Author: Alan Mathew

Morning Prayer for Holy Monday

God whose word cannot be broken:
with Jerusalem we are stunned this Holy Week.
Like a city overcome with sudden devastation,
we are swept up in the confusion and desolation,
wondering what is happening.

Liturgy, Scripture, and song immerse us in the river that flows to betrayal and the cross.
The gospel we have tried to make manageable has overturned our tables of control.
The sufferings of Jesus that we try to avoid engulf us.
The fruitless fig tree withers
before the majesty of one whose mission is relentless and uncompromised.
Help us with all of your church to watch and pray,
to behold anew the unfolding scandal
and the ragged good news of salvation.
Behold with mercy the agonies of the world
where the suffering of Jesus is being completed, both then and now.
Let the Via Dolorosa for us be both acts of devotion and worship
and of compassion and justice,
so that Christ’s abundant sufferings become the world’s abundant consolations.

Affirmation

What a strange paradox; the King is coming, the people rejoice, singing ‘Hosanna in the highest!’ yet fail to understand that the King they welcome is the Servant King, the King who washes his disciples’ feet, the King who came not with an army but a weapon so powerful that not even death could resist, the sacrificial love of God laid out upon a Cross.
Lord God, as we sing our ‘Hosannas’ today may we remember also that which you were riding toward; the suffering and rejection, pain and humiliation, the cruel Cross. And let us look forward to the joy of Easter Day when you rose from death to reign forever.
Help us, as we daily lay our lives before you, to live the resurrection life that acknowledges Jesus as Lord and King over our lives.

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