Invitation to Holy Week

I am looking forward to Holy Week. That may seems surprising to hear from a pastor, as this is the busiest time of the year, even more so than Christmas. I guess the reason that look forward to this time of year is that I appreciate the invitation to participate in the story once again. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and we keep running through Easter Sunday.  We journey with Jesus as he triumphantly enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We gather with Jesus and his disciples around the table where Jesus washes his disciples feet, gives them a new commandment, and institutes the Lord's Supper. We see the anguish of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to his Father in heaven. We watch Jesus as he is arrested and is taken through the mockery of a trial. We feel the weight of the cross on his back, the pain of the nails in his hands on Good Friday. And we await the dawn of new day as we gather on Easter Saturday for the Easter Vigil, knowing something incredible is about to happen.

I invite you to join in the journey and participate in the story. Come and immerse yourself in the messages, the sights and sounds, the community gathered together for these worship-filled events. Come and journey to the cross and the empty tomb.

At the Far Hills campus this coming weekend, our Palm Sunday worship will conclude with a dramatization of Walt Wangerin Jr.'s story, "The Ragman." Wangerin is a Lutheran pastor, a gifted author and preacher, and a great story-teller.  "The Ragman" is a powerful story that demonstrates Jesus' great gift of compassion, suffering and dying for you and for me. In addition to being a great story, the dramatization of the story will be done with life-sized puppets made by Epiphany member Shirley Wasser and operated by members of our Puppet Ministry team. I love this story, and have used it in sermons and devotions over the years. You don't want to miss this.

I hope and pray you can join us in the days to come.  

We stand on the threshold of Holy Week.

It is not for us now

to rush ahead to Easter. 

As easy, as comfortable, as uplifting as that would be,

we miss the true joy of Easter

if we do not understand

and come face to face

with the true pain and sorrow of Jesus’ suffering and death –

the passion of Jesus Christ.

In the days to come,

we travel not just as bystanders of Jesus’ sacrifice,

but participants in the passion. 

For on the cross,

Jesus does not die alone

no –

the sins of the world –

of you and me,

past, present and future,

are put to death

and with them,

our sinful selfish desires

and our replacements for God. 

It is necessary

for us once again

to undertake the surrender

to Jesus

of all of our false expectations and selfish hopes.

It is necessary for us

to watch as our sin

burdens him

and bears down on his head

like a crown of thorns.

It is necessary for us

to see him die

as the Lamb of God

who absorbs the sin of the world and bears it away.

It is necessary for us

to suffer patiently

the dark night of sorrow and death,

if we are to enter the brilliant new light of Easter

and receive the gift of eternal life

offered to us in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

(Copyright © 1996 Edwin D. Peterman. All Rights Reserved.)

May we walk with Jesus to the cross. 

The passion begins.

Peace,

Pastor Charlie