March 29, 2026 Palm Sunday 2026 John 12:14-27 Triumphal Entry

What struck me about this Palm Sunday liturgy is not just what was said, but the movement of the soul that was embodied. It journeyed through the arc of John 12: from celebration to surrender, from “Hosanna” to the shadow of the cross.

This was a joyful, festive, and engaging worship. Amy Vanacore played "I will Enter His Gates/He has Made Glad and communicated the true joy in that piece. The acclamation, “Blessed is the one who comes…” placed the congregation inside the crowd of Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry in the Procession. Simultaneously, the language subtly resists triumphalism. 

This was not the victory of the empire. The line “not with the power of empire, but in humility” did theological work here by dismantling expectations. We were invited to confront a paradox: the King arrives not on a warhorse, but on a donkey; ultimately to be crucified.

That paradox intensified through the structure. The palms were raised, symbols of victory, but they were already being reinterpreted.  Not just celebratory branches; they became expressions of participation. We prayed: “May we also…follow Him in the way that leads to eternal life.” In other words, the congregation not only remembered Palm Sunday, but we consented to walk it.

Our Land Acknowledgement in this service grounded this enactment of the cosmic drama in a particular moral reality. We proclaimed implications for justice, history, and our relationship to land. The mention of the Clackamas, Kalapuyan, Molallan, and Upper Chinookan peoples quietly aligned with the earlier claim: this is a kingdom “shaped by justice, mercy, and sacrificial love.” Those gathered collectively refused to separate worship from ethical responsibility.

Lasans Kanneh was another guest musician today that led the congregation in the chorus of Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying while he added powerful, testimonial verses with rich, resonant drumming/ Everything contributed to the heartbeat of the song.

Psalm 24 was especially meaningful. “Lift up your heads, O gates!” becomes more than poetry; it becomes a kind of spiritual architecture. The “gates” felt not only Jerusalem’s gates, but also spoke to our human hearts being lifed. Who can receive this King? Only those with “clean hands and pure hearts.” The liturgy firmly asked: Are you ready for the kind of King who is coming? That question will take us through this coming Holy Week.

And then the Gospel reading turned everything. When Jesus Christ says, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies…”, the entire emotional register shifted. Palm Sunday here refused sentimentality. It insisted that glory is inseparable from death, that life comes through loss. This was the theological hinge of the service. The crowd’s enthusiasm is real, but incomplete. Only later, as John says, do they understand.

Lasana performed at this point Blessed Assurance with a steady confidence in what the song proclaims, He always adds to this song and infuses the congregation's vocals with that same rock-steady certainty.  

The Iona Community Creed added another deeply meaningful layer, framing belief not as abstract doctrine but as a lived commitment to a God who "offended many". This is our Palm Sunday belief. We are not simply providing passive admiration, but are actively participating in a disruptive, world-reordering love.

The prayers of the people widen the scope even further. from the individual heart to the entire cosmos. Creation itself is gathered “around the cross.” What began on a dusty road into Jerusalem culminated in something cosmic, nothing less than the healing of all creation.

And then, in the Eucharist, everything converged. He who was welcomed with palms becomes the one who is broken and given. The joyful procession leads, inevitably, to the table, and beyond the table, to the cross.

So the deep meaning of this liturgy is this: It teaches the congregation how to hold two truths at once. This service once again affirmed that the journey does not end at the cross. It continues outward, into the lives of the people.

There is the tension of paradox. Hosanna and death, glory and surrender, the table becomes a place not needing to be resolved but received. The same Jesus Christ who entered Jerusalem in humility now gives himself in humility again. physically and personally.

Then came the final, almost startling turn: Siyahamba – We Are Marching in the Light of God. which Lasana rehearsed the congregation through singing the African lyrics.   

Everything about movement became embodied in a new way. The liturgy began with a procession into Jerusalem; it ends with a procession out into the world. The palms recalled ancient footsteps. The congregation became the crowd, which became a people on the move.

The Sending Song. Siyahamba was not only a reflective hymn; it is a march. It carries echoes of struggle, liberation, and communal hope. In that sense, it answers the earlier theological claim that this kingdom is not one of empire. It is a different kind of movement altogether, one shaped by light, not domination; by shared journey, not imposed power.

The procession that began in Jerusalem never stops. Palm Sunday is always a revelation. The same voices that cry “Blessed is he” are being prepared to follow him into places where blessing looks like loss, where kingship looks like sacrifice, and where, somehow, death opens into resurrection.

And perhaps, most moving, the service insists we are in this story.

 

A History of Palm/Passion Sundays - High Points / Low Points Remembered In One Service

This special post honors the twentieth anniversary of the Creator blog. The first Creator blog post was written on March 29, 2006 Palm Sunday. Click the Holy Week - First Blog link on the right to see the entire 2006 Holy Week's posts.

Creator, like many congregations, often celebrates either Palm or Passion Sunday or Palm/Passion Sunday together on the same day. Palm/Passion Sundays together carry very different tones and purposes. The contrast is intentional, drawing us from celebration into suffering and are the most harrowing in the wild swing of emotions the congregation can experience.

On Palm Sunday celebrations, we lift our palm branches, wave them in the air like a forest bending toward one man. and lay them down reverently when we enter. We cry Hosanna without hesitation, as if we have always known what we meant by it. Palm Sunday is joyous, everything feels clear: God comes near and is recognized. Or at least, we think we do.

We welcome a king, but what kind of king? Is Jesus bringing everyone victory? Is he a restorer of order? Will he take what is broken and make it right in ways we can understand? The palms in our hands are not only symbols of praise; they are also our quiet declarations of expectation. 'Save us', we say, but have already decided what salvation looks like. This is a king like no other, and the truth of what the "Jesus way" offers can suddenly inspire or elude us. We arrive at the Passion Sunday piece.

The tone shifts, and usually the dual liturgy turns. The story deepens. What began in procession becomes confrontation. What sounded like praise begins to echo with accusation. By the time we are in the midst of a dramatic reading of the Passion, we are no longer standing at the roadside. We have been pulled into the crowd. Now we are given lines to speak as the crowd, we call out "Crucify him".

It is unsettling. We do not leave the crowd behind; we become it. The same voices that welcomed now reject. The same mouths that cried Hosanna now form the words of death to the savior. Something within us resists this. We want to step back, to say: That was them, not us. Yet the liturgy suddenly will not allow us that distance.

On Passion Sunday, like Peter, we see how thin the line is between devotion and denial. How quickly love turns when it is not met on its own terms. The palms we carried so lightly that we have strewn across the sanctuary suddenly gain a new, unfamiliar meaning. How easily we follow Jesus until he refuses to be the kind of savior so many hope for.

Today reveals that we are not only those who welcome Christ, but also those who misunderstand him. The triumph we celebrated was real, but in the end, we judged it to be incomplete. It had not yet undergone the required suffering. It did not yet reckon with the cost of the kind of kingdom he promises.

And still, Jesus enters. He does not turn away from the crowd that turns on him. He does not withdraw the gift of himself when it is refused. He continues towards betrayal, towards judgment, and towards the cross.

There is a strange mercy captured in Palm/Passion Sunday. That Christ would accept our praise is one thing. Enduring rejection is another, but that he would hold both together, that he would receive the Hosanna and the Crucify from the same lips and still go on loving that is the mystery at the heart of this day.

Perhaps the only honest prayer left to us is not the triumphant Hosanna we began with, but something quieter, more uncertain:

Lord, save us even from ourselves.

March 24, 2024 - Palm / Passion Sunday - A Reading of Mark's Passion Narrative on Palm Sunday

Faith, when it is spiritual and cerebral, can be comfortable. Simultaneously faith in Jesus can call us beyond that. I realize I am guilty of being attracted to what is cerebral and spiritual. In past posts I have written about the structure of the Triduum worship. I explored Dante's Divine Comedy on Maundy Thursday. I have written as well about the dichotomies of the Last Supper betrayal.

The Palm/Passion Sunday service demonstrates an emotional dichotomy during a Sunday morning service. We remember the story in this worship from the Jesus processional into Jerusalem to the Good Friday crucifixion. We say our hosannas in Creator's narthex, proceed into the sanctuary, lay down the palm leaves we have just lifted in praise and we read and listen to Mark's passion narrative. They will be burned for next year's Ash Wednesday remembrance.

This start of Holy Week (the first where we have the first pastor called to be Creator's pastor since the pandemic started), invites us into reflection and gratitude. Community is both being affirmed and being built today. Mark's Passion narrative in recounting the details of what was said and done highlights and dramatizes the rise and fall of what makes up most human communities.

This year as I read lament of Jesus as he cried to God on the cross "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani " I felt the sting of this man, feeling forsaken, struggling with what he feels he is meant to go through while experiencing the complexities of being a part of a human community.

April 2, 2023 - Palm Sunday - Save Us Now!

Holy Week began this Sunday. During worship the traditional Palm Sunday processional Creator takes from the narthex to the sanctuary. For the sermon Pastor Steve led the congregation in a reading of a passion narrative from Matthew. The story we know so well and moves our hearts, The reading followed the story from the betrayal of Jesus to the tomb. Two stories that are embedded in our collective hearts.

Until this year I was puzzled by the fickleness of the Jerusalem crowd. They called Jesus Messiah on his entry into Jerusalem. Yet they were calling for his crucifixion days later. Why? I have heard stories that it was a different crowd, or that they were selected to be biased against Jesus, to call for Barabbas to be freed rather than Jesus.

Now I wonder if the word hosanna, which I always understood to be an acclamation, provides the key to new understanding the turning of the crowd against Jesus. 

Hosanna is a word used in songs of praise, particularly on Palm Sunday. The word is of Hebrew origin and was part of the shout of the multitudes as Jesus entered Jerusalem: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Matthew 21:9).

I thought Hosanna was a declaration of praise, similar to hallelujah, but hosanna is actually a plea for salvation. The Hebrew root words are found in Psalm 118:25, which says, “Save us, we pray, O LORD!” (ESV). The Hebrew words yasha (“deliver, save”) and anna (“beg, beseech”) combine to form the word that, in English, is “hosanna.” Literally, hosanna means “I beg you to save!” or “please deliver us!”

So, as Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem, the crowds were perfectly right to shout “Hosanna!” They were acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah they needed, as shown in their address “Son of David.” Theirs was a cry for salvation and a recognition that Jesus is able to save.

As the passion narrative progresses, his ability to save them is put to the test. They want him to save himself and, when he does not, they doubt his ability to save anyone. This is not the powerful Messiah they expected. He is neither triumphant or victorious. They want to be saved from their immediate life situation and suddenly Jesus seems to be able to deliver that worldly salvation.

All of us have been taught that any offer of a "pie in the sky when we die" solution is a con. We are told not be placated by a future we cannot be guaranteed will come.  Yet the crowd is misunderstanding here what Jesus promises through his life, his death and his resurrection.

John 12 finally tells us that when his followers refused to believe what he’d taught, he prayed with urgency and feeling, He cried out in pain: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.” I am touched when I think how human the crowd's heartfelt two responses are,  

What Jesus cried out is one, true Easter promise to sustain our faith and cannot, in the end, disappoint.

Creator moves closer to our Easter celebration.

March 28, 2021 - Palm Sunday - Two Processions in Jerusalem / Choices We Will Soon Make

There was a Muppet presentation put on video by another church that was played for our Children's Time. The background was filled with palms and signs against Caesar's rule of Jerusalem.

I was reminded of a book, The Last Week by Marcus Borg. Borg stressed the importance of seeing Palm Sunday as a counter-procession to a procession that was happening on the other side of Jerusalem proclaiming Caesar as King and Son of God put on by the Romans. Identifying Jesus as the true King and Son of God was an essential message of scripture that may not be as apparent today

The question then becomes which procession do we follow in our lives? Palm Sunday is an invitation to Holy Week for everyone.

A second year observing Holy Week worship online is a reminder of the disruption that happened to Creator's story a year ago. Creator’s ongoing congregational story was disrupted because of the death of Pastor Ray, the start of the pandemic safety protocols we are now under, together with Creator’s Holy Week observances, all of which followed closely upon one another starting last March. Indeed, Creator’s first online congregational meeting was called to process the congregation’s grief over Pastor Ray. Since then we have continued some traditions, changed others, and have seen throughout this year many old social consensuses, as to what constitutes cultural and religious truth, have ended.

This is not unique to Creator. Americans overall experienced a historical dislocation that this pandemic sped up and exaggerated. We are not where we used to be culturally and religiously. Yet we cannot quite imagine where we are going to be. 

Last year the importance of having online worships that Creator hosted felt imperative. We did not even consider attending online worship that other churches were hosting. This year we will be worshiping with other congregations in observing Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and East Vigil (also called Holy Saturday). We will celebrate online Easter Sunday hosted by Creator with the confirmation of our youth who have attended confirmation.

I reflect mostly on the upcoming Easter Vigil at this moment and remember last year's worship. Creator told our own stories of our founding, our faith and history. I wonder what we will tell as our stories next year. I can't help but think the way we will be welcoming people back to physically gather together will be identity stories. How Creator balances safety and welcoming people back will be important identity statements for us. 

We are constantly choosing which procession to follow.

April 5, 2020 - Passion / Palm Sunday - God's Presence and God's Absence through April 9, 2020 - Mauny Thursday - Love One Another

Collapsing and celebrating Passion and Palm Sunday together in years past felt like Christ's passion was emphasized over the crowd celebration.

This year, with Pastor Josh Stromberg-Wojcik presided over our second live-stream service because of  covid-19 physical distancing  together with the loss of Pastor Ray, we actually lived out Pastor Josh's main sermon topic, namely how to experience God's Presence and God's Absence.

Memorable Palm Sundays are scattered throughout  Creator's history. We celebrated our inclusiveness with an RIC Sunday - April 5, 2009.

Traditionally the congregation has gathered in the narthex to wave palms, sing songs together and walk into the sanctuary strewing palms in the aisles. For children's time Josh had families, who linked in through zoom, to form individual processions where the children would pretend to be Jesus processing through Jerusalem.

This Palm Sunday service made me struggle with my current understanding around absence and presence. Did the congregation gather today? Was Pastor Ray present today? Was God present?

These questions remained throughout the week until Maundy Thursday where, like the ritual of the Stripping of the Altar, the answers to all these questions first shifted and then stripped my defenses. Folding the altar cloths was my first experience doing this and I was left feeling naked in my beliefs during that folding. Throughout the week I didn't feel any of the answers to the Palm Sunday questions seemed less faithful or true than another. They felt more like a truth or truths for the moment. Some certainly contradicted one another but they all felt important and holy to experience.

This Lent journey has transformed Creator significantly as it closes. We now have a Creator Lutheran Church YouTube Channel. which is capturing, for us, another kind of record of who we are becoming. This week Creator was introduced, by letter, to our Interim Pastor, Janell Bethke; who will guide us through our grief and, eventually, our call process.. The Lent season closes, we are in the midst of  Holy Week and the Holy Spirit seems to working in unexpected ways  There are glimpses of all the ways we are holding each other in our hearts that I will detail in a future blog entry.

That holding and support extends beyond the congregation and Pastor Ray's colleagues, friends and family.There is an outpouring of synod support from all the synods Pastor Ray worked to help. There have been so many acts of generosity it is hard to express the gratitude of the congregation.

As we sang to close this our Maundy Thursday worship we sing:from last night's the call and response:

Hold us in your mercy, hold us in your mercy.

April 14, 2019 - Palm Sunday - Planted - Celebrating Jesus' Procession into Jerusalem

This is the last Sunday in Pastor Ray's Lent examination of Acts in the 40 Days of Generosity series. The sermon topics in Lent this year focused on the ideas of giving.

Photos by Ron Houser

Creator makes a decision each year whether to center Palm Sunday worship on Jesus' processional arrival in Jerusalem or the Passion narrative. I missed Palm Sunday worship in 2018. In 2017 and 2016 the focus was on the Passion narrative. Passion Sunday is all about a recovery of ancient Christian practice, not only of this Sunday, but of Lent itself.

This recovery was part and parcel of many findings of liturgical scholarship and ecumenical work that began in the late nineteenth century. The reason for the Passion narrative on Palm Sunday was to recover the church's mission of discipling people in the way of Jesus, and realigning current worship practices to support that mission.

Yet Creator has another tradition for celebrating the Processional arrival as well that does not include the Passion narrative. The decision this year was not to follow the Passion narrative in detail this particular Sunday.

Instead we followed the topic Pastor Ray chose for the last in this Lent series which was Planted. Following the understanding you can take in the location you were placed in to do God's work and, essentially, "bloom where you are planted". Pastor Ray preached that this is all about connection, communion, and calling. The Gospel text was  John 15: 1 - 5, one of Jesus I am statements in John.

The connection is fairly obvious in the vine metaphor. The communion taps into how each of us, through our connection in Christ, become one body from all of us as individuals. And part of what Pastor Ray preached about calling was captured in a quote he gave from Oswald Chambers:

"We are to be centers through which Jesus can flow as rivers of living water in blessing to every one. Some of us are like the Dead Sea, always taking in but never giving out, because we are not rightly related to the Lord Jesus. As surely as we receive from Him, He will pour out through us, and in the measure He is not pouring out, there is a defect in our relationship to Him."

Jesus calls us to be his friends. Like branches for the vine he wants us to live rich lives that bear fruit for others. 

Our Processional Hymn was Hosanna! The choir sang Michael W. Smith's Hosanna and Let Heaven Ring, Hosanna! There was power and joy in all our sung hosannas that filled the sanctuary.

Another theme throughout the service was picked up in the Hymn of the Day - A Dazzling Bouquet. and the Communion song - Jesus, Name Above All Names that names Jesus "vine of the branches". These references were underscored by physical plants, the palms in the Processional Hymn and the orchid from Pastor Ray's office that he used for the Children's Time.

Today I thought about the crowds in Jerusalem like I have in the past. Where was this Processional crowd when Barabbas was chosen to be freed over Jesus? Many think it was just a different group that chose, or was chosen, to be there when the Barabbas clemency was offered. I could easily see this as being the same crowd, however, following a different mindset.

What separates the two mindsets, either proclaiming God or submitting to the ways and justice of this world, are strangely close, despite their differences. This is the perfect place to start from to raise the question as to whether we should interject a joyous note at the beginning of Holy Week or continue with the mood of the Lenten journey that we are already steeped in and will take up again during Holy Week.

Perhaps a different perspective on Holy Week is needed to explore the options. We normally think of this as a week of sadness. We somberly remember the Last Supper tinged with melancholy. We become lost in the grief of Good Friday, Our minds are filled with betrayals and the heaviness of the trial before Caiaphas, Pilate, leading; eventually; to the cross.

Yes, that is all there but there is something else as well which is hidden in this story. This is a narrative of men who do not properly see divine connections and where betrayal, judgment and death are the major components in the Passion narrative.

Now what if the disciples had followed the way of  Mary of Bethany or the Prodigal Son? What if Judas had realized that, much more than just leaving Mary alone, he could acknowledge how special her gift was in honoring the moment? What if this last week in Lent had been marked by this kind of gratitude and joy? If paths of connection and abundance had been followed, would death have been undone without violence? Would the Table stand in lieu of a cross?

We still have the echoes of Jesus suffering and dying for our sins in many secret places within our hearts. To my mind these echoes diminish the God we worship if we are not careful. If Jesus must suffer and die for our sins any attempt to save Jesus defeats God's plan for our collective salvation. The Passion narrative is locked in to endless suffering and death. Certainly there is unexpected new life in the end but he story must inevitably play out exactly as "foretold".

Let's imagine something different. Instead of Jesus dying for sin, however, what if Jesus dies from the sin of what some might think of as righteous action that must be performed? Jesus died from the thinking and humankind's response to a notion of the divine that springs from fear, powerlessness, and distrust. We are always thankful that God's love is not stopped by that thinking. However there is an insidious understanding that tempts us into thinking that God's salvation and the kingdom of heaven must be predicated on retribution, suffering and death. They are willing to accept that even if that suffering and death is taken on by God alone. They feel justice can only be achieved through this kind of retribution.

When Jesus dies from this sin God does not intentionally create a place for any violence to redeem the world and does not condemn through judgment. God showed through Jesus that the worldly myth of redemptive violence was ultimately impotent – and that the way of redemptive non-violence has the power to change the world.

"Father forgive them" as a prayer is not easy for humankind to say, to accept, or to act on. Jesus empowers us to become friends and what God gives us is a way to help overcome the fear and distrust encountered in this world. The God I worship today, instead of  judging humankind, finally declares in complete love and compassion and in answer to and through Jesus' prayer, "I would rather die than judge and condemn".

Jesus throughout his life and in his death shows us how to "bloom where we are planted".

March 25, 2018 - Palm Sunday - For Where Two or More are Gathered in My Name...

Palm Sunday. I did not attend Creator worship due to strong symptoms of an allergic reaction that I go through every Spring around this time.

I still was a participant in an on-line presentation led by theologian / philosopher Peter Rollins yesterday called Salvation from Salvation. This was the last Sunday session in his series Atheism for Lent. He considers this Lent discipline to be a decentering practice regarding what we may believe about God. He also describes this as part of his "liturgical technology".

Let me break those statements down a bit.

For those who believe God is beyond our ability to understand through our individual faith journeys at particular times, Rollins offers Atheism for Lent. For three years now the group has challenged my concepts of God and lead to new spiritual understandings. This becomes a chance for the freedom to doubt - normally not an essential part of my spiritual routine. This is my discipline for Lent and is definitely a difference from giving up chocolate.

The question of whether this presentation was worship or a lecture is a legitimate one. Let's tackle possible concerns. Physically I was alone yet I interacted with the lecturer, receiving responses to typed questions. There was no ritual but there were liturgical rituals discussed. There was no doctrine that all of us would have agreed on and even a belief in God was not shared while what I felt what I understand as Dietrich Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity to be.

Missing Palm Sunday specifically turns my reflections to group behavior, group think and faith. The traditional reading of Palm Sunday is that as Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem, the crowds were shouting “Hosanna!” to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, as shown in their address “Son of David.” Theirs was a cry for salvation and a recognition that Jesus is able to save.

Last Sunday the joy of Palm Sunday and the sorrow of Holy Week was mixed in the response Jesus gave to Peter and Andrew about the Greeks who wished to see him. This gave new significance to me of the crowd of Palm Sunday. I was once taught that obviously a different crowd was gathered a few days later - the crowd who called for Barabbas to be released rather than Jesus. That does not appear to me to be obvious any more. What resonates with me this year is how fickle people can be when our expectations are not met in life and how our groups influence our thoughts, behavior and faith.

On this Palm Sunday I remember past Palm Sundays. I didn't see what the worship attendance was this year but if it follows Creator's trend there were, perhaps, a few less gathered. There are obviously many factors and reasons that have been well discussed over the years as to why church attendance overall is on a downward trend in America currently.

This, however, may be another blessing from the God of surprise and unexpected reversals. We imagine some "ideal" Christianity and sometimes, like N.T. Wright whose book we finished, the model we look to is first century Christians. If that is true, shouldn't we also accept the status of Christians that that time? Read 1 Corinthians 4:13 "when we are slandered, we answer gently. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world." That Christians would be a misunderstood minority in society rather than in control of it seems natural.

We are drawn to and love the triumphant Jesus to whom every knee shall bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. Jesus on the cross, alone, identity unacknowledged, part of the refuse of the world also draws our hearts and compels us to empathize. We vacillate between these two opposite perspectives that we find in the Bible and neither can be ignored. Yet the power of the second contains what is truly unique about the Christian experience.

Celebrating Palm Sunday outside of attending worship changed this heart radically today. Rather than go in peace - which closes every worship - perhaps go in pieces seems the more appropriate blessing to end this particular post.

April 9, 2017 - Holy Week: Sunday of the Passion - Those With Ears to Hear and the Sleeping Disciples

In last year's entry about Palm Sunday the question on my mind was, "Is an insight, a new sensation, or a deep revelation necessary to make worship meaningful?".  Is there an insatiable "something that's different" that needs to be experienced in each Sunday worship? I ran across an interesting Brian McLaren quote "It's not about the church meeting your needs; it's about joining the mission of God's people to meet the world's needs."

Today Matt led the choir singing a heartfelt On Humble Beast Now Rides the King. Katie, Annie, Pastor Michelle, Suzi, Craig, Karen, Gary and Robert read from Matthew's account of the Passion.

We at Creator, like most Christians, treasure the narratives of all the events of the last days of Jesus and share them during Holy Week worship. Many of us have heard these words and stories throughout our lives. Last year my feelings did not match my expectations during the Palm Sunday worship readings. I reasoned that this year-after-year familiarity with the text was the reason why. Last year I approached that Passion recitation for some deep meaning evoked in that particular reading at that particular moment.

Trinity Cathedral, Zimbabwe

Less than a year ago I encountered the Karl Barth observation, "The Bible is the book that reads me" which gave me a new perspective , together with the Passion narrative itself. When you question what you are reading in the Bible you find that the Bible is also questioning you. When you ask "What is this book?" you find you are also implicitly being asked in response "Who is this that reads it?"

Many times I read the Bible only to find my eyes dragging across the page and becoming lost in an overall feeling of being unreceptive.  These are the times I could and have fallen asleep while I was reading scripture. For that reason, I feel empathy for the disciples when they sleep in Gethsemane. Their inability to stay awake was not only understandable to me but I connected with the story because of it today.

Staying spiritually awake is not easy. The news of the world numbs us. Egypt's president called for a three-month state of emergency this Sunday after at least 44 people were killed and more than 100 more were injured in two Palm Sunday suicide attacks at Coptic Christian churches, each carried out by the ISIS terror group.

Another Karl Barth passage came to mind as I read about those suicide attacks “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”

From Thursday to now the national conversation has centered on Syria and the Tomahawk missile attack on the Syrian airbase where the chemical weapon attack that killed civilians was presumably launched. What I saw on the news was disheartening. Most news commentators fell into a strange talking point of Trump doing something when Obama, when he was President, did nothing about the chemical weapons attacks.

The Obama administration first attempted to ask congress to vote for the authorized use of military force in Syria since an attack on a sovereign nation fell outside the 9/11 AUMF. When that didn't happen they shepherded Syria to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013. The Russians were guarantors that Syria would submit to inspections and removal of what it said were stores of chemical weapons in 2014. The Syrian government would now appear to have violated that agreement and so many commentators now conclude this will be a stain on the Obama legacy. My question is how can all those efforts be categorized as having done nothing?

