Well, of all the Sundays on the church calendar, the Palm Sunday service (which we’re celebrating today) is the worship service with the most dramatic shift in tone. If you recall from previous years, we normally begin the Palm Sunday service with great joy and celebration, waving our palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna in the Highest!” But, we end our Palm Sunday service each year in a dramatically different way… in complete silence and darkness.
Well, as I mentioned at the top of the service, today is the 5th Sunday in Lent. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and the beginning Holy Week leading up to Easter. Now, unlike Christmas, Easter is not a fixed date on the calendar. Christmas is always December 25, but the date of Easter changes from year to year.
One of our church’s most popular YouTube videos is a message I gave back in 2018, called “A Progressive Christian Look at John 3:16.” That video has received more than 18,000 views and over a thousand comments, most of them negative ones, accusing me of preaching heresy.
Well, I know that so many of us have been so impressed with the young people in our country who have been taking to the streets in recent years and making their voices heard on issues like climate change, gun control, and systemic racism. Throughout our nation’s rich history, it is the impassioned voices of young people that have brought about great change.
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May 2024
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