Today we begin our journey through Holy week towards Easter. You are encouraged to go through this service with your family in your house or perhaps on the phone or computer screen. As well as preparing worship for Newbattle today, I have been working with Fischy Music and the Spill the Beans Worship team to produce daily material from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and this service will be available on their websites too. Worshipping at home we join with the whole church family of all ages and in all places at this key time in the Christian calendar. Welcome, let us worship God.
Call to Worship: to say aloud
We come to worship.
We follow the crowd,
shouting Hosanna!
Praise God!
We join in the triumph of today,
ready to sing,
to shout,
to act!
A Traditional Hymn Hosanna Loud Hosanna
Reading: read the passage in your own bible at home
Matthew 21 v 1 – 11
Reflection:
Dramatised reading:
Let us pray: All-Age Prayer
Dear God,
we are here to say hello,
we are here to tell you
that we love you,
we are here to say thank you
for the world.
We thank you
for rainbows,
for shooting stars,
for palm trees,
for colts,
for colourful clothing
for people.
We thank you
for all the people
who love us
and for all the people who
make time to be with us.
We thank you for Jesus,
for sending him to teach us
how to live.
We thank you for the
sunshine and the rain
we thank you for holidays from our normal routine.
We are sorry for those times
when we fail you,
we are glad
that you promise to forgive us
when we say sorry.
Help us, Lord, to learn from Jesus
and to try to love people as he did.
Amen.
The Fischy Song – Come Christians Join to Sing
Messy church/Sunday school section – ideas to go and make and do.
Hosanna!
You will need: paper or plastic cups (two per child, green would be
good), dried beans or rice, sticky tape, paper to wrap round the cups if plastic, crayons or felt pens, ribbons, self-stick stickers anything you like to decorate it with.
Give the children two of the paper cups and some of the
beans or rice and get them to put them into one of the
cups and then place the other cup on top, rim to rim. Help
the children to tape the two cups securely together around
the rims to create a shaker type instrument. Then cover the
sticky tape with paper (if using plastic cups) to conceal.
Let the children then decorate their instrument
with the stickers and pens. Further decoration can be added by giving
the children strips of green ribbon which they could attach
to their shaker with double sided tape and let dangle from
each end of their shaker.
Talk about the story and the crowds who gathered to
welcome Jesus. Discuss the different ways they welcomed
Jesus (with palms and cloaks and by shouting Hosanna
and so on). Tell the story once more and let the children
accompany the parts about the crowd with their shakers.
Then talk with them about the different ways Jesus
welcomed people and discuss how we might welcome
people today just as Jesus did.
Sending:
Jesus rode into the city
to cries of joy and exaltation.
We too cry hosanna!
We too race alongside the Son of David.
As we leave this time today,
God goes with us,
from triumphant chorus,
to the agony of the cross,
God goes with us,
every step of the way. Amen