Palm Sunday: Holy, Wholly
Mark 11: 9 “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Two years ago, we marched around the church sanctuary waving our palm branches and singing Hosanna. Last year at this time, we began worshipping online and this year, as we face a third wave of the pandemic, we continue to worship virtually. Everything about this year has been unexpected and not the what we had planned or hoped for. When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna, the people expected him to be their Saviour, to lead them into a new future. He was their Saviour and he did lead them into a new future, but not in the way they planned or even hoped for. Instead, for the whole world, Jesus died so that we could have new life and healing in unexpected ways.
As we come to the end of our series Holy Vessels: A Lenten Season of Recovery, I pray that you have found it helpful to consider the ways we are in need of healing and the ways we can be healed. We have acknowledged that we have lost much over the year and that it was not what we expected, but at the same time we can be proud of our resilience and ability to take care of each other even when we couldn’t be together. Let us look to the future with hope and embrace the new life offered through Jesus.
Looking ahead to Holy Week, our recorded Good Friday service with a number of churches in our region participating, will be available on our website at 10am on April 2n and our Easter Sunday service will be available at 9am on April 4th. Please join us this Sunday at 11am as we sing, pray, and praise God as Knox Presbyterian Church continues to worship ONLINE only.