Pastor's Pen

Palm Sunday is the day that begins Holy Week, the most important time in Christendom.  On this day, Jesus made his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, the holiest city in the nation of Israel.  Jerusalem is the city of David.  It is the ancient capital of those people God brought out of Egyptian slavery and established as the nation that would represent the power of God on earth.  

Through disobedience and apostasy, Israel had forfeited her position as a royal nation and a holy priesthood.  The mission of Jesus was to call Israel back to complete and total obedience to God.  To accomplish that task he would allow himself to be discredited, tortured, and killed on a cross.  However, this was God's way of establishing what God's realm on earth was about.  Holy Week established that God is ready and able to allow himself to die for righteousness, but never willing to use his power to kill to achieve his will.  In a world of hatred, recriminations, and violence, let us never forget that love, mercy and forgiveness are the principles that Holy Week is all about.

On this Palm Sunday, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of our new sanctuary.  We remember with joy that day when we marched into the new church.  All of us were filled with gratitude and thanksgiving.  For 10 years, we have marked that great dedication service with our annual victory marches.  This has been our way of showing our gratitude to God for his incredible blessings.  

On these Victory Sundays we have presented our sacrificial gifts, above and beyond our tithes, to show our gratitude to God for God's extraordinary blessings.  On this 10th anniversary, we will present our gifts again to help offset the debt on our building.  No gift is too large or too small.  Let us thank God in a tangible way for the bounty of God's blessings. It is our prayer that on this 10th anniversary, we will show our gratitude for God's faithfulness and love with one of the most successful victory marches we have ever held.