Good Shepherd New York • Palm Sunday

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning everybody today is Palm Sunday my name is Jane and as we prepare for the holy week let's take a moment to Center our hearts Hosanna blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord hosanna rejoice for the Lord is in our midst he comes with joy and hope he comes to set us free from fear Hosanna Hosanna glory to God in the highest heaven amen Christ be with me Christ fear for me Christ behind me Christ with me Christ below me Christ above me Christ be right [Music] lie down and I riser as I stumble as I fall down Christ I stand crying still my heart everyone things [Music] of there speaks oh Christ in every I'd sees me Christ in every he is me [Music] ah [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh son of God best few words skewers [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] ah you know beyond [Music] from the sleeve common diced we are and shall return be still my soul you go just you go Oh God glory to God in my heart [Music] glory to God my [Music] be still my soul Lord make me home Lord make me be still my soul Lord make me [Music] birthday glory to God glory to God glory to God glory to God [Music] and now a reading from psalm 118 give thanks to the Lord for he is good his mercy endures forever let Israel now proclaim His mercy endures forever open for me the gates of righteousness I will enter them I will offer thanks to the Lord this is the gate of the Lord he who is righteous may enter I will give thanks to you for you answered me and have become my salvation the same stone which the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone this is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes on this day the Lord has acted we will rejoice and be glad in it Hosanna Lord hosanna Lord send us now success blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord we bless you from the house of the Lord God is the Lord he has shined upon us form a procession with branches up to the horns of the altar you are my god and I will thank you you are my god and I will exalt you give thanks to the Lord for he is good his mercy endures forever the word of the Lord [Music] this Palm Sunday together we sing Hosanna [Music] [Music] we sing holy holy Lord [Music] with your blood Roseanna [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we sing Hosanna whose [Music] please join me in saying together our generosity liturgy godliness with contentment is great gain we bring nothing into this world and we take nothing out of it we who call Jesus Lord devote ourselves to resisting greed which plunges the human heart into ruin and Pierce's it with many griefs we are determined to practice generosity with free hearts fixing our hope on God and not the uncertainty of wealth we desire to be rich in good deeds and willing to share all that we have laying up for ourselves treasures that will not decay but will shine in the age to come amen [Music] good morning church I'm so thankful to be here with you digitally at this point in our service we typically turn to our neighbors and partake in the ancient tradition of grace and peace and while our current circumstances don't allow us to physically turn to our neighbor and shake hands and give hugs Grace and peace is needed just as much if not more in our current situation so pull out your phone shoot an email whatever you know turn to a neighbor or a family member your dog your cat and extend words of grace and peace in these period of social distancing we don't have to be distant from each other in heart and in love so from our family to you grace and peace Grace and peace from Josh grace and peace from the red xena family Grace and peace to you from Laura McCall family grace and peace to you from Jamie tan grace and peace to you from happy thort grace and peace through gay Lynette Ganga who sends you guys [Music] well hello everybody this is Mac it's good to be with you this is the Mekas family and we are excited to be a part of this service with you today Shawna's gonna speak in a few minutes Henry's behind the camera and you've already met Mac and Mac and I get to lead the Lord's Prayer and David had asked us if we would lead the Lord's Prayer with the gestures and let me just say why I think that is so important that we embody this prayer because the reality of this moment that we're in doesn't just affect our thoughts doesn't just affect our brains it affects our whole bodies you know as the book says the body keeps the score and so as we pray the Lord's Prayer today we're not just putting our thoughts in God's hands we're placing our whole selves in God's hands so Mac are you ready we're gonna teach the gestures yeah we'll teach and then we'll do it two more times together as a community so wherever you are sitting on the couch standing up somewhere please join us we begin our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name then right hand first your will he's right 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and you do you really turn to each other as an act of forgiveness 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 wherever you are would you stand please again engaging your whole body and we're gonna pray this prayer not too their thoughts not just with our hearts but with our whole selves let us pray this prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray and let us say 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 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 now let's pray this prayer one more time but this time we're not going to use our voices we're just gonna pray the Lord's Prayer with our entire bodies with ourselves wherever you are let's pray this together with ourselves let's pray amen and amen the Gospel reading today comes from Matthew 21 1 through 11 as they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage on the Mount of Olives Jesus sent two disciples saying to them go to the village ahead of you and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt beside her untie them and bring them to me if anyone says anything to you say that the Lord needs them and he will send them right away this took place to fulfill what was spoken through the Prophet say to daughter Zion see your King comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey and on a Colt the foal of a donkey the disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them they brought the donkey and the Colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road the crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted Hosanna son of David blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord hosanna in the highest heaven when Jesus entered Jerusalem the whole city was stirred and asked who is this the crowds answered this is Jesus the Prophet from Nazareth in Galilee the gospel of our Lord praise to You Lord Jesus Christ good morning happy Palm Sunday I don't I don't know if that's a thing we say but happy Palm Sunday i'm shawna and it is an honor to be with you in the loosest possible term way of being with today I know it's weird for all of us to be gathering in this way but everything's weird right now and so I'm happy to be with you digitally across the distant across the distance I know so many members of the Trinity grace community are not in New York right now we're not in New York right now but Erin and Henry and Mac and I pray for this church community every day and for the city every day and we love being a part of this church in a part of this city and we look forward to a day that we can all be together in the same place again until that time though our love and our hearts are with you in every way one of the ways that we often begin this section of our church gathering is with a moment of presence and to be honest I'm finding presents really hard right now and I think I'm probably not the only one so one thing we do a lot of times when we begin these gatherings our pastor Michael invites us to bring our whole selves to this conversation whatever pain or fear or doubt whatever anxiety or joy or complexity in any way we bring it all to this space together I know one of the things I've been reading about lately is how difficult it is to concentrate in this moment we've we tell ourselves like these crazy stories like I'm gonna learn seven languages or I'm gonna or whatever it's hard to pay attention or at least it is for me my mind is a million places and my heart feels very all over the place and I go through ups and downs of emotion like crazy and so I want to give us just a second to bring your whole self to this moment whatever that looks like and one thing that helps me is to just start with your feet wherever your feet are that's where you want to bring the whole rest of yourself so start to bring your brain and start to bring your heart and your spirit and lastly start to bring your breath the whole of who you are everything you're experiencing and it's incredibly turbulent moment bring it all here with us with a couple deep breaths I mentioned to you that today is Palm Sunday and what that means I'm gonna zoom out from this day just for a second to tell you about this season in the church calendar because of course it feels like there are some very specific and very moving invitations for us in this moment that come from that historical and now traditional moment so Lent is kind of the run-up to that's a technical term I think that's what priests say it's the run-up sorry it's the approach it's the walking toward the cross and the resurrection the it's the season that precedes Easter and lent itself is 40 days of if it's the time that commemorates or signifies to us or lets us engage in the time that Jesus spent in the wilderness and then his journey to Jerusalem and then his journey to the cross and through to resurrection and it's a season of pain and darkness and difficulty of feeling lost or excluded a season of pain and suffering and identifying with suffering and so it makes sense to me that we are experiencing this pandemic right during a season of Lent that makes sense to me none of us know what life looks like beyond this pandemic we know with some certainty that what has existed life as we knew it in at least a couple big ways that season has ended we don't know what the future looks like and we don't even really know when that starts it is this new normal next week we'll be there be a new new normal what about last week's new normal this is incredibly disorienting we have left one Shore we have not yet reached the other we are profoundly in the dark foggy difficult middle of the journey and to be honest as I look at the scriptures and as I look at the church calendar that's Holy Week what's weird though Holy Week is you know Lent difficult darkness wandering wilderness Holy Week Jesus is betrayed by a friend he's arrested he's falsely accused he's humiliated he's beaten and tortured ultimately put to death this all makes sense to me what doesn't make sense to me is Palm Sunday because Palm Sunday is a celebration in the middle of all of this confusion and darkness and when I first the first several times I tried to get my mind around it it felt to me like like bro read the room like now is not the time for a party the disciples and Jesus followers are celebrating their celebrating the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy in Zechariah Jesus is riding in on a donkey they're waving palm branches which is a an Eastern tradition any person living in that culture would know that those are seeing signs of victory