A musical moment
Palm Sunday is one of those moments in the Christian year when we are struck with the curse of the familiar. How do communicate the importance of this story without either monotonous repetition on the one hand or careless novelty on the other? This year I wanted to preach on Palm Sunday as
– a celebration of God’s tendency to confound our expectations
– a warning against spiritual incompetence so that we do not find ourselves looking the other way when God is on the move ( as the Pharisees did in the Palm Sunday accounts)
This is what I did with the children to set the scene
- Played a (30-second) fanfare and asked them on what kind of occasion it might be played. (Most said to welcome a King or Queen)Certain pieces of music are just ‘right’ for certain occasions – and they tell us what to expect.
- Put a set pf pictures up on the screen from the Peter and the Wolf story- cat, bird, duck, Peter and wolf.
- The relevant tracks were played, one by one, and the children were asked to identify which track belonged to which creature.
- I then offered to play the music for the children which announced the arrival of King Jesus in Jerusalem – silence.
I concluded by warning that sometimes God creeps in quietly without a fanfare – so we have to keep an eye out for him. This was a point to which I was able to return in the ‘adult’sermon, to what appeared to be good effect. You can find all relevant pieces of music in the video below, if you want to have a go yourselves…