Interpreting this from my Biblical reading draws me to a sad conclusion about what has worth and true value for most people and what does not. When I heard praise for this attack, and some declaring Trump became President at this moment, I was reminded of a scene in The American President where this fictional President orders an airstrike (this came to mind to others as well):

President Andrew Shepherd: What I did tonight was not about political gain, Leon
Kodak: Yes sir. But it can be, sir. What you did tonight was very presidential.
President Andrew Shepherd: Leon, somewhere in Libya right now, a janitor's working the night shift at Libyan Intelligence headquarters. He's going about doing his job... because he has no idea that in about an hour he's going to die in a massive explosion. He's just going about his job, because he has no idea that about an hour ago I gave an order to have him killed. You've just seen me do the least presidential thing I do.

How do we hold what we hear all around us in our hearts, and do what we must, without falling asleep?

This is the ten year anniversary of the first blog entry I made for Creator worship.

March 20, 2006 - Palm Sunday - Start of Holy Week

The traditional Creator Palm Sunday Service elements were all there this morning.  We started with the same Creator Praise songs in the narthex that we sung in the past.  We waved palm leaves in the narthex and dropped them processing into the sanctuary.  

The choir sang selections from The Day He Wore My Crown including Cornerstone. Hosanna and Shirley's beautiful solo on There's Something That's Different about Him.  Jon directed the music enthusiastically and with joy.   The choir sang with both power and nuance.   

The Passion of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ According to St. Luke was read starting with the hymn Go to Dark Gethsemane.  After the reading there were the Prayers of the People, Sharing The Peace, and the Eucharist.  Matt played pleasing piano on In The Singing and By Your Hand You Feed Your People.  The service ended with a triumphant Guide Me Ever Great Redeemer.  

Pastor Michelle wrote "Our Palm Sunday worship was glorious--filled with love and light--thanks to the efforts of so many of you!  With joy I watched and listened, as you greeted each other and welcomed the stranger in your midst….  The Spirit of our Risen Lord is indeed alive and well, blessing you, and working in and through you to bring blessing to others!"  One comment on our Meerkat streaming gave a succinct "Glorious!" comment.

Yet I came home from church without... what?

My reaction to today's worship I know can be common for people who attends church regularly however this is the first blog entry where there was no intellectual, emotional or devotional insight, high or revelation for me in worship to dwell on as a subject.  

Why?  Perhaps because there was no sermon and so many readings the focus was not any given passage but the whole passion narrative.  Maybe.  Perhaps participation was a factor.  As usual I played guitar and sang, but today was different partly due to the processional. I was in the choir, and played Peter in the dramatic reading.  I needed to react quickly and was constantly evaluating my performance.  Not exactly an inviting environment for insights, highs or revelations.

Perhaps familiarity with the rituals, habits and repetitions of this congregation around Palm Sunday played a part.  The first Easter Vigil service I experienced at Creator lives in my memory.  Over the years Easter Vigils have all been meaningful and yet the parts that are truly memorable are where something completely different happened and I am not as tuned into the energy.  

Perhaps repetition plays a part.  This brings to mind a Paul McCartney concert in Berkeley I went to years ago.  I was exuberant about his show's energy and attended the next performance of the tour as well.  It was the same show down to the patter between songs.  People around me loved it.  I wasn't engaged in the second performance until he accidentally knocked over a microphone.  Something new.

How does the passion story become new after having a lifetime of hearing it?  This morning there was a moment.  Craig read the part of Jesus without much time and preparation.  He inadvertently read the words of Jesus on the cross as "Forgive them Father for they know what they do".  Leaving out the "not" took me off auto-pilot.  I wondered if ti would have mattered whether they knew or do not know what they were doing in their Crucifixion roles?  Not necessarily an insight or revelation, so much as a question.    

The next question that comes to my mind, "Is the insight, high, or revelation necessary?".  Is "something that's different" needed each week?.  

If I did not have this blog writing discipline (or my working on the Transition Team in the phase where we are identifying Creator's future Ministry) I doubt I would dwell on this question.  Yet this is how many people can feel (and I have felt) after particular Sunday services.  Today I am confronted with a few truths and an underlying reason for these blog posts. 

1. Telling the truth about my subjective experience.  This freedom allowed me to explore individual emotions and thoughts I have brought into the service.  This feels like a different subjective experience where others experienced an intended connection or meaning that I did not   
2. I write about what services mean for me every Sunday.  I need to confront a rather irrational fear. When will this happen again and how often?  Will it make reading the blog boring?
3. Will I unintentionally hurt people?  This has little to nothing to do with the planning or execution of Palm Sunday but personal disconnection can come off as an implicit criticism of the effort put into the worship and my true appreciation of the planning and preparation may sound hollow.

There is a self-centeredness tied in everything I have written in this particular blog post, even a belief that Holy Week somehow might depend on the overall contributions of all churches to it, to the perfect reactions (including mine), the right blog post writings, the best prayers, the deepest reflections and meditations together with the finest services. 

Perhaps this all comes form a quiet fear within me about the power of Holy Week might have.  Will it be overwhelming without the right lens to filter the story?  My current reasons listed here may be precisely the filters I need to confront and challenge why I reacted the way I did today.

Hope the beginning of Holy Week was blessed for you and will remain so during the coming days.. 

Creator History - April 5th, 2009: Palm Sunday, RIC Certificate & Blog Anniversary

April 5th, 2009 – Palm Sunday, RIC Certificate & Blog Anniversary

This blog began three years ago on Palm Sunday. In 2006 the entry centered on my feelings about playing guitar for worship and the reason for this blog. This was to be the story of Creator’s good news as a church “to be a ministry that reaches in and reaches out and to tell of the ministry we share in the nitty-gritty details of life”.

