A weekly blog of Ideas for Leading Creative Worship
Make flax crosses during your
Palm / Passion Sunday service
Giving congregation members a physical object to hold or pass around helps them to engage with the message of any service.
This week I share an idea that I have used in two Palm Sunday services.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. We remember, and often re-enact, the gospel stories of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.
At the start of the service give people each a flax leaf as they enter the church.
Early in the service sing a joyful hymn and invite people to wave their flax leaves. A good hymn is Give Me Joy in My heart, with its uplifting refrain:
Sing Hosanna! Sing Hosanna!
Sing Hosanna to the King of kings!
Sing Hosanna! Sing Hosanna!
Sing Hosanna to the King!
Later in the service, after the readings and before the sermon, demonstrate to the congregation how to make a flax cross using the flax leaf they waved.
Invite everyone to try to make a cross. Have some helpers who can confidently make flax crosses primed to assist those who need it. The focus is on attempting to make a cross and joining in the activity, rather than making the most beautiful cross.
This can be an all age worship activity.
The video shows you how to make a flax cross starting with a harvested flax leaf. Download it here:
https://pg-sermons-book-resources.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/Making-a-flax-palm-cross.mp4
Project the video in church as people are making their crosses to help them with the process.
The theme for the services I led was:
Celebration – Struggle – Transformation.
Just as Jesus in Holy Week moved from a joyous demonstration, to the horror of the cross, to the mystery of resurrection, so our faith journeys often move from a place of content, to a struggle with new ideas that challenge our earlier beliefs, to a transformed and deeper faith.
Challenge:
- Try using this activity in your Palm /Passion Sunday service.
- Base your sermon around the meanings that you discover as you explore this idea and practice making crosses.
Further reading
The sermon from a 2013 Palm Sunday service at St Luke’s Methodist Church, Pukerua Bay is included in my book Let Your Light Shine Through that is available on our website here:
https://philipgarsidebooks.com/collections/philip-c-garside
Philip
14 March 2023