It isn’t often in childhood that you can really cut loose in a church sanctuary. Shake it up, sing, hoot a little, do some fancy steps. Psalm Sunday can be one of the top events for kids of all ages in the Liturgical year, another being, the Christmas pageant, and there’s at Christmas eve.
This year at Siloam, here in London, the Palm Sunday Service was in a virtual form, which we taped ahead of time, when we also recorded some of the music for the Good Friday Service.
A quick online query will show that palm branches have, since ancient times, been symbols of triumph, victory, eternal life and peace. That is quite an amazing 4 symbol list. Palm Sunday Services usually take all four of these elements into consideration and combined with all of the regular awesome lists of virtuous reflections normally reflected on each week, you can’t help but walk away feeling somewhat refreshed.
Coming in at just a touch over a year since doing music with any of our children in a Service (and that was back in Oakridge times), so preparing and presenting the music this year felt pretty special, for us all. Thaesha, Naidan and Keirah, our youngest, rehearsed a few times at home in preceding days, but we all knew the songs from many past Palm Sundays, so the music came together quickly and enthusiasticaly, with a few good giggles along the way.
It feels like the world around us is slowly emerging from a year-long, epic social struggle, and even though there are the new dreaded strains on the rise, and uncountable tragedies, the availability and use of vaccines are paving the way in ahead in a solid forward direction.
There’s a parallel here with memories of the past and a joyous anticipation of the future. It comes with the waving of palm branches (or here in Canada it’s often pine tree branches), children and youth dancing around a sanctuary’s perimeter, and up and down the isles, singing, and celebrating, and a realization that life is so fine, and so good, and so wondrously holy.
We can look forward to Palm Sunday Services everywhere next year, which we hope and pray will be one rockin’ celebration, considering it has been 2 straight years in a row where this traditional time of revelry in a sanctuary has been forbidden by the obvious reality of everyone’s safety.
It is always fun when you when it feels okay to invite someone to church. (It’s always a bit of a warning sign if you are still attending, but it would feel too embarrassing to invite someone you know to visit. It feels okay now.) So please, if you have a bit of time to spare, you are invited to attend this virtual Palm Sunday Service. It will probably help at times, if you can close your eyes and imagine it with a group of excited children and youth in attendance, with branches in hand, waving them through the hymns and songs, and so eager to display their personal flair in the glorious celebration when they get to dance and sing and prance in a glorious procession celebrating hope and faith in a better time ahead. The ‘Hosanna’ song is where this would be happening this year, and where it soon will be happening again.
Hosanna, in translation, means ‘help us’, or ‘save us’. In these times, that exclamation sort of sums it up in many situations and ways.
If you’d like to jump ahead to Thaesha and Keirah singing, that is totally fine also. They sing ‘Hosanna’, the song for the procession of the psalms, at 13:20. ‘He came riding’, a story telling song, with Naidan joining comes next at 24:55. Finally, the message of Psalm Sunday, Psalm Sunday, Easter, Christmas and for those of you aspiring to live in gratitude for the every moment, ‘Go now in Peace’ helps to sum it all up at 50:00
https://player.vimeo.com/video/528463238