Beginning or End?

Every Palm Sunday I preach one of the longer sermons I preach. We follow the 3-year lectionary cycle and Palm Sunday always has the most readings of the year. Mark’s version of the passion this year is no exception. I hope you don’t mind that I read it all from The Message, the plain-English translation of the Bible. It’s just so awesome, and even though it’s long—such a great story! Thank you for indulging me. 

It’s Holy Week and every year I think, pray, contemplate, and reflect: Is this the end of the story? Or is it the beginning of the story? And it bears repeating. 

I do a little preaching on that because I wonder! 
Every year I wonder: 
Is this the end of the story? Or is it the beginning of the story?

To me, this year it feels like it’s the beginning of the next chapter for Fairmount Presbyterian Church. 

Session meets for April on the 12th and we’ll be talking about coming back in person for worship in the coming weeks. We will always have Facebook Live going forward, so don’t worry about that. But when we come back in person, we’ll be outdoors only at first. 

This morning (Tuesday, March 30) the COVID numbers in Hunterdon are raging! We have to be careful. So, we plan to determine when we can reliably count on the temperature to be comfortable enough to be outside at 10am on Sundays. We know you want to be back in person—we all want to be back in person as soon as it’s warm enough--as soon as it’s safe. 

Our session will soon appoint a task force committee to lead us in Telling Our Story, the discernment study for what God is calling us to do and be for this time and place going forward. How do we do church post-pandemic? Who are we? What is God calling us to do and be? This is the job of Telling Our Story. If session approaches you to serve on this task force, step up! It’ll be interesting and fun, I promise!

And it all comes from us—individually and collectively—what the Spirit is calling us to be comes from all of us. Each of us. The whole is greater than the sum of our parts. Together.

The Spirit is clearly moving you, growing you, pushing you. Even in the pandemic! And more is coming: Ways to connect. Ways to study. Ways to serve. Ways to live into this life in Jesus Christ.

More ways to become who we are.

We’re reclaiming the church vision that drove our founders, calls to our leadership, calls to our staff, even calls to me. A vision that calls to you. A vision that calls us to be a church that is part of the community, not apart from it. And this is only a new beginning.

This is Holy Week and as we follow Jesus to the Cross, we’ve gotta own the whole Gospel as we truly are the passion. We are the story. We don’t get to Easter without Maundy Thursday and Good Friday! 

Make time for some deep contemplation, reflection, and prayer.
Every day is a new beginning.
And, when you look in the mirror—ask yourself. 
When I follow Jesus to the Cross, what does that mean to me? 
What does it mean to “be” the gospel?

Because life transformation—the person you see in the mirror?
This is exactly what life change looks like.
 
Let’s do this—so, what is it?

The end of the story? Or the beginning of the story?

Grace & Peace,
Scott