Palm Sunday “Hallelujah Anyway, I suppose.”

Checkout all your lovely Palm Sunday and Easter Resources, plus a reflection on celebrating when the clouds close in, and your hand-crafted liturgy at the bottom. Enjoy!

Palm Sunday

Maundy Thursday / Good Friday / Easter Sunday

Reflection on Psalm 118, Matt 21

Yay! Palm Sunday. Almost Easter. Very nearly time to stuff ourselves silly with chocolate.

Today is a day for dancing in the streets, waving palm branches, flags and cloaks, and singing all those joyous hymns and psalms which proclaim that it is good to give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Yay!

Except that I’m ill. I caught a nasty bug last weekend and today is the first day since that I’ve been upright. I feel like a corpse that’s been microwaved for ten seconds on half power.

I don’t feel like singing or dancing through the streets and you can take your flags and shove ‘em where the sun don’t shine.

But ‘Hallelujah Anyway,’ I suppose.

Of course, my bug can be cured by a few ibuprofens, and snuggly blanket and a day or two in bed, then I’ll be back to my usual spring bunny attitude to life. But there plenty of things for which there is no such easy cure. Dare we say ‘Hallelujah Anyway’ when the world is falling apart around our ears, or does it sound crassly hollow?

I don’t suppose everyone in the crowd that first Palm Sunday was full of the joys of spring. They were real people like you and me, and there will have been some who’d just had an argument with their spouse, some who had a drink problem, some whose kid was getting in with a bad crowd, some whose parents were dying, some who had lost their job. Every problem imaginable. But they shouted ‘hallelujah’ anyway.

Why?

Because it’s ‘Hallelujah anyway,’ not ‘Hallelujah if,’ or ‘Hallelujah when,’ or ‘Hallelujah so that.’

It’s not dependent on my feeling like praising God, or on God doing what I’d like, or praise as a bargaining chip to get God on my side.

The most real praise is when things are not going well, when it’s not all sunshine and lollipops, when it costs something to offer a ‘sacrifice of praise’.

let me tell you a story.

Just under eighteen years ago I gave birth to my third child. He was dead. Tears prick as I type and splash heavily on the desk.

But God is still God is still God. I wrote at the time that it felt like I was stranded on a lone rock in the middle of towering storms, with threatening clouds and monstrous seas. But God is still God is still God. I had a rock I could cling to. And cling I did.

The pain is not so raw as it was then, and most of the time I’m happy to sing and dance through the streets with the crowd on Palm Sunday. But not always. We all have sadnesses and burdens, and we might not want to join the festive procession shouting and singing. Can’t I stay and home and weep into my coffee instead?

Well, yes, I guess you can. No-one’s forcing you. But even if you want to tell the happy, smiling people to shove their flags where the sun don’t shine, God is still God is still God, and we can mutter together, “Hallelujah Anyway, I suppose.”

Image Credit: ‘Entry into the City’ by John August Swanson. Visit his website at www.johnaugustswanson.com

Liturgy resources for Palm Sunday

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Confession and Absolution

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good
and his steadfast love endures forever.

Have mercy on us, O Lord,
and forgive our waywardness,
for your love endures for ever.

Bind our hearts to you
and teach us your ways,
for your love endures for ever.

Give us light
that we may bless you,
for your love endures for ever.

May the God of all mercies cleanse and heal us from our sins,
restore us in his image and strengthen us for the journey ahead,
that we may proclaim with all of God’s forgiven people:
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good
and his steadfast love endures forever.

Blessing and Dismissal

This is the day that the Lord has made.
Rejoice and be glad, O people of God.
As you rise may you say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
As you sleep may you rest in his love.
As you labour may you know his presence at your side.
As you return home, weary, may you feel his peace.
Rejoice and be glad, O people of God,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Amen.