Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

This Sunday is Palm Sunday and marks the beginning of Holy Week.  In addition to our Sunday worship services, I invite you to participate in our Maundy Thursday Service at 7:00 p.m. We will celebrate communion followed by a simple service of readings and hymns.  I also invite you to attend the Good Friday Service, which I will be helping lead, at Ambler Church of the Brethren at 7:00 p.m.

Our scripture for Palm Sunday is the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19:28-48.  In this passage Jesus is welcomed by crowds of Jewish pilgrims.  They joyfully praise God saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”  At the same time, Jesus encounters opposition.  The Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”  Throughout this Lent we have walked with Jesus on his journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.  Jesus began this journey when he decided to “set his face towards Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51).  Along the way, he faced difficulties.  People sought to block his way.  He continued his journey to Jerusalem even as he knew what awaited him there, betrayal and death.  But the difficulties and opposition he faced, didn’t deter Jesus.

Upon arriving in Jerusalem Jesus cleansed the temple and began to teach there, but the chief priests, the scribes and leaders kept looking for a way to kill him.  This Holy Week we’ll remember the additional opposition Jesus faced.  In his book “With Jesus Through Galilee According to the Fifth Gospel” Bargil Pixner writes, “during these years in this land, I have come to know Jesus especially as a man, a man who had to struggle against as many odds, if not far more than I do.  I appreciate him now as my brother who traveled, as I do, the rugged path of human life.”  Like Jesus and Bargil we too travel this rugged path of human life.

This Sunday we’ll explore what empowered Jesus to take the small steps that led to his long journey to Jerusalem and fulfilling God’s call to redeem all of creation.  What was it that gave Jesus the determination to continue in the face of so much opposition?  Could these things also give us the determination to fulfill God’s call to us?

See you on Sunday,

Pastor David