Palm Sunday Worship "Jerusalem Today, 'Religious Rebellion'"

This particular Palm Sunday was conducted as if you were sitting at home watching a morning news broadcast, much like Reggis and Kathy type program. Where I and Sharon Pribyl (member of church) co-hosted a morning religious program that dealt with current news and intermingaled with scriptures and singing. I am only presenting the actual "news cast" portion of this service where Sharon and I were suppose to be reporting on the current challenges to Jewish religous practises and teachings by the rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, but have interruptions with events on the street, such as Jesus' triumphal entry and a report between Jesus and Herod. The service was concluded with recognizing that Jesus had been tried and killed, with the veiling of the cross and the congregation laying their palms at the foot of the cross and exiting quietly to the song, "Where You There."
Palm Sunday Celebration Worship, "Jerusalem Today, 'Religious Rebellion'"
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY April 17, 2011

Dramatic Reading: Jerusalem Today!
With Anchors: Sharon Isaac and Steven Jacobs
Giving you the straight talk about, “what is going on in Jerusalem today!”
Sharon: Hello, I’m Sharon Isaac
Steven: And I’m Steven Jacobs
Unison: Reporting to you today from our downtown studio Mount of Olives Towers, located in the heart of Jerusalem.
Sharon: Today we continue our topic on Religious Rebellion! Steven, you are well aware of so much unrest among the citizens in Jerusalem and outlying areas with so many reported “self proclaimed prophets”, of late. Some are even being referred to as “Messiah’s”.
Steven: That is so right, Sharon and one of these “Isaiah come lately” is a man from up North in the province of Nazareth!
Sharon: Truly a Nazarene? Honestly, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Steven: That is a good question Sharon. Only time will be able to answer that one! This brings us to this morning’s focus on Religious Rebellion. Today’s discussion will be about the latest self-proclaimed Messiah, the man called Jesus of Nazareth! As I understand from one of our underground sources, this self-proclaimed prophet, will be making an appearance at the City Center Temple later today.
Sharon: That should create some excitement, for sure, Steven. Do we know yet how he plans to get into Jerusalem? I understand that all of the gates are under heavy guard, checking papers of everyone who is coming and going from the city. At last report, there is an “immediate” arrest warrant, issued by the High Priest, Caiaphas himself, stating that Jesus of Nazareth is to be picked up on site.
Steven: Speculations on how Jesus plans to get into the city range anywhere from having Jesus parachute in from a plane to being dressed as a peasant riding on the back of a donkey. However I have never heard of a “King” making his entrance in such a non-descript fashion.
You remember when Roman sent our latest Governor, Pontius Pilot. He road into town on a beautiful white horse that stood about 20 hands high with a procession of guards, that was 5 abreast and a mile long. Now that is how a “king” generally makes his entrance into his city!
Sharon: Well Steven, it’s been over a year or so, since Jesus was last in town, and I understand that he was holding open meetings in the Temple in that visit, teaching things that seemed to anger the majority of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Steven: Sharon, hold that thought! We need to break away to our man on the street Joseph Aria cloth, with breaking news about Jesus coming into the city. (Report of the Triumphal Entry – A Dramatization,youtube)[time 4.31]
Steven: Well Sharon, if anyone has ever had any doubts up to now about how Jesus of Nazareth, or his followers for that matter, see himself, it is now clear that Jesus is claiming to be the awaited Messiah, as based on the vision of the late Prophet Zechariah, found in his writings chapter 9:9. Yes, here it is, I now have the reference in front of me and it says: Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
So, here you have it, Jesus has come into Jerusalem, riding a donkey!
Sharon: What a difference between how the Governor came into Jerusalem and this Jesus! Did you hear the sounds of the crowd, Steven? It sounds like they are having a regular parade. I don’t recall people yelling for joy like that when Pilot came riding into town! I wonder how that is going to affect Jesus’ standing with the authorities in the Temple. Do you suspect that this will mean that Caiaphas will be forced to drop the arrest warrant on Jesus?
Steven: That is truly a good question Sharon. If you remember a year or so ago, Herod had a very famous Prophet beheaded, even though this man had thousands of fans.
Sharon: You are referring to the prophet who lived out by the river Jordan, and wore camel clothing and lived off of locus and honey, John the baptizer. He was the man who was instituting the new practice of salvation by pushing people under those dirty waters of the Jordan. (Yuk) He was saying something about repenting of your sins so that you might enter into the kingdom of God. Now tell me Steven, how do you get your soul cleaned when you’re using such filthy water? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Steven: John the Baptizer wasn’t arrested and killed because of his instituting some new religious action, Sharon, but rather for his public accusations of the illicit marriage of Herod Antipas and his wife Herodias; who actually had been the wife of Antipas’ brother Herod Philip! Antipas was fearful of the truth turning the population against him.
Sharon: Well Steven, we don’t want to go there. You know how touchy the Herod’s can be. Isn’t it true that Jesus was baptized by John?
Steven: Yes he was Sharon. Did you know that they were cousins!
Sharon: Well, looks to me like religion must be a family business and maybe less of being a “Messiah”.
Steven: You might be correct there Sharon. Our sources have reported a number of interesting activities that this man Jesus has been involved in. There was this business of turning water into wine, at a wedding he and his mother and some of his disciples attended in Canaan. There have been multiple reports about him healing people who have been blind their entire life? As well as feeding huge crowds who went out into the wilderness to hear him speak, with only a couple of fish and some bread.
Sharon: Our sources have also reported some very unusual activities, such as Jesus is supposedly able to walk on water, even calming wild seas. But, the most amazing is a report that we received just this past week. While he was in Bethany, a sleepy little town just a couple of miles outside of Jerusalem, he is reported to have brought back to life a man known as Lazarus! Can you believe that! The reports just seem to get wilder by the day. I heard while I was getting my hair done, the beauticians talking, and saying that this Jesus guy says he is able to rebuild the temple in only three days!
Steven: I wonder how he thinks he will be able to do that, Sharon. Oh, Oh, hold on, we are just receiving a report that Jesus has been arrested by the Pharisees and is now having a hearing as we speak. In fact, we have just received some film footage of a portion of the trial with Herod. (play film clip of Herod and Jesus from 2000 Jesus Christ Superstar, youtube)
Steven: Sharon, we will come back to our program after this brief break for our Sponsors.
[Coming back to program]
Steven: This has to be one of the most amazing events that I have ever witnessed, Sharon. To have a trial directly after being captured is almost unheard of, especially with the backlog in the court system. Jesus of Nazareth is most certainly being treated as a serious threat to our National security!
Sharon: I just received a report during our break saying, that a well known Zealot, Barabbas, has been released by Governor Pilot, at the request of a crowd that has been standing outside the palace steps. Evidently there has been a large negative reaction to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and a number of citizens are demanding that Jesus be executed for not only his religious teachings, but for his consistently breaking the Sabbath law.
Steven: Yes Sharon, it is a well known fact that many of Jesus’ miracles seemed to happen on Sabbath. The last straw seemed to come when Jesus raised that Lazarus guy from the dead. Apparently the Pharisees had had enough with Jesus breaking the Sabbath Law and at that point put out a reward for his capture. Do we have any idea how Jesus was found?
Sharon: Again Steven, reports are sketchy and according to one of my sources in the Council of Pharisees, it was one of Jesus’ own disciples who turned him in. A man by the name of Judas Iscariot seems to have signed a claim voucher for 30 pieces of silver and lead authorities to a small garden just outside of Jerusalem. Seems he identified Jesus by giving him a kiss on the cheek.
Steven: Some friend he turned out to be. It would appear to me that Jesus isn’t a very good judge of character, when it comes to picking out friends and supporters.
This is unbelievable!
Sharon: I know what you mean Steven. I was just telling one of my friends during the commercial break....
Steven: No Sharon. I mean, I have just received another report indicating that Jesus has been sentenced to be executed at the hill outside of the city, known as Golgotha! I just can’t believe that a man who has been preaching about love and forgiveness is being murdered at the request of our Religious leaders. There has to be more to this man than what meets the eye.
Our camera crew is on their way out to Golgotha right now, but in the mean time, we have a written transcript from a man named Matthew with what is transpiring. Let me share it with you: (Matt 27: 45-54)  45-46From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. Around mid-afternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
 47-49Some bystanders who heard him said, "He's calling for Elijah." One of them ran and got a sponge soaked in sour wine and lifted it on a stick so he could drink. The others joked, "Don't be in such a hurry. Let's see if Elijah comes and saves him."
 50But Jesus, again crying out loudly, breathed his last.
 51-53At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces. What's more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised. (After Jesus' resurrection, they left the tombs, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.)
 54The captain of the guard and those with him, when they saw the earthquake and everything else that was happening, were scared to death. They said, "This has to be the Son of God!"

Even though time has run out for today, please stay tuned to this station for continuing reports of today’s most miraculous event! The capture and crucifixion of what will surely turn out to be one of Judah’s greatest Prophets, Jesus of Nazareth.
Sharon: Even the Romans are calling this man the “Son of God!” Steven what have we done in killing this man if he truly is the “Son of God?”
Steven: I don’t know Sharon. We will just have to keep watch as this story continues to unfold.
Thank you folks for watching us today, this is Steven Jacobs
Sharon: And this is Sharon Isaac, saying “Shalom for now”. Please join us next week on [both] JERUSALEM TODAY!