Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday March 21, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
Sovereign God, you have established your rule in the human heart through the servanthood of Jesus Christ.
By your Spirit, keep us in the joyful procession of those who with their tongues confess Jesus as Lord
and with their lives praise him as Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Isaiah 50:4-9 (NRSV)
4The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.
5The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.
6I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
7The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.
9It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 22 (NRSV)
1My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
2O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.
3Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
5To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
6But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people.
7All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
8“Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver— let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”
9Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
10On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
11Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
12Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
15my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
16For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me. My hands and feet have shriveled;
17I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me;
18they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.
19But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!
20Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog!
21Save me from the mouth of the lion! From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
22I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.
25From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever!
27All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
28For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
29To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
30Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,
31and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: Philippians 2:1-13 (NRSV)
1If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy,
2make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.
4Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,
8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
9Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
13for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: Luke 19:28-40 (NRSV)
28After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,
30saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden.
Untie it and bring it here.
31If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.
33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
34They said, “The Lord needs it.”
35Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
36As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.
37As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives,
the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,
38saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”
40He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

This coming Sunday on the church's calendar is known as Palm Sunday, also known nowadays as Passion Sunday.
It marks the beginning of Holy Week,
our walk together with our Lord through the Cross and His victory over evil
to His glorious resurrection from the dead on Easter Day.
Every Sunday is a celebration of His resurrection,
since Christian worship is on the first day of the week
in celebration of His rising from the dead on that day.
You may remember that the 40 days of Lent are numbered with all the days of the season except for the Sundays.
Easter is the reason for this.
In that way, every Sunday is Easter, even during Lent.
This particular week, however, is quite a mixture of emotions for Christians.
We remember the great climax of our Lord's life.
He was welcomed into Jerusalem by crowds of admirers who would gladly have proclaimed Him king.
The crowds were horrified and grieving as He was led to His execution the following Friday.
It is a serious mistake to believe that it was the same fickle crowd that cheered Him on Sunday
then called for His death on before Pilate on Friday.
That mistake matters a lot,
because social upheavals, riots, and the deaths of many thousands - even millions - have resulted.
The crowd that welcomed our Lord into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday represented the founding of His church.
They were the true Israel,
hoping for God's Messiah,
hoping that Jesus would be He and would return the Kingdom to Israel.
It was not to be so.
Jesus is the Messiah, we know,
but not in the sense that the people who first believed in Him had hoped.
Even on the way to His Ascension,
His own chosen disciples asked Him,
"Lord, will you now restore the Kingdom to Israel?"
So it was not well understood in those early times
just what His being Messiah would mean.
He will fill with new meaning all the prophecies of the Messiah
when He comes again in glory.
The crowd on that first Palm Sunday knew only
that He was chosen by God to lead His people,
and they rejoiced to bring Him into Jerusalem.
He Himself told His opponents
that if His followers stopped rejoicing
the very stones would cry out for joy.
Yes, He had opponents,
even among God's own people.
The religious leaders
who were allied with the Roman government
in the oppression of the people as a whole
were so afraid of Jesus
that they preferred to see Him put to death
rather than to see Him lead a rebellion that would take away their wealth and power.
Does that sound familiar?
It should!
Powerful people in religious institutions and in governments
are working together to this day
to keep ordinary people from getting too much power and too much confidence in the grace of God
so that they would lose their own power and wealth.
Far from being good stewards of what God has entrusted to them,
they try to hold on to it for their own benefit
no matter the cost to others.
They are very good at inciting mobs.
They convince a few people that they really do have their best interests at heart.
They invoke the traditions of the faith and the nation,
and they manage to get a following.
It was like that in Jesus' time as well.
The religious and political leaders managed to incite a crowd to cry for Jesus' death.
That crowd did not represent the people of Jerusalem as a whole.
They were by no means the same crowd that had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on Sunday.
Jesus was accused of proclaiming Himself King of the Jews,
and that was a capital crime under Roman law.
He was put to death by the Roman government for the crime of sedition.
His trial proved His innocence,
but by then it was too late to turn back.
The Roman authority had been provoked,
and Jesus was executed.
As our Second Lesson says,
Our Lord "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,
he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
These are among my favorite verses written by St. Paul.
They tell us in a few words
the cosmic significance of the cross of Christ.
We are called to humble ourselves
in order that God may exalt us in the way God chooses.
We begin that process by confessing our sins in humility
so that God my exalt us through forgiveness.
Our whole lives in this world can be an unfolding of that process.
Its completion will not be seen in this world.
Only God knows the glory that awaits each and every one of us in His presence.
I have a single verse of a hymn for this week.
There is only one verse because that is all I have written.
The tune and first half of the verse came to me a number of years ago.
The completion of the verse came just this last week.
It is loosely based on part of our Psalm for today.

Oh, Lord, please satisfy us
With the tongues of those who are taught.
Then bring us home to your heart,
All the souls the Saviour has sought.

Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our 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 sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever,
Amen.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +