Pastor’s Corner – March 28, 2024
Holy Week Greetings,
You are in my prayers as I write this. Perhaps you will read this when it appears in your inbox on Maundy Thursday. If you are like me with all the emails that I deeply desire to read, you may be reading this on Holy Friday, or after Easter into the season of Eastertide that stretches fifty days until Pentecost. Whenever and wherever this finds you, I pray you will know you are loved by the Maker of the heavens and the earth. The stories of Holy Week, which begin with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem when people waved palm branches and shouted Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and continue through the stories of Jesus sharing a meal with his closest disciples and his washing of their feet, through stories of Jesus being betrayed and denied by these same disciples, to the cross and then to the empty tomb and all the teachings and passages in between, may you know God sees you and loves you through all the emotions.
I pray that sometime this week or in the weeks ahead whether it be at one of the worship services where we join together in person or virtually or somewhere in silence and stillness or somewhere in the movement and sounds of your daily experiences, you will give yourself the space to imagine being there with Jesus in one of these stories found towards the final chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (all a little different in what and how they remember what happened just as we are diverse in our experiences, perspectives, and memories). May we be renewed by the forgiveness, the nourishment, the gifts of community, the blessings of serving, the mercy, and the unconditional and unstoppable love made known by Jesus our Leader and Life-restorer.
I give thanks for the opportunity to worship with you and to be in relationship with you through this special season and in all the ordinary extraordinary seasons of life as we seek to follow Jesus. May we share the good news of Jesus’ compassion and grace.
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. Mark 16:1-6
