Palm Sunday/Year A/April 2, 2023
Reflection before the Passion Gospel
Before we move into listening to the yearly Passion gospel that gives us a glimpse of what unfolds in Jesus’ life in the midst of what we call “Holy Week”…the time frame between today, Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday…and then culminating with our celebrations of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead next Sunday, Easter Day…
I want us to enter into this Holy week, with a clear understanding of whose life we are contemplating….not only through the events of what unfolds this week in the scriptures, but the complete story of Jesus’ life as revealed to us in the hearing of the scriptures throughout the entire church year… The stories that point us to Jesus, the One whose love and light and way of life in the world…has shown us and can lead us even now to discover what matters most…who matters most…loving God, loving all the God loves, loving one another, as Christ has loved us…and shown us the way…
*Read the story: Jesus, by Brian Wildsmith…
Click here to listen to a recording of this story
As we move now to contemplate the stories about Jesus and God’s people that unfold throughout Holy Week…remember…it is not the end of his story…or ours…Jesus tells us in Matthew 28… “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Instrumental Hymn after the passion gospel: (LEVS) 37 – Were you there when they crucified my Lord…
I invite you this week to consider whose life we are contemplating as we walk through Holy Week…and to ask yourself if Jesus is the One you will seek to follow all the way to the cross, to his rising from the dead on Easter Sunday…and beyond that…and to make a choice to follow him in walking the way of love in the world…
Rev Julie Platson St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church, Sitka, Alaska