enough money for food, and 27% reported that an adult did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food. Have you or someone in your family ever suffered from low or very low food security? Can you share what it was like? How you felt?
***
What would Jesus eat? According to Dr. Don Colbert, who wrote a book by that title, Jesus (because he was Jewish) would have followed Old Testament dietary laws -- for instance, laws governing clean and unclean animals and fish. These laws were specific: cattle, sheep, and goats were allowed; hogs were not. Fish with fins and scales were allowed; catfish, crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, shrimp), mollusks (clams, mussels), and others were not. Jesus would not have eaten an Easter ham.
Colbert also assesses Jesus' culture and decides what he would have eaten based on what was available. Fish was widely available; beef was saved for special occasions, such as the prodigal son's return. So, Colbert says, Jesus probably ate fish on a daily basis but beef not more than once a month. Other staples in Jesus' diet, according to Colbert's assessment of the culture, would have been bread and other whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and olive oil.
Colbert also believes Jesus taught diet by example, so he says we should eat the same foods today. What do you think?
***
Some interesting facts about food:
-- Refried beans aren't fried twice. The word "refried" is a mistranslation of the Spanish phrase frijoles refritos, which means "well-fried beans."
-- The oldest recipe for "hot chocolate" dates back to a fifth-century Mayan concoction that included cocoa beans, chile peppers, cornmeal, spices, and water... and that tasted bitter and spicy, unlike the sweet confection we love so much today.
-- Frozen fruits and vegetables are often better for you than fresh ones because they are allowed to ripen fully before they are frozen. Fresh foods are picked before they are fully ripened, and are often consumed before their nutrients are fully developed. The best, of course, are fresh AND fully ripened foods.
-- Honey doesn't spoil.
-- No one knows where the donut came from, it just appeared simultaneously in several places around the world at about the same time.
What do you know about food? Can you share it? How do you know that?
***
Children in families who eat 4-7 suppers together each week have been shown in university studies to:
-- Eat healthier foods voluntarily when away from home,
-- Make higher grades,
-- Be more self-confident,
-- Be active and involved in more extracurricular activities, and
-- Be more socially engaged and adaptable than those who don't.
How is your family doing?
The Breaking of Bread and Pouring out of Wine
If the meal concludes with Holy Communion, then it is recommended that you use a simplified form of the ritual that is common to your denomination.
If the meal is to end with a commemoration that is not Holy Communion, then you can use this ritual:
It is to their credit that the mothers and fathers of our faith saw that bread was a symbol for life. Neither bread nor life can be saved up. If we try to save them up, we will lose them. Saved bread becomes moldy and stale and eventually deteriorates into dust. The same can be said for life. It is like bread. If we try to save it up, we will lose it. The only time bread -- or life -- has value is not when it is saved, but when we allow it to be broken and shared with our brothers and sisters. (Break the bread and pass it around.)
Likewise, the mothers and fathers of our faith saw in wine a symbol for life. If we try to save it, we will lose it. Saved wine turns sour and bitter and eventually evaporates and is gone. The same can be said of life. If we try to save our lives up, they too will become sour and bitter; they too will evaporate and be gone. No, the only time wine or life has value is not when it has been saved up, but when it has been poured out and shared with our brothers and sisters. (Pour the wine for everyone.)
Today we remember the commandments of our Lord, of which these two were primary: That we love one another as he loved us, and that we recognize and remember him in the breaking of bread and the pouring out of wine. (All eat and drink.)
Benediction
Friends, as Christ's body was broken for us, and as his blood was poured out for us, let us be bread and wine for the world, broken and poured out for our brothers and sisters. Please leave your offering on the table as you go in peace. Amen.
Good Friday: Where Will You Stand?
by Ron Love
John 18:1--19:42
We are all participating characters in the Good Friday story; it is just a matter of where we choose to place ourselves during the unfolding events of the day.
Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, has chosen for himself the role of high priest. Insensitive and uncaring about interfaith ritual, he placed the Koran on trial. The verdict was a public burning of the sacred book of Islam. Unremorseful, he entertains no guilt for the ensuing riots and deaths his actions caused. There were countless other ways to protest the book he despises that would have avoided an international incident; but then, he was not seeking to share a message but to participate in high drama.
The Muslim mobs of Afghanistan have killed 12 foreigners as an act of revenge against a single pastor and a single event an ocean away. Are these not the same individuals who cried "Crucify him!" and then came and stood at the foot of the hill to be sure a death, harbored in vindictiveness, was fully instituted? Restraint was not the order of the day, only mayhem.
Symbolically, Margarita Crispin could be the thief on the cross to the side of Jesus. She was the high-profile case of a border agent gone bad. She accepted millions of dollars in bribes to allow Mexican drugs to pass freely through her border patrol station. Her luxurious living style brought her under suspicion. When a van packed with 6,000 pounds of marijuana ran out of gas shortly after passing by her inspection booth, and the driver went running on foot back across the border, she was finally arrested.
Equally symbolic is a man who died this past week that could be found on the center cross. Dr. Baruch Blumberg developed the first hepatitis B vaccine. When asked why he dedicated his life to medical research he replied, "This is what drew me to medicine. There is, in Jewish thought, this idea that if you save a single life, you save the whole world, and that affected me."
We can look at the events from the spanning of Jesus' trial to the placement of the body in the tomb and find individuals of reproach and renown. We can find modern-day examples for each. But the real question is this: Where will you and I be standing?
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Outline the events and main characters of Good Friday.
II. Discuss how these events and the individuals involved have modern-day parallels.
III. Dialogue on how we are participants in the Good Friday story.
ILLUSTRATIONS
They say that everyone loves a parade, and a parade is exactly the mental image of Palm Sunday most of us carry around in our heads -- a glorious ticker-tape parade down Jerusalem's equivalent of Fifth Avenue. We envision Jesus triumphantly riding in like a conquering hero -- the sun shining on his face, children dancing and singing, adults rejoicing.
But it was not so rosy a scene. Jesus was riding into a city as emotionally and politically charged as any in our world that's on the brink of rioting. Jesus' triumphal entry into this seething cauldron of discontent was not so much a ticker-tape parade as it was a political rally or a carefully staged demonstration.
According to Matthew, Jesus seemed well aware of the political implications. He was mounted on a donkey -- the beast the prophet Zechariah predicted would bear the messiah. The crowd was shouting "Hosanna" ("Save us!"), the traditional appeal of the Jewish people to their king. Jesus himself instructed his disciples to find a certain colt and a certain donkey, conveniently fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah. He even gave them a secret code word: "The Lord needs them." The owner -- recognizing the password -- would "send them immediately."
If Jesus was making a bid for political power, he soon proved to be an utter failure. The civil and religious authorities formed a rare coalition to undermine his popular support. In just a few days the crowd turned against the carpenter from Nazareth -- and when Pilate offered them the choice, the people chose a murderer over Jesus. On Palm Sunday he was the toast of the town; by Friday evening he was dead.
Keeping this ironic subtext in mind puts a whole different spin on our Palm Sunday tradition of children parading down the aisles happily waving palms.
* * *
It is curious that the adoring crowd witnessing Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was waving palms, because palms do not typically grow in Jerusalem -- they must have been brought in from Jericho or elsewhere. Whoever supplied the people with palms had a very special agenda.
That agenda was unashamedly political, for in the Jewish context a palm branch was a symbol of victory. During the Maccabean revolt, the Jews had driven their Greek rulers out of Jerusalem. During the brief period of self-government that followed, the Maccabeans minted a victory coin with palm branches on it. But their triumph was short-lived. The Romans soon replaced the Greeks, obliterating all hope of Jewish independence. The Romans eventually minted their own victory coin, which featured the image of a Jewish slave kneeling before a Roman soldier. Across the top of the coin was a broken palm branch.
To the Jerusalem crowd, palms were not a benign symbol of rejoicing (like those "We're #1" foam hands spectators bring to football games) -- they were a political provocation. There's no comparable symbol in our country -- but if you can imagine the United States under the domination of a foreign power, and what it would mean to display the American flag in such circumstances, you might have some idea.
* * *
Today we think of bagpipes as a beguiling symbol of rustic Scotland. But did you know that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the English rulers of Scotland banned the bagpipes as an instrument of war? That's because the original Highland pipers charged right into battle with their fellow soldiers. The "skirl o' the pipes," sounding over the smoke and tumult of battle, was a kind of psychological warfare, certain to strike terror into the hearts of enemies. That's why the English made it illegal to even own bagpipes.
The palms the Jerusalem crowd waved are like that.
* * *
The question of who Jesus is, and who we are, asks about the essential core of our identity. In November 2006, Smith magazine invited people to tell their life story in just six words -- just the essential core, or the defining experience, or the startling transition that made them who they are. Over 5,000 submissions came in, and the winners were later compiled into a book. The magazine still invites six-word submissions on assorted topics -- a recent one invited people to submit six words the president might use to inspire the American people.
Here are some of the six-word life-story "memoirs":
Never really finished anything, except cake. -- C. Perkins
Not quite what I was planning... -- S. Grimes
Found true love, married someone else. -- B. Stromberg
Mistakenly kills kitten. Fears anything delicate. -- S. Henderson
Bad brakes discovered at high speed. -- J. Baumeister
After Harvard, had baby with crackhead. -- R. Templeton
Caring for parents. Life is circular. -- T. McGrath
Scarred by 9/11; helped by penguins. -- A. Blackburn
Ex-wife and contractor now have house. -- D. Peck
Nose broken, beauty queen changes profession. -- D. Rubin
School geek married a luscious cheerleader. -- C. Clukey
Married for money. Divorced for love. -- R. Abraham
Wealthy woman escapes with handsome mailman. -- A. Shewan
One tooth, one cavity, life's cruel. -- J. Bettencourt
Life behind a microphone gets lonely. -- C. Kash
Mormon economist marries feminist. Worlds collide. -- M. McBride
I still make coffee for two. -- Z. Nelson
* * *
Kelly Bush has started a publicity agency called "ID" (for "Identity") It is her desire to give her clients an identity in the celebrity network of movies and television. She especially specializes in giving a new identity to those whose behavior has brought them disfavor among the public. One of her greatest success stories is actor Paul Reubens. Reubens, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, was arrested and found guilty on an embarrassing sexual charge. As an actor for a children's show, everyone deemed his career to be over. Bush was able to reestablish Reubens' identity and popularity, and he is now embarking on a children's Broadway show. Many may think that Reubens should never have returned to acting as Pee-wee Herman. But then, is not the message of Good Friday that of receiving a new identity?
* * *
Where do we go when we face the dark night of the soul? To whom do we turn? Thomas Lynch is a poet and an undertaker who has an interesting perspective on these questions. Over the years he has seen many human tragedies, and in the course of his work he has become utterly convinced of the value of faith -- for it is in our experiences of darkest night that faith shines forth the brightest. In his words:
Better than baptisms or marriages, funerals press the noses of the faithful against the windows of their faith. Vision and insight are often coincidental with demise. Death is the moment when the chips are down. That moment of truth when the truth is that we die makes relevant the claims of our prophets and apostles. Faith is not required to sing in the choir, for bake sales or building drives; to usher or deacon or elder or priest. Faith is for the time of our dying and the time of dying of the ones we love. Those parsons and pastors who are most successful -- those who have learned to "minister" -- are those who allow their faithful flocks to grieve....
Uncles find nickels behind our ears. Magicians pull rabbits from out of hats. Any good talker can preach pie in the sky or break out the warm fuzzies when the time is right. But only by faith do the dead arise and walk among us or speak to us in our soul's dark nights.
-- Thomas Lynch, The Undertaking (Penguin, 1997), pp. 80-81
* * *
People who live close together can be sources of great sorrow for one another. When Jesus chose his 12 apostles, Judas was one of them. Judas is called a traitor. A traitor, according to the literal meaning of the Greek word for "betraying," is someone who hands the other over to suffering. The truth is that we all have something of the traitor in us because each of us hands our fellow human beings over to suffering somehow, somewhere, mostly without intending or even knowing it. Many children, even grown-up children, can experience deep anger toward their parents for having protected them too much or too little. When we are willing to confess that we often hand those we love over to suffering, even against our best intentions, we will be more ready to forgive those who, mostly against their will, are the causes of our pain.
-- Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey (Harper Collins, 1997)
* * *
Of all the pains that lead to liberation, the worst is to see your loved one suffer.
-- Julian of Norwich
* * *
The Christian must not only accept suffering, but he must make it holy. Nothing so easily becomes unholy as suffering.
Merely accepted, suffering does nothing for our souls except, perhaps, to harden them. Endurance alone is no consecration. True asceticism is not a mere cult of fortitude. We can deny ourselves rigorously for the wrong reason and end by pleasing ourselves mightily with our self-denial.
Suffering is consecrated to God by faith -- not by suffering, but by faith in God. Some of us believe in the power and the value of suffering. But such a belief is an illusion. Suffering has no power and no value of its own.
It is valuable only as a test of faith....
The death of Jesus on the cross has an infinite meaning and value not because it is a death, but because it is the death of the Son of God. The cross of Christ says nothing of the power of suffering or of death. It speaks only of the power of him who overcame both suffering and death by rising from the grave.
The wounds that evil stamped upon the flesh of Christ are to be worshiped as holy not because they are wounds, but because they are his wounds. Nor would we worship them if he had merely died of them without rising again. For Jesus is not merely someone who once loved us enough to die for us: his love for us is the infinite love of God, which is stronger than all evil and cannot be touched by death.
Suffering, therefore, can only be consecrated to God by one who believes that Jesus is not dead. And it is of the very essence of Christianity to face suffering and death not because they are good, not because they have meaning, but because the resurrection of Jesus has robbed them of their meaning.
-- Thomas Merton, "To Know the Cross," from No Man Is an Island (Harcourt, 1955)
* * *
The crowd at the cross can be divided into three categories:
1. "God, I hate you..." (Pharisees)
2. "God, I love you..." (disciples, women, penitent thief)
3. "God, I could care less..." (soldiers)
People throughout history have fallen into one of those responses.
* * *
In the midst of depression I once asked my spiritual director how I could be feeling such despair, when not long before the depression hit I had been feeling so close to God.
"Simple," she said. "The closer you get to light, the closer you get to darkness."
The deepest things in life come not singly but in paradoxical pairs, where the light and the dark intermingle.
-- Parker Palmer, The Active Life: Wisdom for Work, Creativity, and Caring (Jossey-Bass, 1999)
* * *
John's Passion account raises some problematical issues regarding his statements blaming "the Jews" for some of the atrocities committed against Jesus. It's important to keep in mind that John was writing in a polemical context, in which he and a Judaizing faction were struggling for control of his churches. John was quick to blame "the Jews" because he was trying to distance himself from any person who taught that the way to Christian faith led first through Jewish religious practices. It's patently absurd to blame "the Jews" for Jesus' death -- Jesus himself was a Jew, as were his disciples, only one of whom betrayed him. John's Passion account has been frightfully misused over the centuries to justify all manner of pogroms against Jewish communities in Europe. Until very recently, Good Friday was the most dangerous day of the year for European Jews. We would gain a deeper understanding of the events of Jesus' Passion by using the simple device of mentally substituting "the religious authorities" for most occurrences of "the Jews" in this text.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Note: There are many liturgical aids to help us move through the triumphant entry to the passion in one service. These aids are offered to help in that process or to aid in those who will celebrate mainly Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday.
Texts
(Palm) Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
(Passion) Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:14--27:66
Call to Worship
Leader: Open, O God, the gates of righteousness,
People: that we may enter and give praise.
Leader: The stone the builders rejected is now the chief cornerstone.
People: This is God's doing, and it is awesome!
Leader: Save us, we beg you, O God!
People: Blessed is the one who comes in God's Name!
OR
Leader: Be gracious to us, God, when we are in distress.
People: Our lives are spent in sorrow.
Leader: Our years are full of sighing.
People: We have become like broken vessels.
Leader: But I trust in you, O God; you are my God.
People: Let your face shine upon us and save us in your love.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"All Glory, Laud and Honor"
found in:
UMH: 280
H82: 154, 155
PH: 88
AAHH: 226
NNBH: 102
NCH: 216, 217
CH: 192
LBW: 108
"Hosanna, Loud Hosanna"
found in:
UMH: 278
PH: 89
NCH: 213
"Ah, Holy Jesus"
found in:
UMH: 289
H82: 158
PH: 93
NCH: 218
CH: 210
LBW: 123
"What Wondrous Love Is This?"
found in:
UMH: 292
H82: 439
PH: 85
NCH: 223
CH: 200
LBW: 385
"Beneath the Cross of Jesus"
found in:
UMH: 297
H82: 498
PH: 92
AAHH: 247
NNBH: 106
NCH: 190
CH: 197
LBW: 107
"Lift High the Cross"
found in:
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
"O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done"
found in:
UMH: 287
"When We Are Living"
found in:
UMH: 356
PH: 400
CH: 536
"All Hail King Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 29
"Our God Reigns"
found in:
CCB: 33
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who came humbly into the world in the birth of Jesus: Give us the grace to understand the humility with which Jesus made his triumphant entry into his passion; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We have come, O God, to celebrate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem as your reign on earth was formally announced. We have also come to hear, once again, the fierce resistance evil has to your will for creation. Help us not to stand with Jesus only in the procession of the palms, but also to walk with him in the way of the cross. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we fail to follow you into sacrifice.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are glad to identify with Jesus as the triumphant ruler, but we are slow to identify with him as the self-emptying servant. We want to ride with him into Jerusalem, but we have no desire to wash the dirty feet of the poor. We love for people to wave palms at us, but we flee when they wave fists or whips. Forgive us, God, for our failure to understand that victory only comes in defeat and life only comes in death. Send your Spirit upon us that we may truly follow Jesus at all times and in all places. Amen.
Leader: Jesus came to lead us to life. He came for the courageous and the cowardly; he came for us all. Let us embrace our Savior and his way.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We bring our praises and our shouts of acclamation, O God, as you invite us into your presence. You are the true Sovereign and the true Savior.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are glad to identify with Jesus as the triumphant ruler, but we are slow to identify with him as the self-emptying servant. We want to ride with him into Jerusalem, but we have no desire to wash the dirty feet of the poor. We love for people to wave palms at us, but we flee when they wave fists or whips. Forgive us, God, for our failure to understand that victory only comes in defeat and life only comes in death. Send your Spirit upon us, that we may truly follow Jesus at all times and in all places.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have shown us the way to live in your realm. We thank you for family, friends, and strangers who have shared your love and grace with us. Most of all we thank you for Jesus, who has shown us how to live by dying.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We bring the cares of our hearts to share with you, our Savior and Sovereign. In your great love, you offered yourself for the wholeness of creation. As you continue to move in and among us for our healing, help us to participate in your ministry.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Visuals
(These suggestions are for either a worship center or a slide show.) palms, crosses, parades, Jesus crowned with thorns, the crucifixion scene, Jesus entering Jerusalem
Children's Sermon Starter
The best suggestion I have for this day is to rehearse with the children the events of Holy Week. Talk to them about how important this week is for us as Christians, and have them help you outline the events that happen. Details would depend on the age and knowledge of the children. Many adults will benefit from the review as well.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
King Jesus
Matthew 26:14--27:66
Object: a sign that says "The King of the Jews"
Good morning, boys and girls! Today I brought a sign with me. Can someone tell me what it says? (Have one of the older children read it.) Now why do you think I brought this with me this morning? (let them answer) I brought this with me because it is very similar to the sign put on Jesus' cross. (Here you can recap the Passion Sunday reading.)
When this sign was put on Jesus' cross, do you think they meant it? Do you think they really thought he was a king? (let them answer) No, if they really thought he was a king, they probably would have treated him like a king. They were making fun of Jesus when they put this sign on his cross. They did the same thing with the crown of thorns and the stick they put in his hands. They mocked him and spit on him and made fun of him. They treated him very badly!
They treated Jesus like a terrible person, and he was really a very good person. They treated Jesus like a bad criminal, but he really was the king -- the king of all who believe in him. He is our king. Today when we think of Jesus, we would never think to mock Jesus with a sign we didn't mean. Today we honor Jesus as our king.
Prayer: Dear King Jesus, we are your people. Thank you for being our king. Amen.
