Welcome. It's Tuesday, 24th March 2020.
 
Hello Bishop Ridley School. It's Mr Keep here, today. May the Lord be with you.
 
Today we are going to be thinking about Palm Sunday.
 
We'll start with a song, click below for This Little Light of Mine  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKkbIZtqhyQ
 

Our Bible passage for today is the account of Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Some events in The Bible are mentioned by more than one of the gospel writers. In fact, this event is described by all four of them (Matthew 21v1-11, Mark 11v1-10, Luke 19v28-38, John 12v12-15) (but don’t worry about reading it four times!). 

If you have a few minutes, you might like to watch a video of the story here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTmbTuutBgg
 
 
Our thought for the day

First – a couple of questions. Let’s see what you can remember from our collective worship over the last couple of weeks. (The answers are at the bottom of the page)

 

1.    Can you remember what period of the Christian Calendar we are currently in? (It’s the time leading up to Easter).
2.    What colour is the stole on the prayer table at the moment?

 

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem to cheering and celebrations. They broke palm branches from trees and waved them, or laid them down on the road in front of Jesus’ donkey.

 

For the people who were there, it must have been very exciting to see Jesus. Many people would have known about him because of the miracles that he had performed and the sick people who he had healed. Stories about Jesus would have been passed from village to village by travellers who passed through, or when the market came to town.

 

Many years before Jesus did this, people (called prophets) had spoken about a king riding on a donkey. When the crowds saw Jesus on the donkey, they started shouting ‘Hosanna!’ and saying that he was the king who had come to rescue them. 
 
On Palm Sunday, most people were celebrating, but there were some people who didn’t like Jesus. As the week passed by, they started to convince people to turn against Jesus. 

 

Let’s think for a moment about how easy it can be to follow what other people say. Even if we know that it might be the wrong thing to do, or that it will cause someone to become upset or hurt. It is important that we think carefully about the choices we make.

 

If you are at home and you see people start to get cross, maybe on the TV, or sending angry messages to each other on WhatsApp, think about how you can bring peace and show kindness to others.  
 
A prayer for today
 
Dear God,
 
We thank you for our family and friends who are around us. We thank you for the warmth of the sun and the cool fresh rain.

We ask you to look after our loved ones and for your blessing on our friends and family - especially those who we cannot visit at the moment.

Help us to show your love and kindness through our actions, words and choices.
 
In Jesus’ name,
 
Amen
 

Answers:
1.    It is the time of Lent
2.    The stole is purple, which means a time of preparation