Liturgical Prayers for Easter Sunday!

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May God grant you a blessed and happy Easter!

Tenebrae on Maundy Thursday.

“Maundy” comes most probably from the word “mandatory”.  On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he made it “mandatory” for his followers to celebrate his holy Supper when he instituted it with the command:  “Do this in remembrance of me!”

When we meet on Maundy Thursday, we follow the “Tenebrae liturgy”.

During this liturgy you are asked to meditate on the fact that it was on the Thursday evening before Good Friday that Jesus and his disciples were together for the last time, when he and they stood in the shadow of the cross, when he washed their feet and instituted the Holy Supper. 

Tenebrae is the Latin word for darkness or shadows. The gradual extinguishing of the lights while listening to readings from God's Word that tell the story of this dark night at the Tenebrae service, is symbolic of the advancing darkness that came over Jesus during the night of his arrest, with the flight of the disciples, the bitter hate of his enemies and the looming shadow of the cross.  The moments of total darkness recalls the time when he was in the tomb.

The relighting of the central candle at the end of this service is a prophecy of Easter so soon to dawn.  After the relighting of the central candle the congregation leaves the church in silence and go home still meditating the experience of Tenebrae.

For it is by the darkness of this night that we are enabled to see the light of the gospel that Jesus Christ carried our eternal punishment and conquered our night!  It is in the context of hatred, betrayal and injustice, that we clearly see the love of God in Christ Jesus for us and a lost world trapped in darkness.  It is in the context of his darkness, that the followers of Jesus Christ find new inspiration to follow him faithfully, living in the light.

May God grant you a blessed Maundy Thursday filled with God’s love and mercy!

What is “Holy Week”?

What is “Holy Week”?

The majority of Christians across the globe refer to the week that begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday, as “Holy Week”. We follow Jesus from his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, to his cross, death and burial and his glorious resurrection.

During Holy Week we observe the Tenebrae Service on Maundy Thursday and our Good Friday services.

The high light is the festive celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on Resurrection (Easter) Sunday.

Because “holy” means that something is set apart for God, Holy Week can only belong to the celebration of God and his Christ by remembering the central truth of the gospel that only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, saves us from our sins by his atoning death and victorious resurrection.

What are Maundy Thursday and the Tenebrae service? “Maundy” comes from the word “mandatory” referring to the command Jesus gave his disciples on the night he was betrayed to “do this in remembrance of me” when he instituted his holy Supper after he washed the feet of his disciples.  “Tenebrae” describes the darkness of that night when Jesus experienced the anguish and fear of Gethsemane and was arrested and tried by the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman political authorities. It was the night when he was betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter.

Tenebrae (Latin for 'shadows' or 'darkness') is a unique commemorative liturgy contemplating the suffering of Christ by the gradual extinguishing of candles, seven Scripture readings and teaching on the significance of the Passion of Christ.  How can we ever truly see his love, if not within the context of the severity of his sacrifice?

At the Tenebrae service we recreate the emotional aspects of the passion events. It is not a happy service, because the night remembered is a dark, solemn one, because our sins caused the Son of Man so much affliction and distress in our place.

It is an incomplete service, only to be completed on Easter Sunday.

Good Friday.

Good Friday is a solemn day of remembrance because both the sins of the world and our personal sin caused the punishment, death and suffering of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Yet, although Friday is a somber commemoration, it is not without its own joy, for while we want to contrast the joy of Resurrection to the solemn sadness of Good Friday, the gravity of Good Friday is a prophecy of the hope of Resurrection Sunday. We always observe Good Friday, well knowing that Sunday is coming! Traditionally we remember the words of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday...

Resurrection (Easter) Sunday is the glorious crown of all Christian worship that inspires every Sunday worship service of the year, where we are equipped to live for the glory of God every day of our lives, until the end and at the end! You could call it “the most important Sunday of the year”. We should all call it the most inspiring Sunday Worship one can celebrate!

Resurrection Sunday, and therefore every Sunday, is a feast of worship and praise, because Jesus triumphed over death and all our enemies.

Pray every day of Holy Week that:

God will bless every service in our own church and amongst every Christian community in the world.

That Christ will call many to receive the Gospel.

That our love for Jesus will be enthused and that God and worshipping him will be the priority of every Christian in the world – far beyond anything else we could plan for or do this week.

