Listening to my pastor Rev. Dr. Stephen Jennings on Sunday as he carried us through communion and the sermon, God gave me the beginnings of this poem below. As I celebrate today 40 years since I stepped into the waters of baptism , I dedicate this poem to my parents who gave me the opportunity to meet Jesus for myself.

JOURNEY WITH JESUS TO THE CROSS

As Jesus rode the donkey

With each clop of the donkey , the weight of sin grew heavier

While they shouted Hosannas- save us

He saw the long shadow of the cross, went straight for it

And stared it down with love to save us

To make God’s love real for you and me

There on that old rugged, wooded cross

He hung wide, bled and died

To throw our sins into the sea of forgetfulness

Never to be remembered anymore

So that God’s love would have the last laugh.

As we come to your spiritual altar O Lord

Taking up our cross and following you

Help us to recognise this time when you Jesus came to save us

As you deliberately moved the obstacles by those blocking the way to salvation

Our Saviour as we cry out for deliverance from evil and violence

Lord Jesus let your great power heal our faults

Let your truth expose the sin, that so easily beset us, to ourselves

So we can confess to you and live lives free of condemnation

Give us the healing of God in place of pain,

The righteousness of God in places of injustice

The goodness of God in place of evil

May we be rooted in your peace, blessing and wholeness

Transformed in our inner beings from the inside out as we

Journey with you from the Sunday of Palms to Good Friday on Calvary

Knowing that you are the Resurrection raising to life all the dead things in our lives

So that the lives of others can be resurrected too into opportunities for goodness.

So the world can be transformed as the waters cover the sea. Amen