We welcome you to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church and to this
“Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday.” We invite you to fully
experience the two very distinct parts of this worship service – the
Liturgy of the Palms and the Liturgy of the Word – and to live in the
tension and sense of unease between the two.

The Liturgy of the Palms, with its triumphal, chaotic procession,
shifts abruptly into a penitential Eucharist dominated by the solemn
proclamation of the Passion gospel. The “Hosannas” we shout
during Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem change to “Crucify
him!” as we allow ourselves to really feel all the emotion of the
Passion narrative. In the space of this one service we will know joy,
mystery, human deception, and heartbreak. I invite you to allow
each of these to truly touch your soul, for only then can we
experience the fullness of God’s redemption of the world through
the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus.

We are all part of this great drama. The truth of this day is that we
are all responsible, through our brokenness and separation from
God- which we call ‘sin’- for the Passion and Death of our Lord. The
glory of this day is that we know by faith the truth of the
Resurrection and the promise of everlasting life, which God offers
to us through the sacrificial love Jesus showed on the Cross. The
reality of this day- and of Holy Week, and of our lives- is that we
always live in that threshold space between death and life and hold
both within us, as we strive to live into God’s longings for us as
God’s flawed, very human, fully beloved people.

And so, enter with us into the power of this story and allow it to
overwhelm and overcome you- to hold the hardness- to stay open to
the transformation to come as we are changed by all we experience
this Holy Week. And as we are changed, we are called to share ever
more fully the truth of God’s saving work with everyone we meet-
through our words, our actions, our very way of being.

Faithfully,
Deacon Dina