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Today at Trinity Reformed Church, the young children of the church led the procession with palm branches. Here are some of the reasons for that. <\/p>\n
In part, we took a page from the worship of ancient Israel. At the climax of Israel\u2019s liturgical year, everyone commemorated the wilderness period by living for a week in shelters made from tree branches. The Eucharist is the new covenant memorial of Jesus, but occasionally, like Israel, we memorialize Jesus\u2019 saving work in other ways. <\/p>\n
Worship always memorializes God\u2019s past works, but worship always also anticipates the end and gives us a taste of a renewed creation. When John enters heaven, he sees an innumerable multitude of martyrs from the great tribulation standing before God\u2019s throne, wearing white robes and holding palm branches. This morning, we saw a glimpse of heaven in our worship here on earth. Here in the present, we got a sight of the worship of the future. <\/p>\n
Worship is play, very serious play, but play nonetheless. Every week, we act like we\u2019re back in the Upper Room with Jesus; every week, we act as if we\u2019re sharing in the wedding feast of the Lamb. We do this because we believe it is true, but we cannot do this without being a little childish. <\/p>\n
And that is another lesson of Palm Sunday. \u201cDo you hear what these are saying?\u201d the chief priests and scribes complained indignantly to Jesus when they heard the children crying out \u201cHosanna to the Son of David.\u201d And Jesus answered, \u201cHave you never read, Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes You have prepared praise for Yourself?\u201d Palm Sunday is a reminder of Jesus\u2019 words: Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. <\/p>\n
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Today at Trinity Reformed Church, the young children of the church led the procession with palm branches. Here are some of the reasons for that. In part, we took a page from the worship of ancient Israel. At the climax of Israel\u2019s liturgical year, everyone commemorated the wilderness period by living for a week in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology-liturgical"],"yoast_head":"\n