Holy Week – Tuesday 26 March 2024
Holy Week – Wednesday 27 March 2024
Holy Week – Saturday 30 March 2024
Holy Week – Monday 25 March 2024
Call to Worship:
Love has decided,
love has chosen,
love is being laid down,
and no one realises
love is going to get itself killed.
And yet,
we choose to stay
for all that lies ahead.
Reading: John 15:1-13 – Jesus the True Vine
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become[c] my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Reflection:
On Monday
the hosannas broke,
thrown away like some embarrassing mistake.
The rag-tag crowd of his supporters
that had followed him from the town of Bethany
are somewhat thinner on the ground today.
They are keeping their heads down,
realising yesterday will not have gone unnoticed.
His little entourage of yesterday has raised a red flag
in the naves and pavements of the temple authorities.
He is marked.
There will be a file on him.
He’ll be being talked about in fearful whispers
in the way the religious state does
when it sees a threat to its traditions and status quo.
The grand and ancient walls of the temple rise.
God is at home.
The sacred birds have been bred at great cost
and the lambs, guaranteed as pure, are waiting
for those who wish to make a greater show of their wealth.
And Jesus slips the crowd,
as he turns the table of the money changers,
boxes and bags filled with the sinner’s coin
ready to be exchanged for the holy coin,
at a price.
And he calls this love.
This is the love of God.
Love enough to call the one who rampages and tears through religion
to lay down his life.
This is love … and no greater love has yet been found.
Prayer:
Loving God,
We live in the questions, the question of why?
The wreckage was minimal.
The palms were easily cleared.
Hardly anyone noticed.
The crowd was a party rather than a protest.
The donkey is gone, if it was there at all.
The saviour has completed his stunt.
Now we are left with a question: Why?
What is Jesus doing?
What picture was he painting yesterday?
The empire of God facing the empire of Rome.
If this is love
then there is only one way this can go
and he’s going to get himself killed.
Is this worth it?
Amen.
Blessing:
Go! But be back.
It isn’t over, not yet
and it may never be.
The world needs this story,
so go live it.
Holy Week – Tuesday 26 March 2024
Call to Worship:
When do the words run out?
When have we said enough?
When do the questions stop and the silence takes over?
Yet still there are things to say,
to know, to believe, to understand.
Let us meet them here.
Reading: John 16:4b-24 – The Work of the Spirit
4b “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Sorrow Will Turn into Joy
16 “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.” 17 Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me,’ and ‘because I am going to the Father’?” 18 They said, “What does he mean by this ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” 19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’?
20 Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is in labour, she has pain because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. 22 So you have pain now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
Reflection:
It takes only a little while for the Saviour to die;
the Lord of all time takes only a few days to seal his fate,
turn the crowd, anger the empire, and lose the disciples.
The one here since the beginning of time,
the Word before words were spoken
takes a sentence or two, such little time, to turn everything against him.
Just a little while.
Such a transient phrase. An off the cuff remark, as if nothing really matters …
but it hides the reversal of the kingdom as the reign of God skitters into the shadows,
the politicians win, the religious scholars celebrate, the empire shrugs,
and it is done in just a little while.
The whole thing feels so unimportant, trifling, insignificant.
Where is everyone? Where is the rest of the world?
It is their future at stake, their lives, their hopes, their eternal dreams.
Where are the politicians who seek peace?
Where are the leaders who long for justice?
They will be here, they say,
when they are done doing what they are doing,
when they can free themselves from whatever it is that is more important
in a little while …
But they won’t.
Prayer:
Loving God,
there is much weeping and mourning,
it is the very shape of this week and our prayers feel thin.
May we carry here our longings …
and wait here with our world …
and listen here for your promise …
and place here all the people …
and prepare here for your love …
and face here your sacrifice …
and pray in hope, in love and in trust.
So be it.
Amen.
Blessing:
Take the words of the story
and let them stop you
for stopping is the gift
the world needs today.
Holy Week – Wednesday 27 March 2024
Call to Worship:
The sands of time inexorably fall,
and the hour gets late,
and still, we come to worship.
Jesus has ministered,
has tutored, has healed, and has challenged,
and still, he turns to worship.
The week moves on,
Jesus’ head is lifted in prayer,
and we worship with him.
Reading: John 17:1-11 – Jesus Prays for His Disciples
1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
6 “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
Reflection:
It is the night before the end,
before the new beginning …
and on this night,
he has washed their feet
shared a meal,
watched the betrayer slink off into the shadows …
And now, he prays for them.
As we listen in
we realise the prayer extends.
The words wind their way
down the alleyways of ages,
passed on, in a whisper or proclaimed with joy:
the work is done
and we are his.
He is our help and our deliverer –
he has always been,
since, through him,
God spoke the world into being.
One with God and One, with us.
Jesus, pray for us in the hour of our need.
Prayer:
The hour has come and we give you glory.
Glory to you, O Christ,
who has shown us the way of humility.
Forgive us for grasping at power
and not using it wisely or with kindness.
Glory to you, O Christ,
who has shown us the way of peace.
Forgive us our grudges, quarrels, and aggression.
Glory to you, O Christ,
who has shown us the way of faith.
Forgive us for thinking we must have certainty,
and shading out the grey areas.
Glory to you, O Christ,
who has shown us the way of love.
Forgive us our self-doubt and loathing,
our selfishness and pride.
Glory to you, O Christ,
who in humility, peace, faith, and love, has shown us God.
On the eve of the new beginning,
let us listen with humility, in peace, with faith, in love,
that we may be one.
Amen.
Blessing:
Created in love to give God all glory, and enjoy God forever,
we go, now, rejoicing that we are his and he is ours.
In all our doing and speaking, with all of our being
may we make God’s name known,
and may we be one
as Father, Son, and Spirit are one.
The blessing of the God of grace, the God of glory
be yours, always.
Holy Week – Saturday 30 March 2024
Call to Worship:
Nothing,
Gathers.
Light,
Gone.
Hope,
Broken.
Love,
Lost.
Emptiness.
How do we worship now?
Reading: John 19:38-42 – The Burial of Jesus
38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and removed his body. 39 Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. 40 They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 42 And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Reflection:
Jesus DEAD. Hope GONE. All is FINISHED.
The Death of Hope.
A silent scream in the empty dark.
Hopelessness, the soul killer.
Many people today are living with hopelessness.
Life has lost meaning for them.
The genocide.
The oppressed.
The marginalised.
Their silent cries in the emptiness.
Let us stand in solidarity,
take time today and be still.
Let us light a candle for all of them …
Being powerless can be incredibly personal.
The overwhelming sense of worthlessness,
victims of injustice and failure,
struggling to find dignity.
The repeated betrayal of public trust,
their hearts deadened by pain.
What can we do?
Let us stand in solidarity.
Take time today and be still.
Let us light a candle for all who know
hopelessness and powerlessness.
And ride out the darkness
for the path to victory leads
through the death of hope.
Let us await the new dawn,
when hope will be born again.
Prayer:
We, the secret disciples,
come to this garden,
to express our faith in action.
We can scarcely comprehend
the reality of this actual moment,
the overwhelming loss we feel,
where we need to be present,
to acknowledge the hopelessness,
to cry together,
as we find a resting place for Jesus’ body.
And we show up today,
grimmest of all days,
because we love Jesus.
Together we commit our Spirits,
longing for redemption.
Amen.
Blessing:
The silence is deafening,
the grief weighs heavy,
but better days are coming.
Go in peace.
Go in hope.
Go in love.
(Holy Week Reflections are taken from Spill the Beans Resource)