* * *
Alternative (for Palm Sunday)
Object: a conductor's baton
(Have the children form a line behind one of the more extroverted of the children -- or yourself -- and parade down the aisles of the sanctuary. After returning from the parade, you can begin by asking them the following question.) Why do we have parades? (To celebrate something important -- e.g. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's parades, as well as parades at festivals and ballgames.) What is so important that we had a parade here today? (let them answer) Jesus is why we have a parade. Jesus is our Lord and Savior. We want to celebrate with a parade. (If you have processionals in your worship service, note how they are very much like a parade to honor "the King of kings" -- Jesus.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 17, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
A common theme running through each piece this week is the question of who Jesus really is -- and of what part we are going to play in the events of Holy Week. Roger Lovette starts us off with a meditation on our need to think about who is in our Palm Sunday crowd. If we were lining that road into Jerusalem today, people with all sorts of real problems would be represented. Roger points out that the entrance into Jerusalem was only part of the story. If we follow it all the way to the end, even beyond Easter, we will find a word of hope for those who still line the streets today, desperately hoping for a miracle in their lives. Mary Austin follows with a contemplation on the difficulty of celebrating Passion Sunday instead of Palm Sunday. Mary suggests that thinking about the question Jesus posed to his disciples -- "Who do you say that I am?" -- may allow us to find a common thread between the competing Palm and Passion emphases. It leads us to a deep sense of mystery about who Jesus is, and why he suffers... and Mary concludes that the same sense of the unknown and the mysterious carries us through life. Dean Feldmeyer offers an interesting approach to Maundy Thursday, providing an outline for planning a commemoration of the Last Supper in the context of a congregational meal. Dean focuses on the role food plays in our lives and includes several thought-provoking illustrations for stimulating table talk. Finally, Ron Love addresses the events of Holy Week, and specifically the Good Friday crucifixion narrative, by pointing out that we can all find our individual places in the story. Are we the faithful ones who shout "Hosanna," or we those who scream "Crucify him"? We can stand at the foot of the hill, looking up at the cross and shaking our heads in disbelief that an innocent man is being crucified, just as easily as we can stand alongside the self-righteous high priest. Ron concludes that the central question we must ask ourselves is: "Where will you stand?"
THE FINAL FOUR
A 2011 Palm Sunday
by Roger Lovette
Matthew 21:1-11
THE WORLD
Palm Sunday -- they lined the roads, Matthew said. In the original text we read that "most of the crowd" waved palm branches. Some spread them on the ground welcoming Jesus. Many screamed at the top of their lungs, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord!" One translation says, "Welcome the Son of David." But back to the text: "Most of the crowd waved palm branches." And this Palm Sunday, as children parade down the aisles waving palm branches and wondering what it means, who is in our Palm Sunday crowd? If our world were lining the road today, most of the crowd would still wave palm branches. Who particularly? There would be folk there that had lost their homes, and some who were afraid of foreclosure. There would be some in their fifties looking for a job. There would be Japanese there -- some coughing from radiation, some still looking for lost relatives, some wanting all the horror to just go away. Who is in our crowd? A 16-year-old boy struggling with his sexuality, and a woman married 15 years and wondering if she can escape a brutal relationship. There might be Tea Party members that hope to solve all our economic woes. And in that company perhaps a multitude of employees: teachers, policeman, carpenters, painters, plumbers, and others who wonder about the security of their jobs in the future. And in that long line there would also be politicians of all persuasions shouting hallelujahs for more reasons than we can name. But we could not leave out those Libyans and some women from Afghanistan still wearing burkas and living in bombed-out ruins. Here and there, there might be the parents of some girl or boy who will not come home from the war ever again. So this Sunday crowding the road -- hoping to get a glimpse of the Son of David -- we will be there as well.
THE WORD
The story begins with the disciples. Note the setting: the Mount of Olives. We will find ourselves there again later on in the week. But there on the edge of Jerusalem, Jesus asked his disciples to go and find a donkey. No, he said, not a horse but a donkey -- maybe the same kind of an animal his mother sat on years before on her painful way to Bethlehem. The disciples must have muttered to themselves, "A donkey? Why a donkey, of all things?" After a search they found the animal -- and a couple of followers took off their outer cloaks and placed them on the donkey's back and smoothed out the wrinkles. Jesus sat sidesaddle on the animal... and the journey began.
The crowd went wild. And looking back when the church told this story, they might have remembered those words in 2 Kings -- that when Jehu was crowned king they threw their garments on the road where he would ride (2 Kings 9:13). The church surely remembered those other words in Zechariah: "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" (Zechariah 9:9).
The word they screamed -- "Hosanna!" -- meant "Save now!" It was a prayer and a hope. And those words "Son of David" surely meant that the king has come. The church, in writing these words in Matthew, left out the rest of the Zechariah chapter. But his old promises are embedded in the hopes of all that lined that road, then and now. He would cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem. He would cut off the battle bow and he would command peace to all nations. And if that were not enough, Zechariah would add: He would also set the prisoners free and restore all they had lost. This Lord would protect them all (Zechariah 9, 10, 11, 12, 15). It was a great day -- one that would begin a week the church later would call "holy."
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Dr. Fosdick preached a great sermon on "The Sin of Palm Sunday." He said those who cheered Jesus on Sunday also crucified him on Friday. Perhaps some of the same people that lined the road were there on Friday spitting and yelling anything but hallelujahs. This Jesus did not bring them all they wanted, and in their disappointment many turned away in anger -- as crowds often do.
You could preach a whole sermon on those words at the end of the text: " 'Who is this?' The crowds were saying, 'This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee' " (Matthew 21:10b-11). Every age has struggled with this question: "Who is this Jesus?" We know that he was no magician. He will not bring a quick fix for all the turbulent problems of our time. But he will bring hope and power and energy to those who continue the journey with him to Calvary and beyond. Old Zechariah saw these dreams clearly in his vision. This king would not come like the earthly kings. He would not ride a stallion and have an army to smite his enemies. His power would not be worldly power. Much of the crowd turned away because he was the wrong kind of king.
Even as we wave our palm branches, we need to remember that this event was only part of the story. We have to follow it all the way to the end, beyond Calvary and broken-hearted disciples and dead Judas. We have to even go beyond Easter. Those frightened disciples discovered a power and a presence that would be with them always. He would bring peace, or at least the dream of peace, that so many have had from that time until now. Is this not a word for those who still line the streets on tiptoe, hoping desperately for some miracle? There is no quick fix here -- but there is the promise of something for those in Japan and this troubled country of ours and all the personal problems we all carry daily. Yes, he was a king. He rode on a donkey. And he did not bring them all they wanted. But he did what the Psalmist had discovered years before: "This Lord is our shepherd and we shall not lack." He will not attend to all our wants. But he will speak to every lack of our lives. We know this is only part of the story -- but you might tell your church this is still a great day of celebration, for what he brings is more than anything that any of us ever imagined.
G.K. Chesterton was right in his poem:
There was a Man
who lived in the East centuries ago
and now I cannot look at a sheep
or a sparrow,
a lily or a cornfield,
a raven or a sunset,
a vineyard or a mountain,
without thinking of him.
Passion Sunday vs. Palm Sunday
by Mary Austin
Matthew 27:11-54 or Matthew 21:1-11
Celebrating Passion Sunday instead of Palm Sunday can be a hard sell.
The palms and the kids and the procession through the church are a lot more fun than focusing on the passion of Jesus, with its emphasis on suffering and approaching death. In recent years, more churches have added an emphasis on the passion side of this week, recognizing that Palm Sunday is more than a mini-Easter for people who will be away on Easter itself. Even for people who will be in church on Easter, traveling from Palm Sunday straight to Easter -- if there isn't a pause for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday -- can give the impression that Holy Week is only about celebration.
Still, it's hard to give up the familiar up-tempo hymns and the cute kids waving the palms. The sermon may be a place to capture both emphases -- Palm and Passion.
On the passion side of the equation, the lectionary awkwardly suggests Matthew 27:11-54 as the gospel reading. The reading has Jesus before Pilate, and then moves through the crucifixion and the centurion's confession of faith -- a surprise to anyone who comes to church expecting to hear about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. The proposed reading for Palm Sunday, Matthew 21:1-11, works equally well (or not so well) for an emphasis on the Passion.
As Veronice Miles notes in Feasting on the Word: "The Liturgy of the Palms and the Liturgy of the Passion occupy the same stage.... Celebration and praise converge with loss and grief; strength and vulnerability share one liturgical moment, inviting us to shout 'Hosanna!' while also bracing ourselves for the poignancy of the crucifixion and the mourning that follows" (Year A, Volume 2, p. 152).
As Jesus enters Jerusalem, and stands before Pilate, the same question is paramount: Who is this? Are the people in the crowd expecting that this healer and teacher is also the revolutionary who will bring an end to the Roman rule of Palestine? The disciples have been struggling with this question all along the way to Jerusalem, and now those gathered in Jerusalem must ask it, and then finally Pilate himself. "Are you the king of the Jews?" Pilate asks at the beginning of their meeting (Matthew 27:11). Jesus gives his usual inscrutable answer -- "You say so" -- evoking again his question to the disciples: "Who do you say that I am?"
That same question recurs in our world, and in our lives.
The riveting and fast-paced developments in the Middle East and Africa have the US government struggling to figure out the same thing. Who are the rebels in Libya? To whom do we talk with in Egypt? Who's seeking power in Syria? Is an unknown new leader in Yemen better than the corrupt but familiar leader we know? There's a sense of mystery about these new leaders and potential new leaders. Who are they? For the moment, we are free to attach all our hopes and fears to them.
That same sense of the unknown follows Jesus into Jerusalem. He's made a name for himself traveling around the countryside, healing and teaching, but very few people know the depth of who he really is. They are free to project all of their own hopes and dreams for a new kind of kingdom onto him. Is this the one to overthrow the Roman rule at last? "Hosanna," they -- and we -- call out. "God save us!"
That same sense of the unknown carries us through life. Who would ever go to college or join the military, if we really knew how hard it was going to be? Mystery carries us into a relationship with our partners, and only when the commitment is made and lived into do we come to know their deep flaws, and our own. Mystery carries us into becoming parents, and only then do we understand the depth of the labor involved, and the depth of the joy.
Even when we change jobs, move, or try out a new restaurant, a delightful sense of possibility carries us forward into the new experience. Sometimes it lives up to our hopes and imagination, and other times not -- but we wouldn't try it without some feeling that the unknown might be better than what we already know.
The passion of Jesus refers to his suffering, but it's also about a deep sense of mystery about who he is, and why he suffers. "Great is the mystery of faith," the communion service proclaims. The scripture readings through the year may present a tamer, knowable Jesus. Passion Sunday reminds us again of the mystery of who Jesus is. Revolutionary? Wisdom teacher, living an enacted parable? Savior? Galilean preacher, caught up by forces stronger and more malevolent?
"Great is the mystery of faith" for us too, and Passion Sunday calls us to the mystery of who we are as people of faith. Are we wavers of palms who fade into the crowd when Jesus' arrest comes? Or are we those who stand at the foot of the cross, and the door of the tomb, and wait?
Maundy Thursday
by Dean Feldmeyer
Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Good Friday, is the traditional commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, a Seder meal that he celebrated with his disciples in the Upper Room.
The celebration of this holy day often takes place in the context of a Love Feast, House Church, Seder, or some other common meal. The following is offered a guide for planning such a celebration.
Before the Meal
Sing hymns or songs. Then:
The word "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, which also gives us the English word "mandate," which means an order or a command.
The two commandments of Jesus that are commonly commemorated in Maundy Thursday worship services are 1) The Great Commandment of Jesus to love one another "as I have loved you," and 2) his commandment at the Last Supper to "do this in remembrance of me."
The Great Commandment is often commemorated with the giving of alms for the poor, usually in the form of canned goods, secondhand clothing, coats, cash, or other items that are needed in the local community.
The second commandment is commemorated in the celebration of Holy Communion (Eucharist).
Prayer Before the Eating (based on a prayer in The Clowns of God by Morris West)
Loving and marvelous God, we worship you this night with praise and feasting. We acknowledge that while we eat, others are hungry; while we are sheltered, others are exposed; while we are together, others are alone; while we laugh, others cry. We recognize that for us to live, something had to die. The wheat gave up its life that we might have bread. The grape gave up its life that we might have wine.
Loving God, we give you thanks that, in your marvelous and mysterious wisdom and for reasons we will never know or understand, it has pleased you to number us among the fortunate of this earth. We receive the gift of this meal and this fellowship with humble gratitude, O Lord. Bless it to the strengthening of our bodies and our wills, that we might serve more effectively your kingdom and those within it who are less fortunate than we. In the holy name of Jesus our Savior and Lord. Amen.
During the Common Meal
When all have been served, read aloud the texts for this day as the people eat their dinner. Allow time between the readings for table discussion. When all of the texts have been read, the following illustrations can be used to fuel further table talk:
In his book How Pleasure Works, Paul Bloom, professor of psychology at Yale University, says that (much to his surprise) his research has led him to the conclusion that the pleasure we derive from food has little or nothing to do with its taste, texture, aroma, or flavor. Most of the time, he says, the pleasure we get from food has more to do with our upbringing than anything else -- where we lived, what we ate growing up, what foods gave us comfort, and the way those foods were prepared are, most often, the keys to the pleasure we get from the food we eat as adults. Why do you suppose that we get pleasure at all from eating?
***
The United States Census Bureau and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) do not measure hunger -- instead they measure "food security." Households are ranked as having food security (85%), low food security (9%), or very low food security (6%). The defining characteristic of very low food security is that, at times during the year, the food intake of household members is reduced and their normal eating patterns are disrupted because the household lacks money and other resources for food. On average, households with very low food security at some time during the year experienced it in 7 or 8 months during the year and in 1 to 7 days in each of those months. Ninety-seven†percent of those classified as having low or very low food security reported that an adult had cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there was not enough money for food, and 27% reported that an adult did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food. Have you or someone in your family ever suffered from low or very low food security? Can you share what it was like? How you felt?
***
What would Jesus eat? According to Dr. Don Colbert, who wrote a book by that title, Jesus (because he was Jewish) would have followed Old Testament dietary laws -- for instance, laws governing clean and unclean animals and fish. These laws were specific: cattle, sheep, and goats were allowed; hogs were not. Fish with fins and scales were allowed; catfish, crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, shrimp), mollusks (clams, mussels), and others were not. Jesus would not have eaten an Easter ham.
Colbert also assesses Jesus' culture and decides what he would have eaten based on what was available. Fish was widely available; beef was saved for special occasions, such as the prodigal son's return. So, Colbert says, Jesus probably ate fish on a daily basis but beef not more than once a month. Other staples in Jesus' diet, according to Colbert's assessment of the culture, would have been bread and other whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and olive oil.
Colbert also believes Jesus taught diet by example, so he says we should eat the same foods today. What do you think?
***
Some interesting facts about food:
-- Refried beans aren't fried twice. The word "refried" is a mistranslation of the Spanish phrase frijoles refritos, which means "well-fried beans."
-- The oldest recipe for "hot chocolate" dates back to a fifth-century Mayan concoction that included cocoa beans, chile peppers, cornmeal, spices, and water... and that tasted bitter and spicy, unlike the sweet confection we love so much today.
-- Frozen fruits and vegetables are often better for you than fresh ones because they are allowed to ripen fully before they are frozen. Fresh foods are picked before they are fully ripened, and are often consumed before their nutrients are fully developed. The best, of course, are fresh AND fully ripened foods.
-- Honey doesn't spoil.
-- No one knows where the donut came from, it just appeared simultaneously in several places around the world at about the same time.
What do you know about food? Can you share it? How do you know that?
***
Children in families who eat 4-7 suppers together each week have been shown in university studies to:
-- Eat healthier foods voluntarily when away from home,
-- Make higher grades,
-- Be more self-confident,
-- Be active and involved in more extracurricular activities, and
-- Be more socially engaged and adaptable than those who don't.
How is your family doing?
The Breaking of Bread and Pouring out of Wine
If the meal concludes with Holy Communion, then it is recommended that you use a simplified form of the ritual that is common to your denomination.
If the meal is to end with a commemoration that is not Holy Communion, then you can use this ritual:
It is to their credit that the mothers and fathers of our faith saw that bread was a symbol for life. Neither bread nor life can be saved up. If we try to save them up, we will lose them. Saved bread becomes moldy and stale and eventually deteriorates into dust. The same can be said for life. It is like bread. If we try to save it up, we will lose it. The only time bread -- or life -- has value is not when it is saved, but when we allow it to be broken and shared with our brothers and sisters. (Break the bread and pass it around.)
Likewise, the mothers and fathers of our faith saw in wine a symbol for life. If we try to save it, we will lose it. Saved wine turns sour and bitter and eventually evaporates and is gone. The same can be said of life. If we try to save our lives up, they too will become sour and bitter; they too will evaporate and be gone. No, the only time wine or life has value is not when it has been saved up, but when it has been poured out and shared with our brothers and sisters. (Pour the wine for everyone.)
Today we remember the commandments of our Lord, of which these two were primary: That we love one another as he loved us, and that we recognize and remember him in the breaking of bread and the pouring out of wine. (All eat and drink.)
Benediction
Friends, as Christ's body was broken for us, and as his blood was poured out for us, let us be bread and wine for the world, broken and poured out for our brothers and sisters. Please leave your offering on the table as you go in peace. Amen.
Good Friday: Where Will You Stand?
by Ron Love
John 18:1--19:42
We are all participating characters in the Good Friday story; it is just a matter of where we choose to place ourselves during the unfolding events of the day.
Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, has chosen for himself the role of high priest. Insensitive and uncaring about interfaith ritual, he placed the Koran on trial. The verdict was a public burning of the sacred book of Islam. Unremorseful, he entertains no guilt for the ensuing riots and deaths his actions caused. There were countless other ways to protest the book he despises that would have avoided an international incident; but then, he was not seeking to share a message but to participate in high drama.
The Muslim mobs of Afghanistan have killed 12 foreigners as an act of revenge against a single pastor and a single event an ocean away. Are these not the same individuals who cried "Crucify him!" and then came and stood at the foot of the hill to be sure a death, harbored in vindictiveness, was fully instituted? Restraint was not the order of the day, only mayhem.
Symbolically, Margarita Crispin could be the thief on the cross to the side of Jesus. She was the high-profile case of a border agent gone bad. She accepted millions of dollars in bribes to allow Mexican drugs to pass freely through her border patrol station. Her luxurious living style brought her under suspicion. When a van packed with 6,000 pounds of marijuana ran out of gas shortly after passing by her inspection booth, and the driver went running on foot back across the border, she was finally arrested.
Equally symbolic is a man who died this past week that could be found on the center cross. Dr. Baruch Blumberg developed the first hepatitis B vaccine. When asked why he dedicated his life to medical research he replied, "This is what drew me to medicine. There is, in Jewish thought, this idea that if you save a single life, you save the whole world, and that affected me."
We can look at the events from the spanning of Jesus' trial to the placement of the body in the tomb and find individuals of reproach and renown. We can find modern-day examples for each. But the real question is this: Where will you and I be standing?
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Outline the events and main characters of Good Friday.
II. Discuss how these events and the individuals involved have modern-day parallels.
III. Dialogue on how we are participants in the Good Friday story.
ILLUSTRATIONS
They say that everyone loves a parade, and a parade is exactly the mental image of Palm Sunday most of us carry around in our heads -- a glorious ticker-tape parade down Jerusalem's equivalent of Fifth Avenue. We envision Jesus triumphantly riding in like a conquering hero -- the sun shining on his face, children dancing and singing, adults rejoicing.
But it was not so rosy a scene. Jesus was riding into a city as emotionally and politically charged as any in our world that's on the brink of rioting. Jesus' triumphal entry into this seething cauldron of discontent was not so much a ticker-tape parade as it was a political rally or a carefully staged demonstration.
According to Matthew, Jesus seemed well aware of the political implications. He was mounted on a donkey -- the beast the prophet Zechariah predicted would bear the messiah. The crowd was shouting "Hosanna" ("Save us!"), the traditional appeal of the Jewish people to their king. Jesus himself instructed his disciples to find a certain colt and a certain donkey, conveniently fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah. He even gave them a secret code word: "The Lord needs them." The owner -- recognizing the password -- would "send them immediately."
If Jesus was making a bid for political power, he soon proved to be an utter failure. The civil and religious authorities formed a rare coalition to undermine his popular support. In just a few days the crowd turned against the carpenter from Nazareth -- and when Pilate offered them the choice, the people chose a murderer over Jesus. On Palm Sunday he was the toast of the town; by Friday evening he was dead.
Keeping this ironic subtext in mind puts a whole different spin on our Palm Sunday tradition of children parading down the aisles happily waving palms.
* * *
It is curious that the adoring crowd witnessing Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was waving palms, because palms do not typically grow in Jerusalem -- they must have been brought in from Jericho or elsewhere. Whoever supplied the people with palms had a very special agenda.
That agenda was unashamedly political, for in the Jewish context a palm branch was a symbol of victory. During the Maccabean revolt, the Jews had driven their Greek rulers out of Jerusalem. During the brief period of self-government that followed, the Maccabeans minted a victory coin with palm branches on it. But their triumph was short-lived. The Romans soon replaced the Greeks, obliterating all hope of Jewish independence. The Romans eventually minted their own victory coin, which featured the image of a Jewish slave kneeling before a Roman soldier. Across the top of the coin was a broken palm branch.
To the Jerusalem crowd, palms were not a benign symbol of rejoicing (like those "We're #1" foam hands spectators bring to football games) -- they were a political provocation. There's no comparable symbol in our country -- but if you can imagine the United States under the domination of a foreign power, and what it would mean to display the American flag in such circumstances, you might have some idea.
* * *
Today we think of bagpipes as a beguiling symbol of rustic Scotland. But did you know that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the English rulers of Scotland banned the bagpipes as an instrument of war? That's because the original Highland pipers charged right into battle with their fellow soldiers. The "skirl o' the pipes," sounding over the smoke and tumult of battle, was a kind of psychological warfare, certain to strike terror into the hearts of enemies. That's why the English made it illegal to even own bagpipes.
The palms the Jerusalem crowd waved are like that.
* * *
The question of who Jesus is, and who we are, asks about the essential core of our identity. In November 2006, Smith magazine invited people to tell their life story in just six words -- just the essential core, or the defining experience, or the startling transition that made them who they are. Over 5,000 submissions came in, and the winners were later compiled into a book. The magazine still invites six-word submissions on assorted topics -- a recent one invited people to submit six words the president might use to inspire the American people.
Here are some of the six-word life-story "memoirs":
Never really finished anything, except cake. -- C. Perkins
Not quite what I was planning... -- S. Grimes
Found true love, married someone else. -- B. Stromberg
Mistakenly kills kitten. Fears anything delicate. -- S. Henderson
Bad brakes discovered at high speed. -- J. Baumeister
After Harvard, had baby with crackhead. -- R. Templeton
Caring for parents. Life is circular. -- T. McGrath
Scarred by 9/11; helped by penguins. -- A. Blackburn
Ex-wife and contractor now have house. -- D. Peck
Nose broken, beauty queen changes profession. -- D. Rubin
School geek married a luscious cheerleader. -- C. Clukey
Married for money. Divorced for love. -- R. Abraham
Wealthy woman escapes with handsome mailman. -- A. Shewan
One tooth, one cavity, life's cruel. -- J. Bettencourt
Life behind a microphone gets lonely. -- C. Kash
Mormon economist marries feminist. Worlds collide. -- M. McBride
I still make coffee for two. -- Z. Nelson
* * *
Kelly Bush has started a publicity agency called "ID" (for "Identity") It is her desire to give her clients an identity in the celebrity network of movies and television. She especially specializes in giving a new identity to those whose behavior has brought them disfavor among the public. One of her greatest success stories is actor Paul Reubens. Reubens, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, was arrested and found guilty on an embarrassing sexual charge. As an actor for a children's show, everyone deemed his career to be over. Bush was able to reestablish Reubens' identity and popularity, and he is now embarking on a children's Broadway show. Many may think that Reubens should never have returned to acting as Pee-wee Herman. But then, is not the message of Good Friday that of receiving a new identity?
* * *
Where do we go when we face the dark night of the soul? To whom do we turn? Thomas Lynch is a poet and an undertaker who has an interesting perspective on these questions. Over the years he has seen many human tragedies, and in the course of his work he has become utterly convinced of the value of faith -- for it is in our experiences of darkest night that faith shines forth the brightest. In his words:
Better than baptisms or marriages, funerals press the noses of the faithful against the windows of their faith. Vision and insight are often coincidental with demise. Death is the moment when the chips are down. That moment of truth when the truth is that we die makes relevant the claims of our prophets and apostles. Faith is not required to sing in the choir, for bake sales or building drives; to usher or deacon or elder or priest. Faith is for the time of our dying and the time of dying of the ones we love. Those parsons and pastors who are most successful -- those who have learned to "minister" -- are those who allow their faithful flocks to grieve....
Uncles find nickels behind our ears. Magicians pull rabbits from out of hats. Any good talker can preach pie in the sky or break out the warm fuzzies when the time is right. But only by faith do the dead arise and walk among us or speak to us in our soul's dark nights.
-- Thomas Lynch, The Undertaking (Penguin, 1997), pp. 80-81
* * *
People who live close together can be sources of great sorrow for one another. When Jesus chose his 12 apostles, Judas was one of them. Judas is called a traitor. A traitor, according to the literal meaning of the Greek word for "betraying," is someone who hands the other over to suffering. The truth is that we all have something of the traitor in us because each of us hands our fellow human beings over to suffering somehow, somewhere, mostly without intending or even knowing it. Many children, even grown-up children, can experience deep anger toward their parents for having protected them too much or too little. When we are willing to confess that we often hand those we love over to suffering, even against our best intentions, we will be more ready to forgive those who, mostly against their will, are the causes of our pain.
-- Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey (Harper Collins, 1997)
* * *
Of all the pains that lead to liberation, the worst is to see your loved one suffer.
-- Julian of Norwich
* * *
The Christian must not only accept suffering, but he must make it holy. Nothing so easily becomes unholy as suffering.
Merely accepted, suffering does nothing for our souls except, perhaps, to harden them. Endurance alone is no consecration. True asceticism is not a mere cult of fortitude. We can deny ourselves rigorously for the wrong reason and end by pleasing ourselves mightily with our self-denial.
Suffering is consecrated to God by faith -- not by suffering, but by faith in God. Some of us believe in the power and the value of suffering. But such a belief is an illusion. Suffering has no power and no value of its own.
It is valuable only as a test of faith....
The death of Jesus on the cross has an infinite meaning and value not because it is a death, but because it is the death of the Son of God. The cross of Christ says nothing of the power of suffering or of death. It speaks only of the power of him who overcame both suffering and death by rising from the grave.
The wounds that evil stamped upon the flesh of Christ are to be worshiped as holy not because they are wounds, but because they are his wounds. Nor would we worship them if he had merely died of them without rising again. For Jesus is not merely someone who once loved us enough to die for us: his love for us is the infinite love of God, which is stronger than all evil and cannot be touched by death.
Suffering, therefore, can only be consecrated to God by one who believes that Jesus is not dead. And it is of the very essence of Christianity to face suffering and death not because they are good, not because they have meaning, but because the resurrection of Jesus has robbed them of their meaning.
-- Thomas Merton, "To Know the Cross," from No Man Is an Island (Harcourt, 1955)
* * *
The crowd at the cross can be divided into three categories:
1. "God, I hate you..." (Pharisees)
2. "God, I love you..." (disciples, women, penitent thief)
3. "God, I could care less..." (soldiers)
People throughout history have fallen into one of those responses.
