The 5th Week of Lent
Dear friends and members of St. Matt’s,
We arrive now on the precipice of Holy Week. Sunday begins our most sacred of days as we travel with Jesus toward the cross and tomb. I hope you’ve taken note of our Holy Week schedule (included here, too!) and that you’ll join us for as much of that as you can. Easter means more when we’ve taken the journey. And to put yourself in the right frame of mind, come and join us for Andrew’s latest Arts at St. Matthew’s concert tomorrow night. A Lenten devotional concert, it will invite you into the mystery of Holy Week. Please note – we will be in WPC’s space tomorrow night! I hope you’ll join me there.
If you weren’t with us this past Sunday, I hope you’ll take a look at the presentation linked below. I want to thank our Social Justice & Racial Healing group for their hard work – not just in the last few weeks – but over the last several years. I talked about the work we’ve done together some in my sermon on Sunday. And I want, in this space, to thank them. This is important work for us as people, as citizens, as good neighbors. And it’s important work for us as Christians. I’m especially grateful to Sharon Pearson for her research and leadership. Thank you, Sharon. On Sunday, at the end of our liturgy, we dedicated a plaque to John C. Wally, the man who our kids learned about as part of the Witness Stones Project. As you may recall, he was paid to ring the bell (and do various other things) in our original building. So fittingly, his plaque will rest right near the bell we use that calls us to worship. I said on Sunday that I hope John is just one of many stories that we are able to uncover and learn by heart – I hope there will be others that we can learn from, that we can include in our communion of saints here at St. Matt’s, in the fabric of community that binds us up. I give thanks for all the work that’s been done, all the reading, studying, researching, and good – and sometimes difficult – conversations. Praise God. And may God strengthen us for the road ahead and continue to reveal how we can better serve our neighbors, repent of the wrongs, and rejoice in the truth and goodness of God.
Please take a careful look through our e-news. And come and join us for the road ahead. I hope to see you at 10am on Sunday as we begin with Palm & Passion Sunday and our traditional reading of the Passion. Until then, God loves you. And so do I.
Faithfully,
–Marissa +