We celebrated Palm Sunday at our morning’s worship last Sunday and our minister the Rev’d Mark Lawrence, was our preacher. We were reminded that before his crucifixion Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey borrowed by his disciples from a nearby village. The crowds welcomed him spreading and waving palm leaves before him with cries of ‘Hosanna’. Our steward Bunty Hodgkins welcomed everyone with appropriate words for this Christian festival. Mark called us to worship and to the accompaniment of Neil and Jill Barnett on organ and key board we sang our opening hymn ‘All glory, laud and honour to thee .Redeemer, King, to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring”.
Prayers of adoration, praise and confession followed after which we recited Psalm 118, a great Psalm of Praise of King David, from the Old Testament. Our minister’s wife, Carolyn Lawrence, led our prayers for others and on paper palm leaves we wrote the people and situations we should pray for and laid them at the foot of the wooden cross. Rosalind read our New Testament lesson from Matthew, chapter 21, the story of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, his asserting his authority in the Temple and his healing of the blind and lame afterwards.
In his sermon, Mark preached on the events of the entry into Jerusalem of Jesus and his followers. How the crowds preceded him throwing their garment and palm leaves before him to cries of exultation. But he had previously told his followers why they are there and what the final outcome would be. Jesus knew what he had to do. He was going to Jerusalem in complete obedience to God and, fulfilling prophecies in the scriptures, he knew every detail of what would happened to him. He went anyway. The disciples followed the detailed instructions he had given them regarding collecting the donkey from a nearby village and they supported him on his journey, but sadly, he was to become betrayed, captured, tried and crucified as a result of the baying crowd and the decision of Pontius Pilate. So our thoughts turn to Holy Week, the events of Good Friday and we are uplifted by his resurrection on Easter Day.