That after we commemorated these blessed days, our lives will show the love and mercy of God in the work of Jesus Christ celebrated and remembered!

That Jesus Christ, and only Jesus, will be celebrated.

May our Lord richly bless us as we remember, as we believe and as we commit anew to serve him, when we see, hear and experience God’s divine love this holy week.

Matthew 26: 40 and 41: In Gethsemane Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter.  “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Let’s keep watch with Jesus....

Tenebrae - liturgical prayers and readings - 2013

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On Palm Sunday the crowd sang Psalm 118

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, the crowds were singing from Psalm 118. 

This is a psalm for the Jewish Passover. It was a psalm for pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to sing as they journeyed and when they worshiped.

It was a song that would have been on everyone’s mind on that Palm Sunday. What is remarkable is that they applied the words of the Passover song, to Jesus!

Jesus is entering Jerusalem on the Sunday before the Passover. On the Sunday before he was crucified.  And the people cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!" – from Psalm 118: 25 – 26.

The word “Hosanna” that they sang is the Hebrew word for “save” or “save now”. That is exactly what we find in verse 25 of Psalm 118 – It says, “Save now, I pray, O LORD,” or literally, “Hosanna, O LORD”. The psalmist in verse 25 is calling the LORD God to save him!

The Jews were under Roman occupation, even though they were living in the Promised Land. The nation of Israel as a political entity did not exist. And so the people were eagerly awaiting the Messiah, whom they hoped would restore the kingdom of David and they expected it to be a political earthly kingdom.

This is why the crowds also echoed verse 26 of the psalm as they said “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!” Their songs and exited procession show that they were hoping that Jesus was the Messiah.

And indeed Jesus was, and is, but not in the way that they thought. He was indeed the blessed One who came in the name of the Lord. He would bring salvation and deliverance to God’s people. He would overcome their enemies.

But not through a divinely inspired army of well trained soldiers.

He would save them on a cross, he would bleed and die for their sins and make them citizens of his heaven based Kingdom for all eternity!

When we sang our Hosanna’s on Palm Sunday, we hailed the One, our eternal King and Lord, who came to save, by giving his life – by being the Passover Lamb that takes away the sin of the world!

Hosanna! Save us, oh crucified, risen Lord!

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Hosanna!

Liturgical prayers for Palm Sunday 2013

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Palm Sunday 2013 - 24 March

Palm Sunday is a universal Christian feast celebrated on the Sunday one week before the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as first service of Holy Week. This feast commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the Sunday before his arrest. The entry is mentioned in all four Gospels, which indicates significance ascribed to it in the church during the times when the Gospels were written. (Mark 11:1–11, Matthew 21:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19).

According to the Gospels, Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, to fulfil the Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah would enter the Holy City in this way.  The celebrating people laid down their cloaks in front of him, and also laid down small branches of trees. They sang part of Psalms 118: 25–26 –“ ... Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  In Eastern tradition a donkey is an animal of peace and a horse an animal of war. The triumphant entry of Jesus on a donkey proclaims him as a King, and more importantly as the humble Messiah, the promised Prince of Peace.  

Palm Sunday is the first day of Holy Week when we remember the last days before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  During Palm Sunday services palm branches are processed into church, music that hails Jesus as Saviour and King is sung and we celebrate that the perfect, unblemished Lamb of God arrived at the altar on Golgotha to be slaughtered during the Jewish Passover, to die for our sins and set us free to serve in the Kingdom of God.  

Lent 2013: Jesus took up the cross for our sake

Even though the Roman soldiers led Jesus out to crucify him, they were only doing what he had said they would do.

So, though "they led him out to crucify him,"(Mark 15:20) Jesus was not a victim of their injustice and cruelty. Jesus willingly took up his cross and walked to Golgotha, because he had chosen the way of suffering.

He knew this was the will of God, the way by which he would realize his messianic destiny. Jesus chose to suffer and die so that he might fulfil Isaiah's vision of the Suffering Servant of God, the one who was "despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity." As this Servant, Jesus "has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases."

Our lives are changed when we accept in faith that Jesus was “wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed". (Isaiah 53:3-5).

Our Lord chose the cross, because he chose us to be his own. Those who led him to Golgotha  were simply working out what God had willed and the Lord Jesus had freely and graciously chosen.

