6th Sunday in Lent

Year A: April 17, 2011

Liturgy of the Passion
Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a
Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile by Gloria Houston (Written for Ages 5-8)
Comment: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” Even when we face hardships, like the servant, God gifts each of us with the capacities we need in order to do God’s work in the world. Miss Dorothy was gifted with the love of books and people, and therefore dreamt of being a librarian. For many years, Dorothy’s work was filled with sighs of “it will have to do.” Although the path she followed was far from what she dreamed it would be, her work touched the lives of all the people she met. Eventually she stopped dreaming of what could have been because “[she] was far too busy in her fine little library, where people loved to read, and where everyone loved Miss Dorothy.”

Epistle Reading: Philippians 2:1-13
You and Me and Home Sweet Home by George Ella Lyon (Written for Ages 5-8)
Comment: “…make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” The Philippians are encouraged to work together with the same love, full accord, and one mind. When we work together full of God’s love and intentions for the world, we are able to be Christ’s Body, and extend his love to others. You and Me and Home Sweet Home is the true story of a Habitat for Humanity Women Build project. Sharonda experiences the complete joy described in the epistle when she helps a diverse community work together as Christ’s body to build her home.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 26:14 – 27:66
The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith (Written for Ages 5-8)
Comment: If you’re following the Liturgy of the Passion in Worship, you might consider sharing today’s Gopsel story with children from a favorite children’s Bible. Wildsmith’s Easter Story is filled with beautiful illustrations and written from the perspective of the donkey Jesus rides into Jerusalem.

Liturgy of the Palms
Gospel Reading: Matthew 21:1-11
The Colt and the King by Marni McGee (Written for Ages 5-8)
Comment: The Colt and the King is a gentle, lyrical story of the donkey’s experience of Palm Sunday. The folksy illustrations are bright and include intimate moments of connection between Jesus and the donkey. The donkey knows that he carried a great king. He dreams of introducing Jesus to his animal friends, and longs to give his beloved hillside as a throne, where Jesus would be crowned by the stars.

The Lectionary Links this week were written by Noell Rathbun.

Lectionary Links: Sunday, April 17, 2011 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.