April 15, 2014

Holy Week Greetings to All,
Here  is the schedule of our major events this week:
Thursday, April 17, 6:00 p.m-7:30 p.m.
Maundy Thursday Service and Finger Food Potluck. Our seminarians are planning this service, which will include foot/hand washing, music by our Handbell Ensemble, and Communion. The potluck will conclude the evening. Please bring  hors d’Ouevres to share.
Friday, April 18, 12-2:30 p.m.
Good Friday Service at Taylor United Methodist Church. The Seven Last Words, a service of  music and  spoken word. There will be seven short sermons by local pastors including me. I will be preaching on Jesus’ words “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Saturday, April 19, 10-1:00
Neighborhood Easter Parade and Egg Dyeing Party
Sunday, April 20, 10:00-12:30
Worship, Coffee Hour, Easter Egg Hunt on the Lawn
(Soup and Study and Wednesday Prayer and Bible Study will resume next week)
On Sunday my sermon will be “The Threat of Easter.”  Brian McLaren writes, “The scandal of Easter was not simply that  a supernatural event occurred. Minds in the ancient world weren’t divided by the rigid natural-supernatural dualism that forms modern minds. In those days miracles were notable not for defying the laws of nature (a concept that was unknown until recent centuries), but for conveying an unexpected meaning  or message through an unusual or unexplainable medium.”
In other words, for the ancients, the meaning of Easter was found less in the fact that one was raised from the dead and more in whom it was that was raised.The religious and political leaders who crucified Jesus found his message of inclusion, nonviolence and humility to be threatening. They sought to neutralize those threats by killing Jesus. The scandal of the resurrection, the threat of Easter, is that that the things that Jesus stood for cannot be consigned to a tomb or contained in a grave. Instead, Jesus continues to walk the earth and share his message of hope for all humanity. For his enemies, this was a great scandal. For his followers, this is a great joy.

Prayers of the Congregation

• LeAnn Flesher as helps lead the funeral of her uncle
• The Killens family and the congregation of New St. Paul Baptist Church as they mourn the death of The Reverend Gregory Killens
• Virginia Cheatham, at home under hospice care
• Shirley Jones, health concerns – If you would like updates from Shirley’s family please visit her Caring Bridge website www.caringbridge.org/visit/shirleyjones
• The people of Ukraine and Russia
• The people of Syria
• The families of those who perished in the 1-5 bus crash
• The families of those who persished in attacks on the Jewish centers in Kansas City
• Mary Karne for Maryla
• Marie Johnson for Daheia who is very ill, for several friends who are struggling, thanksgiving that Donnie is back in California
• Kay Baxter Reid for her family
• George and Sylvia Lee
• Carol and Steve Leichter
• Ted and Doris Evans
• Zondra Martin for her family
• All our shut ins
• Thanksgiving for the ministry of our Hunger Task Force
• Ann Fields for her family
• Paul Keener for Yan Li, Erik,  Robert, Gertrude and Mary
• Cordia Lee for ABMSC, Laura Guyton, Erica and Elijah Green and herself
• Phil Meads for Max and Gloria
• Sydney and Gigi for cousin Damaari
• Dave Ferguson (Open Door Mission), health concerns
• Thanksgiving for the ministry of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
• Thanksgiving for the ministry of the Alliance of Baptists
• Thanksgiving with Jesse Lucas on his safe return from the Evergreen Baptist Association Mission Trip to Haiti
• Thanksgiving that  Gloria Joseph is home
• James and Jewelle Gibbs for their son Geoffrey
• Karen Hopkins, injured shoulder
• Cameron Wilson for her father
• The Harrison family for Fred and family as they mourn
• Toni Daniels in a very challenging time
• Sheryl Gattey for her mother
• Sandra Dunn for her father
• Connie Hector for her mother in law
• Myra Saxton for the sister of Charlene Smith
• Thanksgiving with Leon Taylor that Cynthia continues to regain her health
• The residents of the seasonal shelter for seniors at St. Mary’s Center as they search for housing when the shelter closes for the year at the end of April
• All who are traveling
• Georgia Upshaw for her friend Virginia
• Declan Brown, Dave Gattey and Pastor Hopkins as they join Chaplain Dave Robinson to lead worship and serve Communion at the Elmwood Correctional Facility on Wednesday
• The people of Boston as they observe the first anniversary of the Baston Marathon bombings
• The people of China, twenty-five years after the beginning of the Tianamen Square protests
• Thanksgiving with Lloyd Scott on the completion of his B.A. degree
• Thanksgiving with Al Johnson and Roy Browner that they are doing well
• Thanksgiving for all who will come to the Easter Parade and to Easter Worship, may we find a way to connect with them on an ongoing basis