How can we thank him enough for this costly choice?  Because he took up the cross, I can take up life in all of its fullness. Because Jesus were led to die, I can be led into eternal life. Because he carried my sin, I can enjoy forgiveness.

How good you are to me, dear Lord, my Saviour!

Lent 2013: Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate is a paradigm of the person who fails to take responsibility for his actions. Pilate issued the verdict that sent Jesus to the cross. Yet he did so in a way to appear innocent of the blood of Jesus.  He did not take responsibility for what he had done. He tried to ceremoniously wash his hands of what he was doing wrong.

Matthew 27:23-24  “What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"

When blaming others when I do wrong, I won't confess what I have done as sin. This will keep me from experiencing the grace and the mercy of God, enjoying the fullness of God's forgiveness. We will be blessed when we tell God the truth about our sins, and experience his forgiveness through Christ Jesus.

Pray that the Lord will help you to acknowledge your sins, what you have done to harm yourself, others and God’s work. Pray that God will help you to stop justifying yourself through immature and pointless excuses, defences and rationalisations. 

I can only be clean when I am washed in the blood of the Lamb!

Psalms for Lent 2013. (6) Psalm 5. – May God's favour cover us like a shield.

Psalms for Lent 2013. (6)   Psalm 5. Safe under the cover of God's favour!

The Lord listens to the prayers of his people and grants them their petitions and addresses their needs according to his wise counsel.

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; give heed to my sighing. 2 Listen to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I pray. 3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.

We need to know that the Lord listens to our prayers. How many people did you hear saying – my prayers do for not go further than the ceiling? This may be the origin of the tradition to pray that God “will have mercy upon us and listen to our prayers”. Although we know that the Lord hears all our prayers, for the sake of our human nature and weakness, we may beg the Lord not to ignore our sighs and our pleas, if it helps us to believe that he delights in our petitions and that our dependence on him brings glory to him as our supreme, yes, our only provider.

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil will not sojourn with you. 5 The boastful will not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.

It would be much harder to believe in God’s empathy with my predicament if it is the result of me being an evil and boastful liar who causes the detrimental fall of others through deceitful conniving. This sometimes is the reason why it feels as if our prayers do not reach the Lord. Because we know our evilness, we find it hard to believe that God would give attention to our prayers.

If this is where you are today, yet you are also sighing, sadly wishing for God’s interventions in your plight, your prayers should start with repentance, with a plea for forgiveness and hope that in Christ you will be restored to God’s presence and companionship.

Only then can we again come to him with our daily needs and plead for his help with our challenges.

7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house, I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you. 8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

So let’s enter into the house of the Lord to worship God, to listen to the announcement of his grace and the forgiveness of our sins and learn from the wisdom of God’s Word, that we too may dwell with the Lord, may walk with him and follow his wisdom as we receive his salvation and experience him rescuing us again.

9 For there is no truth in their mouths; their hearts are destruction; their throats are open graves; they flatter with their tongues. 10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

As we pray that evil will come to a fall and the dominion of evil must be destroyed and the rebellion of God’s enemies will be judged, let’s be sure that we are not one of them, but a child of God who is safely in his hand.

11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love your name may exult in you. 12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover them with favour as with a shield.

May the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be and remain with us today, and always.

May his favour cover us as with a shield!

Psalms for Lent 2013 (5), Psalm 143: A cry for mercy during times of hardship.

Psalm 143:  A psalm of David.

¹ Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.

We have no right on the grounds of our own merit to plead with God.  We beg his mercy on the grounds of his promises, faithfulness and his mercy, freely given to those who come to him in prayer! 

² Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.

We plead for mercy, fully knowing that we are God's servants. We have to obey him and we are accountable to him. We need his favour and his acceptance.

Yet we know how often we have offended him and were unfaithful in our duty to him. We must acknowledge that we deserve judgment more than mercy and favour.  If the Lord would enquire about our sin, his judgment would certainly go against us. We have no grounds for mitigation.

Yet, we encourage ourselves and each other to seek mercy and forgiveness. We are committed to be sincere with him as we long for his grace and his mercy!

³ The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead.

“O my Lord, let me find mercy with you, for I will find no mercy with other people!”

⁴ So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.

