One of the issues that we in the liturgical church have run into is that folks don’t tend to attend the Maundy Thursday or Good Friday Services during Holy Week. There are a myriad number of reasons why this is so. It could be that in the present age, folks just don’t attend church on days other than Sunday to folks just don’t want to deal with the nastiness that entails Holy Week. They don’t want to deal with the trauma, the betrayal, the denial and the abandonment. As one parishioner told me in a different appointment, “I don’t want my faith to deal with negatives when there are so many negatives in my life.” Well, that’s fair, I guess, but isn’t our faith life supposed to help us cope with real life?
This Sunday is Palm/Passion Sunday. Yes, I know that it used to be known only as Palm Sunday, but when folks only pick up the Hosannas of Palm Sunday and the Alleluias of Easter without encountering at some point the pain of Golgotha, then we’re short changing and avoiding what our faith is all about. Yes, it is painful to hear about what Jesus went through, but I believe it is necessary to get the full meaning of what our faith is all about.
We open with the Proclamation of the Entrance To Jerusalem found in Matthew 21:1-11. Then we move toward the Passion Narrative as found in the lessons from Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; and Matthew 27:11-54. We move from the shouts of “Hosanna to the King” to “Crucify Him!” all within the span of a few days. As we move into Holy Week, we find that the focus is not on us, but on God and how God reveals God’s self to us.
During Holy Week we will experience services on Maundy Thursday at 6:00 p.m. and on Good Friday at Noon. Both of these services will be held in the Chapel. All of this is in preparation for the Easter Celebration that will be held at 11:00 on April 9 in the Sanctuary (Sunday School will not meet on Easter Sunday). We hope that you will invite someone to join you for these special services.
We invite you to support McFarland UMC and its outreach to the community through your financial contributions, you can do so electronically by clicking or by mailing a check to P.O. Box 156, Rossville, GA 30741.
