I don’t know about you, but to me it feels like things are changing every single day. I now wake up each day expecting to discover an entirely new reality. The “new normal” is to receive a new “new normal” daily. It’s strange indeed. I appreciate so much the way Evergreen has rallied. Everyone is asking how they can help, and we’re all working hard to discover the needs in our midst. Again, if you are in need, please speak up. We want to hear from you. We want to hear from you regardless, actually. Please snap a picture of yourself with a very short note and forward it to us so that we can share photos/notes and see each other’s smiling faces. It will help just to “see” each other again.
While we will now certainly miss seeing each other for Holy Week and Easter, we need to make sure we don’t miss Holy Week and Easter altogether. These days, it would be really easy to let those sacred times slide right on by while we have our attention on other things. We can’t let that happen. We can’t let that happen because what Holy Week is all about---Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection---is precisely the medicine we need at this point in time.
Jesus suffered with us in all our human sufferings. There’s nothing we’re experiencing in 2020 that he didn’t also experience. He sweat blood. He was misunderstood. Society was falling apart around him. His friends turned their backs on him. He was scapegoated and killed. He descended to the realm of the dead. He won the battle. God raised him up. Love is victorious! Life is victorious!
No, we won’t be together for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, or Easter Sunrise Service. We will livestream Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday worship services at 10:00 a.m. We’ll have a video to share with you next week to celebrate Holy Week. But, as Jesus said when he entered Jerusalem, if we are silent, the rocks themselves will cry out! Let’s let our hearts cry out! God wins. Love beats fear. God will make all things new! That’s an ironclad promise.
Your Fellow Minister in Christ,
Mark