This is part of the worship series,
"Grounded and Growing—Journeying from Lent to Easter”
Series Introduction | Ash Wednesday | Lent 1 | Lent 2 | Lent 3 | Lent 4 | Lent 5 |
Palm/Passion Sunday | Maundy Thursday | Good Friday | Easter
Leading Prayers of the People During Lent | A Communion Liturgy for Lent
Also in this year-long Grounded and Growing series: Advent and Christmas | Epiphany
Throughout the season of Lent, we have been walking with Jesus—through wilderness and teaching, healing and hard truth, pruning and promise. All of it has been preparation for what lies ahead. Now the road brings us to Jerusalem and the climax of this drama.
Soon we will walk the road that leads from the upper room to the cross: from water-washed feet and a remembered feast to the place where love is nailed down and then lifted up—lifted up for the life of the world.
But now, at the start of the week, Jesus rides into the city—not on a warhorse, but subversively, on a borrowed donkey. A parade starts. Or is it a protest march against political oppressors? The crowds line the road with branches and cloaks. They shout psalms: Hosanna! They wave palms: Save us! Hope spills out into the streets, and the whole city starts to thrum, saturated in the reckless and defiant joy of a people who believe that God’s kingdom is finally breaking into public view. Bonus question: Where do you see this same dynamic today?
It’s not a victory march. But it is a celebration of possibility—a public prayer sung in the street, sung by people daring to imagine a world shaped not by domination and fear, but by mercy and peace. Or maybe it is something more complicated. Maybe their protest is born of righteous longing for justice. Maybe it is fueled by bitter anger and resentment. Maybe it is both at once. The crowd wants deliverance. They want dignity. They want their enemies humbled and their suffering to end. But what kind of ruler, what kind of kingdom will satisfy them? At this point in the story, we do not yet know. Bonus question: Where do you see this dynamic today?
To be grounded and growing on Palm Sunday is to step into that crowd, to identify with them. It is to lift our voices with the hopeful and the furious, the faithful and the fed up. It is to stand inside both their righteous anger at injustice and their small, half-formed political misunderstandings of what God’s reign really is. With them, we lay down what we have like branches in the road, trusting that God can grow a new world out of worn-out soil. We follow the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Service Outline
GATHERING
Call to Worship
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem in humility and hope.
We come to meet him with praise and trust.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
The road is set before us. The story is unfolding.
We come to walk with Jesus.
During the next section, attend to these four gestures as appropriate
- Light the Christ candle
- Lift and place the Scriptures
- Drape purple cloth on the cross and place some palm fronds
- Pour water into the font
Light the way!
We follow the Christ who comes in peace.
Tell the story!
We follow the Christ who comes in peace.
Spread the branches!
We follow the Christ who comes in peace.
Claim the waters!
We follow the Christ who comes in peace.
Opening Song
Invite those in the congregation who wish to do so—especially the children—to process with palm branches throughout the sanctuary. Be sure to have some hand percussion instruments on hand to be played as well!
“Sana, Sananina” South African Traditional
“Hosanna In the Highest” Scheer
Welcome & Season Framing
[Offer a brief word naming the weekly and Grounded and Growing themes (see introduction).]
Praise/Psalm
“Psalm 24: Lift Up the Gates Eternal” Duba
Prayer of Lament / Confession
[The following prayer sequence has been adapted from Lent 1. Use with one of the Kyrie’s suggested with that service or a setting of the Agnus Dei]
We come before God with our longing and our anger,
with our hope for a better world
and our confusion about how to get there.
Trusting in God’s steadfast love,
let us pray.
[Spoken or Sung, Kyrie or Agnus Dei]
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Gracious God,
the world you love is restless and aching.
We cry out against violence that passes for order,
against power that grinds the poor into dust,
against fear that is wielded like a weapon against the vulnerable.
We lament the widening gap between those who have too much
and those who cannot get enough.
We bring you our anger at injustice,
our exhaustion from waiting,
and our grief for all that has been lost.
The earth itself groans—
fields stripped bare, waters poisoned, forests burned—
and we wonder what kind of world we are handing on.
Hear the cries of your people, O God.
Do not turn away from our sorrow.
[Spoken or Sung, Kyrie or Agnus Dei]
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
We confess that we are not only wounded by this broken world,
we are also shaped by it.
We want deliverance, but only on our terms.
We want justice, but without cost.
We want a kingdom
that looks suspiciously like our own small empires.
We shout Hosanna,
but we do not always listen when Jesus refuses our weapons.
We wave branches,
but we hesitate to follow when the road turns toward the cross.
We confess the sins we know,
the sins we excuse,
and the sins we dress up as virtue.
Silence is kept.
Forgive us, O Lord.
Prune what is false.
Plant what is true.
Teach us to walk the way of Christ.
[Spoken or Sung, Kyrie or Agnus Dei]
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news.
Blessed is the One
who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
In Jesus Christ,
God meets us in the street and on the road.
In Jesus Christ,
we are forgiven.
In Jesus Christ,
a new world is already taking root.
Thanks be to God.
Response/Gloria
[Use the “Gloria” from the refrain of “Sanna Sananina” or “Hosanna in the Highest” if you sang them earlier in the service.]
The Law
Jesus Christ forgives our sins and calls us to new life.
The law of the Lord guides us in this new life.
When Jesus was asked, “which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
he replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
—Matthew 22:37–40 NRSVUE
This is the law of our God.
Write your law upon our hearts, O God.
WORD
Prayer for Illumination
“Psalm 42: Be Still” Kimbrough
“Draw Your Holy Spirit Near” Rienstra
Scripture Reading
- Psalm 118:1–2, 19–29—A song of thanksgiving and praise for the saving work of the Lord.
- Mark 11:1–11—Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem as king, greeted with shouts of Hosanna.
Sermon
“Branches in the Road”
[See notes from introduction.]
Song of Response
"All Glory, Laud and Honor" Orléans, tr. Neale
"Mantos y Palmas" Àvila
"Lift Up the Gates Eternal" Jabusch, Duba
"Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" Threlfall
"Ride On, Ride On in Majesty" Milman
Prayers of the People
[See “Leading Prayers of the People During Lent”]
TABLE
Lord’s Supper
[See “Grounded and Growing—A Communion Liturgy for Lent”. If you wish, within the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, you may use the Sanctus and Memorial Acclamation found below (coming soon).]
SENDING
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Faithful God,
we thank you for meeting us in the street and on the road.
We thank you for a Savior who does not hide from the crowd
and a kingdom that refuses to stay behind closed doors.
We thank you for branches in our hands
and songs that dare to speak of justice,
for hope that refuses to be quiet.
Plant this day deep within us.
Let what we have sung take root.
Let what we have seen bear fruit.
Ground us in your grace.
Grow us in your love.
Lead us on your way.
Amen.
Closing song
“Dead in You, Lord, May We Rise” Rienstra
Closing Prayer
[Attend to the four gestures named in the introduction to this service.]
God of love and mercy,
Bless us on our Lenten journey.
By your light, call us to faithful following
By your word, call us to attentive listening
By your cross, call us to sacrificial obedience
By your Holy Spirit, call us to repentance, joy, and service.
Benediction
May the God who stirs hope in restless hearts
send you into this week with courage.
May the Christ who rode into the city
walk with you on the road that leads to the cross.
May the Spirit who grows new life in worn-out soil
keep you faithful when the cheering fades.
Go in peace.
Walk in faith.
Amen.
Bless the Lord.
The Lord’s name be praised.
Go in peace…
A sign of peace may be exchanged.
