Strange truth indeed…that out of suffering comes hope…that out of darkness comes light…that out of hatred comes love…that out of the worst men and women can contrive, God generates and gifts the mysterious energy of resurrection.

We’ve made this Lenten journey before, but each time there can be a new dimension of insight and meaning, because we are not simply defined by past responses, but there is a growing and evolving within us.  In a few short days, we will begin Holy Week as we continue “Journeying with Christ” as he makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.   Our Palm Sunday theme will be his empowering identity, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”  And then we will move with Jesus and the disciples to the Last Supper with the observance of Maundy Thursday.  As with Ash Wednesday, we will be offering a special service of Tenebrae a week from tomorrow.  You will receive an email with a link to the virtual candlelight worship service moving through each of the days of Jesus’ Passion Week.  We will celebrate communion as the lighting is diminished representing our Lord’s life coming to an end.  But as we pause at the Upper Room, we will share in the promise of New Covenant which Christ infused into the familiar Passover meal.  Then…on Good Friday, we’ll meditate on the meaning of the crucifixion – in the words of the Roman Catholic philosopher, Jacques Maritain:

  “The Christian takes a stand right at the joining of the arms of the cross. It is the only place from which one can see well.”

The world always seems to have moments of “Good Friday” when death and violence seem to be all too present in the world around us.  From the taking of 8 innocent lives outside Atlanta to 10 more in Boulder, Colorado – why do such tragedies keep happening?  From the continual death toll due to the world-wide pandemic to the care of God’s children at the boarder - how do we make sense of it all?  Perhaps we get a glimpse when we see that all of life is connected, that like it or not we are ALL part of God’s family and therefore called to care and watch out for each other.  God doesn’t rush in and fix everything, but God cares and God is present with all suffering as presence, in all darkness as light and in all hatred and violence as love.  As we approach our holiest week of the year, let us affirm this in our faith and in our living.

From Friday through Saturday night we will await the dawning of Easter Day.  A special period of time for us all…shaped by the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus the Christ.  In the words of G.K. Chesterton:

“The folk of the East may spell the stars,
and times and triumphs mark
but the folk signed of the cross of Christ
go gaily into the dark.”

Blessings for the Journey…

Rev. Dr. David D. Young
Senior Minister