Welcome to Resurrection

Well, my friends, we do not always get to choose the timing for the work God calls us to do. We are neck deep in the season of Lent. At the same time, we are neck deep in the second phase of our remodel as walls and kitchen are demolished; asbestos is abated; and flooring is being prepared to be installed. So much chaos. Welcome to the wilderness, and if I am being honest, welcome to the story of the resurrection.

The key word for all of us in this season of Lent is flexibility. Please take a moment to thank staff who are redesigning worship, meetings, storage areas, and tending ministry on-the-fly. If the pandemic has taught us anything: even when we have made all the preparations, anything can change with a moment’s notice.

There are times when the wilderness is something that happens to others, and we watch from afar. Like the people in Ukraine. The wilderness they find themselves in was not of their choosing. At other times, the wilderness is the place we go to find a new road. When we choose a new relationship, career, vacation, retirement – all are wilderness moments that we can often choose for ourselves.

The wilderness, even when we enter by choice, can be a place of chaos. We can be fearful. We can be optimistic. We can be emboldened. We can be discouraged. In the wilderness, we can meet all those emotions and much more.

The season of Lent invites us to explore the faith we hold on to while also nurturing the relationships we hold so close. Our relationship with God, with stories of faith, with family and friends, and with strangers as well. These long forty days call us to remember who we are while at the same time releasing our grip from what we hold onto. And yes, these days can sometimes feel chaotic but God does not leave us to figure things out on our own. God is with us, even when we have difficulty believing God is present.

The season of Lent moves us to the holiest of weeks when Jesus enters Jerusalem to crowds gathered to welcome him. An upper room on Maundy Thursday gathers friends for a Last Supper and a cross overshadows the “good” of Good Friday. There will be upset in the temple grounds when Jesus turns over tables of the moneychangers. Chaos. There will be darkness and an earthquake to blot out both the light and our hope for a time on Good Friday. Chaos. A stone will be rolled in front of a tomb and the story of God’s one and only Son will come to an end. Chaos for all who believed.

Perhaps the chaos is just one more opportunity for God to reveal God’s self to us.

Come Sunday, there will be rumors of a stone rolled away and an empty tomb where Jesus once laid. Chaos. Roman guards will not be able to tell the story with much clarity. Chaos. Disciples will question the validity of the stories of three women who believe Jesus has risen from the dead. Chaos. Jesus, himself, will appear to Mary in the same garden where he was laid to rest, and Mary will question his identity. Chaos.

And the days of Easter will reveal Jesus to disciples in a locked room; on a beach; on the road to Emmaus; and on a mountain before his ascension into heaven. Chaos. I love that God uses the chaos of Easter resurrection stories to balance the chaos of our days in Lent and our journey through Holy Week. The same chaos that cause us to struggle and to doubt becomes the chaos that offers us the miracle of God’s resurrection power and the stability and grounding of our trust in God’s promise of eternal life through the death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus, the Christ. Thanks be to God!

On a personal note…I would invite you to not let the chaos of these last two years of pandemic planning keep you from remembering that on Easter Sunday in 2021 we did not have the opportunity and benefit of praising God with our voices through the journey of Holy Week and into Easter Day. Perhaps, you will not take worshipping our God in such simple ways for granted ever again. Come, join us for the journey of our Savior. Find your way to worship, if you have not been for a time. We will be glad to welcome you home. See you in church!

Pastor Chris

Every Day Is Easter

Our Lenten Journey will soon be over. We will gather in the upper room on Maundy Thursday with Jesus and his disciples and hear Jesus say those powerful words that we are reminded of every Sunday morning, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” We will travel to the foot of the cross on Good Friday and hear Jesus utter a lonely cry of abandonment, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” We will hear the words of finality that Jesus spoke with his last breath as he paid the ultimate price for our sin, “It is finished!” And we will travel again to the empty tomb to hear about the group of women that traveled there early on the first day of the week only to find it empty. We will hear once more the words of the angels at the empty tomb, “He is not here, but has risen.” And once that final, culminating event of the Resurrection is complete. Then what? What are we supposed to do then?

The month of April reminds us that Easter is more than just one day. Easter is an “every Sunday” celebration during which we come together to receive the blessing of the cross and resurrection of Jesus – the forgiveness of sins and the certainty of eternal life with God. Easter is also an “every day” celebration in which we live each day trusting in God through Christ, knowing that Jesus is “the resurrection and the life” for us.

So, what do we do as we go forth from the empty tomb? Let us follow the example of the first witnesses of the empty tomb. After the two angels reminded the women that Jesus had risen, St. Luke tells us that “then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.” They went forth from the tomb changed by the resurrection of Jesus. They went forth from the tomb to bring an “every day” witness of God’s power over sin, death, and Satan himself.

So where are we to go once we leave the empty tomb? Let us follow the example of Jesus’ first disciples. After Jesus walked through locked doors to appear to the eleven disciples and to show himself to Thomas, seven of the eleven disciples went back to their fishing business. They went back to their vocations or stations in life and took the witness of the resurrection with them. They lived in the joy of the resurrection of Jesus while carrying out the daily, ordinary labor and responsibilities that had been given to them.

