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Dear Followers of Jesus,

Please make sure that you have a cross with you for this service. I encourage you to hold it throughout, or be able to hold it at the end for the closing ritual.

On Good Friday we remember that God loved us so much that God gives God’s Life for all on a cross through an innocent and blameless One- Jesus Christ.

It is part of what I spoke of in the Maundy Thursday worship service about experiencing a “Beautiful Sorrow”.  This is when a powerful emotion that God has created us to have, leads to something even more profound and meaningful than whatever has caused the sorrow. It is beautiful that God loves us that much and continues to hope for all the good that God intended as our Creator, but is sorrowful that God has to go through such suffering in order to help us live more abundantly and justly.

Please join your hearts and spirits together in this beginning of the “Three Days” worship service on Maundy Thursday. This service derives its name from the Latin word “Maundatum” which means “Commandment”, and celebrates Jesus’ giving of a New Commandment – That we love one another as God has loved us.

The service has been recorded and will be available any time on Thursday April 1^st here.

Please have some bread and fruit of the vine available for Holy Communion, which acknowledges Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples.

This week, the center of the church’s year, is one of striking contrasts: Jesus rides into Jerusalem surrounded by shouts of glory, only to be left alone to die on the cross, abandoned by even his closest friends. Mark’s gospel presents Jesus in his complete human vulnerability: agitated, grieved, scared, forsaken. Though we lament Christ’s suffering and all human suffering, we also expect God’s salvation: in the wine and bread, Jesus promises that his death will mark a new covenant with all people. We enter this holy week thirsty for the completion of God’s astonishing work.

Please have some bread and “fruit of the vine” available for Holy Communion. And – please stay for the postlude – it is well worth it!

“This Sunday God promises Jeremiah that a “new covenant” (the fifth one from the Old Testament) will be made in the future: a covenant that will allow ALL the people to know God by heart. The church sees this promise fulfilled in Christ, who draws ALL people to himself when he is lifted up on the cross. Our baptismal covenant draws us to God’s heart through Christ and draws God’s love and truth into our hearts. We join together in worship, sharing in word, song, and meal, and leave strengthened to share God’s love with all the world.”