|
From Rev. Brock Patterson
“Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!”
Hello, Chapel Family!
Wow! We have rounded the final turn and are about to enter the short stretch of the Lenten Season! (Horse racing enthusiasts will recognize the banter. Don’t ask me why I know it so well!)
Anyway… Holy Week 2023 is almost upon us and I am hoping that you will be able to join us at the Chapel for some (if not all) of our Holy Week worship opportunities.
First, this Sunday is Palm Sunday, the official beginning of Holy Week. We will celebrate with the traditional waving of palms, while also continuing our story from the Gospel of John. Originally, I had planned to read from Matthew’s Gospel for Palm Sunday, but John’s Gospel really fits better this week. It’s not that I don’t like Matthew’s presentation, but sometimes, as the appropriate date approaches, I begin to feel that God might intend something different than what I had planned.
This change (reading the same story from a different Gospel) may not seem like that big of a deal, but for me (and lots of preachers like me), it changes things entirely. Sure, I get to talk about the palm celebration, complete with Jesus riding on the donkey. However, the textual differences are so plentiful that I am forced to change directions entirely from what I had planned. God’s new direction is going to cost me many hours' worth of research already completed. In addition, it is going to change my preparation steps which have worked well these last several weeks.
I’m saying all this because in order to make this change - a change that almost nobody is going to recognize except me - I will need to change several comfortable things this week to make it happen. Oh, yeah, the sermon may still stink, but taking a different approach this week is also going to be quite a hassle. (Just when I thought I had a surefire winner picked out!) Isn’t it just like God, though? Sometimes God changes things and God's new stuff is uncomfortable. But if we don’t open ourselves to change, we won’t ever see what God might be intending… even on a familiar road like Palm Sunday.
I invite you to come to see us at the Chapel this Sunday for Palm Sunday! If you can’t make it in person, join us LIVE online at 10 a.m. (EST). Or, if you can’t watch it live, the recording will also be available after the service conclusion.
Oh, two more things: The Chapel will host Good Friday worship at 6 pm on Friday, April 7th, 2023. This is a very powerful worship service. I’d make plans to attend if I were you, and I’d bring a friend or two. Ya’ll won’t be disappointed. (Livestream will be available for this service.)
Second, the Chapel will host two worship services on Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023. The FIRST service is the sunrise service at 7 a.m. in the Chapel Garden. (Due to equipment-logistic issues, no Livestream is available for the Garden service).
The SECOND service is the main service in the Chapel Sanctuary at 10 a.m., which of course, includes the Chapel Choir and a host of musicians under the leadership of our own Music Director, Maurice Overholt. This service will be live-streamed as normal!
How will you be spending the final days of the Lenten Season? I hope you are sharing some of it at the Chapel! That's the odds-on-favorite and a guaranteed winner!
Blessings,
Pastor Brock
| 
