A Blessed and Happy Easter Dear Siblings in Christ,
Happy Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord! Jesus has risen from the dead! This announcement resounds in the church throughout the world, together with singing ‘Christ, the Lord is Risen Today. Alleluia!’ This Good News has been lit like a new flame in the hearts of believers, even in the face of the challenges in our world due to climate change, war, and increased restrictions on individual rights and liberties.
We can be so grateful and joy-filled to gather as an open and inclusive community of faith in the Lord’s resurrection, when many do not welcome people because of who they love, how they identify, and how they worship the Creator of all. This gratitude and joy grown in the love of God in the Risen Christ, is contagious transmitted from heart to heart, because every human heart hungers to be wholly loved. It is not a magic formula that makes challenges disappear. It is a love and a hope that binds us up to face the challenges that arise. Christ is with us, indeed!
Giving witness to the love of God in the Risen Lord is one of the many attributes of the faith community of BMUC. We give witness in opening our space to community organizations, in raising funds to alleviate suffering from human and natural disasters, supporting those who serve missionally in devastated areas and through spiritually educational trips. We organize and fund holistic health and education supplies for the marginalized, the impoverished and victimized, and advocate for the inclusivity of all persons into the Christian community, especially in the UMC.
This Easter, with joy, gratitude, love, and hope filling our hearts I invite to you give specially, above your regular giving, to the work of our Missions & Outreach team. In the past year alone, they have organized us to give to and build period packs and hygiene kits delivered through the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission; sock kits for our unsheltered neighbors which many of us delivered; donate gift cards to youth in foster care, raise funds for the youth going on the Holy Land Pilgrimage. They are planning the upcoming Crop Walk, school kits, and free financial literacy gatherings. This is the love and joy that is contagious for sure!
Please do join us for worship throughout Holy Week beginning with
10:30 am worship on Palm-Passion Sunday, April 2 when we remember the procession of Jesus into Jerusalem to palm branches waving branches and cloaks thrown before the donkey upon which he rode, even as political and religious zealots were plotting his arrest, conviction, and death. Please donate Easter candy if you can. Then on Good Friday, April 7, at 7 pm, through Tenebrae Service we remember the unlawful conviction and death of our Lord, Jesus the Christ. Grieved we leave in silence to await God’s work. On Easter Sunday, 10:30 am worship, we come to the tomb, surprised, and filled with joy that not only is the cross empty, so is the tomb and our Lord is risen!! And, of course, we welcome kids from all walks of life to an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt, learning the journey of Jesus from his birth to his resurrection! Please bring garden flowers for the cross. What a day to celebrate and join in love, with our siblings in the Risen Christ!
Shalom, Salaam,
Rev. Pamela Kurtz, Pastor