Like the women at the empty tomb and the eleven disciples, we too are “every day” witnesses and participants in the resurrection of Jesus. We believe. We have the hope of eternal life. We have the joy of the resurrection living inside of us. Also, like the women at the empty tomb and the disciples, we have vocations or stations in life that God has given to us as gifts. Most of us are not fishermen, but all of us have one or more of these callings: mother, father, partner, wife, husband, daughter, son, sister, brother, grandparent, employee, retiree, caregiver, friend, and neighbor. Each of these callings comes with a set of duties and responsibilities. And as followers of Jesus, redeemed by God’s grace we are called to wrap the daily duties and responsibilities of our vocations in the joy, love, peace, and forgiveness of Christ. And when we do this, more than likely, others will take notice and God will bless our faithful work by giving us more opportunities to “tell all these things to all the rest.”

So, what are we to do then? My dear friends, we respond to God’s grace, love and mercy by going forth from Easter Sunday and the celebration of the empty tomb as “every day” witnesses, freed to live and love and serve as God’s forgiven children in Christ Jesus. And as we go forth empowered by God’s Spirit, living and active within us, may we live in the joy of the resurrection so that everyone, everywhere will see just how great God is! Happy Easter! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Pastor Tony

Prepare the Way of the Lord

During fifty-one weeks of the year, when the church is decorated, it is the altars and the walls we adorn to enhance our worship experience. But during Holy Week, sometimes the ground receives most of our attention. At Ascension, like churches of all denominations around the world, on Palm Sunday we recreate the actions of the early disciples of Jesus by covering the ground with palm branches. On the original Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem on a humble donkey, but the Passover celebrants recognized him as the potential Messiah. They threw their robes and branches on the ground to prepare a path worthy of a king.

Jesus walked a far different path later that week when he was paraded through the streets on the way to his crucifixion. I imagine it was the ugliest of walks, filled with fear, humiliation, and pain. In Central America, we spend Holy Week covering the streets with colorful alfombras that are part of the Good Friday processions that take place in every town. In recent years at Ascension, on Palm Sunday afternoon we begin to create our alfombras. The walk of our worshipers over the alfombras on Good Friday is a reminder of the beauty of God’s love being darkened for those three days.

This year, without a sanctuary for Holy Week worship, the pathway for our alfombras is less obvious. In spite of the fact that we won’t have our usual Spanish Sanctuary for our alfombras, we will look for creative ways we can maintain the theology of the alfombras, and our culture.

Advent may be the season of preparing our hearts for Jesus, but Holy Week is the season of preparing our feet to walk the walk of Jesus. Preparing the way of the Lord is such an important idea, that the verse is mentioned twice in the Bible. “A voice is crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, Make straight His Path.” ~Isaiah 40:3 & Matthew 3:3. For those other fifty-one weeks of the year, the weeks when we are not decorating the floors of the narthex and sanctuary, how will you prepare the path for Jesus?

 Edwin Aparicio, Pastoral Intern

The Wonder of Worship

Join us for Holy Week, in-person or live-stream

This year, we’re excited to offer live-streaming on our You Tube channel for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday (6:30 p.m.) and Easter Sunday (8:30 and 10:45 a.m.) worship.

Holy Week Begins April 10

Holy Week will be all the more powerful this year due to the opportunity for us to sing together to worship our God. We will move through the events of Holy Week remembering the last days and moments Jesus spent with his disciples.

Sunday, April 10 — Palm Sunday

A day of celebration marking the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem where palm branches and an explosion of colors allow us the opportunity to experience the joy of the crowds in Jesus’ arrival. Shouts of “Hosanna!” will fill the sanctuary. Worship times are our normal 8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. in English and 10:45 a.m. in Spanish.

Thursday, April 14 — Maundy Thursday

Making our way to the upper room, we will gather with the disciples around a simple meal of bread and wine as Jesus gives us the gift of holy communion to give us strength for the days ahead. We will give thanks for a meaningful word of forgiveness from our Savior and then watch as the altar is stripped as we remember Jesus’ betrayal and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. We worship at 6:30 p.m. this night.

Friday, April 15 — Good Friday

“Why is this day called good?” Because without Good Friday we would not have the joy of celebrating an Easter resurrection. We will gather at the foot of the cross to hear the seven last words and rest in our weariness after these long days of Lent. Worship at 12 p.m. is the traditional time of worship to remember Jesus’ sacrifice. The noon service will be quiet and reflective. Our 6:30 p.m. service will offer the gift of choirs to bring powerful offerings of music to give us pause as we hear each of the seven last words of Jesus from the cross. Our Spanish congregation will worship at 6:30 beginning with the procession of alfombras in the Memorial Gardens.

Sunday, April 17 — Easter Sunday

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! The story of God’s love knows no end. We hear whispers of resurrection and then see the empty tomb for ourselves. It has been two years since we have gathered to sing songs together in praise of our God on Easter Day. Worship is at 8:30 and 10:45 a.m. in English and 10:45 a.m. in Spanish. So much to celebrate!