Ready for a Journey

This morning, when I walked into the church entryway, I was met by a suitcase.   I wasn't surprised. I knew, by the name label carefully attached to the handle, that it belonged to an adult working with our Chapel Choir.  Later today, many more suitcases will be appearing in the church parlor, as members of the Choir drop off their luggage in preparation for beginning an important journey.

This journey is the annual Chapel Choir Tour, this year with the theme "Live to Love," and in the week ahead our high school singers will be experiencing, and performing in, places many of them have never been before - Savannah, GA; Hilton Head, SC; Elizabethtown, KY, and others.

It is the hope and prayer of our congregation that not only will they see new sights, and share in new, memorable experiences, but that they will become "new people" in small, but significant ways, as this journey, and the love of God they proclaim to others through song, enables them see even more fully the wonder of who they are, and the meaning of their faith.

And, for all of us, this Sunday, March 25, marks the start of an important journey - the journey of Holy Week. Our Palm Sunday services at 8:15, and our special Palm Sunday "Together at 10:00" service, will be celebrations of Jesus coming to be with us and for us, no matter what the cost. We will receive Palm crosses, share in joyous songs together, and at 10:00, children will be invited to join in a Palm Processional. The message, "At the Name of Jesus," will be based on the Palm Sunday account in Mark 11:1-11 and on the image of the Christian life found in Philippians 2:5-11.

Throughout Holy Week, we walk with Jesus, spiritually, on a journey through the last days of his life, including the Last Supper, which we'll participate in through services on Thursday; and his self-giving for us all on the cross, which we will remember and reclaim in the Good Friday service of scripture, candlelight, music, prayer and silence. In Christ's journey, we come face to face with our own human experience, longings, and brokenness; and in his words and choices we rediscover both the weight of his anguish and the depths of his love for us.