Welcome to Holy Week

Dear Minooka UMC Found Family,

As you likely know, we are about to enter what we call Holy Week— beginning this Sunday with what we call Palm Sunday and moving through the intense, confounding, mysterious, stirring story of the last week of Jesus’ life.

But before we dive into what is happening during worship, let’s talk about what is happening after our worship service this Sunday, March 29th: our Easter Egg Hunt!

Our Easter Egg Hunt offers so much more than just plastic eggs and candy. The egg hunt itself kicks off promptly at 1:00pm. Before and after that, starting at 12:30, there will be activities for children and families both inside our building. Photos with the Easter Bunny, kite decorating, and other crafts. We’ll also have several people dedicated to safely directing traffic away from the activity areas.

This event is a collaborative effort of our Christian Education & Youth and Outreach Committees. Meaning, a whole bunch of people have worked, and are working, hard to make this an incredible opportunity for our community. We’re especially grateful for leadership of Katrina Nolan and Gail Flatness. And just you wait to see the fantastic flyer we’re handing out!

Last year we had about 300 people attend. If you are at all able, please plan to stay after worship and help. There are many jobs to do and roles to play to make this a successful event! Let’s be the wonderful and welcoming community that we are. I’m encouraging you to wear MUMC merch if you have some.

Back to Holy Week…As our four canonical—and wildly varying!—gospels explicitly demonstrate, there is not one, singular, definitive way to tell the story of Holy Week. The gospels according to Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John each offer their own presentation of the story through different emphases, different details, different characters. And each of the four gospels gives us a unique ending! They align in only the broadest strokes…

Wait. The ending of the story? That’s for next week. First we must journey with Jesus and his followers into Jerusalem and experience with them all that happens there. While portions of that story take place each day of this week, our tradition is to gather only on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and next Sunday.

Those worship gatherings are the best way I know how to live into—to embody, to incarnate—the final days and hours of Jesus life. I think they are vital experiences for we who would be Jesus’ disciples here and now.

Yet, based on our first two Holy Weeks together as pastor and parish, it seems to me many of us don’t participate in these Holy Week worship experiences. I invite and encourage you to do so as much as you are able. If you do, I think you’ll find them valuable and find that Easter becomes even more meaningful.

Traditionally we name these days Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. We’ll cover Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in next week’s newsletter. For this week, you might reasonably ask: What in the world does ‘Maundy’ mean?

As the Holy Week story unfolds in the gospels, Jesus and his followers are in Jerusalem to observe Passover. The gospel according to John tells us Jesus gathered his disciples to wash their feet and instruct them saying, “I give you a new commandment, to love one another as I have loved you.”

The Latin word for commandment is “mandatum,” which became “Maundy” in English. Thus, Maundy Thursday to remember that commandment. We could just call it Holy Thursday, but what fun is that??

Our worship gathering on Maundy Thursday begins at 6:30 with a soup supper. We’re asking for sign ups for that so we know how many people to plan on. However! You can just sign up to attend; you don’t have to bring anything.

As for this Palm Sunday, March 29, we’ll read the version from the gospel according to Mark. Then, in my sermon, Jesus: Acting Hero, I’ll do my best to unpack the matrix of meaning in, around, and behind the powerful protest that is Jesus riding into Jerusalem.

Participate in our worship experiences Sundays at 9:30 a.m. in person at 1210 S. Ridge Road in Minooka. Or via livestream on our Minooka UMC Facebook page or on our Minooka UMC YouTube Channel.

Whether in person or online, all are invited to our welcoming and affirming congregation.

Plotting Goodness, 

Pastor Dave