KILRENNY PARISH CHURCH

There has been no change to the Scottish Governments decision to allow church services to go ahead this weekend, and Presbytery has agreed the arrangements Kilrenny have in place for reopening church,consequently, the service on Sunday morning will go ahead as planned.  Numbers will be limited to 50, including participants, and the same rules as before Christmas will apply. 

                                 

                                       Order of Service

                                                                                                                             Sunday 28^th March: Palm Sunday

                                 Rev Michael Allardice

You Tube link: 

https://youtu.be/ADGeSYT5RE8 

 

 

 

Welcome and Church News

Welcome to worship here in Kilrenny Church! It seems such a long time since we have been able to worship together, so while I can’t allow you to welcome each other in the traditional manner, you can turn to each other and wave gently to those you know well and those you know only a little. Welcome everyone, and to those of you watching Online, we welcome you as well! All are welcome in God’s House, no matter where that is!

 

Call to Worship

Leader: The Messiah is come, riding on a donkey

All: Hosanna to God, hosanna in the highest

Leader: Come and rejoice, our king is here

All: Hosanna to God, hosanna in the highest

Leader: Sing and praise, give glory to God

All: Hosanna to God, hosanna in the highest

 

Hymn CH 279                  Make way, Make way, for Christ the King

 

Opening Prayer and “The Lord’s Prayer”

Living God,

as we step into Holy Week,

open our hearts and minds.

May this coming week will be holy for us.

May we live this time expecting that in some way You will meet us.

 

In whatever way we live this week,

give us the times and spaces to ponder again,

that You know and understand suffering

and You offer to meet us and hear again – our struggles over this past year

and old pains that have not healed for us.

Inner struggles that never quite seem to go away.

May this week help us to name and offer to You our wounds.

Help to ask and tune in to Your wisdom and response to us.

 

 

 

 

 

Loving God,

we may not have the words for our prayers.

We may not understand ourselves as much as we would like,

but we step into this week trusting in the tradition of which we are part –

that by pondering Your walk towards the cross,

by focussing on Jesus’ last journey;

 

Somehow You will speak to us on our journey.

You will honour our effort and intention

and draw us closer to You.

So, in the quietness of our hearts now – we speak to You

of our intentions for this Holy Week.

 

Silence

 

May the Lord bless you and keep you,

may the Lord make His face to shine upon you,

the Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

and bring you peace.

 

And now, we join our voices together in the Prayer Jesus taught us:

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Reading: Mark 11: 1 - 11       

The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem

As they approached Jerusalem, near the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, they came to the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of his disciples on ahead with these instructions: “Go to the village there ahead of you. As soon as you get there, you will find a colt tied up that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. And if someone asks you why you are doing that, say that the Master needs it and will send it back at once.”

 

So they went and found a colt out in the street, tied to the door of a house. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders asked them, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”

 

They answered just as Jesus had told them, and the crowd let them go. They brought the colt to Jesus, threw their cloaks over the animal, and Jesus got on. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches in the field and spread them on the road. The people who were in front and those who followed behind began to shout, “Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the coming kingdom of King David, our father! Praise be to God!”

 

Jesus entered Jerusalem, went into the Temple, and looked around at everything. But since it was already late in the day, he went out to Bethany with the twelve disciples.

 

Hymn CH 365                  Ride on! Ride on in majesty!

 

Reading: Mark 15: 1 – 40

Early in the morning the chief priests met hurriedly with the elders, the teachers of the Law, and the whole Council, and made their plans. They put Jesus in chains, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

 

Jesus answered, “So you say.”

 

The chief priests were accusing Jesus of many things, so Pilate questioned him again, “Aren't you going to answer? Listen to all their accusations!”

 

Again Jesus refused to say a word, and Pilate was amazed.

 

At every Passover Festival Pilate was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the people asked for. At that time a man named Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the riot. When the crowd gathered and began to ask Pilate for the usual favour, he asked them, “Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews?” He knew very well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.

 

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask, instead, that Pilate set Barabbas free for them. Pilate spoke again to the crowd, “What, then, do you want me to do with the one you call the king of the Jews?”

 

They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

“But what crime has he committed?” Pilate asked.

They shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

 

Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free for them. Then he had Jesus whipped and handed him over to be crucified.

 

The soldiers took Jesus inside to the courtyard of the governor's palace and called together the rest of the company. They put a purple robe on Jesus, made a crown out of thorny branches, and put it on his head. Then they began to salute him: “Long live the King of the Jews!” They beat him over the head with a stick, spat on him, fell on their knees, and bowed down to him. When they had finished making fun of him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

 

On the way they met a man named Simon, who was coming into the city from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. (Simon was from Cyrene and was the father of Alexander and Rufus.) They took Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which means “The Place of the Skull.” There they tried to give him wine mixed with a drug called myrrh, but Jesus would not drink it. Then they crucified him and divided his clothes among themselves, throwing dice to see who would get which piece of clothing. It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him. The notice of the accusation against him said: “The King of the Jews.” They also crucified two bandits with Jesus, one on his right and the other on his left.

 

People passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus: “Aha! You were going to tear down the Temple and build it back up in three days! Now come down from the cross and save yourself!”

 

In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the Law made fun of Jesus, saying to one another, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! Let us see the Messiah, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him!”

 

And the two who were crucified with Jesus insulted him also.

 

At noon the whole country was covered with darkness, which lasted for three hours. At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”

 

Some of the people there heard him and said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah!” One of them ran up with a sponge, soaked it in cheap wine, and put it on the end of a stick. Then he held it up to Jesus' lips and said, “Wait! Let us see if Elijah is coming to bring him down from the cross!”

 

With a loud cry Jesus died.

 

The curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The army officer who was standing there in front of the cross saw how Jesus had died. “This man was really the Son of God!” he said.

 

Some women were there, looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joseph, and Salome.

 

Hymn CH 374  From heaven you came, helpless babe

 

Reflection: “Triumph and Tragedy”

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in your sight Lord, amen.

 

Palm Sunday is often seen as a day of praise and celebration, but in the Church calendar today is also known as Passion Sunday. So this morning I’ve used both readings from Mark’s Gospel to present both aspects of the day. What we are doing is remembering Jesus’ very deliberately staged entrance to Jerusalem as the long-awaited Messiah, while projecting forward just a few days to His crucifixion and death on Good Friday. And it is important that we reflect on both aspects of this day, as we will not be able to conduct the normal services we would have during Holy Week when we would take time to recount each step of Jesus’ Passion.

 

The Triumphant Entry to Jerusalem is one of the few moments in the Gospel story when Jesus allows Himself to be lauded by the crowds. Normally, Jesus shied away from the more excitable elements of the popularity His teaching, preaching and healing attracted. Today, He accepts that this is the price that must be paid to make the point that God had come to save His people.

 

There is an element of pre-planning hinted at in Mark’s account of the story. Not only does Jesus direct His disciples to a particular place to collect the young donkey for Him to ride into Jerusalem, but the people had been alerted to His arrival as the Messiah and were waiting for Him at the side of the road with cloaks and palm branches. Jesus was welcomed as a King, just as Jehu was when returning Israel to worshiping God in the book of Kings, just as Judah Maccabee was when freeing Israel from foreign domination 160 years before Jesus was born. As the biblical historian Reza Aslan notes, Jesus and His followers were fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah:

Rejoice, rejoice, people of Zion!

Shout for joy, you people of Jerusalem!

Look, your king is coming to you!

He comes triumphant and victorious,

but humble and riding on a donkey—

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

 

Jesus is welcomed as a King by the people, and the authorities of the Temple as well as the Romans would have taken note of the implications this might have for civil order during what was always a tense time.

 

Fast forward just a few days and now the crowd has turned against Jesus. Now the authorities have their man and they mean to make the most of their advantage. Jesus has been a problem for a long time. He represents a threat to their power-base, and He has a moral authority that cannot be challenged. So they have found other ways to bring Him to heal. The betrayal by Judas Iscariot is just as carefully planned as the earlier entrance to the city. Jesus knows it has to happen and accepts Judas’ role in the great drama that begins with the Last Supper and carries through to the Sunday morning and the empty tomb.

 

The central theme to these final hours is the identity of Jesus: who does He really think He is? Jesus had been welcomed into the city as a King but hadn’t claimed that title directly for Himself. Now the Temple authorities have Him in their own hands, they impose the title of King of the Jews on to Jesus. Both the Temple authorities and the Romans feared claims of kingship and what that might mean for civil disorder. However, a discredited king was an ideal scapegoat and focal point for the disappointment of the people.

 

 

 

Who did Jesus think He was, asked the Priests. Who did He say He was, asked Pilate. Jesus refused to play their game, He stayed silent most of the time and when He did speak, He turned the question back on His accusers.

 

Pilate’s kangaroo court convicts Jesus and, like so many before Him, He is sent to be crucified. The Roman soldiers then mock Jesus, dressing Him as a king with a crown of thorns and a cloak over His shoulders. His cross is adorned with a sign reading: The King of the Jews. Those who pass the place of execution shout abuse at Him to save Himself.

 

The contrast with the previous week couldn’t be clearer, but Jesus knew this had to happen because what would come next would be even more amazing! Imagine what strength of mind Jesus required in order to go through all of this, knowing in advance what would happen?

 

Today, we celebrate with the crowds as Jesus enters Jerusalem, but unlike them, we are also aware of the drama to come. We know that that same crowd will turn against Jesus just as quickly.

 

The drama of Easter is just beginning, so let each one of us take time to follow Jesus from the donkey, to the cross, to the tomb, and on to glory. It is the greatest story ever told, so let’s take time to appreciate just how amazing it is.

 

Amen and may God add His blessing to these words.

 

 

 

 

Prayers of Dedication and Intercession

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation.

You have created us out of your love and for your love.

Help us to welcome you with songs of ‘Hosanna’,

Knowing that you are our strength and our shield.

Help us to welcome Christ our Lord into our lives

As our Lord and Saviour.

 

Silence

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me,

And have become my salvation.

 

 

Lord, by you we are wonderfully created.

Help us to use our talents and lives

To the benefit of others and to your glory.

May your Church be an instrument of peace in the world.

Lord, forgive the divisions of your Church

And help us to see we are one in you.

Help us to work together to bring in your kingdom.

 

Silence

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me,

And have become my salvation.

 

Lord, we long for the time

When the kingdoms of the world

May become the Kingdom of God.

Help us to work for peace and justice.

Bless the work of all who strive

To maintain and increase peace.

We pray especially for the United Nations.

 

Silence

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me,

And have become my salvation.

 

 

 

Lord, some and rule our lives,

That there may be peace in our hearts and in our homes.

We remember before you

Homes where there is conflict and violence,

Where there is division and distress.

 

 

God, we bring before you

The troubles and distress of peoples and nations.

We remember the hungry and the homeless.

We ask you to bless

All who are not at peace with themselves,

All who are disturbed in mind or spirit.

We ask that all who are ill at this time

May they know your love and your presence.

 

As we remember the first anniversary of lockdown

We pray for all who have been impacted by Covid-19:

Those who have struggled with illness

Those who have been bereaved

Those who have been unable to work

Those who have been unable to cope with the isolation.

 

Silence

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me,

And have become my salvation.

We rejoice in the fellowship of all your saints.

We commend ourselves, our loved ones

And the faithful departed

To your love and your saving power.

 

Silence

Merciful Father,

Accept these prayers

For the sake of your Son,

Our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

 

 

Hymn CH 364                  All glory, laud and honour

 

Blessing

Go into Holy Week,

Walking in the footsteps of Christ

May facing hard things allow transformation of your being

That Easter light might be born in you

The blessing of God of light,

Creator, Guide and Inspirer,

rest and remain with you

now and forevermore

Amen.

 

Hymn CH 279                       

Make way, Make way, for Christ the King in splendour arrives;       fling wide the gates and welcome him into your lives.

Make way, make way, for the King of kings;

make way, make way, and let his kingdom in.

 

He comes the broken hearts to heal, the prisoners to free;

the deaf shall hear, the lame shall dance, the blind shall see.

 

And those who mourn with heavy hearts, who weep and sigh,

with laughter, joy and royal crown he'll beautify.

 

we call you now to worship him as Lord of all,

to have no gods before him, their thrones must fall.

 

Hymn CH 365                       

Ride on! ride on in majesty! Hark! all the tribes 'Hosanna! cry;

O Saviour meek, pursue thy road

with palms and scattered garments strowed.

 

Ride on! ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die;

O Christ, thy triumphs now begin

o'er captive death and conquered sin.

 

Ride on! ride on in majesty! The winge'd squadrons of the sky

look down with sad and wondering eyes,

to see the approaching sacrifice.

 

Ride on! ride on in majesty! Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh;

the Father on his sapphire throne

awaits his own anointed Son.

 

Ride on! ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die;

bow thy meek head to mortal pain,

then take, O God, thy power, and reign.

Hymn CH 374                       

From heaven you came, helpless babe,

entered our world, your glory veiled;

not to be served but to serve,

and give your life that we might live.

 

This is our God, the Servant King, he calls us now to follow him,

to bring our lives as a daily offering, of worship to the Servant King.

 

There in the garden of tears,

my heavy load he chose to bear;

his heart with sorrow was torn,

'Yet not my will be yours,' he said

 

Come see his hands and his feet,

the scars that speak of sacrifice,

hands that flung stars into space,

to cruel nails surrendered.

 

So let us learn how to serve,

and in our lives enthrone him;

each other's needs to prefer,

for it is Christ we're serving.

 

Hymn CH 364                       

 

All glory, laud and honour, to you, redeemer, King.

to whom the kips of children, made sweet hosannas ring!

 

You are the King of Israel, great David's royal son,

now in the Lord's name coming, the King and Blessed One.

 

The company of angels is praising you on high,

while we and all creation together make reply.

 

 

The people of the Hebrews with palms before you went;

our praise and prayer and anthems before you we present.

 

To you before your Passion they sang their hymns of praise;

to you, now high exalted, our melody we raise.

 

their praises you accepted; accept the prayers we bring,

in every good delighting, our great and gracious King.