Script:
Hymn: All glory, laud and honour

Elaine:
Good morning and welcome as you join us at Spring Harvest, part of a series of Easter holiday conferences for Christians in Skegness. Around eight thousand people from a wide variety of churches are here. They come to pray, to hear the bible explained, and to think about what it means to live a life of faith in today’s world. Seminars range across an amazing variety of subjects – most of them pretty serious, but some whacky late night subjects too, especially for students: This year everything centres around the subject of grace. Grace is one of the most dominant melodies in the symphony of the Bible. It’s what makes the Good News so very good. Grace is the reason for our confidence, the ground on which we can draw near to God. Grace drove Jesus to march steadfastly to the cross – to die a death He didn’t deserve, so that we could live a life we could never earn. Grace is truly amazing, outrageous and humbling. It’s the message Christians believe the world has been waiting for.

Today is Palm Sunday when we think of that journey of Christ to the cross, of the treachery of the crowd, and of our own failures too. So let us pray:

Prayer

Response:
RIDE ON, RIDE ON IN MAJESTY

Elaine:
The story of palm Sunday is by its very nature a contradiction… A crowd which at one moment praises Christ and then rejects him. Any public figure – politician, footballer or pop star - knows something of that fickleness. Then there is the king who enters a city on the equivalent of a Morris minor!
Such things don’t normally go together. A poet who loved to put opposites together was TS Elliot who talked of midwinter spring. His purpose in doing so was to stretch our thinking into a new way of understanding.
The bible does the same. The prophet Isaiah wrote:
‘For this is what the high and lofty One says — he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.’

Strange, isn’t it, that the Exalted God would soon find himself literally pinned down by sinful humanity. Maybe this challenges our understanding of the nature of God who is both exalted and also reaches down into the pit and lifts us up! Our next two songs praise this wonderful Saviour:

Song: He is exalted (Twila Paris)

Song: Christ your glory fills the heavens (Steve James)

Elaine:
Two readings now, one from the Old Testament, and one from the New. The first is the prophecy the writers of the New Testament understood Jesus to be fulfilling on the day he entered Jerusalem:
Reading: Zechariah 9:9 - 16
All: Hosanna in the highest!

Song: ALL I ONCE HELD DEAR

Reading: Mark, 11:1 - 10
All: Hosanna in the highest!

Elaine:
Our preacher this morning is a former adman. But nowadays Mark Greene is Executive Director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, which helps Christians apply their faith to the issues they face in everyday life. Mark is taking as his theme, “The Gospel in the market place.” But first we’re joined by one of the best known composers of contemporary Christian songs, Graham Kendrick. Graham’s going to tell us how he came to write the words and music of our next song called No Scenes of Stately Majesty.

Graham Kendrick
I wrote No Scenes of Stately Majesty in the weeks following the outpouring of grief and sadness after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, which is why I used the imagery of candle flames, scrawled messages, the perfume of flowers and so on.

Those scenes caused me to reflect on the death of Jesus, when there were no vigils, no stately funeral procession. In fact, were it not for the intervention of Joseph of Arimathea, his body would have been unceremoniously thrown on the city dump, the normal fate of criminals and rebels.

And of course in the relative obscurity of that troublesome corner of the Roman Empire, no one could have guessed that 2000 years later one third of the world’s population would call it the first Easter. The acres of flowers reminded me that the Bible teaches that all created things were made through Christ and for His glory.

It was a scene that brutally demonstrates what our evil hearts are capable of doing to love, so the song is a lament and yet at the same time there is an enormous hope rising, because unknown to the onlookers, Jesus was stealing the show and making it the scene of love triumphing over evil and death.

SONG: NO SCENES OF STATELY MAJESTY

Talk: Mark Greene
Whenever I speak to a new group of people I always like to tell them that I used to work in advertising…. I find it builds a bond of trust between us very quickly.

Actually I spent ten years working in advertising in London and New York and I loved it. I loved the people, the pace, the creativity and I adored the lunches.

Now I work for the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity where we’re concerned with a simple question:

What difference does following Jesus make to living life in today’s society?

What difference can following Jesus make to our everyday lives at work, at school, at home?

Well, the people who came out to cheer Jesus as he rode up towards the gates of Jerusalem were lining the road because they thought he was going to make a huge difference to their lives.

Certainly, Jesus had done great things but that’s not why the crowd lined the road up to Jerusalem. No, they were there because they hoped that he was going to do something revolutionary, something that would change their world.

There was Jesus bumping along on a donkey that had never been ridden before … fulfilling the prophecy that Zechariah had made hundreds of years before. The Messiah, the promised leader, will enter Jerusalem on a donkey. He will not gallop into the Capital on a horse like the commander of an army. He will not enter the Holy City on foot as almost all pilgrims going up to a festival used to do. No, Jesus riding the donkey was a sign to every Jew with eyes to see that he was claiming to be the Messiah.

So the crowd were cheering because they saw in Jesus the heir of King David:

“Blessed is he,” they cry, “who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.”

Just as many Iraqis today yearn for the freedom to at long last govern their own affairs so the Jews of Israel hoped that this man would liberate them from Roman military occupation. This after all was the man who walked on water, this was the man who brought a dead man back to life, this was the man who stood up in an open boat with the wind howling around him and the waves crashing over the gunwales – and stilled a storm with a simple command… this man surely had the power to overthrow the yoke of Rome.

