Journeying Alongside Jesus
We’re about halfway through Lent, our Christian season which is spent preparing for Holy
Week. There is a reason that I didn’t say we are preparing for Easter. (I have a strong
conviction about this!) Our experience of Resurrection is the most meaningful and
rich when we’ve journeyed with Jesus through the entire week leading up to our Sunday
celebration. If you want to fully and deeply know Easter’s joy -- and I’m sure your spirit
does -- I’d like to invite you to take advantage of each of our services during Holy Week.
Journey with Jesus into Jerusalem…
Share communion with Jesus in the upper room…
Stand at the foot of the cross of your Savior…
So, halfway through Lent is the time is time for some planning and decisions. Take a look
at your calendar and write “saved for my spiritual service of worship” across the week
between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Do whatever it takes to clear other commitments
off your calendar. (We’ve rescheduled Session for example.) Make a decision to spend
Thursday evening at the church, sharing in the Lord’s Table with your fellow disciples. Plan
to be at the church on Friday evening for a time of quiet worship and solitary reflection on
the cross.
As your pastor, I’m looking forward to seeing you on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday and Easter Sunday! Please give yourself the gift of journeying with Jesus into
Jerusalem, sharing communion with his disciples, witnessing our Savior on the cross. Then,
I guarantee we will stand together rejoicing at the empty tomb!
Rejoicing with you,
Pastor Marcia
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
(Romans 12: 1 NASB)
Romans 12:1-2 from Eugene Peterson’s The Message:
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your
sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an
offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become
so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your
attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants
from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you
down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed
maturity in you.
Palm Sunday
April 17 God’s Kids Studio
Small Groups 9:00 am
Worship 10:30 am
Maundy Thursday
April 21 7:00 pm
Memorial Hall
Communion will be served
Good Friday
April 22 7:00 pm Service
EASTER SUNDAY
April 24 6:30 am
Sunrise Service & Breakfast
Yuma Community Center
An Easter Invitation
Our congregation has the privilege of providing a message of resurrection hope at Parrish Care
& Life Care on Easter Suday. (Parrish Care 2 pm, Life Care 3 pm) If you don’t have plans
for Easter dinner & would like to come & “sing along with Mitch” (actually Marcia) on this
special day, you are then invited to an informal Easter dinner following the services at the manse
(1st seven who respond!). Please RSVP and let me know you’d like to be a blessing to our
dear friends on Easter and I’ll count you in for dinner at my place! — Pastor Marcia
Visual Arts in Worship
I am very grateful for the people in my journey of faith that have introduced me to the visual
arts in worship. A few people come to mind, among them… Jane, an artist and quilter whose
banners still live in my mind, and draw me to worship; the worship team of Cascades Pres-
bytery, whose creativity made worship visually beautiful; and Eileen, a pastor friend in whom
lives an artist always in evidence as she embodies the
gospel message. But I’ve now added to my list: Vickie and Tanya Flemister (ably-assisted
by Carrol) whose beautiful sunburst graces our sanctuary this advent. Thank you Vickie and
Tanya for your passion & hard work. You’ve brought life and color to our worship! Pastor Marcia
Seasons of Praise
The hanging represents the entire church year with all of its liturgical colors. Purple is used
during seasons of preparation, namely Advent and Lent. Blue is an alternative color for the
advent season. Red is the color for Pentecost, reminding us of the gift of the Holy Spirit to
the Church. Green is used for the time periods not marked by a specific season, called
ordinary time. When we see green in the sanctuary throughout the year it is to remind us,
corporately and individually, to be growing spiritually. The yellow and gold sunburst calls to
mind a glorious Easter resurrection. Year around we worship on Sundays in recognition of
the resurrection. (Did you know that even during Lent, when the church is called to repentance
and preparation, Sundays are considered to be “little Easters” in recognition of the resurrection?)
“I want to give the church songs yet unsung, environments yet unimagined, words not
yet forged to poems, dances not yet choreographed, and all the other dazzling testimonies
to the creative power of the Spirit at work among God’s people. I want to bring the
warmth and disclosure of art to worship, to bring unwordable joy to the sacraments, to
personalize the pain and sorrow of the reality of the crucifixion, and to proclaim a promise
of resurrection that touches the whole center of our lives, not merely our intellects.”
(Nancy Chinn, quoted inFull Circle A Proposal to the Church
for an Arts Ministry by Nena Bryans)