and peace and I don't understand why victory and peace is the thing we're doing now because I know and all of us with the advantage of history know what's about to come is so much worse than where they've already been we also know that they have tremendous hope that Jesus will be a savior in a governmental political way that he will overthrow the current abreast oppressive and abusive political systems and we know that that's not actually the kind of saving he came to do and so it's easy to look at this Palm Sunday kind of party environment and say I think you're getting it wrong I think you're hoping in the wrong thing and I think you don't know how dark it's gonna get and guys I don't think it's party time but all of a sudden I realized what if they're not the most foolish people what if they're the wisest among us what if they are choosing difficult audacious brave gritty hope in the face of darkness even though they're getting the details wrong because they know that hope is the fuel that will sustain them through this journey of dirt yes what if the joke's on us when we say hey I don't think it's party time what if the celebration and the peace and the victory and the palm branches and the donkey and the ceremony what if they know it's what they need to hold on to I don't have any sense of what the specific thing to hope for is in this moment I don't have a prediction I don't have an expectation I don't have a crystal ball but Christian Hope Christian hope is not hope in a specific outcome or agenda or expectation it's not a destination on a map Christian hope is hope in the person of Christ in the promise of his presence and the promise of eventual restoration and resurrection of all things with him so yeah maybe they got the details a little bit wrong absolutely maybe it's going to get a lot darker before sunday comes but maybe their practice of hope was more an act of bravery and resistance and not one of foolishness and so the first thing I want to invite us to essentially what I want to talk about today is when I look at Palm Sunday and then the journey through Holy Week I think maybe there are three essential invitations or practices for every Christian in this moment of pandemic and the first is a muscular gritty brave practice of hope a friend of mine is a peacemaker one of the smartest people I know also one of the kindest his name's Todd Etheridge and he does difficult work particularly in the Middle East and when people ask him do you have hope for the peace process in the Middle East he says hope is not a feeling hope is what we do hope is what we do and so I want to encourage every one of us to develop or continue practicing a robust gritty muscular brave practice of hope not when it's easy but when it's hard not when it feels light but when it feels dark because I think it might be the fuel that we need to get through the darkness and again not hope in our own ability to see our way through this not hope like a magic spell not hope with a particular agenda or map or outcome or expectation hope in the person of Christ and the promise of his presence and restoration when I think about how to do that I think about it happens in quiet and it happens in connection it happens when you get quiet enough to remind yourself and let God remind you who he is and what he does and it happens when you hear the voices of people you love when you share stories together when you walk together through life and walking together looks really different right now I have never been on so many zooms or face times I'm like not I'm totally not a phone person my friends know this I'm spending hours a week now and not just phones but like facetimes and screens and video and I'm so thankful for that that's a way of cultivating hope and it's a way of sharing hope and it multiplies and it's contagious so make sure recover your sense of hope and cry it and recover your sense of hope in connection this is a responsibility for all of us it's not an option it's a requirement to get through the darkness but Palm Sunday outside of its context doesn't make sense and it's context is again they call it a triumphal entry but what we know through the lens of history looking back this is a death march this is a profoundly painful painful for Jesus obviously but how disillusioning and heartbreaking for his disciples for his followers for his family for his dear friends for his mother they are suffering as they watch him suffer so this second invitation that I see kind of in this Holy Week landscape is the practice of lament so the practice of hope and the practice of lament and it's easy on the surface to think of their opposites hope and lament our opposites actually think they're sisters I think they're from the same impulse a brave willingness to articulate reality the reality that we have a saving Christ that resurrection is coming that the restoration of all things is a promise that we believe God will keep and the reality that life is extremely unpredictable and painful that there is a sense of loss and grief and instability in our lives in their lives that week and in our lives right now and so practicing hope and lament I like to think about it almost like a dance between them if I think one of the ways that we could walk well through this difficult season is in an ongoing alternating dance between the practice of hope and the practice of lament because again I think there's sisters not opposites they're both brave ways of facing and articulating reality and so lament you know one way to look at it is it's it's grief it's morning it's crying out for help the thing that makes grief that makes lament a spiritual practice separate from grieving or mourning is that we do it in the presence of Christ you're not alone and your loss you're not alone in your pain