As April begins, we find our Lenten journey coming to an end at the same place it always does; the cross. Our Lenten journey is meant to be one of reflection, repentance and renewal as we approach the cross, what lies beyond it, and what this reveals to us about God. Yet, if we skip straight from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to the good news that Jesus’ tomb is empty, then our Lenten journeys are incomplete. There can be no good news of Easter morning without the heartbreak of Good Friday. Without death, there can be no resurrection.
In order to help us to experience all the ups and downs (and ups) of Holy Week, Cokesbury United Methodist Church is offering services on Maundy Thursday (7pm), Good Friday (7pm), and Easter Sunday (10:30 am). Each of these services is designed to help us understand how Jesus went from being celebrated upon his arrival in Jerusalem to his execution and beyond. If we miss a step, then we miss a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Our Maundy Thursday service will take place in the Family Life Center as we gather around the table in much the same way Jesus and his disciples did that last evening prior to his arrest. We will break bread together. We will fellowship with one another. We will wash. And we will be given a new commandment.
Our Good Friday service will be in our sanctuary where we will experience the passion of Jesus. Through this experience of word and music, we will get to experience together the heartbreak and darkness brought to the world when we extinguish the light of Christ through the hardness of our own hearts.
Finally, on Easter morning, we will gather by the tomb to discover it is empty! In our celebration, we will marvel at God’s good news being revealed to us through Jesus Christ that sin and death are no match for God’s love and grace. The joy of which we rob ourselves in our sinfulness is restored in God’s faithfulness. I hope you will join us for all of the final stages of our journey to the cross and beyond, and I hope this journey helps you experience anew God’s love for you.
As we move later into April we get to look ahead at some of the things God is up to with us and our neighbors. There are two things I love about being United Methodist; our understanding of the extent and action of God’s grace and our connectionalism. God’s grace is revealed to us through scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. When we use all these tools God has given us, we engage in the same sort of living out our faith that Jesus does to where we come to new and deeper understandings of God’s love for creation and how we are called to live in response to God’s grace and love.
While no analogy is perfect, God’s grace is essentially God’s medical team from the first responders right through to the doctors and rehab specialists. The beautiful thing about God’s grace is God was extending grace to us before we ever knew to look for it ourselves (the prevenient action of God’s grace.) God’s search and rescue team was deployed before we ever took our first breath! We get to experience ourselves being reconciled back to God through the emergency room cleansing waters of baptism which wash us clean of the grip that sin and death have on us (the justifying action of God’s grace.) Finally, God’s grace moves us into rehab where the image of God that we all carry is slowly restored (the sanctifying action of God’s grace.)
As we walk our paths of Christian perfection (sanctification), we come to realize that we were not created to live our lives nor our faith alone. That goes for individuals as well as the communities gathered in the name of Jesus. United Methodists celebrate this in our connectionalism between local churches in our denomination as we work together to share God’s love and grace with a hurting world on a scale much larger than any one of us can do alone. We saw this demonstrated first hand in the North Hope Cooperative’s resumption of Community Lenten Services where the congregations of Enoch Chapel, New Francis Brown, Saint Andrews Parish, North Charleston, and Cokesbury United Methodist Churches came together to worship and give the world a glimpse of what the kingdom of God looks like. Moreover, we were able to raise awareness about The Boon Project and raise over $1500 (final tally still pending as funds are still showing up) for their vital ministry to those young adults living with cancer.
Just because our Lenten journey is coming to an end at Easter, it does not mean that we are going to stop having opportunities to experience God’s grace and work together for the revelation of God’s kingdom through our connection. On April 30th, our sisters and brothers from New Francis Brown United Methodist Church will be joining us on our campus for worship as well as a fellowship meal immediately following service. We are also working on a retreat for members of the 5 churches of the North Hope Cooperative in the fall. (Date and venue to be determined.) At this retreat we will be exploring God’s unrelenting grace and how we are called to live in response to it together as United Methodists. And this is just the beginning of what God is up to with us in the coming year!
Through God’s grace, the cross was transformed. This instrument of humiliation, torture, and execution was redeemed. In much the same way we have been transformed and redeemed by the same grace that was revealed to us by Jesus’ willingness to go to that cross. As our Lenten journeys come to a close, it is my prayer that all experience the new life we are all intended to have in Jesus that reaches beyond the cross and empty tomb to unite us with God and to unite us with one another!
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Bryan