A new piece of music was being debuted that Sunday, Kelly’s Peace I Give To You. The song was simple and powerful; highlighting the words of Jesus from John 14:27 “Peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful”

In 2007 the Creator community came into Holy Week with the fresh, community knowledge that Bethany’s bone marrow biopsy showed that she is no longer in remission. Holy Week that year brought us together in unanticipated ways.

Last year the RIC team had just finished national LCNA training.

This year Palm Sunday was an amazing worship experience. The sanctuary was filled to overflowing with members and visitors. There was an explosion of colors in the narthex and sanctuary either rainbows or ribbons of colors suggesting rainbows which had kept the congregation focused on God’s covenant during Lent.

Our whole Lent experience was centered in journey. The configuration of the sanctuary changed from week to week, thanks to Larry, Pastor Dayle and others. On Palm Sunday our worship experience, like the week before, was in the round which concentrated a sense of community and celebration.

This was not a Palm – Passion Sunday. We processed in from the narthex after singing Creator Praise with the Processional Hymn All Glory, Laud and Honor. The atmosphere was one of exhilaration.

One part of a long journey for Creator was officially recognized with the presentation of Creator's RIC Certificate by LCNA Regional Coordinators Karen and Paul Jolly to Susan Nolte.

Pastor Dayle’s sermon highlighted the bittersweet part of this journey; the joy of this moment and the recognition of the long Good Friday that has been experienced around this issue, how long it has taken to get to this moment, and the struggle still ahead.

The past few days have been unprecedented in endorsing the rights of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals nationally. Last Friday the Iowa Supreme Court found that denying same-sex couples the opportunity to marry violated that state's constitution. Four days later, the Vermont legislature overrode the governor's veto of a law giving same-sex couples the right to marry. Vermont and Iowa now join Massachusetts and Connecticut in providing full marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Back to the worship I had not played guitar for awhile at worship but Janice suggested I write a song for the RIC Certificate presentation. I am glad she did. Investing the energy in writing and performing helped me understand and experience the moment in a way that would not have happened otherwise.

Pastor Dayle liked the song and I performed it just before the presentation with Kelly on piano and David on drums. With minimal rehearsal they helped drive the song in a unique way. Here are the lyrics:

A Coming Welcome

Pressing on, we keep on pressing on
To live out welcome
Holy welcome
A coming welcome.

God's courtship and call
Sets our hearts on fire
When we care for one another
When we lift each other higher

And we carry on
Both borne and bound
Ever stretching
Inspired to astound

While we're pressing on, we keep on pressing on
To live out welcome
Holy welcome
Our coming welcome.

Lord God Creator
We are yours
And though we fall and stumble
Your faith in us endures.

Let us see through your eyes
And may your strength we use
As we learn to act in love
How can we refuse

To be pressing on? We keep on pressing on
To live out welcome
Holy welcome
Your coming welcome 

Made to Celebrate Creator Becoming RIC

Blog Anniversary - Palm Sunday: First Blog Entry from Creator's Historic Blog: April 9 2006

 Holy Week: Palm Sunday - Morning Worship Services

Praying for God’s grace and help; this blog is dedicated to you on Palm Sunday April 9, 2006.

So what is to be remembered in the first posting from this present to our past? What really happened, that these words can pass along, during the Palm Sunday services at Creator Lutheran Church and an afternoon Cross Walk in Oregon City today?

With each struggle made to capture the events of the day, layers of significance are revealed. When should I call an end to the struggles? What will these words convey and what details will not be used? What can be revealed in these pages?

I know many people looking to achieve the best daily life offers; others are looking for another level of meaning. Many have hopes and desires to reach both. Different hearts with different open doors. Right now, these words are a door I want to keep open. As to the other decisions, basically the workmanship of these postings I leave to the spirit within.

I’ll start with the Sunday services. Parking and approaching the church on an early gray morning is familiar like most Sunday mornings. The routine silence always focuses me on the physical details of entering the building. It is easy to spot our church because the size of the cross in front dominates the overall structure. A cell phone company once approached the congregation with an opportunity to build a cell tower which would provide a guaranteed annual income. There was an initial reluctance which was finally overcome when the idea came to make the cell tower take the form of a cross.

I arrive early to I play rhythm guitar for worship. There is time to turn on the sound system, make adjustments to the microphone positions, and still have a few minutes to warm up. The other musicians, those involved in altar set up, other volunteers, greeters and ushers also arrive. Quickly the musicians agree who will play which instruments for each song, and then we quickly run through the least familiar songs.

At its best, Sunday worship is a heady, hearty mix of music and ideas; of celebration and confession; of ritual and innovation; of drama and the everyday detail, of individual need and community talents. There is a conscious effort to change the liturgy and music from week to week. Services here are often at their best and filled with joy and a strong sense of the holy.

I am nervous and tense this morning. I waited to start writing until today and I debate with myself whether to jot down notes or fully participate and remember the details later but since I play guitar through the service jotting down notes really isn't practical.

The service starts in the narthex and there is a procession into the sanctuary this morning. As the service progresses I soon find my wait is rewarded by three auspicious moments or, more precisely, three fortuitous signs of a great beginning to the start of this blog occured in the morning services.

The first came in Pastor Dayle’s Palm Sunday sermon. She spoke of an upcoming documentary on the Gospel of Judas. She emphasized that Bible is a book of faith, not a book of facts so this gospel should not threaten faith and quickly moved to other ideas.

