Tag Archives: Palm Sunday

March 29, 2015 · 5:22 am

Stand Aside

When the Salvation Army first went to India, the British authorities were concerned about them, and issued an order that no open meetings and no parades were to be held. But Commissioner Tucker of the Salvation Army decided that order must be defied. One day the Salvation Army came marching down the street. They were met by soldiers. The officer in charge said, “In the name of her majesty, the Queen of England, I order you to disperse.” But Tucker replied, “In the name of the King of kings, I order you to stand aside.” They stood aside.

One day, one palm-waving day, Jesus marched right into Jerusalem, the Holy City, and said to everything unholy, “Stand aside.” And he is calling us to join him in the parade, and to say to every form of hatred, bigotry, ignorance and apathy, “Stand aside,” and when we dare to do it those things will stand aside. His kingdom will live in us, and we will help spread his rule in his world.

5 Quotes for Palm Sunday (stream.org)

Come Away

“Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”

—Jesus

As we continue our Lenten journey there is no better time to heed the call of Jesus to “come away to a deserted place” than the Lenten season. All of us need these times of solitude to take stock of ourselves. The world in which we live is so hectic and busy that it generates precious little time for soul care. Jesus understood that He and the disciples were going about doing many great things and yet, going to a deserted place was a matter of necessity. Lent is the season of deserted places.

As we steer our lives in the other worldly path of self- denial, we automatically find that it is a less traveled road. Perhaps we can take advantage of that reality and spend some quality time with God. After all, practices of self-denial are designed to make us keenly aware of our need for God. Instead of counting the minutes or seconds of silent prayer relish the time. Conceivably your time of fasting can be used to take a quiet walk and experience God’s creation in a special way. When you give offerings to the needy, pause a moment to take yourself to a quiet place and see the person you are helping through the eyes of their Creator. These can be simple ways of coming away to a quiet place without ever traveling.

The whole concept of Lent is one of coming away to the quiet place of your soul. I hope you are having a Holy Lent and traveling towards a joyous Easter.

Lenten Ideas to Help Us Focus on and Become More Like Jesus (conjecturesguilty.wordpress.com)

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Filed under Lent, Prayer, Silence

Tagged as Ash Wednesday, Christian, Easter, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Lent, Palm Sunday

February 18, 2015 · 8:52 am

Ash Wednesday and Lent

Lent is about mortality and transformation. We begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday with the sign of the cross smeared on our foreheads with ashes as the words are spoken over us, “Dust thou art, and to dust thou wilt return.” We begin this season of Lent not only reminded of our death, but also marked for death.

The Lenten journey, with its climax in Holy Week and Good Friday and Easter, is about participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Put somewhat abstractly, this means dying to an old identity—the identity conferred by culture, by tradition, by parents, perhaps—and being born into a new identity—an identity centered in the Spirit of God. It means dying to an old way of being, and being born into a new way of being, a way of being centered once again in God.

Put slightly more concretely, this path of death and resurrection, of radical centering in God, may mean for some of us that we need to die to specific things in our lives—perhaps to a behavior or a pattern of behavior that has become destructive or dysfunctional; perhaps to a relationship that has ended or gone bad; perhaps to an unresolved grief that needs to be let go of; perhaps to a career or job that has either been taken from us or that no longer nourishes us; or perhaps even we need to die to a deadness in our lives.

You can even die to deadness, and this dying is also oftentimes a daily rhythm in our lives—that daily occurrence that happens to some of us as we remind ourselves of the reality of God in our relationship to God; that reminder that can take us out of ourselves, lift us out of our confinement, take away our feeling of being burdened and weighed down.

That’s the first focal point of a life that takes Jesus seriously: that radical centering in the Spirit of God that is at the very center of the Christian life.

—Dr. Marcus Borg

Ash Wednesday starts the Lenten period (houmatoday.com)
Ash Wednesday is Today’s Religious Topic of the Day (02/08/15) (poetsareangels.com)
The Lenten Observance (ijboudreaux.com)

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Filed under Ash wednesday, Lent

Tagged as Ash Wednesday, Catholic Church, Christ, death and resurrection, death and resurrection of Jesus, Easter, Jesus, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Palm Sunday, Resurrection of Jesus, season of Lent, United Methodist Church

February 13, 2015 · 6:22 pm

The Lenten Observance

The 40 weekdays beginning on Ash Wednesday, going through Holy Week, and ending on the Saturday before Easter is the season of Lent. The six Sundays occurring during Lent are not counted as the 40 days since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

Originating in the 4^th century of the Church, the season is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Christ’s resurrection on Easter. Many biblical events are associated with the number 40, but Lent is most commonly connected to the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his ministry as he faced the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission.

Christians today use this period of time for meditation, introspection, and repentance. The Church usually marks the season by prayer, fasting, and charitable giving. It is a time for the Church to focus on prayer, penance, and repentance as we acknowledge our need for God’s grace. All of this is a preparation to celebrate Christ’s atonement and resurrection of Easter.

The last week of Lent is Holy Week. During this holiest time of the liturgical year, the Church relives the final week of Christ’s life. On Palm Sunday, believers celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem. On Maundy Thursday, we revisit the Last Supper, while on Good Friday we recall the passion and crucifixion of the Lord.

Lent is about what Christ gave the world – salvation. The observation of Lent is a way to place ourselves humbly before God as we confess our inadequacies, strip ourselves of pretense, and open our souls before God to receive His grace.

We are part of a continuous line of Christians who have celebrated for 2000 years the One who was born in poverty, lived sinlessly, died on a cross, and rose from the dead. Jesus secured us a place in the Kingdom of God – here and now, and eternally in heaven. He opened wide the doors of kingdom – living in today’s world. He offers peace beyond our dreams, joy beyond our expressions, wisdom beyond our understanding and accomplishments beyond our abilities.

Lent gives us 40 days to prepare for a joyous Easter response to grace.

Ash Wednesday is Today’s Religious Topic of the Day (02/08/15) (poetsareangels.com)
Fox Chapel United Methodist pastors to hit Sharpsburg streets on Ash Wednesday (triblive.com)

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Filed under Fasting, Lent

Tagged as Ash Wednesday, Catholic Church, Easter, Good Friday, Jesus, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Palm Sunday, The Sundays, United Methodist Church

April 13, 2014 · 6:00 am

A Thought for Passion/Palm Sunday

Some years ago a book was written by a noted American historian entitled “When The Cheering Stopped.” It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero, There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for democracy.

On his first visit to Paris after the war Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than their own heroes. The same thing was true in England and Italy. In a Vienna hospital a Red Cross worker had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and the hard times. The children didn’t believe her. They said that President Wilson was coming and they knew that everything would be alright.

The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. It turned out that after the war the political leaders in Europe were more concerned with their own agendas than they were a lasting peace. At home Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all the President’s health began to break. He suffered a stroke and in the next election his party was defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man.

It’s a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. The ultimate reward for someone who tries to translate ideals into reality is apt to be frustration and defeat. There are some exceptions, of course, but not too many.

It happened that way to Jesus. They cried hosanna, He’s the son of David, but less than a week after the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, he would be dead. We enter Holy Week with that in mind.