Father,
We thank you for allowing us to gather this morning in the name of your son, to sing your praise, to be instructed from your word, and to give and receive encouragement from one another. Thank you for giving sight to our minds, and allowing us to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is your image. Thank you for filling us with your Holy Spirit who empowers our love for you and our love for each other.
Today we remember how Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king. It was a time of great honor which was followed by a time of great suffering. You appoint a time for both in our lives as well as you unfold your perfect plan. You form the light and create darkness, you make peace and create calamity. We remember how you sustained us through great fears and difficulties over the past few years. During some of the hardest times, you gave this church a sweet sense of closeness to you and closeness to each other. Help us to live in the good times like we did in the times of fear, when it was enough just to be together, hear your word, and sing to you. What do we have on earth that is worth desiring besides you? Keep each of us in this church away from pettiness and selfishness and division and instead help us to be full of good works, living together in a spirit of humility and love.
Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king, riding on a donkey. He had told his disciples to find a donkey and to tell the owner that the Lord had need of it. To fulfill the work that you sent him to do sometimes required the use of ordinary earthly things. We have our own needs. We need food and clothing and shelter in order to live. We need sufficient strength of body and mind to do the good works that you have prepared for us to do. We look to you for all this because the whole earth belongs to you and you distribute to each as it pleases you. You are not stingy with your gifts, but lavish. As we sing this morning, we have seen how not only our needs, but how our desires have been granted in the things you have ordained.
Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. We are still touched by injustice and unkindness, and are subject to the selfishness and blindness and malevolence of those around us. We know that those things are not just in other people, but that the line separating good and evil passes through every human heart, including our own. Though we love you and have been forgiven by you, sin still lives in our flesh. Give us the strength to leave our sin. May you stir up our consciences so we feel our guilt like the shock and dread a child feels when his father catches him doing something he thought that he could get away with. Don’t leave us to our sin! In the deepest part of us we really do love holiness. We are the wretched people who do the things we do not want to do. Give us your Spirit to put to death the misdeeds of our bodies. Teach us to give and heed correction from one another, like brothers and sisters in a natural family.
Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king, but he said that his kingdom was not of this world. Peter put his sword away and the Romans stayed. But we are your kingdom, along with all who have acknowledged your son Jesus as Lord and Christ, by whom you will judge the living and the dead. Help us in our efforts to advance your kingdom as we speak about you with others. We know that every good and perfect gift is from you, the Father of the heavenly lights, and you do not change. We can say to others that love and forgiveness and peace and joy, unfailing relationship, the satisfaction of the human heart is all found in you. But you must remove the veil from their heart and show them that it’s true. We plant and we water, but you give the growth.
Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king, but we weren’t there to see it. Father may it be soon when you tell your son that it’s time to return and claim his bride. We want to see the one who entered Jerusalem humble and riding on a donkey to a procession of palm branches, returning in glory on the clouds with his angels. If his coming is delayed until we’re dead, then bring our dead bodies back to life that in our flesh we may see our Lord and God. Guard our hearts and minds that we might be found faithful and ready when he comes.