107 Concord Road, Wayland Massachusetts 01778

Today the church commemorates Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran pastor who was executed by the Nazis because he was caught in a plot to kill Hitler. One of my teachers, Paul Holmer, used to speculate about what Bonhoeffer might have meant to us if he hadn’t died when he was just 40 years old. He gave us a lot in those few years of writing and teaching. I can’t think of any other teacher of the church I admire so much. While he was in prison he sketched out a view of Christianity that tried to come to terms with a profoundly secular world that did not care about speculation regarding the existence of God and did not support personal piety. Bonhoeffer developed Luther’s “theology of the cross” for our time.

“God’s transcendence must be seen as a this-worldly transcendence in that God is known neither by abstract reasoning nor by mystical contemplation but in concrete living for others. The Christian’s life is a “worldly” life in that Christians are called to range themselves with God in his suffering at the hands of a godless world. And thus the vocation of the Church is that of a servant….The Church must take part in the social life of the world, not lording over people, but helping and serving them…it is not abstract argument, but concrete example which give her word emphasis and power.”

I write this thinking about my friend Fritz Wald who admired Bonhoeffer.

We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree;. Acts 10:39

                       Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem

And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Philippians 2: 8

Palm Sunday is a march of many meanings. Jesus enters into Jerusalem. We enter into Holy Week. The agitated crowds shout and murmur. They think Jesus is a warrior who will save them from an oppressive occupation. We join right in with our own confusion and cynicism, our own joyful enthusiasm and reluctance and sarcasm and opinions.

But there is something about Palm Sunday that is out of our control, same with the rest of Holy Week, As much as the church through the ages has tried to limit and historicize Holy Week, the Spirit resists that kind of packaging. The drama that unfolds in the narration of the end of Jesus’ life is the drama of all human life. No, that’s wrong. It’s the drama of all life. We come to the great gospel story as pilgrims who have walked through Lent and arrived at our destination. It’s not Disney or a luxury hotel. It looks and sounds more like a street riot that we’ve come to.

We come as people who have stumbled into church; maybe it was a close call between church and the bagel shop. That’s okay. We’re all in the crowd and the story takes us in. The spirit speaks to each of us. I hope that there will be some blessing, some insight or something for each of you in the Holy Week services. Enter into the great days of the church with quiet minds and hearts. Just listen, pray, meditate, let your hearts absorb the words of the scripture, the hymns and the prayers. I look forward to seeing each one of you.

Sign up for an Easter flower $10. Make a check to Peace.

Sign up for the Easter brunch.

This week in Sunday school, our children will explore Holy Week through the readings of Mark 11:1-11; 15:1-39.  One week from Sunday we celebrate Easter.  However, between now and then, several important events are marked by the Christian church.  Without these events, there would be no Easter.

Lent is impossibly long for children, almost six weeks with no real story to go with it.  However, Holy Week is just eight days and is filled with action and tension.  Holy Week begins with our Palm Sunday procession and continues daily with stories about Jesus.  I encourage you to bring Holy Week into your home so that Easter is even more meaningful for you and for your children.  Here are a few suggestions for doing just that (from www.worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com):

Bring some palm branches home on Sunday.  Display them prominently either in a vase on the table where you eat, pinned on the family’s message center, or on the refrigerator door with magnets.

Create a small worship center by spreading out palm branches, add a Bible or a few story books about Jesus, a cross or other symbol and a coloring-book picture of Jesus colored just for this space.

Pray the Lord’s Prayer together each day this week.  For younger children this may be an introduction to the prayer Jesus taught us.  For older children it could be an opportunity to talk about one specific phrase each day.

Plan for your family to attend one or more of the week’s worship services.  These story oriented services allow children to be aware of the events taking place during Holy Week on the anniversaries of the very day or night they occurred.   A wonderful and moving service that the children might appreciate is on Maundy Thursday at the Church of the Holy Spirit (169 Rice Road, Wayland) with Peace at 7:00 PM.  An agape meal served by members of CHS will follow.

…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  John 12:24

Expulsion of the Money Changers  Giotto, Florence, 1266-1337

Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle.  John 2:15

What makes you angry?  In the Gospel for Sunday Jesus is angry. We hear that he turned over tables and released the sacrificial animals. We need to be careful about interpreting this passage; it’s easy to put ourselves into Jesus’ place and let his anger justify our anger. But we’ll give it a try. We’ll talk about anger on Sunday, Jesus’ anger and our anger, the source of it, what it does to us, what to do about it, etc. What I say might make you angry…

Woods Hole scientist Seth Spawn will be our guest. He will speak to us about what his research in the arctic tells us about our planet. Our middle school students will be invited to attend Seth’s presentation.

Family Promise continues. The coordinators–Kim Ho, Kim Canning and Cindy Fenichel–report that things are going along smoothly. This morning the Wayland Fire Chief, Building Inspectors and Board of Health Officer were here to inspect our church. They were all impressed by the program and the way everything is set up. This is a big affirmation of the work of the coordinators.

Here are brief comments from two overnight hosts, Mike Ho and Bob Holmgren. They give a couple snapshots of what the community that is formed through this program. It seems almost like the interaction of a family.

Bility arrived a little after 9:30 because she had gotten stuck in the snow. We helped her carry in her sleepy kids….Mike

We had a good evening… We played banagram with the kids.  Sharon was a tough competitor, but then went on to help each of us finish (including me).
One of the toddlers like to “greet us” as the “hulk”. The same toddler found something that resembled a “hoola-hoop”.  Several guests showed us how it’s done and seemed to enjoy the time. I liked the “refresh clean air” while taking the trash out this morning.  Sharon mentioned it was only 3 degrees outside, which led me to point out that this would be like a “warm day” after a cold streak in Minnesota. Bob