Pastor’s Corner “Walking into the Passion of the Father’s Heart”

Our long, Lenten walk with Jesus culminates this upcoming Holy Week, beginning on Palm Sunday. “The events of Holy Week,” writes the poet Malcolm Guite, “are both about Jesus’ outward, visible, and historical entry into Jerusalem and what he did there and then, and also about his entry into the inner Jerusalem, the ‘seething holy city’… of our own hearts. What might it mean to say that we have our own gates, walls and watchtowers, that somewhere within us there is both a temple and a seat of judgement, and both might need to be challenged and cleansed?”

Walking with Jesus also brings us into the heart of our Father, witnessing how at the cross his love cleanses our hearts and satisfies his judgment. As we walk with Jesus, according to Isaiah, he carries our sorrows and is wounded for our iniquities – “where the wrongs we have done, and the wrongs done to us, are nailed there with him, there at the cross.”

The ancient meaning of “passion” is extreme suffering; the common meaning today is deep devotion. Both apply to the love of God in Jesus, expressed in his Passion this Holy Week. I encourage you to attend these services to participate in this love:

• Palm Sunday (8am & 10:30am): We’ll begin this day of celebration and sorrow outside, processing together into the building waving palm branches. (Remember to carpool if possible, and that staff and volunteers need to park at Coles Elementary!)

• Maundy Thursday (7pm): Following the example of Jesus, we’ll have the opportunity to wash each other’s feet or hands. We’ll then step further into the suffering of Jesus through the Stripping of the Altar.

• Good Friday: Outside the church at noon, together we’ll visit each of the Stations of the Cross. At 7pm, we will gather in the Nave for a Good Friday service, culminating in time spent praying before the cross.

• Holy Saturday (9am-12pm): After a brief liturgy reflecting on Jesus in the tomb, Pastor Sallie and I will be available for the Rite of Reconciliation.

Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Your Pastor in Christ,