..Everyone is welcome to join us March 25th at noon for our Good Friday service. Father Riley will be officiating for Good Friday and in our joyful Easter Sunday service at 10am March 27th. Please bring fresh flowers to add to our Easter Cross Easter Sunday. Fellowship will follow in the Parish Hall following the Easter service.
..Father Riley will start back up our informational classes Sunday April 10th at 9am in the Parish Hall. The classes are open to all interested in the history and teachings of the Episcopal Church.
PALM SUNDAY - C - 16 THE PASSION OF LUKE
The two readings cover a matter of days in the life
of Jesus, but for us a matter of minutes. Because our time is short in
reflecting on these two readings that taken together represent the beginning
and the ending of Holy Week, we often miss the depth of their meaning.
Traditionally we participate in the liturgy of the
palms by processing and singing “All Glory Laud and Honor,” this being the
closest thing to our being there as He entered the Holy City and laying our
coats on the road for Him to ride on. In this we take our place in the crowd
that welcomed him to Jerusalem by singing Alleluias and waving palm branches in
their hands.
At the
reading of the Passion we remain seated listening as the all too familiar drama
is played out: the Last Supper, Judas’ betrayal, Peter’s denial, and the trials
before the Jews and finally Pilate, until He is crucified, and then we stand,
as those stood who watched him die on the cross; those who stood close to him
and ridiculed him, as well as his friends who stood at a distance and wept.
Christ has finally met his destiny.
Jesus does not die alone. Luke tells us that there
were two thieves crucified alongside him, one on his right and one on his left.
The leaders scoffed at him saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he
is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers joined in as well ridiculing him, even one of the thieves dying
next to him mocked him, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
But the other did not. The other thief was the only
one who stood up for Jesus that day. Not only did he defend Jesus as an
innocent man, but he believed that Jesus was who he said he was and asked that
Christ remember him when he came into his kingdom.
The faith Christ had been looking for so long within
Israel throughout his earthly ministry manifests itself in a dying thief
crucified next to him; “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus then gives one last earthly promise: “Today you will be with me in
Paradise.”
Isn’t that what we all want? When this earthly life
has ended to be remembered by God?
With each Lent the image of the dying Jesus on the
cross is impressed on the eyes of the world, even on those eyes that see only
TV or some aspect of social media. How do people react? Better yet, how do we
react?
There are those who possess the same unbelieving
demands, who in times of despair and pain, or simply out of ignorance wag their
heads and say “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” Others look at
the dying Jesus and acknowledge their own failures and admit responsibility,
even going so far as to rebuke the unbelievers, “Do you not fear God? We are
receiving the due rewards of our deeds.” But those, alas, are far and few
between.
Some concede that he was merely a good man who came
to a terrible end who got caught between politics and religion because his
words and actions threatened the status quo. “This man has done nothing wrong.”
And there are some who look to Jesus on the cross and simply cry for help.”
Jesus remember me.”
What do you see when you look at the cross? I can
only answer for myself. I look at the cross with body of the dying Jesus nailed
to it and my problems and my pain are pale compared to His suffering. When I
look at the cross I see myself next to him, in the thief who asked to be
remembered, and who acknowledged his own sins and believed in Jesus. I too want
to, as we all want, to be remembered by Him.
That’s why I have a crucifix in every room of my
house, to remind me of what is really important.
The thief who asked to be remembered lived with the hope of paradise; of being in
the presence of God not really knowing what that might mean. He was on the
other side of the cross. You and I live with the hope of the resurrection. We
are post-Easter Christians. We live on this side of the cross.
What a difference it makes in our day to day living
to live with faith in the promises of God as seen through the Resurrection.
The central act of Christian worship is the Holy
Eucharist. In it we take our place in the upper room as the drama of that
mystical event is reenacted. In it we celebrate the death and resurrection of
Jesus as we participate in the Last Supper. It is the closest we can get to
actually having been there. What a difference the words “Take eat; take and
drink” mean when viewed through the Resurrection.
In receiving the Blessed Sacrament of Christ’s Body
and Blood we remember Him, as He commanded us to do and the price He paid for
our sins and the sins of the world in the Hope that one day, like the
thief on the cross, we too will be
remembered by Him. AMEN+
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