Mid-week News: PLEASE REMEMBER IN PRAYER: Martha Moore – transitioning to new place John Adolphson Bob Peppel Friends and family of Jim Leslie Dick and Renee Patterson and Family Family and Friends of Curt Bailey Paul Hamilton – knee replacement April 6 Ben Bemis Dick Burrows Tina Schwab Dave Edwards Carol Swanson Louis Walters Hannah Beason Mark Stebler Chase – 4 yr old with possible MS Michael McClenahan Bob Church Pastor Mike Sperry George “Pat” Patterson Doretta Fleet Danette Tucker Marian McClellan Dan Downey Peggy Paul LENTEN LUNCH Today at Noon at Corry First United Methodist Church. BIBLE STUDY GROUP Tonight at 7 PM. AA Meetings are now being held at our church on Wednesday evening beginning at 7 PM KID’S CLUB Thursday, from 4:30 – 6:30 PM. This is for kids ages K-5 with Cool Kids for Christ for 6th Graders! This is the last one for this session! REAFFIRMATION OF BAPTISM – Sunday, April 13th. INTERGENERATIONAL BRUNCH – Sunday April 13th at 9:45 AM. Bring a dish to share. BUILDING AND GROUNDS will meet on Sunday, April 13th at 7 PM. COMMITTEES will meet on Monday, April 14th at 6:30 PM. NEWSLETTER DEADLINE for the MAY issue is Wednesday, April 16th. TENEBRAE SERVICE WITH COMMUNION at 7 PM on Maundy Thursday in the Fellowship Hall. COMMUNITY GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE Friday, April 18th at Corry First United Methodist beginning at 12 Noon. COMMUNION will be served at both services on Easter Sunday, April 20th. SERMON CLIFF NOTES: Psalm 118:1-2,19-29 Matthew 21:1-11 We find ourselves being swept up into a festal parade in this week’s passages for our celebration of Palm Sunday. Psalm 118 is a royal hymn of thanksgiving and praise that concludes the list of Hallel psalms used during the Jewish Passover celebration. This Psalm opens and closes with the same verses of Psalm 107 that begins Book V of the Psalter, “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever,”” (vv. 1-2). Psalm 118 is believed to have been originally used during a worship service with alternating voices that led a liturgical procession possibly into the Temple and up to the alter of the Lord, “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it,” (vv. 19-20). This procession described in verses 19-28 may have been a celebration that recalled God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt or from exile in Babylonia. Small wonder that the gospel writers would use these verses to describe our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and a petition for our salvation, “Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!” (v 25). Following the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, our Lord enters Jerusalem in order to celebrate the Passover feast and to accomplish God’s plan of salvation for His children. Those who witnessed the miraculous healing of Lazarus helped to incite the crowd’s frenzy to make Jesus their king. Matthew uses the words from Isa. 62:11 and Zech. 9:9 to compile a quote that verifies our Lord’s actions to arrive in Jerusalem in a kingly manner, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey,” (v. 5). Matthew continues to use Old Testament quotes to paint a picture of a jubilant parade of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on a blanket of cloaks and palm branches. The euphoric crowds rallied the parade by shouting a festal procession quotation that would urge Jesus to become their messianic healer king, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!,” (v. 9). During our worship this week, we will celebrate a service that contains an element of “reaffirmation of baptism.” Why would I blend the triumphal entry of our Lord with a baptismal remembrance? We must keep in mind that Christ had set his face to come to the Holy City of Jerusalem for the purpose of fulfilling God’s plan of salvation. On the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem, the throng of Jews were selecting the paschal lamb that would be sacrificed for the Passover meal. Our Lord was the paschal lamb who was sacrificed for our sin. On this most holy of weeks, our Lord paid our sin debt on Friday and overcame death on Easter Sunday. When we remember our baptism on Palm Sunday, we celebrate our union with Christ which allows each of us to die to the old sinful self as we are plunged beneath the waters of baptism and are resurrected to new life as we emerge from a watery grave. Last week we read in the gospel of John where Jesus is recorded to have said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Our union with Christ enabled us to experience a new walk of faith and an eternal life here on earth. Our baptism empowered us to begin that Christian journey with our Lord as we became new people. Reflect on what our baptism means and how this sacrament fits into Palm Sunday.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 14:47:14 +0000
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