PALM SUNDAY: I ONCE WAS BLIND BUT NOW I SEE

We are at the last Sunday of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week!  Please join us for our Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services with Tru-way Church of the Living Christ.  Both will be in our Fellowship Hall at 7:00 pm. This is always a wonderful time of fellowship, celebration, and worship.  We will also begin Easter morning at Stockton Park with the community Sunrise Service at 6:30 am. Rev. Art McCellan will be the preacher of the day. It is a beautiful way to begin the celebration of the resurrection. The sermon for Palm Sunday is based on Luke 19:33-44, and it is entitled, I Once Was Blind But Now I….  Luke’s account of Jesus entering Jerusalem as God’s coming King highlights the light of Jesus but also the blindness of the moment. The Pharisees and the leadership of Jerusalem are certainly in the darkest place. They desired to kill Jesus for challenging their authority and traditions. Even the disciples did not fully understand what God was doing, but they recognized the person and power of Jesus. Everyone struggles with finding clarity. Life is confusing and conflictual. In this moment, Luke, with the power of the Holy Spirit, wants to help us to overcome our blindness. He wants us to see the path out of confusion to the power of peace.  He wants us to discover the gifts that can take us into the light and give us marvelous clarity! This is what the disciples discovered as they went through the turmoil of the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It is what John Newton discovered centuries later as he wrote Amazing Grace, but it is also what God wants to give us!  We pray that you will realize a new vision, a new hope, a new strength as you celebrate the King who comes in the name of the Lord, who comes into your confusion and conflict to give you a powerful clarity!

Luke 19:33-44: As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ They replied, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵ They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and put Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: ³⁸ “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” ³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” ⁴⁰ “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” ⁴¹ As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it ⁴² and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (NIV)