Scripture:

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Matthew 21:1-11

Meditation:

I know how it must have been for those people long ago
who rejoiced when Jesus came to their city
and cried “Hosanna!”

I know how their hearts swelled with good will
and how happily they threw their hats in the air.

I know, too, when I look within,
how the good will faded,

and the rancorous ill will grew into the cry,
“Crucify him!”

For I, too, am capable of swinging from praise to denial,
from singing to cursing.

I am not always steady and sure in what I want,
in my loves and loyalties.

O Lord, I wish you did not have to haul me back so often
from my erring ways.

But I am grateful that you do,
and that your love is as persistent as it is.

Since you refuse to give up on me,
help me to refuse to give up on myself.

(adapted from “On Palm Sunday” by Kenneth G. Phifer in A Book of Uncommon Prayer, 1981)

PRAYER:

O God, Jesus entered the city with humility and courage;
May this Sabbath welcome his coming into my life. Amen.