Volume 94, Issue 7 April 2, 2014
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29
The pace quickens. On our Lenten journey, we are closer to the end and the tension mounts. Soon it will be Holy Week, the week in which we focus on the last days of Jesus’ earthly life. It’s a story we know – and yet we need to hear it again, to be reminded of our Lord’s sacrifice for us.
It begins with Palm Sunday, as we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Many of us remember when it was all celebration, a hint of Jesus’ glory to come, yet shadowed with the awareness that the cross awaited. Today it has become “Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday” with an increased emphasis on the story of Jesus’ suffering and death.
The reason for this is that Holy Week has in some respects become just another week. Although there are lessons and prayers assigned for each day of the week, most churches have services on Holy Thursday and Good Friday only, with some also having Wednesday services. People just don’t come on other days. Instead of allowing time for contemplating the mystery and awesomeness of the week, the world demands our attention elsewhere. So in response we condense most of the week into one day.
Every year I struggle with this; I would like to keep Palm Sunday as it’s own special day. But I also believe it is important for us to remember and keep in our awareness the whole story. Easter without the story of the crucifixion is not nearly as awesome. It seems weird, almost hollow, to celebrate the Festival of the Resurrection without experiencing Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. How can we fully appreciate the empty tomb when we haven’t experienced the death and burial?
But I suspect that in some ways we don’t like to remember the whole story. We don’t like the darkness, or the reminder that we, too, are involved in the whole drama. On some level we don’t want to explore what it really says and does to us. Although we know about sin and the evil in the world, we can shelter ourselves so it doesn’t impact us too harshly. And we as a society have somehow lost the sense of discipline that would drive us through this week.
For those who do participate in the reliving of the events of the week - who experience afresh the giving of the beautiful Sacrament of Holy Communion whereby Jesus gives us the means of being intimately united with him and experiencing his presence within us - who relive the darkness of Jesus’ suffering and death whereby in some mysterious way God brings redemption and new life to the world, Easter takes on new depth and new joy. We are humbly and gratefully aware of just how much Jesus loves us. What greater gift can we ever have in this life?
And so on Palm Sunday, we include the whole story for those who won’t otherwise hear it. It’s that important. The contrast with the following week when we celebrate the Festival of the Resurrection will make that day the most glorious, most hopeful, most joyful day it can be.
May you be blessed as you continue the Lenten journey to the cross and beyond and, as you contemplate the holy mysteries, may your faith deepen and become more precious to you, more a part of the very essence of your life.
For Christ's sake. t Pastor Moll
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Thursday, April 3 Worship & Music Committee, 7:00 p.m.
District Scout Committee, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 5 Fellowship Hall reserved, noon-6:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 6 Healing Service, 8:00 & 10:15 a.m.
Monday, April 7 Finance, 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 9 Mid-week Lenten Service, 7:00 p.m.
Council Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, April 10 Social Ministry, 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 12 Scout District Dinner, Fellowship Hall, Noon-9:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 13 Soup orders due
Candle orders and money due
Cub/Boy Scout Palm Sunday Breakfast, 7:00-11:30 a.m.
Wednesday, April 16 Messenger folding, 9:30 a.m.
Midweek Lenten Service, 7:00 p.m.
Maundy Thursday, April 17 Worship Service with Communion, 7:30 p.m.
Good Friday, April 18 Worship Service, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 5 Food Packing Event, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Hickory Corners
Fire Company Hall, 1124 Hickory Corners Road, Dalmatia, Wednesdays, April 9 Lenten Meditation & Breakfast, 7:00 a.m. at
Zion Lutheran Church, Sunbury
Friday, April 18 Good Friday Breakfast, 8-9:00 a.m. at Edison Hotel, Sunbury
Mark Geisen, guest speaker. Sponsored by the Sunbury
YMCA. Cost is $8. Call for reservations to 286-5636. Walk-ins welcome.
St. John’s Lutheran Church, 300 Queen Street, Northumberland, PA 17857.
Periodical postage paid at Northumberland, PA.
POSTMASTER: Send address change to St. John’s Messenger,
300 Queen Street, Northumberland, PA 17857.
ST. JOHN’S MESSENGER April 2, 2014 Volume 94, Issue7
St. John’s Evangelical
Lutheran Church
570-473-3770
This Sunday at St. John’s
April 6, 2014
Healing Service
8:00 a.m. Worship Service with Communion
8:45 a.m. Sunday School for Preschool-6th Grade
9:00 a.m. Sunday School
10:15 a.m. Worship Service with Communion
Next Sunday at St. John’s
April 13, 2014
Palm Sunday
8:00 a.m. Worship Service with Communion
8:45 a.m. Sunday School for Preschool-6th Grade
9:00 a.m. Sunday School
10:15 a.m. Worship Service with Communion
7:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Breakfast sponsored by the Boy/Cub Scouts
Church Office Hours Mon-Thurs 8:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Fri 8:30 a.m.-Noon
MarthaSue Moll, Pastor
William J. Jacavage, Director of Music