Last year, after worship on Passion/Palm Sunday, a member wondered what happened to Palm Sunday. I appreciated this person’s question and I approached Worship Ministry Team and session with an idea. Beginning this year, our worship would alternate between Palm Sunday and Passion/Palm Sunday. This year, on Palm Sunday, March 28, we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Sunday. Worship will begin with a processional with the palms. All of our choirs will provide music for this day. Our youth will have a drama and I will preach on the events of that first day from Luke 19:28-48, “A Day in the Life.”
During Holy Week, on Monday and Wednesday, we will have a brief service of Evening Prayer at 7:00 p.m. On Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. the Discipleship Ministry Team will have a Seder meal. Please watch your bulletin for more information about these worship experiences.
On Maundy Thursday, April 1, our liturgy will come from Lyn Reith, a pastor in the United Church of Christ. She writes, “This service was designed to be a full service of Word and Sacrament. It was also designed to allow worshipers to share in the intimacy Jesus experienced with his disciples through foot washing and during the meal in the hours prior to his arrest and crucifixion.” While the ritual of foot washing will only be shared by one other person and me, it will raise a question whether there may “Another Sacrament?”
Finally, on Good Friday, April 2, our worship will come from Mary Kortman and Daniel Mouw. Mary serves as worship director at South Grandville Christian Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan, where Dan is pastor. “Beneath the Cross” uses first person narratives from Judas, Simon of Cyrene, a Soldier, Mary, the dying thief, and the Centurion to tell the story of the Passion of our Lord.
