Meditation for the Sunday of the Passion: 

Palm Sunday 

The Collect

Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The Liturgy of the Palms 

Matthew 21:1-11 

Hymn  All glory, laud, and honor

2011 Palm Sunday Grace Episcopal Cathedral Topeka, KS

The Collect

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified, mercifully grant that we walking, in the way of the Cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Liturgy of the Word 

The Meditation

The Church in Philippi was beset with rivalry and envy, ambition and deceit (1:15; 2:3), and Paul exhorts them to partake of the transformative power of the Cross.  "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus."  Verses 6-11 of the second chapter are called the Kenosis hymn by scholars, the Greek word for emptying. 

Amy Plantinga Pauw writes: To human beings caught up in envy and selfish ambition, equality with God seems like a great prize to be gloried in and exploited for personal gain. But this attitude betrays a misunderstanding of the Trinity, the eternal circle of unrested giving to the other. 

On the Cross, Jesus shows the fullness of God's wisdom in emptying himself even to death. The self-serving violent forces that put Jesus to death are forever robbed of power and rendered null and void. We have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus when we resist ambitious, self-serving models of power, when we renounce the exploitation of and indifference to the needs of others. We have the mind of Christ when we shed every notion of entitlement, and continually give ourselves to others. 

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, Paul pleads. Then think and act, living your life, and being the Body of Christ, consistent with the mind of Christ in you.                                    

(Source: Feasting on the Word, Year A Vol 2, pp.170-2)

Hymn  All glory, laud, and honor

When I survey the Wondrous Cross - Hereford Cathedral Choir

The Collect of the Day

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Solemn Prayer (may replace the Trinitarian Blessing in Lent)

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the Cross, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.