News for the week of March 21-27, 2024

I hope you’re all thoroughly enjoying the arrival of spring, which is now officially here.  (And my sympathies to those who, like me, suffer from spring allergies. May your runny noses and itchy eyes quickly feel better so we can all enjoy the blossoms fully!)  It is great to see buds breaking open on the trees, flowers exploding into color, and all the other changes that this season brings. For the teachers and students who get some time to unwind during spring break, may this be a refreshing pause for you as well.

I should also shout out a slightly belated “Happy Nowruz” to our Persian friends who marked the turn of the New Year this past Tuesday. I trust that it brought joyful times of celebration with family and friends, with the prospect of another good year in our Lord’s hands.

A number of special events are clustered together this March. This Sunday is Palm Sunday—when we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the start of that last tumultuous week in our Lord’s earthly ministry leading up to His arrest, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

Palm Sunday doesn’t carry the same intensity of emotion as Easter, nor does it invite the same level of ceremony. It commemorates a bitter-sweet day in our Lord’s life, a day filled with praise and celebration that would soon prove to be shallow and surprisingly fickle. It was marked by loud cries of “Hosanna!”—a word that for us means praise for our Lord who saves, but a word that was mostly used with misunderstanding when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, by a crowd whose expectations rose no higher than the hope that Jesus would start a political revolution.

I’m sure Jesus felt the irony of that situation as He listened to the cheers. He knew that many of those people would abandon Him in the coming days and that some might well be part of the mob that shouted “Crucify!” But of course, He also knew what would come on the other side of Easter: that there would be salvation and the inception of a new Kingdom that far exceeded anything the crowd could imagine. Perhaps He looked at the rows of people and thought about the ones who would come to understand more clearly, to embrace the gospel message, and join together to praise Him in fresh ways with the birth of the church. He certainly knew that though this would be a week of clashes, controversies, cruelty, and crucifixion, it would lead to the greatest triumph ever, come Easter Sunday morning.

We look back at these events and see the triumph that came out Holy Week, and we rightly celebrate. May this Sunday truly be a time for us when “Hosannas” are full of joy. May the week that follows be filled with rich reflection as we anticipate Easter, and may we all experience a fresh sense of the wonder of God’s redeeming love, shown for us in that first Easter season.

This Sunday we’ll finish our series of messages on OT themes that prepare the way for Easter. Our passage is Hosea 1:2-2:1 and 3:1-3. As always, I encourage you to read through it in preparation for our Sunday gathering. I should warn you that though this passage is powerful and poetic in Hebrew, it is more difficult reading in English and other translations. Please don’t be discouraged if it takes a bit more effort than last week’s narrative from 2 Kings 5. The main point, which is the love of God reflected in the love of Hosea, will come through plainly enough.

Here I should add a final word of apology to those who tried to catch last week’s service online. Last Sunday we had a software problem that made it impossible to livestream or record the service. A copy of the sermon script is attached for those who couldn’t join us in person and who would like to stay up to date with the sermon series.  We’re trusting and praying that everything will be up and running again this Sunday.

In the meantime, have a wonderful time in the spring sunshine!