Lectionary Links: Palm Sunday, April 13, 2014
6th Sunday of Lent (Liturgy of Palms)
Year A: April 13, 2014
First Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Brother Sun, Sister Moon: St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures reimagined by Katherine Paterson
(Written for ages 4-8)
Comment: “This is the day the lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!” (v 24-25) The Psalmist in one breath gives voice to a range of human emotions and experiences. Joy, praise, and thanksgiving are just as intertwined in our daily life as fear, sorrow, and sickness. Each deserves recognition. Like the Psalmist, St. Francis of Assisi seeks to give voice to the whole range of the human experience in his Canticle of the Creatures. In Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Katherine Paterson’s transformation of the canticle allows children to engage it. Children are invited into the text to give praise for the sun, moon, air, fire, earth, and to pray for the sick, forgiveness, hatred, war and death. On Palm Sunday as we enter Jerusalem shouting ‘Hosanna’, this Psalm reminds us we are also crying out ‘Save us, Lord’.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 21:1-11
Xander’s Panda Party by Linda Sue Park
(Written for ages 4-8)
Comment: Xander wants to have a party. His plan is to have a panda party, but he realizes it would be a party of one. He then decides to open his party to all the bears. As he continues planning, his party evolves into everyone present at the zoo being invited to the panda party. Palm Sunday is a party that we are all invited to attend. Each year, we get the privilege of joining our voices in shouts of praise and laying our palm branches down. Like Xander though, this party does not turn out how we expect. The Palm Sunday party is short lived and ends as abruptly as it begins. Despite knowing what is ahead, year after year we return to the gates of Jerusalem to cry Hosanna as we welcome Jesus into the city.
We chose to focus on the two texts for the Liturgy of the Palms today. If you would like suggestions for the other texts suggested for this Sunday, please see our posts from 2013, 2012 and 2011.
The Lectionary Links this week are written by regular contributor Elizabeth Boulware Landes, Director of Children’s Ministry at Faith Presbyterian Church, Aledo, TX.
Lectionary Links: Palm Sunday, April 13, 2014 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
