Welcome to Holy Week. Tonight at 7:30, we celebrate the evening of the Last Supper and also read about Passover. There will be foot washing for those who are willing, but it is entirely optional. The service starts in celebration, with the palms and purple still up from Palm Sunday, but the service ends in silence as the congregation helps to strip the palms while Altar guild strips the altar. Tomorrow is Good Friday. We have services at noon and 7:30 PM. It is a somber but meaningful marking of the Passion and death that saves us. It is a celebration of the self-sacrificing love of God breaking the power of sin, death and evil. Saturday night at 8 PM, we celebrate Easter Vigil. We light a new Paschal candle from a new fire, processed into the church, we hear more of the whole arc of redemption beginning with creation, we renew our baptismal vows, and then we celebrate with great joy the Resurrection! Sunday morning we celebrate Easter and Resurrection with joyful songs, Eucharist, and readings of the empty tomb. There will also be mimosas at each coffee hour and an egg hunt after the second service. It is my prayer that as much of our community as possible will gather to celebrate as much of this Holy Week as possible. This is our great celebration of the year. These events are the expression and basis of the love and hope that shapes and direct our lives. Please come join us! Maundy Thursday 7:30 PM Good Friday Noon & 7:30 PM Easter Vigil 8 PM Easter Morning 9 & 10:30 AM

Last week, our readings pointed to our need to repent. This week our readings are focused on God’s forgiveness. In our Gospel, we hear the story of the prodigal son and the forgiving father. It is a summary of God’s love for us, and the extent to which he will go, to extend grace, to forgive and to rejoice in our return. The purpose of the Incarnation is the redemption and reconciliation of mankind with the Triune God. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

This week is the first week of Lent and our readings are amazing. There are themes of salvation, protection, trust, provision, gratitude, tithing, proclaiming, fasting, and victory over temptation. Our Gospel quotes our Old Testament reading, and our Epistle quotes our Psalm for the week. I encourage you to read through them before Sunday and let them soak into your heart and mind. And may this first week of Lent draw you closer to God; deeper in your understanding, and more aware of your dependence on His mercy and care.

Some of us become Christians in quiet gradual ways, and many enter into various ministries in response to nudges from the Holy Spirit or reasonable alignment of skills and talents. However, our readings this week are about more dramatic moments of calling. Isaiah is so overwhelmed with an image of God’s glory and an understanding of his purpose, that he offers his life and voice to that mission. That decision shapes and defines the rest of his life; and that prophetic voice shapes the life of Israel and still speaks to us today. Peter is so overwhelmed by Jesus that he falls at his knees and answers Jesus’ call to become a fisher of men. And in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he calls them back from their spiritual ambitions to the core of the Gospel, and reminds them that Jesus called each of the disciples, apostles, and even Paul himself to carry on the mission of God. Our calling does not set us apart or above one another, but instead, God calls us uniquely and individually into a shared life and a common mission. How have you experienced God’s call? What ministry is He calling you into?

This week, we continue on in Luke following Jesus' return to His hometown after a year away traveling and teaching his disciples. (Luke 4:21-30) At first, it seems that the people are pleased to hear from Jesus. Verse 22 tells us, “all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.” The amazement doesn’t last long though, this is the hometown crowd, and they have grown up with him. Can you just imagine the eyebrows lifting as they turn to each other and say, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?" Jesus, hearing their reaction, says to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum. I tell you the truth; no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed – only Naaman the Syrian.” Strong words for this Jewish, hometown, audience. These words made the people furious and they tried to take Jesus by force to the top of a hill nearby to throw him off, but He walked right through the crowd and went on his way. His time had not yet come. How do you see Jesus? Who is He to you? How do you react when convicted of your sin?