The next is how we, as Christians, both reach in and reach out in ministry. She reaches the heart of her message when she says,

“Last week Pastor Fred Ruhnke preached about reaching out and telling others about our faith community. That’s about service! Reaching out is ministry. We reach in and we reach out. Some of you have prepared meals for families from Creator who suffered a loss or who have an illness… others of you have received such a meal. My family received a meal a few years ago when Peter’s dad died. Twenty or so family members were served a meal from a Creator family. I cannot tell you how such a ministry lifts a burden for a family. That’s ministry in the nitty gritty details of life.

To know Jesus is to have a relationship with him. We could each write our own stories of good news or gospel. Each of our stories would be a little different. Some would have palm branches; others wouldn’t even mention a tree. It’s likely that we’d all have a story or two of betrayal… because we all have betrayed or been disloyal to Jesus and to our own call to discipleship”

I am astonished as she says this. I did not share my intention to begin this blog with anyone but my wife and here Pastor Dayle’s sermon addresses in great detail everything I desire to do. I want this to be a story of Creator’s good news; to be a ministry that reaches in and reaches out and to tell of the ministry we share in the nitty-gritty details of life.

This is still in my thoughts when Kelly Carlisle, Creator’s former music minister, together with his sons, premieres a new song Kelly wrote and dedicated to his wife.

My attention focuses on this new highlight. “Peace I Give To You” quietly swells and touches many hearts, as I find out later. The song has a simple, classical feel which highlights the words of Jesus from John 14:27 “Peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful”.

Kelly does not play music at the church as often now. He was our past music minister but when he was given a promotion he realized he needed to devote more time to his career. Matt Weiers, a talented jazz pianist and drummer, became the new music minister. David Lee, another talented jazz pianist who also playsdrums, is an essential part of the core group that plays each Sunday.

Needless to say, unveiling a new Kelly Carlisle composition is an event. True faith and hope are difficult to capture in song. With this song, like his other compositions, one feels the kingdom of God is not only possible but is in the process of becoming a reality. This work is structured on a bible verse and adds different dimensions to it. It is as strong and beautiful as the liturgy Kelly wrote. It helps me understand in a new way how a composition can build faith.

There is one last celebratory event that closes the service. The ending musician orientation is David Lee, playing piano, Matt on drums, and Kelly and I on guitar. David leads us through an energetic calypso-feel rendition of our closing hymn “Go, My Children, With My Blessing” as the service concludes. He runs through improvisational solos, changes rhythm, and takes his fellow musicians breathlessly through a wondrous musical breaking out. His talent is astounding and David creates an unusually free and playful musical space for us to work in. Creator is open to this space and takes this kind of exploration to heart.

Holy Week has begun for Creator.

Holy Week: Palm Sunday Afternoon - The Cross Walk

Since my wife and I first participated in the annual Cross Walk for the Oregon Trail Cluster of the ELCA, it has become an important part of our Holy Week observance. It is a unique ministry. Church members and pastors follow a pre-planned route and carry a cross in a local neighborhood. At stops along the route, each church leads the group in brief words of welcome and appreciation, tailored to the service provided by those within the selected building. For instance, if it is a fire station, prayers would be spoken, appreciation would be given, and songs would be sung for the firemen. Those members of the church who lead are then responsible to carry a good-sized cross to the next location.

At 2:30 PM, my family headed for Zion Lutheran Church in Oregon City. The rain, which was threatening all day, begins once we are underway. Mary is recovering from being sick. Both of us remember last year’s Cross Walk when it poured down rain for the entire event. Mary asks me to promise to stop her from walking in the rain because she is worried she will become sick again if she does. Fortunately, the weather clears when we pull up to the church.

David Biggam is already in the church, ready for the initial service, and Pastor Dayle arrives as well. Both have been a part of the Cross Walks that we have attended over the years. While we are waiting for the service to begin David notes, “This doesn’t excite as many people in our congregation as the church auction or other fund raisers. I am not sure why.” Something in his thoughtful gaze and his voice shows how important this ministry of walking out into the community is for him.

Why this is a powerful experience for all of us is certainly unique to each individual and, at least for my wife and I, varies from year to year.

The first year we chose to attend there was a large group of people. The weather was beautiful. There were so many people Sunday traffic was stopped and cars waited while we crossed streets. The power that year came in what this demonstrated to the community outside of the participants. This was doing something unusual. It was easy to imagine pedestrians and drivers pausing to consider what they were seeing.

Last year the focus shifted to the endurance of the group. Many did not have umbrellas or waterproof coats to protect themselves from wind and rain. Umbrellas were useless anyway when carrying the cross, and water penetrated the coats. The waterlogged cross was heavy and awkward. I know my wife and I, had we been alone, would have left for comfort and shelter as soon as the heavy rain started. However, the strength of those around us, as they persevered, kept us on the walk until the end.

This year, there was no rain and we were thankful. There was also a much lighter turnout and there was speculation it was due to last year’s experience. We walked the area where the Oregon Trail ended and, in beauty and the quiet of a peaceful Sunday afternoon, the songs the group sang stood out for me today.

As each of us sang these very familiar songs, it emphasized the community we share in common with one another that has developed over years of worship. The qualities that contributed to the strength of the songs is hard to breakout and describe. The group was small and the individual voices were clear. We sang songs of faith; we sang outdoors without any musical accompaniment and there was a beautiful vulnerability in that sound.

Music is important to our church, but I must admit I don’t often recognize those moments when the music is moving beyond the ears of those who could possibly be listening. That was what I felt with the songs. It didn’t matter who was listening, these songs were reverent messages to God. Once again, the power of the Cross Walk was overwhelming.