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Sunday Worship – Palm Sunday (5th April) – Entering Jerusalem

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

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Sunday Worship by Rev Gayle Taylor

Welcome
Good morning, last Sunday the congregation of Newbattle Parish worshipped at home or briefly in small numbers praying in the church at Mayfield and Easthouses. Today I’d like to welcome you to our online worship, a time of connection to God and to each other on this Sunday morning. If you are from Newtongrange, Newbattle, Mayfield and Easthouses or further afield, welcome. Jesus promised that wherever 2 or 3 are gathered he would be there also and so: The Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us all.

Reading
Let’s listen for the word of God on this 5th Sunday in Lent, please read this passage in your own bible John 11 v 17 – 44

Sermon
Whereas the gospels of Mark, Luke, and Matthew prefer more indirect expressions of Jesus’ divinity through parable, John’s gospel surprises us with frequent and startlingly personal expressions of self-disclosure, in seven signs. Each of the seven signs, or miracles, contains some element of disclosure, and these verses from John’s gospel are no different. This, the story of the raising of Lazarus, is the last of the seven signs, and it prefigures the events of Holy Week, with so many similarities… a tomb near Jerusalem, and a tomb blocked by a large stone, and the question, “Where have you laid Him?” (v.34) Jesus declares that He is the resurrection and the life; and we also see His humanity, in the shortest verse in the Bible; Jesus wept. (v.35, NRSV He began to weep.)

Showing what it is to be human and pointing to the divine – that’s what Jesus did during his time on earth and I believe it’s what you and I are called to do in our time as well. To try and clothe ourselves with the truly beautiful human qualities of compassion, patience, kindness, gentleness – what the bible calls the fruits of the spirit but also empathy, to be able to understand what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes and be able to accompany them on the road (as we talked about yesterday in our Thought for the Day). But our humanity, beautiful as it is, is also fragile; susceptible to breaking down physically and mentally, open to disease and illness and inevitably conscious of death. Our gospel passage today reminds us that the gift of humanity is an incredible force that brings people together – we can imagine how much it would mean to Mary and Martha that Jesus wept with them -but when life as we know it breaks down and we realise how little we can actually control, when death stops life in it’s tracks – we need to be pointed towards the divine, “signposted” as we would say in today’s language, to the spiritual aspect of our being – we need a power bigger than ourselves, we need the Divine, God the Father, Christ the Son, the Holy Spirit our guide.

I am reminded of the words I usually say at every funeral I conduct before I pray with a family:

“Lord, to whom can we go but to you; for you alone have the words of eternal life.”

When our own human words seem inadequate in difficult days of suffering and grief, we turn to the words of Jesus and let these eternal truths work within us and around us; bringing healing, transformation and resurrection to our lives and to our world.

Prayer
On Wednesday this past week, people across Scotland were invited to say the Lord’s Prayer at 11am on the 25 March. The was in response to an invitation from Pope Francis sent to all Christian leaders in which he asked that we invoke “together the graces from heaven” and ask “for the end of this pandemic”. Right Rev Colin Sinclair, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said: “At a time when normal life is falling apart it is wonderful when Christians come together.

“The Lord’s prayer is a wonderfully comprehensive prayer and within it can be found all we need to say.

“I warmly commend Pope Francis’ call for churches around the world to unite in this way.”

Let’s share the Lord’s prayer together now

*11am has been chosen to coincide with midday in Italy so the Lord’s Prayer can be said at the same time.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever.

Amen.

There are many ways for us to stay connected in faith in our wide church family at this time as you’ll see from the link below:

https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/news/2020/stay-connected-with-the-church-of-scotland

Church groups across Scotland are asking Christians to continue to join in prayer at 7pm on Sundays – following the huge response to the National Day of Prayer on Sunday the 22nd March. Please light your candle in the window and pray with us tonight.

Joint prayer from Christians in Scotland:

We turn to you, our Father, for we need your help.
Lord Jesus, as you have promised, be with us, whatever lies ahead,
Strengthen us, Holy Spirit, as we face this together.

We pray for our world and our country,
as coronavirus threatens our lives and our livelihood, leaving many in lockdown,
while key workers continue, despite the risk.

We pray for government leaders at Westminster and Holyrood,
responding to medical and scientific advice,
making tough decisions for the wellbeing of all.

We pray for all who serve on the frontline in the NHS and in social care;
facing increasing numbers, overstretched resources
and distressing human need.

Bless those who are ill, those who are alone and afraid,
those exhausted looking after their family, those worried for the vulnerable,
those fearful for their finances, those shut in to their fears.

Thank you for those who have returned from retirement to help,
or joined the volunteer army.
Thank you for those working:
to manufacture needed resources,
to find a vaccine,
to keep in contact with the isolated,
to encourage others at this time.

Have mercy on us, O Lord.
Give us faith, hope and love and hear our prayers,
in Jesus’ name. Amen