But Jesus didn’t come to usher in a new kingdom of David, he came to usher in the Kingdom of God. He did not come to bring regime change, … he came to bring about a change of the heart. He came to bring a way of life that puts loving God and loving others first.

Today, research indicates that many people in Britain are yearning for a fundamental change that would make us a kinder, less frenetic, less stressed, less exhausted society. A society where there would be just a little more time for people, for friendships … some change that might mean that our young people might have a nobler dream for their lives than a shiny black four wheel drive in the garage, a holiday in Tahiti and a mobile phone that makes a cappuccino.

As Tony Blair said a few years ago:

“We enjoy a thousand material advantages over any previous generation but we experience a depth of insecurity and spiritual doubt they never knew.”

Indeed, as every politician knows, you need more than changes of policy to produce spiritual contentment. The message of Jesus is that you need a revolution of the heart. And that was what he came to offer. Indeed, Jesus’ agenda for change was far, far bigger than the crowd who cheered him grasped.

They wanted him to get rid of Rome, he wanted to defeat the power of sin and death.

They wanted a better life now, he wanted them to have a far, far better life now and for ever.

They wanted economic security, he wanted them to get a life.

He wanted them to realise just how valuable they were – not a number on a form, not a unit of production, not a merely human resource, but a person so valuable that he was prepared to die for their liberation.

For Jesus did not ride into Jerusalem to be cheered by his followers but to be crucified for the sins, the outrageous rebellion, of all humankind against a loving God.

That’s the value that he puts on our lives. That’s how valuable we are. Where is the love? There on the donkey and on the cross. That’s love actually.

But Jesus doesn’t simply offer an end to existential angst, he didn’t come to provide a nice warm feeling, a momentary sense of psychological well-being. The Kingdom of God is not just a place where people are nice to each other…it’s the arena in which people are given the power to love their enemies – even the ones who plant bombs on trains full of civilians. It’s the arena in which people are given the power to forgive the terrible betrayals of their closest friends and spouses. It’s the arena in which you are valuable even if you’re homeless and penniless. It’s the arena in which God’s priorities are pursued. Our Father, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your will be done in my country as in heaven, in my workplace as in heaven, in my school as in heaven, in my old age home as in heaven,

And of course that does have implications beyond the domestic sphere. It is certainly not God’s will that a billion people on earth should subsist on less than a dollar a day. It is certainly not God’s will that the planet is being steadily polluted. It is certainly not God’s will that – according to a treasury estimate in 2003 – between 2.7 and 3.8 million children in Britain grow up in poverty.

It is certainly not God’s will that so many affluent people in the West should be so anxious and lonely and depressed. It is certainly not God’s will that a huge percentage of people genuinely believe that their worth is bound up in the logo on their shirts or blouses, that so many are ashamed of their mobile, their profile, their specs, their pecs, their smallish breasts, their hairless chests, their multi-fold bellies, their narrow-screen tellies.

Jesus is concerned about the whole person and every aspect of our lives – and so following him is likely to have an impact on every aspect of our lives. Not just how we spend our Sundays but how we live Monday to Saturday.

Life in Jesus’ Kingdom affects the business man who knows how important cash flow is to his suppliers and works hard to ensure that they get paid on time. Following Jesus affects the employee who notices that someone is being treated unjustly and finds a way to help them get justice. Following Jesus affects the child who befriends the kid in the playground who nobody else ever plays with.

The Kingdom of God is comprehensive in scope but it is worked out not just in sturdy stands in the public square but in the minutiae of daily living and tiny kindnesses.

The Jesus who rode into Jerusalem came to offer human beings the opportunity to re-connect to the living, loving God who would enable them to work with him in bringing in a kingdom of kindness and justice and joyous community, now and in eternity.

Isn’t that worth cheering about?

And isn’t that worth working for?

Song: In Christ alone, my hope is found (Townend/Getty)

Elaine:
We come before that throne of God now in prayer.

VOICE 1
1. Lord Jesus we pray for your world - a world struggling with oppression, war, injustice, famine and every kind of need - a world you still weep over and long to restore. Bring your peace and comfort, thinking especially of those living with the aftermath of terrorism and all other forms of violence.

VOICE 2
2. Thank you for the life you give to your church. Make it strong and courageous in telling the good news of salvation. We pray for Christians everywhere to speak that message with confidence in schools, colleges and universities, in the work place and in every neighbourhood and community.

VOICE 1
3. Pour your compassion, love and grace into the lives of all who suffer today. We pray for those who are sad, lonely, sick in body, mind or spirit. Thank you that you have the power to make a difference in our lives, giving us hope and a future.

VOICE 2
4. Heavenly Father we have heard today important truths about your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to respond to him in humility, allowing him to be our Lord and Saviour. Transform us we pray, for we cannot save ourselves. Help us to love you and adore you.
Last verse of: In Christ Alone

Elaine:
And now we say together the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples, the Lord’s prayer.

ALL: The Lord’s prayer

Elaine:
Thank you for joining us this Palm Sunday morning. We close our worship with a hymn of praise which looks forward beyond the cross and resurrection to that final heavenly crowning of Christ as King. “Crown him with many crowns.”

Hymn: Crown him with many crowns.