A sequence of active worship ideas; individual items can stand alone.
Ideas for a sermon or interactive talk
See also ‘Thought for the week’ to read out in place of a sermon; and 'The week in focus', linking the readings to the news.
- Imagine you are listening to someone who was in the crowd outside Jerusalem. ‘I only went in to do a few little jobs, getting ready for the Passover, but it was so busy. Then something strange happened. That Jesus, the one we keep hearing rumours about, he turned up. I suppose he’s getting ready for the Passover too – but emotions were running high and someone must’ve remembered something they’d heard him say or seen him do, or remember something from Scripture. They started calling out, as if they were hailing a king! Quickly it became a shout, and more and more people joined in. Some put their cloaks on the ground. Others waved branches as if he’s the new king! There’s a sense of expectation here now…and unrest, I fear. It’s as if something’s about to happen. What if he’s the one who will save us?’
- What would you do if the king was coming to your local town? How would you prepare? Where would you roll out the red carpet? What would you do to ensure his security, to manage the crowds, to facilitate a welcome? Jesus didn’t engage with any of these things. His entrance was planned to be both low-key and make a statement; his welcome was spontaneous. Where would you have been in this?
- What does it mean to ‘treat someone like a king’? Do we indulge them? Revere them? Fear them? What special treatment is Jesus seeking here after so unusually asking for it? Usually keen to be low-key, here he’s been provided with a ‘pristine’ mount because it has hitherto been unridden, and is preceded and followed by acclaim and excitement. What thoughts, immediately or in the aftermath, might he be hoping to arouse in those who witnessed his procession?
- Is the Palm Sunday procession an end or a beginning? Is Jesus’ real kingship shown in this day of acclaim, as people finally recognise and acknowledge the depths of wisdom, love and faith that have earlier been shown in his teaching, preaching and healing? Or is that all being set aside as Jesus confronts the real business of his kingship in endurance, sacrifice and mystery? Do we, by concentrating on the mysterious, and the crisis that verse 11 foreshadows, avoid the demands made on us as his followers to be peaceable and seek healing? Or do we, by focusing on the human Jesus as ‘the Great Example’, forget that he, even in this life, was something more, and unique, God in human form? How do we pull the two responses together?
Thought for the week
Read out in place of a sermon if you wish
What does the idea of a king offer? Leadership? Just symbolic leadership? Or something more? What do you think people were expecting from the one who came, ‘in the name of the Lord’? What did the name of his ancestor David add, I wonder? Glamour? Charisma? The mantle of a kind of ‘superman’ if you think of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17), or the romance of a kind of Cinderella fantasy if you focus on the choice of the youngest and least regarded brother, the shepherd boy, as king (1 Samuel 16)? A poet who gloriously lamented the death of his friend, Jonathan (2 Samuel 1; 17)? A warrior king who made Israel great? If there was also scandal (2 Samuel 11:14), and tragedy (2 Samuel 18; 33), they perhaps weren’t coming to mind on that day! But overall, in David, we have the picture of a many-faceted but undoubtedly great man who served his people well. Does this picture help us at all to understand Jesus as king?
The UK got a new king last year, and the transition from the late Queen Elizabeth II to King Charles III has provoked some discussion of the acceptability of kingship in the modern world. It would probably be fair to say that we are happier with humility, romance and peaceable arts than with battle prowess, ambition, or a colourful past! Perhaps the essentials of Jesus as servant king of his people, humble on a donkey, acclaimed with peaceable palms, not the weapons of war, have gradually rubbed off on earthly monarchs down the years as they internalise the meaning of their anointing as servants of God and a nation. Modern British constitutional monarchy, crystallised in the late Queen, has been displayed in service, tact, self-restraint, concern for suffering, and the sponsorship of good causes and peace between nations.
But surely this is not enough to imagine the kind of king Jesus is? There is ‘soft power’ in King Jesus, certainly. Seemingly the sheer appeal of his personality brought people out to line the roads and shout, ‘Hosanna’! But there was hard power, too, principally seen later when he drives the merchants out of the Temple but hinted at even on Palm Sunday. He gives his orders, and the disciples carry them out. With everything else, calm, certain, dignified – even on a donkey – he has the qualities of a good commanding officer.
In the end, there is no possible full comparison for Jesus’ version of kingship. He shows both the compassion that wills an end, and wins hearts, and the strength of purpose that achieves it, by force if necessary. But he also had that perfection of motive, which meant that neither hard power, nor soft power, was ever used for selfish purposes. And that, none of us, king or commoner, will ever achieve. But, strengthened by the grace that God alone gives, we can go on trying in our imperfect ways to follow our utterly selfless divine example.
Active worship
Donkey ears W E
What does the donkey represent in the story?
You will need: brown paper or card, scissors, pencils/crayons, headband/Alice-band (available cheaply in multipacks), stapler.
- Invite people to draw two donkey ear shapes. Colour them and cut out, realistically or imaginatively. Attach them to a band with staples, and wear them.
- While this is happening, invite others to name stories and fables involving a donkey (e.g. Shrek). What are the characteristics of the donkeys in these stories? What, if anything, do they represent?
- There are lots of donkeys in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament – who recalls some of the stories? (NB Mary on a donkey may be a common nativity image, but it is not found in the Bible!) Who knows the significance of Jesus riding on a donkey? (See Bible notes).
A simple worship activity W E S A
An active personal prayer.
- Give everyone a scrap of coloured material to represent a cloak. Ask them to ponder what they might have been thinking if they had been in the crowd throwing cloaks in front of Jesus. Imagine doing so to be an act of prayer – what might you have been praying for?
- Coming back to the present, ask: What is on your heart? What do you want to bring to Jesus today? Then invite everyone to offer those thoughts in prayer, throwing their scrap into a basket at the front, or, more simply, onto the ground – e.g. the nearest aisle – close to them. Invite everyone to say together, ‘Whatever we need, whatever troubles us, whatever we offer, God receives it in love.’
Fetch the donkey W E
A fun game to help tell/remember the story.
- Set up an obstacle course as described below. Ask for a few volunteers to run the course, one at a time – but the volunteers should not be allowed to watch each other. Time them – the fastest wins! A leader can tell the contestant what to do at each stage.
Step 1: Find your instructions – look up a verse from today’s reading, Mark 11:2, and read it out. Have a Bible handy for the contestant to use. If this is too easy, ask what the nth word is – i.e. ask each person for a different word (there are 34 possibilities in the NRSV version).
Step 2: Run – in and out along a line of four or five chairs.
Step 3: Open the gate – two chairs placed back-to-back; you have to stack them.
Step 4: Untie the donkey – a soft toy tied to a chair or table leg with string.
Step 5: Bring the donkey – and run to the finishing post.
Join in W E
What draws people to processions? And to Jesus?
- Give out green branches (or similar) and invite people to act out the Palm Sunday scene, lining the aisles or standing at the front of the worship space, shouting, ‘Hosanna!’ ’Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ and ‘Great is David’s descendant!’ Alternatively, this activity could follow immediately after next Sunday’s Share the Gospel (Mark 11.1-11), where something similar has already happened.
- Pause, and ask people what response they might expect from other people – bystanders and passers-by – after seeing the events just acted out. Have they seen a joyful procession or march of some kind and, if so, how did they react? Who went to see what was going on? Is there anything we can learn from this about drawing people to see Jesus today?
