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Dear Church,
Happy Wednesday! Today I came into the church to the Barbara Boward tree blooming, the wider community being served by the food pantry, a huge smile from our new Executive Minster, Rev. Victoria “Tori” Wick. I am so grateful to God for bringing us such a wonderful new staff member. I hope you will all welcome Tori this Sunday in worship and if you would like to send a word of welcome, her email is vwick@nationalcitycc.org.
This Sunday we will also have another friend of national city joining us, the Chrisitan church (Disciples of Christ) General Minister and President, Rev. Terri Hord Owens. It will be a Palm Sunday you don’t want to miss!
This Sunday starts Holy Week with Palm Sunday. A Sunday of celebration and rejoicing before the hard and holy work that comes with the rest of the week. I hope to see you at all of our worship services as we move toward the resurrection of our Lord. Our worship and gathering opportunities are as follows:
Sunday April 13, 11am – Palm Sunday
Thursday April 17, 6pm – Maundy Thursday
Friday April 18, 12:15pm – Good Friday
Sunday April 20, 11am – Easter
Sunday April 20, 12:30pm – Easter Egg Hunt and Potluck Lunch
I know this season of Lent has been a challenging one for all of us. Many of you have shared with me the challenges you have been going through and I am so proud of you for the ways you have navigated the course ahead. We know God is doing something new in our midst and yet sometimes it can be hard to see through the pain and suffering we are induing both individually and collectively. But we have a God that is with us always and I wanted to take this moment to share with you Flora’s guiding scripture that she has chosen during her time in Pastor’s class as she prepares for her baptism. It is Matthew 28:20 and it is actually the very last line of the Gospel of Matthew.
I always take notice of the last line of a book. Do you? I like to imagine that if I only read one line of the book, this is what the author would want me to know and that seems especially true with this verse. God is with you. Always.
Friends, as we prepare for Holy Week and Eastertide, may we never forget that our God is always with us, calling us forward in joyous celebration and sacred community. So, let us continue in reading the Gospel message below and the reflection offered by Dr. Sharp.
I am so grateful for you all.
Pastor Stephanie
Read Luke 19:29-40 (ILB)
Approaching Bethphage and Bethany, near what is called the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of the disciples with these instructions: “Go into the village ahead of you. Upon entering it, you’ll find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and lead it back. If anyone should ask you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Rabbi needs it.’
They departed on their errand and found things just as Jesus had said. As they untied the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you doing that?” They explained that the Rabbi needed it. Then the disciples led the animal to Jesus and, laying their cloaks on it, helped him mount. People spread their cloaks on the roadway as Jesus rode along. As they reached the descent from the Mount of Olives, the entire crowd of disciples joined them and began to rejoice and praise God loudly for the display of power they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of our God! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
Jesus replied, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the very stones would cry out!”
Commentary | Dr. Mindy McGarrah Sharp
Between stony silences and snarky shouts, solidarity arose
Stones have seen a thing or two. Grabbed in rage, they’ve absorbed
the shock of violence. Balanced in meditative towers, they’ve marked
graves and birthed centering peace.
In an Arizona courthouse, I wasn’t thinking about stones. I was thinking
about students’ passionate shouts and silent death stares. We had
traveled to the borderlands to listen in a place about which there is
much shouting and even more silencing. A most progressive student
and a most conservative student grudgingly traveled together, carrying
histories of screams and silences into that courthouse. In the pre-trial
explanation, we heard that doors would open, and we would all rise.
But this would be no triumphal entry, no cloak-lined path, no donkey
willingly lent from a neighbor, no rejoicing. Just hand sanitizer and
instructions: Silence! No photography!
We were entering Operation Streamline’s20 public gallery, the daily
hearing where up to eighty humans are tried en masse for immigration
violations. Since 2005, this has continued through Democratic and
Republican administrations. Chained by ankle, wrist, and waist, human
beings walk to a judge six-by-six, clanging, pleading. It would be over in
under an hour, and then we'd go on about our day.
Unexpectedly, the polarized students joined voices: This cannot be! One
quoted scripture: the Imago Dei, neighbor love, caring for strangers,
remembering Jesus’ own journey as a migrant. The other quoted
law: due process, presumption of innocence, amnesty, constitutional
rights. Between stony silences and snarky shouts arose some solidarity.
Together, they witnessed what we humans can do to each other and
the lengths we go to make it all make sense.
Bearing witness complicates things. Divisive soundbites crumble,
north and south get confused. But, stones certainly know the violence,
graves, and peace prayers held in this sacred, desecrated land.
On a borrowed donkey from a gracious neighbor, on crowd-sourced
paths accompanied by loud rejoicing, Jesus wept on arrival,21 knowing full
well what we humans are capable of doing to each other. He rode right
into what stones have seen: criminalization and death-dealing decisions,
dehumanization and denial of dignity, disregard for expansive beauty.
What would stones shout? What do you shout? What do you silence?
Reflect
Where is your voice needed now? Where are you called to silently bear witness?
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