SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
Palm Sunday
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA)
March 28, 2021 Ten Thirty in the morning
Minister: The Reverend Aaron Ochart
Please silence all cell phones.
Bold face indicates congregational participation.
GATHERING
WORDS OF WELCOME
MINUTE FOR MISSION
PRELUDE Prelude by J.K.F Fischer
ADORATION
CALL TO WORSHIP (responsive)
Jerusalem, at last! We join the crowd streaming to the mountain. We watch Jesus approach on a lowly donkey. We hear the crowds cry “Hosanna!”
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
There is a joyful song in the air: the people cheer and the palms wave. But the adulation of the crowd is shallow.
Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna to the blessed of God. Son of David, save us now.
The crowd grows—the people want to be part of something important.
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Let us pray.
HYMN 89 “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna”
CONFESSION
CALL TO CONFESSION
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (unison)
God of mercy, you sent Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost. We confess that we have strayed from you and turned aside from your way. We are misled by pride, for we see ourselves pure when we are stained, and great when we are small. We have failed in love, neglected justice, and ignored your truth. Have mercy, O God, and forgive our sin. Return us to paths of righteousness through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
GLORIA PATRI 579
PROCLAMATION
MESSAGE FOR THE CHILDREN
FIRST LESSON Luke 19:29-44
CHOIR CANTATA “WHO IS THIS KING?”
By: Lloyd Larson and Joseph Martin
In The Beginning Was The Word
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and lived among us.
We have seen the glory
Of the one and only Son sent from God, full of grace and truth.
God so loved the world,
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
That who so believeth, believeth in Him should not perish, should not perish but have everlasting life.
How Marvelous Are The Works
How marvelous are the works of the Lord.
How excellent are His ways.
How wonderful is His glory and fame,
ever the same, great is the name, of the Lord.
Great is the God of Israel,
and great are the works of His hands.
He alone is the King of Kings. Creation bows at His command.
Great is the God of Abraham, and perfect is His law.
In majesty and in holiness He rules Lord of all.
You Are The Christ
Jesus gathered the chosen together.
Then He asked this question:
“Who do the people say the Son of Man is?”
Some say You are Isaiah. Some say Jerimiah.
Some say you are a prophet, a prophet from long ago.
Jesus looked into the eyes of Peter.
Then He asked this question:
“Who do you say I am?”
You are the Christ, you are Messiah.
You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
You are the King, you are the Savior.
You are the way, the truth, the life, you are the Christ!
Oh, Lord most high, you are the Christ!
Once unto every man and nation comes the moment to decide.
What will our answer be to Jesus? Will we in faith reply?
You are the Christ, you are Messiah.
You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
You are the King, you are the Savior.
You are the way, the truth, the life, you are the Christ!
Oh, Lord most high, you are the Christ!
The King Of Glory
Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates, ye everlasting doors.
Fling open wide your hearts and greet the coming of the Lord.
Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts!
He is the King of glory.
All glory, laud and honor to Thee Redeemer, King,
To Whom the lips of children made hosannas ring.
Thou art the King of Israel, thou David’s royal Son.
Who in the Lord’s name comes, the King and Holy One.
Lift up your heads ye mighty gates, ye everlasting doors.
Fling open wide your hearts and greet the coming of the Lord.
Sing hosanna!
Who Is This King
Who is this King that lays aside His crown?
Who is this King that gently kneels down?
Who is this King that comes to the meek, strengthens the weak? Who is this King?
Who is this King, the servant of man?
Who is this King with carpenter’s hands?
Who is this King that holds the unclean, dies to redeem?
Who is this King?
From heaven’s bright throne and courts filled with praise King Jesus came humbly, a servant of grace.
Trading His glory for shadows and fears,
He washes the feet of the world with His tears.
Who is this King that lays aside His crown?
Who is this King that gently kneels down?
Who is this King that comes to the meek,
strengthens the weak? Who is this King?
King Of Tears
Go to dark Gethsemane, see the Savior as He prays.
The man of sorrows bows His head
and groans an anguished prayer.
Redemption’s cup, the price of sin is His alone to bear.
Beneath the olive trees He cries and battles with His fears.
The shadows write His name in black,
“Behold the King of Tears.”
The suffering Savior prays alone, surrounded by the night.
He lays aside His crown of gold, His legacy of light.
The moaning wind repeats the call that only heaven hears.
“Oh Father let Thy will be done!” Cries out the King of Tears.
Come to the garden, to Olivet’s hill.
Come to the shadows, be silent and still.
Pause for a moment, consider the cost.
As Jesus rises and chooses the cross.
Behold the Son of God who came from heavens highest throne.
Standing in an earthly court forsaken and alone. Despised and rejected, reviled by angry jeers.
“Behold the King,” the rabble cries,
“Behold the King of Tears!”
RESPONSE
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Brief Statement of Faith
In life and in death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve. We trust in Jesus Christ, Fully human, fully God.
Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world. God raised this Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death to life eternal.
We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God’s image male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community. But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring God’s commandments, we violate the image of God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve God’s condemnation. Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation.
We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the Church.
With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER
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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen
PARTING PRAYER Augustine of Hippo (354–430)
O God, full of compassion, I commit and commend myself to you, in whom I am, and live, and know. Be the goal of my pilgrimage, and my rest by the way. Let my soul take refuge from the crowding turmoil of worldly thought beneath the shadow of your wings. Let my heart, this sea of restless waves, find peace in you, O God. Amen.
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE Toccata – Belier