Rev Chris Roth

This week we have been on a journey, and we have seen ourselves in many parts of the events of Holy Week. On Palm Sunday we walked alongside Christ as he processed into Jerusalem. We have participated with the crowd cheering “Hosanna”- Welcoming him as the expected King, the Messiah. On Monday, we witnessed Mary anointing Jesus’s feet with expensive perfume and wiping them with her hair. We saw ourselves pouring our best on Jesus in worship. On Tuesday, we heard Jesus say,  “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24).  And we heard ourselves challenges into self giving love, following his example. On Wednesday, we saw Jesus declaring to the disciples that one of them was going to betray him. Then, we witnessed Judas leave them and walk into the darkness. If we are bold and honest enough, we saw the times we have betrayed him, too. On Maundy Thursday, Jesus washed the feet of his discipl...

  Matthew 21:1-11;  Isaiah 50:4-9a;  Psalm 31:9-16;  Philippians 2:5-11;  Matthew 26:14-27:66 You may have noticed that there was a great turnout for the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper this year. … But, I don’t think we had as many people come out on the following day for Ash Wednesday. … It’s not very hard to imagine why. We love to celebrate. It’s fun. And we don’t have to feel bad a bout that. Celebration is actually an important spiritual practice. The Bible has many feasts that the people are commanded to celebrate. God wants us to celebrate. What’s not to love about eating and laughing with a community of people you care about? On Ash Wednesday we are marked with ashes as we remember that we are sinners, and that we will all die. We meet to begin a time of fasting and repentance. We re-evaluate our lives. We seek to turn to God in all parts of our lives, and so we look to see if we have turned away from God in any way. We seek God’s mercy to help us b...