A MESSAGE FROM REV. KAREN KINNEY: MOVING WITH JESUS
Grace and peace to you,
This Sunday, we enter Holy Week waving our palms and joining the parade and the action as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Palm Sunday has much to teach us at both services (9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.).
We follow Palm Sunday with Maundy 
Thursday where we will gather in Fellowship Hall at 6:30 p.m. to remember Jesus’ last day, beginning with his own Passover supper with his beloved disciples, to his walk to the Mount of Olives and his time of prayer in Garden of Gethsemane where we will witness his betrayal and arrest.
Peter will deny him, Pilate will question him, the crowd will free Barabbas, Jesus will be whipped and crucified, dying and his body buried in a tomb. We will wash hands, break bread, enjoy a light supper, drink the cup and hear the story.
This service will also be livestreamed on Facebook and our website; if joining us from home, we invite you to prepare a simple meal for yourself and your Communion elements (bread or bread-like item like cracker, pita or bagel, and grape juice, wine and water), and, if you can, have a candle available.
This year, we are inviting you to sign up to bring food items like hummus, cheese cubes, grapes, dates and figs, nuts or other items, with the church supplying bread and crackers (regular and gluten-free) and water. Please use this easy online sigh-up form: volunteersignup.org/WTLE9
You will be offered a take-home devotion for Good Friday which focuses on Jesus’ last word of “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” For those not attending on Thursday, the devotion will be available for you to pick on Sunday. For those who will not be able to pick it up in person, who would like the devotion, please contact us at info@fpc-bethlehem.org or 610-867-5865 and we will send it to you. We will also provide a list of churches offering Good Friday services.
On Holy Saturday, we will offer a Compline Service. The ancient office of Compline derives its name from the Latin word completorium, meaning ‘completion’. It is above all a service of quietness and reflection before rest at the end of the day. A fitting service as we contemplate Jesus’ death and what it might mean to us (remember those at the cross had no idea about the Resurrection to come!).
This service will be offered at 8 p.m. in the Sanctuary and livestreamed on our Facebook page and website.
Then on Easter Sunday, we celebrate that out of death has come resurrection. More about that next Friday.
Holy Week is an opportunity for us to move with Jesus through that last week, experience the highs and the lows, what betrayal and grieving feel like. What does it mean to deny Jesus? What does it mean to fellowship with Jesus? And, what does it mean to wait for Jesus? I pray that each of us will have a meaningful Holy Week.
Blessings,
Pastor Karen