Tomorrow's Offering

Greetings on this Saturday morning!

Tomorrow's sermon is on the relationship between Jesus and Judas. I have never preached on this topic before (never even crossed my mind to do it). I'm glad I decided to do it, though. Preparation for the sermon was powerful for me this week. I don't know if that power will transfer to the sermon. We'll leave that question to the Spirit.

The week has busy and fruitful.

Here is tomorrow's Palm/Passion Sunday prayer.

Prayers of the Church for Grandview
16 March 2008

Eternal Father, we gather in awe of the love and sacrifice of your Son, our Savior: Jesus; perfection in skin and skeleton. The passion of Jesus to save us leaves us dumbfounded. We are dumbfounded by our inability to repay. We also become exasperated at our inability to live up to the high calling of Christ that is inherent in his life and message.

So great is his sacrifice; so magnificent his love; so overpowering his grace for us that no response short of worship is appropriate. Accept this praise we offer you today in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory and honor and praise belong, O God, to you. Great is your name and worthy to be praised.

Even as we praise you and lift loud “Hosannas,” loud shouts of “save us,” we remember that the crowd in Jerusalem that offered their coats as carpet, and their palm branches as pavement, soon turned from praise to punishment, from veneration to verdict.

Each of us bears the seeds of Judas, of betrayal and selfish stupidity. Forgive us, and restore us, when our deception and disloyalty overwhelms our love for you. Forgive us for the many ways we deny you. Lord, in the silence, we confess our sin to you:

silence

O God, life has taken difficult turns for members of our family. Please heal Rex and all who are sick. Please give your strong hand of protection for those who vulnerable to the attacks of war around the world, and to those vulnerable to the attacks of violent criminals here in our own city. Comfort those who mourn the loss of loved ones, especially the family of Thelma Mayfield. Give the power of your Spirit to those who seek to overcome addictions. To those who are dying, Lord, please give a peaceful and timely death.

God, we praise you this morning. In the midst of this praise, help us to live up to our own words, even as we pray the words your Son taught us to pray: