LENT AND HOLY WEEK Our Lent and Holy Week worship services and activities fall between February 22 and April 9 this year, so this “cover page” may be a helpful place to have them all spelled out together. Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22 – The season of Lent begins with “Ash Wednesday” on Feb. 22. We [...]
In the last message, we began a day-to-day look at the events of Holy Week, the week that goes from Palm Sunday to Easter – the final week of Jesus’ life. We considered the events of Sunday the Day of Procession, when Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, to the shouts of “Hosanna!” from the people; the events of Monday, the Day of Cleansing, when he cleared the Temple of those who were using God’s house for greed and exploitation instead of worship; and the events of Tuesday, the Day of Teaching, when Jesus taught through parable, debate, example, prophecy, and Law. These are events that all the gospel writers made sure to report on, in some detail; they considered them to be important. These are the things that Jesus chose to do with his last few days, knowing his life was about to end; he must have considered them to be very important. […]
One might think that the best time for me to present an Introduction to the Season of Lent would be on the first Sunday in Lent, which was last Sunday. But last Sunday’s service included both of our sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper – only the second time I can remember that happening in my nearly sixteen years here. So I couldn’t resist presenting a discussion of sacraments then, and saving Lent’s introduction for today. […]
Easter, I’m sure most of you know, moves around a bit on the calendar. It’s not the same date every year, like Christmas is December 25th, or the fourth of July is, well, the fourth of July – except in Paris, Illinois where it isn’t any more. Easter is determined by a kind of complicated formula, having to do with the first day of Spring and the first full moon after that. […]
There have been several movie and TV versions of the story of Peter Pan. One was a movie starring Robin Williams, called “Hook,” and it asked us to imagine that Peter Pan had, in fact, in spite of all his previous promises to the contrary, grown up. We find him living, in the 1990’s, near a big city, where he works as a ruthless merger-and-acquisitions lawyer, mercilessly gobbling up small companies in order to turn a profit. He works, as a matter of fact, all the time, so much that he is losing touch with his family – his wife; and two children, who are in elementary school. He has forgotten that he ever was Peter Pan. He has no recollection of anything previous to being sent to private school by the family who adopted him. He name now, is, and as far as he is concerned, always has been, Peter Banning. Then one day Peter’s past comes back at him in a way which can’t be neglected, in the way he has neglected his family and earliest memories: His children are kidnapped, and it turns out they have been kidnapped by his old nemesis Captain Hook, who is still vowing revenge against Peter for having caused him to lose his hand to a hungry crocodile, the hand that has now become the “hook.” […]