Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.
Call to Worship
Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church
where the past is past
and the future has infinite possibilities!
This is the day our God has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer in Lent
May we be forgiven for forgetting our divine nature.
May we be forgiven for failing to see the sacred value of all people.
May we be healed of judging ourselves, and others, too harshly.
May we forgive ourselves for not trusting in the absolute goodness and unconditional love of God.
May we forgive ourselves and others of all mistakes, real or imagined, since God has always and only seen the truth of our endless goodness.
May we now let our light shine and live as the children of God that we are. Amen.
The Lessons
A reading from the Fourth Gospel (John 12.12-15)
A great crowd in Jerusalem heard that Jesus was coming there. These were the people who had come to the Passover Feast. They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Jesus. [Quoting the Psalter], they shouted,
“Praise God! God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the King of Israel!”
Jesus found a colt and sat on it. This was as [Zechariah said], “Don’t be afraid, people of Jerusalem! Your king is coming. He is sitting on the colt of a donkey.”
A reading from the Fourth Gospel (John 19.16b-22)
Pilate gave Jesus to them to be killed on a cross. The soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, Jesus went out to a place called The Place of the Skull (in the Jewish language this place is called Golgotha). There they nailed Jesus to the cross. They also put two other men on crosses, one on each side of Jesus with Jesus in the middle.
Pilate wrote a sign and put it on the cross. It read: “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” The sign was written in [Hebrew], in Latin, and in Greek. Many of the Jews read the sign, because this place where Jesus was killed was near the city. The leading Jewish priests said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King...’ But write, ‘This man claimed to be a king.’”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written!”
Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher
Click Here for "From Colt to Cross"
Today is the last Sunday before Easter. This is the week we walk with Jesus through his last week in Jerusalem. By tradition Jesus enters Jerusalem with his disciples to celebrate the Passover Festival on this day that we call Palm Sunday. He rides in on a donkey colt, not a great steed as the Caesars ride into town.
And when he enters the city the people lay palm fronds and even their clothing on the ground in front of him, showing him the same respect and honor they show the Caesar and Roman government pawns. Because this man Jesus is like them, he’s Jewish, he’s from Nazareth, he’s been around the country side preaching a gospel of love and compassion, standing up to the Pharisees and healing the people both physically and emotionally.
Today on what we call Palm Sunday they adore him, they honor him, they laud him. And yet, in just a few days he will hang on a cross until his human body dies and is laid in a tomb. Some, perhaps many, of these same people who glorify him on this day, will cry out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” after they have been brainwashed with propaganda from the religious authorities that prop up the occupying Roman government that controls their lives.
This year I think of the Russian people who, just two months ago, moved back and forth across the Ukrainian border visiting family and friends. Just a few weeks ago they phoned family members or sent emails back and forth about celebrations and holiday plans. Even the Ukrainian president’s family language is Russian. And yet, on February 24th Russian tanks crossed the border into Ukraine and everything changed.
The propaganda and disinformation campaign by the Russian government has been very successful in convincing the family and friends of Ukrainians that the people they know and love are evil, that they are Nazi’s of all things, and that they must be executed by bombs and missiles. The Russian people are convinced that their family and friends are a threat to their way of life. They have been brainwashed to believe that everything they knew to be true was a lie.
Can you see the parallels with Jesus? These people who will demand Jesus’ execution just weeks ago were following around the countryside, listening to him teach and preach. They were bringing their sick relatives to him for healing. They were amazed at the way he stood up to the Pharisees and they were happy that he preached a gospel of love, of caring for the poor and those in prison.
Propaganda and disinformation has been used for thousands of years to turn whole populations against good. Brainwashing has been used to manipulate people’s emotions and confuse them with alternate “facts.” These tactics require that people give up their natural curiosity. Disinformation can only work when people lose the ability to think critically and question what they are being told. Propaganda can work only when people choose to take the bait of being angry rather than being loving.
Following leaders even when they preach hate is not loyalty, it is willingly surrendering to a cult. As we listen to what people say, we MUST look at their actions and consider the RESULT of their actions. I would rather follow someone who spews anger and acts in a loving way than someone who speaks love with their words and murders children.
Let us remember the result of propaganda and disinformation this Palm Sunday. Pilate told the people he could find no fault with Jesus and yet handed him over to his own soldiers to be crucified. Do not believe those who tell you the “Jews” killed Jesus. That is an anti-Semitic trope that has been used to vilify Jews for centuries. The Jews did not crucify people, the Romans used crucifixion, not just a method of execution, but as an act of terror to keep the people in line. Public execution strikes fear into the heart of people and keeps them in line.
Let us use the stories of our own tradition to avoid making the same mistakes those who laid Palm fronds and garments on the dusty road in front of the colt that Jesus rode into Jerusalem upon. Let us remember these stories and look for disinformation and propaganda in our own time. Remember, you will know the evil ones by the fruits of their actions.
We must use our minds and hearts. We must remember that we are duty bound to hear and decide what is loving, what is kind, what builds up humanity, what is compassionate. Is crucifying a man who preaches love and heals the sick a logical action? Is invading a sovereign peaceful country, who willingly gave up their nuclear weapons, something that could possibly ever be justified? Does it even make SENSE to accuse someone who is Jewish of being a Nazi?
God gave us minds so that we can decide. May be choose life and love over death and hate.
Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen
For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below: