Standing Side by Side

• Easter Sunrise Service at 6:20am.
• Easter Services at 9am with A Communion of Flowers (please bring your Easter lilies or potted spring flowers to gather together in communion so that we might bloom and grow together).
• Easter Egg Hunt at 9:15am.
• Easter Services followed by a simple Coffee and Coffee Cake to fellowship with one another.

• We have begun collecting items for our Adopt a Family for Easter
• Upcoming Membership Service: if you have been considering becoming a member and would like more information, please reach out to Charlotte                                                  
• Discussion Circle is on the last Sunday after Church; today we will look at John chapter 11 for the Curious and the Scholarly. These discussions are here to to inspire, teach, guide, and challenge us–all are welcome to join us (this is an exploration of sacred passages, poetry, and words to inspire us toward freshness, surprise, and wonder)

Visit our Calendar of Events to explore our upcoming dates and times

Our Sunday Reflection is recorded and can be found HERE (posts each Sunday late morning or early afternoon). These words are written to be spoken aloud; please forgive grammatical and other written errors.

All are Welcome. If you are uncomfortable with the word God, please feel welcome to insert your own word for the divine or Mystery in your life (Universe/Grace/Spirit/Divine).

As Jesus comes into the city riding a donkey through waving palms, he comes representing a gentle power.  There is a story that at the same time he arrives humbly, at the other gate the Romans arrive in a parade and displays of wealth, power, and authority. The Romans elite are the lords and kings of the era.  

To be “The Lord” is to be a servant.  It is the serve and not to be served. It is Jesus who will wash the feet of his companions this week. This is Jesus, again, turning the “normal”, the “usual”, the “way it’s always been done” upside down.  It is Jesus showing a different Way.

The Lord reminds us to be humble, to be of service to the poor and to the weak, to use our hands to heal the broken places of the world.  We are reminded to tend to the earth, creation, and all people as one creation and one people.  

This is also the time in the Story when Jesus’s voice begins to give way to the voice of community.  In some ways, perhaps he is passing the torch (or the palms) and we come together to sing and hope and rejoice, even in the hardships.  After all, Hosanna means: “Save us.”  It is a plea, not an Alleluia.

Community can continue to wrestle with what it all means (we do not have to have it all figured out or fully agree with one another to be in community).  Community can continue to practice the Way (we do not have to have it all figured out or fully agree with one another to be in community). The Stories are still speaking.

Remembering that “wherever two or more gather in my name, I am there”.  We are encouraged into community where we can have the courage to take up a call toward Peace and Love, even and especially when it’s hard (and this journey is about to get really hard).  

It’s easy to name single heroes. But there is always a community supporting and circling that seemingly single hero.  “The one offering a glass of water to the prophet is just as important and necessary to the whole as the prophet”.  We all have our parts to play.  

In some ways, this moment has us standing side by side in the name of what’s most important.  Turning toward Grace for help.  Together.  We can have different opinions and beliefs about who Jesus is and what it means to follow a way, but we can wrestle and practice, always, together.  We can inspire and support one another.  We can guide and help one another.  We can learn from one another when we stray and when we return.  We can feed and nourish one another.  

We can stand side by side, waving palms, in Love and Faith.  

This moment asks us how we stand side by side.  

This moment asks us how we stand side by side.  

Because things change very quickly. How easily our standing side by side can turn into messy mobs of anger.  How quickly we are turned into something we are not.  Ready to stone and condemn.  Out of fear.  Out of misunderstanding.  Out of the need to have someone else to blame.  Anyone but ourselves. How easily we can turn toward and excuse hatred.  How easily we disconnect and break community.  How easily we break apart.

How easily we betray and deny one another.  

How easily we turn on one another.  

How much “fun” we have when we turn on one another. 

(We won’t meet again until Easter Sunrise…so it is now that we reflect on the trial and crucifixion…)

It begins to look like the human lords and kings (human desires; wealth and power) win over God’s Anointed One.  

“My God, My God, Why have your forsaken me?”

The cry of anguish.  We, too, have cried out in anguish.  We, too, have felt forsaken.  

This cry reaches into our hearts over time and centuries.  

It is the single voice that amplifies all our griefs and sufferings and anguish.

The cry that opens doors and windows, that opens hearts.  

This single voice is impossible to ignore.  

It rips open our hearts.  So that no one may go hungry.  So that no one may go thirsty.  So that no one else need cry with anguish and desolation.  It is a cry for us.  It is a cry that screams: you are not alone.  We are not alone.  

It is, perhaps, a rallying cry.  Who are we when we stand side by side?  A mob?  Are we having “fun”, “making fun”, shoving thorny crowns on our enemies and laughing, taunting, abusing?  Do we turn nasty and mean and malicious? Is this who we are?

It is, perhaps, a rallying cry.  Who are we when we stand side by side?  Are we loving our neighbors, loving God, loving ourselves, loving our enemies?  Truly.  Are we loving?  Are we treating one another with respect and grace?  Are we encircling others with love and compassion?  

Who are we when things get ugly and scary?  

Jesus has been here to lead the way. This is what we can choose to follow.  

Every wound, every scar, every anguish, is echoed in Jesus who has just walked through all of human pain.  Betrayal.  Denial.  Isolation.  Bullied.  Taunted.  Abused.  Broken.  Destroyed.  

Jesus bears all of what no one should have to bear.  

All of what no one should have to bear…

Jesus bears it all on this human journey.  

“And they will call him Emmanuel.”  God with us.  Did we imagine what this would mean in the very beginning? No. All the way with us.  All the way to deepest love.  All the way to our deepest cries of anguish.  

With and for us.  

Christ bears what no one should have to bear.  

Reminding us that beyond our wounds, and scars, and anguish there is new life.  

The reality is love and compassion.  The rest is fear.

Our wounds, our scars, our anguish motivate us to continue to strive to make things right between us.  Each and every one of us. All beings. All of humanity. Our wounds and the echoing cry of anguish tells us not to wound or scar or be a cause of anguish toward one another.

It tells us that our work is to bridge the broken gaps.  Our work is to heal.  

Our work is to walk side by side with palms raised, seeking peace and love.  Holding tight to hope.

Our work is gentle and humble. Our work is the work of tending to all of God’s Creation.

Jesus’s voice gives way with the palms to the voice of the collective.  Side by side, we are knitted and held by the Grace of Christ…God with us…and all things are possible.  

All things are possible.  

All things are possible.