iWitnessing Palms and the Passion

Have you ever had a week where something really good happened, along with something really bad? Or laughed in a time of grief? Or cried in the middle of a celebration? That rollercoaster of emotions is what lies ahead for us as we enter Palm Sunday and Holy Week. The high that we feel on the triumphal entry of Jesus is mixed with the knowledge of what lies ahead on the road to the cross.

Read Luke 19:28-44 and Luke 23:1-24.

This Sunday would usually be a Sunday of joy, with our exciting palm parade and celebrating the King that has entered Jerusalem. We might end on a minor note as we being Holy Week, but most of the service would focus on the celebration.

This year, we’re combining the Palm Sunday traditions with the liturgy of the Passion – the last supper, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Worship will look a little different as we use a piece called “The Cry of the Whole Congregation.” The author, Walter Wangerin Jr, has this to say about our worship: “This drama has no audience. All are actors. None objective. All subjective – or else the objects of the driving love of God.” No one will be objective – the congregation will be actively participating in the reading of the Scriptures. All will be actors, as we all have a part to play in condemning Jesus.

We will sing the praises of Jesus with “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.” And in the same service we will shout “Crucify him, crucify him!” We will force Peter into denying Christ, we will mock and ridicule him, we will go with the women to prepare the body for burial. Isn’t that how our daily lives go all too often? We praise Jesus on Sunday morning in worship, and then forget to love our neighbors, forget to tend to the least of these, forget to live the way Christ teaches us. We are caught in the tension of being sinful and redeemed, of knowing the call to live a Christlike life but finding it more difficult than it sounds.

So join us as Sunday, as we are iWitnesses to the palms and the Passion, to the praise and the betrayal, the Last Supper and the last words of Christ. Come and let us remember once more.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

iWitness Good News: Nicodemus

What was the last recommendation you made to a friend? That they just had to read the Divergent trilogy of books? That they just had to see Frozen or 12 Years a Slave? That they just had to hear the Kacey Musgraves or Paul McCartney album? Or did you share the cute YouTube video of the shark cat riding a Roomba?

Read Genesis 12:1-4a and John 3:1-17.

When we recommend a great book or movie to a friend, we are bearing witness – we are testifying from our own experience, we are claiming a power that has to be shared, a truth that we have uncovered. We share our witness because we want our friends to experience those same feelings. We just cannot keep it to ourselves!

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, testifying to his beliefs about Jesus. As a rich and powerful man though, he was probably hedging his bets – not wanting his eyewitness of the Good News to spread too far. Nicodemus has a face-to-face encounter with Jesus, an encounter that makes him confess his beliefs, ask good questions, and patiently listen for answers – answers that may be clouded in mystery.

Have you had an iWitness experience with Jesus? Have you encountered the wonder working power of God in your life? If so, have you testified – have you borne witness to the saving love of Jesus Christ? These phrases may be less familiar to Presbyterians, but no less important.

When we feed the hungry at Let’s Help, we are sharing our witness. When we invite our friends to Fellowship Friday, we are testifying to the love we experience in community. When we stand up with other Topeka congregations in the name of justice with JUMP, we share our testimony that our God cares about the least of these. When we teach and learn in Sunday School, when we work out with the Heat, when we fold Talking Trinity newsletters – through all of those we are bearing witness to the love of God, the love that gave us God’s only begotten Son, the promises that harken back to the God of Abram.

So come and bear witness to the light, even in the middle of the night. Come and witness the truth of the teachings of our Rabbi Jesus during this Lenten season. Come and witness God at work through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Come and hear, sing, speak, pray the Good News, so that the entire world might know their salvation is at hand.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate