Matthew 21:1-11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus enters Jerusalem<\/p>\n
God communicates with us in many ways. Do we trust that what we receive is from God? Are we willing to act on it?\u00a0 Would we dare take the donkey, as the disciples did? Would we go against that voice in our head like Pilate did?<\/p>\n
As Christians, we hope to have a \u201cwell-instructed tongue\u201d and \u201cOpened\u201d ears like Isaiah ( 50:4,5). We hope to experience and respond to God\u2019s answers like the psalmist (118:21). Jesus is our role model in how we experience and respond to God\u2019s word. The disciples on the other hand, are often asleep to what is being asked of them, or demonstrate selective listening.<\/p>\n
Something to think about, Jesus entered Jerusalem before his birth and before his death on a donkey.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Maundy Thursday:<\/strong><\/p>\n John 13:1-17,31b-35 \u00a0Jesus washes the disciples feet,<\/p>\n Peter moved from aversion to Jesus washing of his feet to welcoming this opportunity. Think about the history of the Christian church, and\u00a0 the times when the faithful were willing to be uncomfortable out of love for God. Note, that these experiences grew the Christina community and faith. Think of the Reformers and the history of the churches. How they made changes in their faith.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Good Friday:<\/strong><\/p>\n John 18:1-19-42\u00a0\u00a0 The Passion narrative.\u00a0 Isaiah 52:13-53:12 The suffering servant despised and rejected. Psalm 22\u00a0 Why have you forsaken me?<\/p>\n Theses readings encourage us to consider what we are capable of doing and enduring on the continuum between destructiveness and creativity. In theses passages, we encounter individuals hurting one another and their world. We witness how tolerance to that suffering varies between people, as does the willingness to suffer for the sake of others. Jesus\u2019 willingness to sacrifice himself in today\u2019s gospel can be placed alongside the other times in his ministry when he used the Spirit\u2019s creativity to escape hurt and continue his ministry. On this Passion Sunday, take time to think how you can listen to God, and how the creative Spirit is ready to help us avoid hurting others and guide us in determining whether our chosen sacrifice must be endured or creatively transformed<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Creation Connection:<\/strong><\/p>\n In the Palm Sunday readings, how Jesus is treated by different individuals and crowds echoes how humanity at times treats the natural world: with celebration, support, concern, disrespect, abandonment, or destruction.<\/p>\n Good Friday: let us rely on God\u2019s creative Spirit to get us past being overwhelmed by the volume of things that\u00a0 need doing in order to protect and restore the natural world. Let us provoke on another to good deeds for creation. (used with permission the Gathering Lent\/Easter 2026)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Easter Sunday – April 5, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Scriptures:<\/strong><\/p>\n Acts 10:34-43\u00a0 Peter\u2019s account of Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection.<\/p>\n Colossians 3:1-4 Set your mind on things above.<\/p>\n John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10\u00a0 Mary and the empty tomb<\/p>\n Lay Leader: Maria\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lay Reader:\u00a0 Brenda<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Announcements:<\/strong><\/p>\n First United welcomes you to join us in our service of worship on Sunday at 11. am.<\/p>\n The Good Friday <\/strong>service will be at St. Paul\u2019s Anglican Church at 11.am.\u00a0 The Congregation of First United will join with St. Paul\u2019s Anglican. We welcome you to come and join us in this special Easter service.<\/p>\n Due to unforeseen circumstances no donations will be accepted for the Thrift Shop which has been cancelled.\u00a0 We will announce when the next Thrift Shop will take place.<\/p>\n April 1-9 \u2013 Passover\u00a0 (Jewish)<\/p>\n April 2 \u2013 World Autism Awareness Day<\/p>\n April 6 \u2013 International Day of Sport for Development and Peace<\/p>\n April 15 \u2013 World Art Day<\/p>\n April 22 \u2013 Earth Day<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 21:1-11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus enters Jerusalem God communicates with us in many ways. Do we trust that what we receive is from God? Are we willing to act on it?\u00a0 Would we dare take the donkey, as the disciples did? Would we go against that voice in our head like Pilate did? As Christians, we hope …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":33732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 17:04:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82333"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82336,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82333\/revisions\/82336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}