Lead Us, Not into Temptation, but Deliver Us from Evil

 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 

A warm welcome to each worshiper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.

As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.

 

 

 

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.com

Order of Worship

April 10, 2022

Palm/Passion Sunday

10:00 a.m.

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.

 

Prelude Allemande J. S. Bach

Greeting and Announcements

Mission Statement:

We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

 

Call to Worship:

I love a parade! But a parade can be rained out.

I love a party! But what happens when the party ends?

I love the bandwagon! But the bandwagon can offer a false sense of protection.

I love a crowd! But a crowd can turn into an angry mob.

I love Jesus! On this joyous Palm Sunday, as we party and shout Hosanna, we praise Jesus, who faithfully turns our crowd into a congregation. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

From B. Kevin Smalls, The Africana Worship Book for Year B, Discipleship Resources, 2007, p. 88.

*Hymn Hosanna, Loud Hosanna #278              

Prayer of Confession:

God of all times and places, we confess that we would rather join the crowds than stand alone. We prefer the popular point of view to a solitary witness for justice and truth. We like safety and security while shrinking from the risk of involvement. We’ll sing “hosanna” when everyone else is doing so – but not when the hostile “Good Friday” forces may hear us. We do not like to admit our lukewarm response to you, but neither do we want to be considered fanatics.

We believe Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. We know that means us, not just other folks involved in obvious evils everyone knows about. We ask you to be patient with us, to help us understand our own guilt. Then pour out your forgiveness in such a way that we are forever transformed. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Assurance:

God sweeps into our human scene, redeeming all who turn from evil and do good. There is grace, mercy, and renewed strength for all who earnestly seek the new life Christ brings. Let us rejoice together, for even the stones cry out with good news. God forgives. We are freed from the burden of our sin. Praise God! Lavon Baylor, in Flames of the Spirit, edited by Ruth C. Duck (Pilgrim Press, 1984), 35.

 

Anthem: Ride On, King Jesus L.L. Fleming, arr

Celebration of Our New Members

Pastor: Friends, today we rejoice in your journey of faith that has brought you to this time and place. We give thanks for every community of faith that has nurtured your love of the Lord, and the mentors who have guided you on your way. We celebrate the home you have found here at Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church, and we couldn’t be happier to take you in as members. We ask you now to join in mutual covenant with us, and with the church universal in all times and places, by affirming your faith: Do you seek to grow in God’s transforming love, as you follow in the Way of Jesus? 

New Members: We do. 

Pastor: Are you open to the movement of the Holy Spirit? 

New Members: We are. 

Pastor: Will you join with us as a church, as we follow Jesus’ call on our lives?

New Member: We will. 

Pastor: Will you participate in the life and mission of this diverse and inclusive community of God’s people, praying and working with us in ministry together? Will you share regularly with us in the worship of God and financial support of our ministries? Will you offer your talents to our work, as the Spirit leads us to serve the community and the world? 

New Members: We will. 

Congregation: We welcome you with joy! As your church family, we pledge to you our love, our friendship, and our prayers as we grow together in God’s transforming love. We give thanks that you join us now, as fellow seekers and servants of Jesus!

UNISON BLESSING PRAYER: O God, we praise you for calling us to your ministry, and we give abundant thanks that you have brought us all together. May we grow in your Spirit, lifting one another up in love, and building the Kin-dom as followers of Christ. Amen.

Scripture Reading Luke 19: 28-40

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

28 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,

“Blessed is the king

    who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven,

    and glory in the highest heaven!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

 

Sermon Lead Us Not into Temptation, but Deliver Us from Evil

Here we are, friends, at the very beginning of Holy, and at the second to last installment of this sermon series that I put together for the Lenten season, in which we are looking at the Lord’s Prayer line by line. This week we are up to the last line that Jesus actually teaches us in either biblical account of the Lord’s Prayer, and the line at which our Roman Catholic friends end this prayer: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

As we’ve been going through this prayer together, I’m struck by how Matthew’s Gospel introduces the Lord’s Prayer. In Matthew’s account, Jesus emphasizes in the proceeding verses the importance of not praying like the Pharisees or Gentiles: no arrogance, no empty words, no showing off. He then says “pray like this” and teaches us the Lord’s Prayer. I’ve had an open ended thought–what if Jesus wasn’t intending to teach us a specific prayer with its own name, but rather he wanted any prayer we generate on our own to resemble this one? And if that’s true, then any time we pray, he wants this line to be the last thing we say, and the thought we leave with: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

While we’ve been talking about this prayer, I’ve also been reading The Lord’s Prayer by Adam Hamilton, a pastor of a very large United Methodist church in Kansas. He posed a question in that book that I’ve never thought to ask in all the thousands of times I’ve either said or lead this prayer: Why do we have to ask God NOT to lead us into temptation? Why on earth would God do otherwise? Does God ever purposefully tempt us? Does God challenge and test us?

If you ask 100 Christians this question I imagine you’ll generate as many answers, and I rejoice in that diversity of our faith understanding. That’s a hard one. Do I personally think God places temptations in our path for us to overcome? No, I don’t think God does that. Do I think God puts us through the alternative translation for temptation–a time of trial–as some kind of test that we have to pass? No, that feels awfully mean, and judgmental, coming from an all-loving God. But do I believe God challenges us–to grow, to become stronger, to become more Christ-like, to become the best versions of ourselves, the version in which the world can see God’s image within? Yes. That’s one of the central pillars of my faith. Knowing God more, and loving God more, means growing toward God, like a tree springing out of the dirt and touching the sky because of the nurturing warmth of the sun (or Son). 

Some Methodist ministers–like Hamilton himself–will answer his question, does God lead us into temptation, by answering that God doesn’t, but Satan does. I don’t happen to believe in the literal existence of the devil, so I invite us to read today’s line of the Lord’s Prayer just a little differently than we otherwise might. Specifically, with a comma.

Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The emphasis, and the action of God, is on “lead us”. In the words of Carrie Underwood, “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” Take a hard left when we’re veering toward harm and bad habits, and put us on the path that makes us grow and love ourselves and one another.

It’s a perfect thought to hold onto at the end of every prayer, and exactly where our hearts need to be at the end of Lent.

Today is Palm Sunday, a joyous day in the life of the Church, and the day that begins our remembrance of the last week of Jesus’ life. It all starts off on a high note–the happiest day of Jesus’ life, he finally gets to Jerusalem after spending a year traveling there by foot, he borrows a donkey so he finally gets to rest his tired legs, and he’s greeted by a parade, palm leaves, shouts of Hosanna, and people throwing the coats on the road so even his loaner donkey wouldn’t have to touch the ground. I want to say everyone loves him, but based on the community’s actions at the end of the week, that can’t be true. Everyone is infatuated with him. The crowd likes Jesus today because it’s the popular and easy thing to do.

Will the crowd listen to their own shouts of “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven?” If they did, they would have to choose actions that preserve peace and glory.

It’s a steep and rocky path, though, that leads to peace and glory, and a smooth 4-lane highway that puts Jesus on the cross by Friday. And surely this room full of Upstate New Yorkers understands that people will do anything to not drive in potholes. It’s easy for us to demonize the key players that send Jesus to his death, but the truth is that every person who helps Jesus onto the cross is just like us, just maybe a bit moreso. We saw last week that Judas has a problem with being tempted by easy money. Stealing from the disciples’ purse isn’t giving him that same rush anymore, though, so, like a lot of thieves, he has to escalate. He cooks up a get rich quick scheme that will have him walking away with a big bag of silver, and all he has to do to earn it is kiss his friend on the cheek. The temptation is the apple on the tree, just at the end of his fingertips, and all he has to do is grab it. The Pharisees have felt threatened by Jesus for a year, and have tried to use their laws countless times to stop him. But that never works, because Jesus understands their Law better than they ever will, and he subverts their plot every time into an infuriating teaching moment. Now the Pharisees are desperate, and have to move beyond their Jewish Law. Now they’re doing something they disapprove of on principle but will make a one time exception for, because in their minds the ends justify the means–they have to turn to their Roman oppressors. If Jewish Law can’t get Jesus, Roman law, and Roman brutality, surely will. They just need someone on the inside to close the last gap in their plan. They have some money they don’t mind handing over and an intense desire to get rid of Jesus; Judas has a friend he doesn’t mind handing over and an intense desire to get rich quick. When these two forces meet up, they all get such a rush of dopamine that all reason dies. 

Greed for wealth is a trap that kills. Hatred is a trap that kills. Once Jesus is handed over to the legal system, the Pharisees watch the law treat him like an unarmed, poor, homeless man of color, and the outcome eerily hasn’t changed in 2,000 years: Jesus is perceived by many as inherently threatening, and the crowds quickly change their minds about him once they see him in police custody. 

I heard there was wine in his system.

He was wearing a hood.

One of his friends totally had a concealed weapon.A sword, but still.

Did you see the town he grew up in? And he was born out of wedlock. 

He even ran away from his parents once when he was 12.

I heard he even handed out food and provided medical healing without permits.

Look, he ain’t innocent, did you hear about those tables he flipped in the Temple?

And he forgave tax collectors. He was totally soft on crime.

Sounds like one of those antifa rioters.

Once the temptations were indulged, and once the flames of fear were stoked, evidence didn’t matter anymore. Pontius Pilate couldn’t find any solid reason to crucify Jesus, but he also didn’t care enough to keep him alive. The people who could, and should have supported Jesus, his disciples, gave into the mob and fled. And, though the women closest to Jesus clung to him to the end and proclaimed that his life mattered…no one was listening.

Are we?

Are we praying for God to lead us, and not into temptation?

Temptation, in your mind, might take the shape of a devil who rules an underworld filled with bad things.

But in my mind,

Temptation takes the shape of greed.

And selfishness.

And betrayal of your friend.

And quickness to anger.

And jumping on the bandwagon.

And a corrupt criminal justice system.

And police brutality.

And apathy.

Temptation is a slow death by a thousand cuts.

When we pray, “lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we ask for God’s help in steering us away from our kryptonite, from the thing that undoes us from within every time. For some of us that’s alcohol, or drugs, or gambling. For some of us it’s overworking. For some of us it’s online shopping. For some of us it’s gossip. For some of us it’s peer pressure. For some of us it’s body image and a war with the bathroom scale. For some of us it’s doom scrolling on social media, or Facebook stalking your ex. For some of us it’s political debates with that one uncle. For some of us it’s a big bowl of m and ms.

When we pray, “lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we ask for God’s help in steering us away from the low hanging fruits that make us hurt others. Selfishness. Indifference. Quick assumptions. Our short tempers. Covert racism. Social prejudices. And this feeling that when we see something wrong we should look the other way because we don’t want to get involved.

With God’s help, may we make healthy choices.

May we think of others more than ourselves. 

May we think twice before joining the crowd.

May we stay loyal to our friends, our values, and our faiths.

May we, like trees rooted in the Son, grow away from evil and toward the light.

Amen.

Hymn What Wondrous Love Is This #292, vv. 1, 3, 4

Offering

Offertory Sarabande J. S. Bach

*Doxology #94

*Prayer of dedication           

 

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

God,

On this Holy day of Palm Sunday and Passion,

we have so many mixed feelings in side of us.

We remember your son’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem

with the people shouting praises and waving Palm Branches.

And we join them with our own praises and yet….

we remember too that this wonderful parade for your son, becomes

another kind of parade before officials and the booing crowds.

And instead of the crowds singing his praises they are shouting to crucify him.

And our hearts are broken by those very shouts,

and the pain and suffering he bore that day.

And yet we know that it is because of his choosing to enter

Jerusalem and taking the path he knew he was taking,

there is hope, grace, love and salvation for all.

And there are still many in need of hope in our world.

There are still many in need of your grace in our world.

There are still many in need of your love in our world.

And there are still many in need of salvation in our world.

 

Lord, enter our lives, our churches, our cities, our countries

once again today.

Heal us, Lord.

Transform us.

Renew us.

Draw us closer to you in this journey of Holy Week,

empower us with strength and courage and

with the assurance that you are with us, world without end. Amen.

 

~ written by Rev Abi, and posted on her Long and Winding Road blog. http://vicarofwadley.blogspot.ca/

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

*Hymn Go to Dark Gethsemane #290         

Benediction

Congregational Response UMH 672, v. 1

Postlude O Come and Mourn with Me a While

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Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant