Attention Seekers is a project that is about practicing presence in the world – of being alert and attentive to the mystery of existence all around us.
The Season of Lent offers a unique opportunity in the church calendar to practice this sort of intentional attentiveness. And so, instead of posting a series of Lenten reflections as we did last year, we are offering these “Little Liturgies” to aid our fellow attention seekers out there!
The prayers and reflections that follow are pilfered from a variety of sources online and in print (sources acknowledged below).
We follow a version of this liturgy in community each week at Newtownbreda (St. John’s) Presbyterian Church. Join us any Wednesday from 1.00 – 1.20 pm, if you are free.
INVITATION
Jesus Christ – Messiah – our true and humble King, Let us welcome you as you come to our city; Let us run with you as you press on to your passion; Let us scatter not just branches in your path, but spread our hearts before you, so that you, God who cannot be contained, May make your home in us. Amen.
POEM: “Palm Sunday” by Malcolm Guite
Now to the gate of my Jerusalem, The seething holy city of my heart, The saviour comes. But will I welcome him? Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start; They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing, And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find The challenge, the reversal he is bringing Changes their tune. I know what lies behind The surface flourish that so quickly fades; Self-interest, and fearful guardedness, The hardness of the heart, its barricades, And at the core, the dreadful emptiness Of a perverted temple. Jesus come Break my resistance and make me your home.
PRAYER
(Adapted from a prayer by John Paarlberg)
Lord Jesus, who entered a rebellious city that later rejected you: we confess that our wills are as rebellious as the people of Jerusalem. Silence. Break our resistance, Lord, and make us your home. Lord, our faith is often more show than substance, we know that our hearts are in need of cleansing. Silence. Break our resistance, Lord, and make us your home. Have mercy on us, son of David, Saviour of our lives. Help us to lay at your feet all that we have and all that we are, trusting you to forgive what is sinful, to heal what is broken, to welcome our praises, and to receive us as your own. Break our resistance, Lord, and make us your home. In your name we pray. Amen.
READING: Mark 11:1-10
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say this, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.”’ 4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, ‘What are you doing, untying the colt?’ 6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
REFLECTION: The King Does Come
Extract from A Room Called Remember by Frederick Buechner
When Jesus of Nazareth rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his followers cried out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord,” the Pharisees went to Jesus and told him to put an end to their blasphemies, and Jesus said to them, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” This church. The church on the other side of town, the other side of the world. All churches everywhere. The day will come when they will lie in ruins, every last one of them. The day will come when all the voices that were ever raised in them, including our own, will be permanently stilled. But when that day comes, I believe that the tumbled stones will cry aloud of the great, deep hope that down through the centuries has been the one reason for having churches at all and is the one reason we have for coming to this one now: the hope that into the world the King does come. And in the name of the Lord. And is always coming, blessed be he. And will come afire with glory, at the end of time. In the meantime, King Jesus, we offer all churches to you as you offer them to us. Make thyself known in them. Make thy will done in them. Make our stone hearts cry out thy kingship. Make us holy and human at last that we may do the work of thy love.
PRAYER
That each of us will understand that our ordinary lives are pleasing to Christ, our King. Silence. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. That all leaders in government will realize that the ordinary people in our country are important. Silence. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. For all those people who are very ordinary but also are extraordinary because of the way they care for God’s people. Silence. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. For people who are sick and unable to do the ordinary things they used to do, that they will be patient with themselves and with those who care for them. Silence. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. Father, hear our prayers and the prayers of all your people. Help us to be faithful in ordinary ways, loving and caring for your people whom we meet every day. We ask this through Jesus, your Son and our King. Amen.
SENDING PRAYER
(Prayer by Dmitri of Rostov, 17th century)
Come, my Light, and illumine my darkness. Come, my Life, and revive me from death. Come, my Physician, and heal my wounds. Come, my Flame of divine love, and burn up the thorns of my sins, kindling my heart with the flame of your love. Come, my King, sit upon the throne of my heart and reign there. For you alone are my King and my Lord. Amen.