you're not going to be crushed by the weight of your own grief or fear because the the promise of Christ's presence walks you through the deepest valleys even the valley of the shadow of death the practice of lament is what keeps us from pretending everything sign it gives us a safe place to pour out our anguish our fear our anxiety our nightmares the things we're holding inside the things that we're afraid of that we don't even want to you late maybe to the people in our home lament is a safe space for all of the darkness inside us to bubble out into the loving hands of a Christ who keeps his promises and then that third kind of undergirding invitation I'd been talking about it the whole time awareness of presence I think I've told you this story actually before I spoke at church maybe almost a year ago and I told you this story and I'm so sorry I'm gonna tell it to you again because I love it so much and it matters so much to me in this moment one of the great gifts in my life when we first moved to New York is I began to see a woman for spiritual direction she was a priest her name was Barbara she'd been serving as a priest in New York City for more than 40 years and the first six months of our time in New York I met with her once a month and they were her last six months as a priest in New York at the end of those six months she moved away to be near her nearer to her grandkids and great-grandkids but those six months were sort of a sacred time for me to learn from a woman who knew a city and a tradition and a depth of spirituality that I was just starting to learn about she was such a useful magnificent guide for me both in terms of the city and in terms of my own spirituality and one of the things that she told me probably the most important thing that she told me we were talking about the symbols of our faith you know that the cross and the crucifix we're not used right around the historical time of Jesus death and restaurant reservation or Christianity a couple centuries later but she was saying you know it's interesting it's not a symbol of triumph it's not a symbol of celebration it's not like you're wearing a little empty tomb around your neck or whatever whatever the symbol would be of like we did it it's amazing she said the cross is not a symbol of triumph the cross is a symbol of solidarity what it says to every one of us as you are not alone and the sacred presence of Christ knows suffering every bit as well as you do Christ suffered in loneliness he wandered in the wilderness he wrestled through his call from his father he was betrayed by his best friends he was misunderstood by the people around him he was falsely accused arrested beaten humiliated tortured and then publicly executed like a common criminal there is not a moment of pain or heartache that any of us will face in this lifetime that he does not have a capacity to walk with us through you are not alone you are never alone and you never will be the promise of Christ's presence is one that he has kept through centuries around the globe for all of us and still in this moment now so the invitation again that Palm Sunday and Holy Week gives us and I think the moment that we find ourselves in you can look at those two a little bit together here are the invitations a brave practice of Hope a similarly brave practice of lament both undergirded and grounded by the ongoing awareness of the presence of Christ and the promise of Resurrection and restoration not now not yet but one that we can hold on to hope for the future again I don't know the future and I'm not going to make grand predictions about exactly how this is going to look but I am going to hold on to hope for restoration and resurrection for the presence of Christ for all of us there was a scene in a movie that I saw recently that we loved my 13 year old our 13 year old Henry is a major movie guy and Taika Waititi is one of his favorite filmmakers and so we saw Joe Joe rabbit and we saw it in the theater and then we saw it later at home and we just absolutely loved and one of the ongoing themes through the movie Scarlett Johansson who plays Jojo rabbits mom it's in wartime Germany and an ongoing theme Scarlett Johansson JoJo's mom at the most inopportune times she keeps dancing she dances when they're out for a walk and she dances in the living room and at a certain point he says something to her like why do you dance war time is no time for dancing and she said I danced because you dance when you're free and you dance because you believe that you're going to be free and I don't think I got that quote just exactly right but I thought about that moment and this is not a war but it's not entirely dissimilar this is a moment of great uncertainty and danger for many of us and so I thought about that line and then of course I you know that's what I do I'm a writer I researched it and I read a really beautiful article and it said that's not just a scene about that woman and that time there is a Jewish tradition that goes all the way back through the through the Old Testament that we dance to show not even that we are free but that that we will be free we dance even though we have not yet experienced victory we will essentially maybe that's Palm Sunday we will wave palm branches and honor our Savior even though it's not yet time for victory even though we can't yet see what triumph or salvation or resurrection or restoration are going to look like maybe it's out of a deep and brave sense of hope and so my invitation to you the last one is keep dancing whatever that means I mean it on a really silly level our family's doing a lot of mandatory dance parties right now when we're all cranky and distance learning is just like a tech nightmare please tell me that's happening for you sometimes to everybody stop mandatory dance time but on a much deeper level keep dancing keep practicing paulsen keep being willing to get your hopes up even though you might not know the exact ending of this story because none of us do be willing to look silly be willing to look a little foolish be willing to practice muscular brave hope in the face of the coming darkness that's what it means to have hope in the person of Christ and in the promise of Resurrection to come a couple things I want to share with you if this is helpful for you there are two podcasts and a book and a poem in a song and I'm just going to name them real quickly and then we'll link to them or sometime Brene Browns podcast unlocking you especially the episode on comparative suffering it's really valuable and timely right now Aaron my husband has a podcast and it's about practices for the pandemic and there's a specific practice through lament that's been really valuable for me I would encourage you it's the eternal current podcast practices for the pandemic Barbara brown Taylor book learning to walk in the dark she is one of the finest and most significant voices writing right now and her her books have been a guide to me in so many different seasons the brilliance has a song called the gravity of love David and Kate know that this is one of my favorite songs in all the world and it feels so timely and valuable right now we are being held together even when it doesn't feel like it even across the distance even in the uncertainty by the gravity of love and then lastly TS Eliot's for quartets especially East coker he wrote them in 1940 right the tail end of the season that I called you know entre Legare between the two world wars that's when most of his poetry was written and there's a lot of good friday imagery I would encourage you to read it as we approach Good Friday it is dark and beautiful and challenging and it's a lot about grief and isolation and so it has been an honor to share this time with you be well be safe you are loved and now having reflected on our sacred texts we enter to the Apostles Creed and we say this together as a response of faith and an open heart and trust would you join me in this we believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth we believe in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended to the dead on the third day he rose again and will come again to judge the living and the dead we believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting and now we lift our hearts in prayer these are the prayers of the people and therefore the people written by our community would you join me in this prayers God our Father and our mother creator of all things ground of our being and the space that is within us and between us all meet us in our exhaustion and in our vulnerability grant your church the Grace and the peace of Christ as we face the challenges of this week ahead unite us through the power of your love and connect us even in our lack of proximity Lord in your mercy hear our prayer sing Lord in your mercy Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Lord in your mercy [Music] god we pray for our world for the sick and for the dying may your presence be so near to those who are suffering we pray for Syrian refugees immigrants and all those who find themselves in an unfamiliar place as they navigate this pandemic God give them safety and security god our global isolation and social distancing has shown us how truly connected we are help us to lean on that connection as we move into the future Lord in your mercy hear our prayer [Music] Lord in your mercy hear our prayer see here God we pray for our country in its leaders we ask that you give wisdom and a spirit of generosity to President Trump to vice president pence to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi God unites our government in the service and the protection of the vulnerable we pray for those who have lost their jobs in their income for those who are uncertain about their next meals for those who are concerned about the future of their children and for those dear ones who are sick and who are dying god we ask for your provision and we thank you for all the helpers we thank you for the doctors the nurses the medical staffs that are working around the clock to care for those who are sick right now we thank you for the police officers and the firefighters the military who are serving our communities we thank you for the postal workers and the grocery store clerks and the delivery people sanitation workers nursing home helpers and homeless shelter employees for the pharmacists and the doorman the teachers who continue to show up for our communities every day god bless them and grant them rest Lord in your mercy hear our prayer [Music] Lord in your mercy hear our prayer here God we pray for New York we pray for Governor Cuomo and mayor de Blasio we pray for all those who serve our city and our state as we continue to navigate this difficult time Christ Jesus you showed us how to look out for the vulnerable for the poor and for the marginalized may you help us to find creative ways in our isolation to help those in need may this be a time of uniting as a city to take care of the suffering to be generous with our resources and to be your hands and feet in our neighborhoods Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Lord in your mercy hear our prayer god we especially pray for those who've become sick with the coronavirus we ask that you would heal them that you would give them rest you would meet them in this time of need and protect their bodies we pray for all those who are experiencing anxiety and depression and trauma in this uncertain time may your spirit inhabit each breath and bring light amidst the darkness we pray for those experiencing loneliness and for those