A week to keep our hearts open:

To pain and suffering,
joy and hope,
loss and grief.

A week to open our hearts to uncertainty–places that are not black and white.

A week to keep our hearts open to pain and suffering and injustice whether children poisoned in Syria or children hungry in Waldoboro.

It is too easy to become numb—numb to pain and injustice. When numbness takes over, we live in a fog and lose an awareness of the presence of God.

We worship an incarnational God who became human and knows suffering and joy.

As Christians, our task our call is to take it all in—joy and sorrow.

–To see the blind man in front of us.

–To seek help from the Samaritan at the well—the foreigner at the well.

–To welcome the sinner—the prostitute, the abused, the sick, the lame, the imprisoned as one who may recognize Jesus before we do.

–To hear the pain of people in this nation and in this community—whether or not we agree with their political slant.

The gift of this week is that we journey with Jesus through joy and celebration today, to a bittersweet last supper, to the anguish of denial, betrayal, and crucifixion, to the amazement of the empty tomb and signs of new life.

This is the week, when we are invited to see it all with open eyes and to reaffirm that suffering and love so often go hand in hand.

This is the week when we remember that God loves and laughs and suffers with us.  Amen.

From a sermon preached on Palm Sunday 2017. Broad Bay is hosting services at 7 pm on Maundy Thursday (April 13) and Good Friday (April 14).  See you at Broad Bay.