Homily - Palm Sunday

I want to keep it slightly shorter today. Two songs of my growing up days listening to Christian music for your reflection today. Just a little more meditation that fit well alongside the Passion narrative we just heard. If you can do it without falling asleep, it may benefit to close your eyes.

 1. Memoirs of St. Peter - we all ran away - denied him - “surely not I Lord”

  - Everyman (Rich Mullins)

2. A man at the end of his days may look back at all the pains, sorrows, the joys and the blessings, and say "I wouldn't change anything. I would have it just as God gave it." In the same way, God, who is outside of time and sees all of it at a glance, chose this death before He said Let there be Light. He chose this for you before you were born, knowing you would need it, knowing I would need it, knowing everything, and still loving you perfectly. You have never been, and never will be, unloved.

  - never been unloved (MWS)
 

Rich Mullins - Everyman
"Well he was out on a limb he was sitting in the shade
He'd led a hundred men and lived alone among the graves
He had a thousand questions and a million heartaches
He was everyman he was everyman
She was caught in a sin she knew the well was so deep
She threw her last pennies in and poured oil upon His feet
She touched the garment's hem she had only been asleep
She was everyman she was everyman
And the Lord looks down and He understands
The world draws up it's lines
But at the foot of the cross there's room for everyone
And love that is not blind
It can look at who we are and still see beyond
The differences we find
But with thorns in His brow and a spear in His side
Nails in His hand He died for you and I
For you and I and everyman
He had nets to mend he gave his fish and his loaves
He had to wash his hands and ran away without his robe
He couldn't understand until on Damascus road
He was everyman he was everyman
She brought the world a lamb and took warning from a dream
From an empty tomb she ran for her children she would weep
In her womb a baby danced she'd been waiting for a King
She was everyman she was everyman
And the Lord looks down and He understands
The world draws up it's lines
But at the foot of the cross there's room for everyone
And love that is not blind
It can look at who we are and still see beyond
The differences we find
But with thorns in His brow and a spear in His side
Nails in His hand He died for you and I
For you and I and everyman

Michael W Smith - Never Been Unloved
I have been unfaithful
I have been unworthy
I have been unrighteous
And I have been unmerciful
I have been unreachable
I have been unteachable
I have been unwilling
And I have been undesirable
Sometimes, I have been unwise
I've been undone by what I'm unsure of
But because of you, and all that you went through
I know that I have never been unloved
I have been unbroken
I have been unmended
I have been uneasy
And I've been unapproachable
I've been unemotional
I've been unexceptional
I've been undecided
And I have been unqualified
Unaware, I have been unfair
I've been unfit for blessings from above
But even I can see the sacrifice you made for me
To show that I have never been unloved