Sadness and desolation often overwhelms us as a result of our faithless acts and the consequences of our weak human nature.  Even David the mighty, brave soldier admits that he sometimes wanted to faint during times of hardship.

⁵ I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.

⁶ I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.

Only divine refreshment and comfort can help me.  This relief comes to us when we remember God’s great acts of mercy in the past.

Not only in our own lives, but specifically in the story of God’s grace as he dealt with his people over the centuries.

As we remember the suffering and death of our Lord and rejoice in the victory of his resurrection, we will find the courage to hold onto God’s mercy for relief and rest on God’s grace for answers.  .

Look at the urgency and the willingness of the psalmist to beg God’s swift answers, to proclaim the need for his love, to utter a desperate call for his help and, for his Name sake, our urgent pleas for his preservation.

Pray these following verses earnestly, believing that our Lord is merciful and that his love endures always:

⁷ Answer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit.

⁸ Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.

⁹ Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in you.

¹⁰ Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

¹¹ For your name’s sake, Lord, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.

¹² In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.

Amen.

Lent 2013: Judas

Matthew 26: 48 - 49:   While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.  

It was the custom that a student would greet his teacher with a kiss in Biblical times – to show respect and to show submission.  It is similar to the kiss of a son given to his dad today! Judas chose to use this sign of respect and love, to betray the Lord

How often do we reverently confess Jesus as Lord, yet we are continuously reinforcing ourselves as the true lord of our lives?  How many times have we worshiped Jesus, saying and singing that we are in awe of his sacrifice - with our mouths - not with a kiss but with words, only to abandon him from our souls and our works again?

As much as we hate to confess it, there is a bit of Judas in all of us.  We pledge allegiance to Christ and make promises to God, only to remove him from our daily lives the next moment. Sometimes worship and praise and betrayal and deceit live in the very same heart.

The only solution is to come back to Jesus Christ! The only way out is to come to the cross for forgiveness, to turn from our wicked ways and come to the Lord for new beginnings and reconciliation.   

At the foot of the cross we will hear the loving assurance:  One day you will be with me in Paradise.  

Psalms for Lent 2013. (4) Psalm 63: 1 – 8: Cling to God’s right hand when you thirst for love!

Psalms for Lent 2013. Psalm 63: 1 – 8:  

Cling to God’s right hand when you thirst for love!

¹ You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;

Like most true poets, the psalmist does not need many words to show that there are times in our lives that are harder to endure than others.   The psalmist asks for reflection on the tough days and hours of life and testifies to the depths of our relationship with God these periods guide us to and inspire us to embrace.

^1b “I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”

It is in the dessert where we truly learn what it means to be thirsty.  So thirsty that one can die.

All our sophistication and skills are of no use or value when we are stripped of the options to resolve our thirst by our own efforts.

This is when we start to earnestly call upon the moist breeze of having communion with God, to save us, to rescue us.  It happens in God’s sanctuary. It occurs during the hour of resuscitation when we lift our hands in praise and worship in fellowship with God’s people.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

³ Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

⁴ I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

After the Lord treated my parched lips of anxiety and my fear of loss within the dry lands of my hopelessness by being upheld by the Lord’s strongest hand, I will always remember his goodness! 

I will even go to sleep with a fond memory of receiving God’s love during the moments of thirst for answers, and courage and a new vision of a satisfied life.

⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;

with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.

⁷ Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

⁸ I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

The worst lie that can be told, is to convince someone dying of thirst that water cannot save him.

This is absolute foolishness. It is evil deceit!

Why do we then fall for the lie from hell that tells us that being cynical about sharing with God and his people when we live through the rough patches, can help us. That cessation from the Lord’s sanctuary can be a reasonable thing to do, when we experience painful thirst for love and for healing?

Why run away from God’s love, and from being healed by bringing glory to him, when we are dying inside?  When the waters of praising him and the strength of his right hand, are the only resources we have that can help us?

Thirsty, sad human being who is destroyed by exhausting loneliness and despondency:  Come back to the waters of worship.

 Come to be saved from yourself and your woes, by praise!

Come to see God in the place of worship and behold his power and glory and receive faith that rescues from woe and sadness. (verse2).

Come, to cling to God’s right hand that upholds you! (verse 8)

Come, to drink from the waters of God where he saves his people from thirst!

Jesus said:  “Everyone who drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”