who are contemplating suicide please God and your mercy surround them with love and give them the courage to reach out for help God we pray for all the parents the caregivers who are exhausted and over overwhelmed give them deep wells of patience and grant them rest God give us compassion and kindness for one another and for ourselves especially in this time may each of our interactions be drenched in your grace and we release all these prayers into the abundant arms our parent who hears every cry and tends to every need Lord in your mercy hear our prayer lord have mercy [Music] Christ [Music] see Christ have mercy [Music] and now having lifted our prayers we make our confession and this is a moment for us to take responsibility for the ways that we have fallen short of love love for God and love for our neighbor and even love for ourselves and so right now we take moment we create space for reflection and I wonder as on this Palm Sunday we consider what it means for this kingdom which God is bringing into the world that's upside-down to enter our lives and enter our city I wonder what that means to make space for it this morning I wonder if now we could reflect on the ways that we're leaning into power and strength when we need to be embracing the vulnerability of Christ just take a moment of holy memory and whatever comes to your mind right now that's pricked your conscience or that induces shame hold that in the kindness of God right now and as these memories emerge in our minds and in our hearts we remember that we are not alone and that we are not even the sum total of our sins but we sin in ways that are collective and right now the systems which have done so much harm are falling down and here we are experiencing the pain of that but also imagining what new systems could look like and in the context of that collective sin we make this confession would you join me in this most merciful God we confess that we've sinned against you in thought word and deed by what we've done and by what we've left undone we have not loved you with our whole hearts we've not loved our neighbor as ourselves we're truly sorry and we humbly repent for the sake of your son Jesus Christ have mercy on us and forgive us that we would delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name amen and now friends hear the good news of Jesus Christ that you are loved you're embraced that you belong that you in fact are forgiven in Jesus Christ and as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is God's love toward you amen and now we lift our hearts as we come to this table and Thanksgiving and that's what Eucharist means it means the great Thanksgiving and so as we come to this table would you join me in this prayer the Lord is here his Spirit is with us lift up your hearts we lift them up to the Lord let us give thanks to the Lord our God it is right to give thanks and praise Lord it is good and beautiful to say thank you and right now we do that together even in this hard moment we say thank you God would you fill us right now with your joy and we pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit and according to your word that these gifts of bread and wine would become to us and for us the body and blood of Christ who on the night he was betrayed took bread and cup and blessed them on the night Jesus was betrayed he took bread and after he blessed it he gave it to his disciples and he said this is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me and so we welcome you risen Christ we thank you for this body broken and given that we may ourselves might be broken in love and given for the sake of the world amen and likewise Jesus took the cup and after he blessed it he gave it to his disciples and he said this cup is the cup of a new covenant in my blood shed for the forgiveness of sins do this in remembrance of me and so we welcome you risen Christ we thank you for this cup which speaks a better word than our violence and our aggression and our payback mentality and we pray that right now in this moment we would embody peace and reconciliation and forgiveness empower us to those virtues and to those stances we pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit amen and now friends all around the country all around the city we gather and we hold in our hands bread and cup and our practice is to take the bread and dip it in the cup and simply say thanks be to God would you join me in receiving Holy Communion [Music] thanks be to God and now we declare the mystery of faith Christ has died Christ is risen and Christ will come again and these are God's holy gifts for God's holy people Jesus Christ is holy Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father amen thank you for joining us on this Palm Sunday and we pray especially that you observe this holy week with an open heart with faith that's searching and reaching for God and with a commitment to love your neighbor as yourself we can do this we're in this together and we're going to get through this together amen and now receive this benediction and now receive this benediction now brothers and sisters in Christ go in peace go and courage go in confidence about the path the Spirit has charted for you for Christ has walked it first go with the Apostle John's words on your heart how great is the love of God that we should be called children of God for that is what we are so here our parent this morning as he says go child go with joy and anticipation go with reverence and humility go wherever he is taking you for he is taking you to him amen [Music] [Music] crazy [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Good Shepherd New York

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Length: 63min 16sec (3796 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 05 2020