Dear Church,

Believe it or not, Holy Week is almost here. We begin this Sunday with Palm Sunday and will move through to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. I hope you are considering who you will invite to worship on Easter. Many people are looking for a welcoming, open place to worship that day and I know they will feel right at home at SSCC. If you are a Facebook user we have an easy way to invite people. You can use our Easter Sunday graphic on the church Facebook page as your profile picture leading up to Easter. This is a great way to not only let people know where you will be but also to extend an invitation to church.

As we begin this journey on Sunday, we stop to consider the encounter between Jesus and Pontius Pilate according to Mark’s Gospel. Jesus has entered into Jerusalem and stirred up hope in people as well as fear in the powers that be. Jesus comes with power, but a completely different kind of power. It’s a power that is still belongs to followers of Jesus but difficult for us to understand because it’s so different from common ideas of power. These two conflicting kinds of power come face to face when Jesus stands before Pilate; the power of two very different kinds of kingdoms are on display. We still face the conflict over these two types of kingdoms today and what power means in each context. We will explore this conflict on Sunday as we begin our journey to the cross and the empty tomb. We will also be commissioning our 20^th Mexico Mission team at each service. hope you will invite someone to church with you.

Finally, I wanted to share this quote from Richard Rohr, which I think speaks well to the meaning of Holy Week

 “Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God. God in Jesus moved people beyond the counting, weighing, and punishing model that the ego prefers, to the utterly new world that Jesus offered.”

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday. I am so grateful to be in ministry with you.

Peace to your path,

Danny