Pastor's Midweek Message

Midweek Message w/o April 13,  2025

Sisters and brothers,

Welcome to the most special week of our year.

This is Holy Week, the period between Palm Sunday and Easter. This week, as I shared on Sunday, is an emotional and spiritual roller-coaster. We have the great high and excitement of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city, with the crowds waving their branches and acclaiming Jesus as king. Then comes a season of conflict, as the Pharisees and Sadducees and all his other enemies try to trap him, get him to say something that will get him arrested. This doesn’t work, so next comes the season of betrayal, as first Judas sells Jesus to the Jewish leadership, then Peter and the other disciples flee from him on the night he is arrested. We see, on Maundy Thursday, the institution of Holy Communion as Jesus re-presents the Passover meal in a fresh way; and we see Jesus falsely accused, in a sham trial, before the leaders of Jerusalem. The Romans see through the trap, and try to say Jesus is innocent, but are themselves backed into a corner of having to order his crucifixion. Then comes Good Friday, the darkest day, when Jesus goes to the cross and dies.

From great highs, to crushing lows. From joyous acclaim, to “Crucify him!” How can it possibly be that in the space of five days, this should all come to pass?

Holy Week is, for me, a place to reflect on my own fickleness and faithlessness in following Jesus. Just like the crowds, am I subject to swings in mood that change how I feel? Just like the crowds, am I expecting the Messiah to be one way, and then am I feeling let down when Jesus doesn’t do what I want him to do? Just like Peter and the disciples, do I abandon Jesus when it gets personally risky? Just like Judas, do I betray my Lord?

These are hard questions. They can lead us to some uncomfortable places of self-reflection, and they can lead us to see dark places still left in us, unhealed places that still need the light of Christ. But the good news of this week is that God never abandons us, just as the Father never abandoned the Son. God is with us, and God helps us to see those places that need healing, those places of continuing sin, those places where resurrection still needs to happen.

This Holy Week, join with me in the spiritual pilgrimage of examining our own path through the city. I invite you into a time of reflection, to see where it is that God is still working to renew you, and to join God in the work that God has already begun. We will have many opportunities to do this. First, I invite you to join us today at noon for the final Lenten Luncheon, our midweek opportunity to set aside the world and to turn our hearts back to Jesus. Next, as you might recall, we are partnering with Chester UMC and Trinity UMC for Lenten worships this year. So please join me at Chester UMC for Maundy Thursday services at 7pm for a very special worship, and then at Trinity UMC for Good Friday worship at 7pm with a unique musical worship created just for us. Our sanctuary will also be open from 9-4 on Good Friday (except during Earl Hogarth’s funeral), for you to come in and reflect privately on the sacrifice that Jesus is making for you in those hours.

Holy Week is a unique and special opportunity to take in the enormity of the sacrifice that Jesus made for you. The invitation, to rest in the shadow of the Cross, is a very special one indeed.

So let’s go.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric