A Love So Astonishing

April 2, 2015

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

It was a dark week,

that week that was ultimately to be called 

Holy Week.

For Jesus it must have held a terrible realization that he was not understood,

not even by his closest friends.

He knew the painful loneliness caused by that woeful lack of understanding.

He knew that those who hated him and wanted him dead

were going to have their own way and that death would be neither quick nor easy.

Perhaps the human Jesus, in his loneliness and anguish, lashed out at the fig tree.

Someone has suggested that perhaps Jesus saw himself as that fig tree,

unable to bear fruit out of season.

What a terrible thought, but it shouldn't be pushed aside as impossible.

We will never know why Jesus cursed that fig tree.

Not in this life.

We are not able, with our finite minds,

to comprehend that Jesus was mortal and immortal, human and divine.

It is too much.

But if I accept Jesus' humanity as well as his divinity,

then I must allow the human Jesus to do things I don't like.

The Incarnation does not mean that God was willing to become mortal

for the sake of us mortal creatures,

that Infinite Power and Love willingly and lovingly

went through every temptation that comes to any one of us.

It is a love so astonishing that it can only be 

rejoiced in,

lived by,

but never understood."

Madeleine L’Engle, from “Penguins and Golden Calves”

On behalf of the staff and lay leadership of St. Paul’s UMC, I wish you and yours a blessed Holy Week and the joy of Easter resurrection.

Grace and Peace,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

531 W. Main St.

Cherokee, IA  51012

Ph:  712-225-3955

Email:  mdevega@sp-umc.org

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

April 2, 7:00pm Maundy Thursday Service of Holy Communion

April 3, 7:00pm Good Friday Service of Tenebrae

April 5, Easter Sunday

            Identical Services at 7:00am and 10:10am

            Easter Brunch sponsored by the Youth Program, 8:00-10:00am