Holy Week

Holy Week – April 19

/ , /

Focus Scripture: So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away.
Matthew 27:59-60

What do we do with Holy Saturday? The first Holy Saturday was the Sabbath for our Hebrew ancestors in faith, who followed the historic Jewish rituals of their day with reverence and devotion. The Roman soldiers rested and relaxed; there was little trouble on a Sabbath.

Read More

Holy Week – Good Friday, April 18

/ , /

Focus Scripture: When Jesus had received the wine, he said “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:30

Jesus says, “It is finished,” and then he dies. For some of us, life is finished long before we draw our last breath. The best explication of this comes from The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a sermon he delivered November 5, 1967, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia:

Read More

Holy Week – April 17

/ , /

Focus Scripture: Jesus said,…“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35

I love Fred Phelps, founder of independent Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, and head of the church until he was excommunicated last year. Fred Phelps has been an outspoken hater of LGBTQ folks and has demonstrated at military funerals, harassing the families of slain soldiers and presenting God as a vengeful God. Still I love Fred Phelps.

Read More