WELCOME
Friends, you are welcome in this place. Our time together, is God’s gift to each of us. We come
with what we know of and have experienced in life, we come seeking to discover what we don’t
yet know about God and God’s hopes and dreams for our lives. We declare in Jesus’ name that this is a safe physical, emotional and spiritual environment for all who search for meaning and purpose in life. Together let us seek to be Christ’s light and salt in the world. So welcome.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY
With flannel flower and wattle, with acacia and blue gum branches we dance at the coming of the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. We welcome him into our lives on Dharawal land, gifted by the Creator since time immemorial. We acknowledge their land and their elders past and present listening to their voices in search for reconciliation and justice making.
CHRIST CANDLE
In a world of darkness, we cannot see our neighbour’s face
Light shatters the darkness and invites us into community
A world without light, is a world enveloped in fear.
Light has come in Christ Jesus, the light of the world! We light our Lenten candle.
CALL TO WORSHIP (Based on Psalm 118 vs 24-29)
This is the day that the Lord has made
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech you.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
You are my God, I will extol you.
O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good
For God’s steadfast love endures forever.
HYMN
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices
Who is the King of glory, how shall we call him?
He is Immanuel, the promised of ages.
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices
In all of Galilee, in city or village
He goes among his people curing their illness.
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices
Sing then of David’s son, our Saviour and brother
In all of Galilee was never another.
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices!
Words © WF Jabusch Music by permission Nightlight Music Used by permission CCLI Licence # 31951
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRAYER OF CONFESSION Based on Zechariah 9 vs 9-10
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lord, we have forgotten how to truly rejoice, let alone greatly. It’s my middle class sensibilities, surely You understand?
Lo, your king comes to you humble and riding on a donkey. My King? Would I truly bow my knee to you Lord, when kings are now so out of fashion and then do all that you require of me?
He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; Yet our lives are filled
with fear if we live in the Gaza Strip or in Kherson or Bakhmut regions of Ukraine.
And he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea. I would praise
& worship you Lord, my God and King, my Prince of Peace I want and need you in my life as our
world needs you. Hear my cry, help my unbelief. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
Jesus is the one who emptied himself of power, and was filled with love.
Christ’s arms are stretched out wide in forgiveness. Thanks be to God.
SONG – Scripture in Song 214
I love you Lord, and I lift my voice
To worship you. O my soul rejoice.
Take joy, my King, in what you hear.
Let me be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.
We love you Lord, and we lift our voices.
We worship you. O our souls rejoice.
Take joy, our King, in what you hear.
Let our voices be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.
CCLI Song # 25266 Laurie Klein © 1978, 1980 House Of Mercy Music (Admin. by SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia) For use solely with the SongSelect® All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
At today’s Service you will be invited during communion to bring forward palm branches and place them at the foot of the communion table…On Good Friday we will find some bound to the Cross.
GOSPEL READING Jan & Gordon
Matthew 21: 1 – 11 (NIV) As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of
Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you
will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut
branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him & those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred & asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” In this we hear God’s invitation to acknowledge & welcome God’s Son. Thanks be to God!
MESSAGE: Rev Paul Bartlett
During the past few weeks there has been much discussion about Australia’s strategic alliances
both economic, political and military. Terms like ‘top tier’ ally in reference to India and similar
phrases regarding the USA and Great Britain have been affirmed or re-affirmed.
Not to mention the in-principal decision to spend up to $368 Billion on 8 nuclear powered subs –
due to arrive or to be built here in 10 – 25 years-time through the AUKUS alliance, plus $1.3Billion
worth of Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Our UC National Assembly President Rev Sharon Hollis has said ‘true security and peace come from seeking to build relationships of trust and understanding, not through bigger military spending”
And if it’s to also be a min 2% of our GDP spent on Defence couldn’t we at least also spend 2% of
our GDP on Foreign Aid programs with our near neighbours instead of the current 0.21%.
From my years at UnitingWorld we had decades of evidence on the ground that even a fraction of
that 0.2% brings prosperity, alleviates poverty, promotes resilience and democracy in our region.
Imagine if we could spent 80 times that over 25 years in places that just 10 years ago we lost
interest in or took for granted thereby allowing China to fill the gap, crippling many local
economies with huge infrastructure debts. While in Beijing, President Xi Jinping has been granted a five year extension to his 10 year rule amidst his unabashed desire for Taiwan to be re-integrated back within historical China…within that next 5 years? Hence the recent comments about the possibility of war within that time frame. There have always been ‘wars and rumours of war’ (Matt 24:6 – 7) Perhaps these tensions aren’t all that different to our Lord’s day & the choices we now need to make.
In the time of Jesus’ ministry ~28 – 30 CE, the Antonia Fortress in Jerusalem which had been
rebuilt by King Herod 50 years earlier to honour his liege lord Mark Anthony housed Roman troops to protect the Temple. In Jesus’ day it was home to a century of troops to protect the Governor.
And it was either in that Fortress or in Pilate’s Praetorium that Jesus was brought for interrogation.
Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Judea was appointed by Emperor Tiberius in 26 CE and ruled for 10
years before being recalled home to plead his loyalty to Tiberius. But Tiberius died before Pilate
had returned to Rome and he disappears from history. Because of his ‘defence’ of Jesus the Coptic
Church regards him as a saint. Caligula became Emperor.
Two years after Tiberius’s death Herod’s son Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee (the Herod Jesus
knew) was also on his way to Rome to plead his case but without success, he & his wife Herodias
and her daughter Salome, of John the Baptist infamy, were exiled to Gaul and died there.
In Jerusalem, Annas had been High Priest from 6 – 15 CE. His son-in-law Caiaphas was High Priest
from 18 – 36 CE and he was followed by his brother-in-law Jonathan. Jonathan was killed on the orders of the Procurator Antonius Felix (a younger brother of Emperor Claudius’ powerful
secretary Antonius Pallas) in 58 CE. The internecine intrigue for power continued until 66 CE when
the Jews expelled a detachment of soldiers sent by the Roman Governor Florus in Caesarea to raid the Temple treasury. Rome over the next 12 – 18 months then sent additional legions and in Sept 70 CE Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman General Titus, son of the Emperor Vespasian.
Set against this volatile religious and political backdrop a popular and charismatic teacher and
healer from Galilee, Yeshua ben Joseph enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey while his followers
celebrated! Now the Jewish leaders knew their Scriptures and when they hear of Jesus’ entry on a
donkey they recall the words from the Prophet Zechariah CH 9 vs 9 about the One who is to come:
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
A declaration of intent, for the control of the hearts and minds of God’s People is declared; and
the religious and political leaders set out to destroy Jesus, in effect saying ‘if we kill him then that
will be the end of it’. But of course, it wasn’t! And Annas, Caiaphas and Pilate are now only
remembered because of who they killed in their power struggle. Jesus doesn’t back away from this confrontation with the ‘principalities and powers’ of his day, as he also didn’t with the money
changers tables in the Temple courtyard – he calls them out for who they are and the ‘institutional
evil’ they promoted.
Share the current ‘institutional evil’ that is Clubs based gambling in NSW…
Jesus’ response is to embrace the widow & the orphan, the poor and the powerless as he taught
and lived out God’s Kingdom of grace and mercy, where swords & spears are replaced by his
agape love transforming the hearts and minds of his followers and the world, from within!
As was said at my Ethical Ministry Reflection group last week quoting an American scholar “Agape
love is primarily not an emotion but a way of being and acting – it is strong and resilient enough
that it does not need to assert itself but rather is free to give of itself” and isn’t that just how Jesus
lived!
Palm Sunday invites each of us into this ongoing struggle to engage with the world fully aware of
its ever shifting, often short term, power struggles & alliances by requiring us in our work in the
world but to be ‘as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves’ the instructions Jesus gave the
disciples when he sent them out two by two, three years earlier (Matt 10:6).
Jesus calls us to continue to celebrate and honour him as the Prince of Peace within our lives, and
within this community of faith as she works as salt & leaven in the world calling out any who seek
to rule for themselves at the expense of the ‘widow and the orphan’ – those without a Voice.
Long might we too shout and sing this day: Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise.
Be exalted, O Lord our God! Hosanna in the highest! To His name be honour, praise & glory. Amen
HYMN ‘From the east the poor are marching’
From the east the poor are marching
spreading branches as they come;
from the west the sound of soldiers
marching, marching far from home.
Jesus on a colt comes riding
down a dusty city street
with a ragtag peasant chorus–hopeful, shouting as they meet.
Pilate comes imposing order
on the festival each year–
warhorse, drumbeat, armoured soldiers.
Silent crowds look on with fear.
Two processions to the city–
shepherd staff and Roman spear–
Blessed is the Son of David
who will bring God’s kingdom here.
Words © 2011 Daniel Charles Damon. Hope Publishing Company, 380 S Main Pl, Carol Stream, IL 60188
OFFERING
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Bruce (Remotely via Zoom)
HOLY COMMUNION
With shouts of Hosanna
The Lord be with you!
With the waving of palm branches
And also with you!
We have laid our cloaks before Him
And now come to feast in His Gift.
Humble Lord, loving Saviour, worthy of adoration and praise and source of eternal Life.
We gather to hear again and to share in bread & wine broken and poured out for us.
We give thanks for Jesus’ life of faithful service, for the disciples who journeyed with him.
We give thanks for the Hosannas that were shouted and the hopes that were rekindled.
God of all creation we come on bended knee to receive and to be renewed.
Abundant Life freely given and made possible because of his great mercy and love.
Receive our praises O Lord as we gather through the Holy Spirit to be fed in your name.
INVOCATION & DISTRIBUTION
HYMN
Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!
Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!
Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise.
Be exalted, O Lord our God! Hosanna in the highest!
Glory, glory, glory to the King of kings!
Glory, glory, glory to the King of kings!
Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise.
Be exalted, O Lord our God! Glory to the King of kings!
CCLI Song # 21545 Carl Tuttle © 1985 Shadow Spring Music (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.)
For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION
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