How would you pray on Palm Sunday? It's the prelude to the drama of Easter weekend, but what does it mean? Why wave a palm cross? Why did Christ ride a donkey? In a world ravaged by war, does that kingly procession of the prince of peace hold any meaning?
For Coptic Christians in Egypt, whose ecclesiastical calendar puts Palm Sunday on the following weekend to ours, it will be an anniversary of mourning – remembering the devastating terror attacks that killed so many believers a year before.
Then again, even Christ's entry into Jerusalem was tinged with both glory and a deep sense of lament. Here is prayer to pray this Sunday.
Our Father in heaven, thank you for your Son.
For the saviour who came to the Holy City not to reign, but to die – who chose a path of tears, not a confident victory cry.
Help us to echo the praise of the disciples: 'Hosanna to the Son of David!
'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
'Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!' – even in a time when peace and righteous rulers seem a distant fantasy.
After all, in your words, 'if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.' We regret that we forget to sing, wayward as we can be in our many ambitions and projects of self-preservation. Please help us to look up – and look around – to see the humble king entering in our midst.
A day such as this reminds of your majestic identity: not just a wise teacher or suffering servant, but a King with a Kingdom, promising a rule of shalom for a world at war.
You know the world needs that rest – you promise that you know our pain, every loss and broken heart – no life is forgotten to you. As you wept for Jerusalem, the city that lost its way, help us to truly lament and not grow indifferent to injustice.
For those who yearn for liberation, the freedom to sing, pray, breathe as they wish, give them hope, even in the grip of their chains.
For those impoverished as we drown in riches, convict us of our wrongs, move us to choose justice, to love the forgotten, bring sustenance to the desperate.
For Egyptian Copts, whose peaceful celebration was stolen by those lost in hatred, comfort the mourning, grant them peace and the hope of resurrection.
Today we sing for a king we cannot yet see – but help us to know that there is more to this world than meets the eye.
You sought out not a mighty steed but a lowly colt for your procession: let us not forget the humble life to which we are called – to choose giving over getting, not to think less of ourselves but to think on ourselves less. Not a life of self-loving delusion, but the wisdom that knows your enduring love.
Help us to give up what we treasure most, not to hoard but to help, since as you said of the donkey: 'The Lord has need of it'.
Israel's promised king came defying all expectation – but we frequently claim to know your ways and plans, confusing them for ours. Forgive us. Illuminate our minds with heavenly light, show us the future kingdom that starts today.
Help us to cherish expectation and wonder, but await your glorious unknown, by the grace and power of your Holy Spirit.
Amen.