* * *
In the midst of depression I once asked my spiritual director how I could be feeling such despair, when not long before the depression hit I had been feeling so close to God.
"Simple," she said. "The closer you get to light, the closer you get to darkness."
The deepest things in life come not singly but in paradoxical pairs, where the light and the dark intermingle.
-- Parker Palmer, The Active Life: Wisdom for Work, Creativity, and Caring (Jossey-Bass, 1999)
* * *
John's Passion account raises some problematical issues regarding his statements blaming "the Jews" for some of the atrocities committed against Jesus. It's important to keep in mind that John was writing in a polemical context, in which he and a Judaizing faction were struggling for control of his churches. John was quick to blame "the Jews" because he was trying to distance himself from any person who taught that the way to Christian faith led first through Jewish religious practices. It's patently absurd to blame "the Jews" for Jesus' death -- Jesus himself was a Jew, as were his disciples, only one of whom betrayed him. John's Passion account has been frightfully misused over the centuries to justify all manner of pogroms against Jewish communities in Europe. Until very recently, Good Friday was the most dangerous day of the year for European Jews. We would gain a deeper understanding of the events of Jesus' Passion by using the simple device of mentally substituting "the religious authorities" for most occurrences of "the Jews" in this text.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Note: There are many liturgical aids to help us move through the triumphant entry to the passion in one service. These aids are offered to help in that process or to aid in those who will celebrate mainly Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday.
Texts
(Palm) Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
(Passion) Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:14--27:66
Call to Worship
Leader: Open, O God, the gates of righteousness,
People: that we may enter and give praise.
Leader: The stone the builders rejected is now the chief cornerstone.
People: This is God's doing, and it is awesome!
Leader: Save us, we beg you, O God!
People: Blessed is the one who comes in God's Name!
OR
Leader: Be gracious to us, God, when we are in distress.
People: Our lives are spent in sorrow.
Leader: Our years are full of sighing.
People: We have become like broken vessels.
Leader: But I trust in you, O God; you are my God.
People: Let your face shine upon us and save us in your love.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"All Glory, Laud and Honor"
found in:
UMH: 280
H82: 154, 155
PH: 88
AAHH: 226
NNBH: 102
NCH: 216, 217
CH: 192
LBW: 108
"Hosanna, Loud Hosanna"
found in:
UMH: 278
PH: 89
NCH: 213
"Ah, Holy Jesus"
found in:
UMH: 289
H82: 158
PH: 93
NCH: 218
CH: 210
LBW: 123
"What Wondrous Love Is This?"
found in:
UMH: 292
H82: 439
PH: 85
NCH: 223
CH: 200
LBW: 385
"Beneath the Cross of Jesus"
found in:
UMH: 297
H82: 498
PH: 92
AAHH: 247
NNBH: 106
NCH: 190
CH: 197
LBW: 107
"Lift High the Cross"
found in:
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
"O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done"
found in:
UMH: 287
"When We Are Living"
found in:
UMH: 356
PH: 400
CH: 536
"All Hail King Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 29
"Our God Reigns"
found in:
CCB: 33
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who came humbly into the world in the birth of Jesus: Give us the grace to understand the humility with which Jesus made his triumphant entry into his passion; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We have come, O God, to celebrate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem as your reign on earth was formally announced. We have also come to hear, once again, the fierce resistance evil has to your will for creation. Help us not to stand with Jesus only in the procession of the palms, but also to walk with him in the way of the cross. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we fail to follow you into sacrifice.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are glad to identify with Jesus as the triumphant ruler, but we are slow to identify with him as the self-emptying servant. We want to ride with him into Jerusalem, but we have no desire to wash the dirty feet of the poor. We love for people to wave palms at us, but we flee when they wave fists or whips. Forgive us, God, for our failure to understand that victory only comes in defeat and life only comes in death. Send your Spirit upon us that we may truly follow Jesus at all times and in all places. Amen.
Leader: Jesus came to lead us to life. He came for the courageous and the cowardly; he came for us all. Let us embrace our Savior and his way.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We bring our praises and our shouts of acclamation, O God, as you invite us into your presence. You are the true Sovereign and the true Savior.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are glad to identify with Jesus as the triumphant ruler, but we are slow to identify with him as the self-emptying servant. We want to ride with him into Jerusalem, but we have no desire to wash the dirty feet of the poor. We love for people to wave palms at us, but we flee when they wave fists or whips. Forgive us, God, for our failure to understand that victory only comes in defeat and life only comes in death. Send your Spirit upon us, that we may truly follow Jesus at all times and in all places.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have shown us the way to live in your realm. We thank you for family, friends, and strangers who have shared your love and grace with us. Most of all we thank you for Jesus, who has shown us how to live by dying.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We bring the cares of our hearts to share with you, our Savior and Sovereign. In your great love, you offered yourself for the wholeness of creation. As you continue to move in and among us for our healing, help us to participate in your ministry.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Visuals
(These suggestions are for either a worship center or a slide show.) palms, crosses, parades, Jesus crowned with thorns, the crucifixion scene, Jesus entering Jerusalem
Children's Sermon Starter
The best suggestion I have for this day is to rehearse with the children the events of Holy Week. Talk to them about how important this week is for us as Christians, and have them help you outline the events that happen. Details would depend on the age and knowledge of the children. Many adults will benefit from the review as well.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
King Jesus
Matthew 26:14--27:66
Object: a sign that says "The King of the Jews"
Good morning, boys and girls! Today I brought a sign with me. Can someone tell me what it says? (Have one of the older children read it.) Now why do you think I brought this with me this morning? (let them answer) I brought this with me because it is very similar to the sign put on Jesus' cross. (Here you can recap the Passion Sunday reading.)
When this sign was put on Jesus' cross, do you think they meant it? Do you think they really thought he was a king? (let them answer) No, if they really thought he was a king, they probably would have treated him like a king. They were making fun of Jesus when they put this sign on his cross. They did the same thing with the crown of thorns and the stick they put in his hands. They mocked him and spit on him and made fun of him. They treated him very badly!
They treated Jesus like a terrible person, and he was really a very good person. They treated Jesus like a bad criminal, but he really was the king -- the king of all who believe in him. He is our king. Today when we think of Jesus, we would never think to mock Jesus with a sign we didn't mean. Today we honor Jesus as our king.
Prayer: Dear King Jesus, we are your people. Thank you for being our king. Amen.
* * *
Alternative (for Palm Sunday)
Object: a conductor's baton
(Have the children form a line behind one of the more extroverted of the children -- or yourself -- and parade down the aisles of the sanctuary. After returning from the parade, you can begin by asking them the following question.) Why do we have parades? (To celebrate something important -- e.g. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's parades, as well as parades at festivals and ballgames.) What is so important that we had a parade here today? (let them answer) Jesus is why we have a parade. Jesus is our Lord and Savior. We want to celebrate with a parade. (If you have processionals in your worship service, note how they are very much like a parade to honor "the King of kings" -- Jesus.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 17, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
