Let Hope and its sharing be our rejoicing this year

Oh, I love my Rev Dr Chip in Garrett County, Maryland:

<<Our observance of Holy Week this year will not be the path out of the Wilderness that we have come to expect in the build up to Easter ... In past years, we have endured this experience with Jesus and rejoiced on Easter Sunday with bells ringing, trumpets blaring, and voices singing. Our Holy Week observance this year, however, will be shrouded in the pall of the pandemic.

... Instead, we will be in our homes, with our only connection to our Christian community - a computer link to the church. But let us remember that in times of great fear and uncertainty we have the ability to rise above ... to grasp and share the one thing that feeds us all - Hope.

Let Hope and its sharing be our rejoicing this year.

Let us let Hope be the light in the darkness, the cheering at Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the strength to endure the three terrible days, and most of all, the Hope in the resurrection that will surely come to us all in God's good time - both in this life and ultimately in the transition to the next.

There will be no palms to bless in the church this Sunday. But scripture only refers to "branches from nearby trees." We are right here in Garrett County, and the first nearby trees I see are screaming yellow forsythia. And they will provide the branches that I bless on Sunday and place in the vases at the altar.

Take a look around your home. What trees or bushes are nearby? Harvest some branches and bring them in to the live streamed service on Sunday. Lay them on the table or desk before you and we will bless them together. Also, place a nail on the table with your branches, one for each of you, as a reminder that each time we lash out in anger or carry a grudge or hate, we drive a nail into the cross of Christ even today.

... We remain community. We remain bound together by the Spirit of Christ. We walk the path Jesus walked this Holy Week in new ways, together in new ways, the Community of Christ - the Light in the Darkness. >>