OUR WEEK — MARCH 28TH - APRIL 3RD

REMINDERS —
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TUESDAY, MARCH 23RD —
STAFF - PARISH RELATIONS COUNCIL (SPRC)
MEETING - @ CASEY U.M.C. AT 6:30.
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24TH —
LENTEN SERVICES -
ADAIR PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT 7 P.M.≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
SUNDAY, MARCH 28TH — PALM SUNDAY
SIXTH SUNDAY IN LENT (PASSION / PALM SUNDAY)
PALM SUNDAY OPENS HOLY WEEK
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Scripture Readings are:
THERE ARE TWO SETS OF READINGS:
• LITURGY OF THE PALMS AND
• LITURGY OF THE PASSION —
LITURGY OF THE PALMS
The Liturgy of the Palms is festive, reminding us
of the joy and celebration when Jesus rode into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The processional with
palms serves as the "Entry Rite".
The Liturgy of the Passion is somber, reminding
us of the weighty events of Holy Week. Remember
that Jesus suffered with all who suffer everywhere,
and particularly those who suffer unjustly.
LUKE 19:26-40
(The Message)
Luke recounts Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.
26 "He said, 'That's what I mean: Risk your life and get
more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up
holding the bag.
27 "'As for these enemies of mine who petitioned against
my rule, clear them out of here. I don't want to see their
faces around here again.'"
28 After saying these things, Jesus headed straight up to
Jerusalem.
29 When he got near Bethphage and Bethany at the
mountain called Olives, he sent off two of the disciples
with instructions:
30 "Go to the village across from you. As soon as you
enter, you'll find a colt tethered, one that has never been
ridden. Untie it and bring it.
31 If anyone says anything, asks, 'What are you doing?'
say, 'His Master needs him.'"
32 The two left and found it just as he said.
33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said, "What
are you doing untying the colt?"
34 They said, "His Master needs him."
35 They brought the colt to Jesus. Then, throwing their
coats on its back, they helped Jesus get on.
36 As he rode, the people gave him a grand welcome,
throwing their coats on the street.37 Right at the crest, where Mount Olives begins its
descent, the whole crowd of disciples burst into
enthusiastic praise over all the mighty works they had
witnessed:
38 Blessed is he who comes, the king in God's name!
All's well in heaven! Glory in the high places!
39 Some Pharisees from the crowd told him, "Teacher,
get your disciples under control!"
40 But he said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do
it for them, shouting praise."

PSALM 118:1-2, 19-29 (UMH 839)
(The Message)
1 Thank God because he's good, because his love
never quits.
2 Tell the world, Israel, "His love never quits."
PSALM 118:19-29
19 Swing wide the city gates - the righteous gates!
I'll walk right through and thank God!
20 This Temple Gate belongs to God, so the victors
can enter and praise.21 Thank you for responding to me; you've truly
become my salvation!
22 The stone the masons discarded as flawed is
now the capstone!
23 This is God's work. We rub our eyes - we can
hardly believe it!
24 This is the very day God acted - let's celebrate and
be festive!
25 Salvation now, God. Salvation now! Oh yes, God -
a free and full life!
26 Blessed are you who enter in God's name - from
God's house we bless you!
27 God is God, he has bathed us in light. Festoon the
shrine with garlands, hang colored banners above
the altar!
28 You're my God, and I thank you. O my God, I lift
high your praise.
29 Thank God - he's so good. His love never quits!

LITURGY OF THE PASSION
ISAIAH 50:4-9
(The Message)
Isaiah presents the voice of a prophet turned teacher
to people suffering injustice. The servant hears God's
word and faces torture with confidence.
4 The Master, God, has given me a well-taught tongue,
So I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me
up in the morning, Wakes me up, opens my ears to
listen as one ready to take orders.
5 The Master, God, opened my ears, and I didn't go back
to sleep, didn't pull the covers back over my head.
6 I followed orders, stood there and took it while they
beat me, held steady while they pulled out my beard.
Didn't dodge the insults, faced them as they spit in my face.7 And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me,
so I'm not disgraced. Therefore I set my face like flint,
confident that I'll never regret this.
8 My champion is right here. Let's take our stand
together! Who dares bring suit against me? Let him try!
9 Look! the Master, God, is right here. Who would dare
call me guilty? Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of
threadbare socks and shirts, fodder for moths!

PSALM 31:9-16 (UMH 764)
(The Message)
Psalm 31 puts the voice of the prophet into the
"real-time" voice of one undergoing unjust suffering,
feeling abandoned or rejected by others, and
trusting God to bring vindication and deliverance.
A prayer in the voice of one suffering rejection and
persecution.
9 Be kind to me, God - I'm in deep, deep trouble again.
I've cried my eyes out; I feel hollow inside.10 My life leaks away, groan by groan; my years fade
out in sighs. My troubles have worn me out, turned my
bones to powder.
11 To my enemies I'm a monster; I'm ridiculed by the
neighbors. My friends are horrified; they cross the street
to avoid me.
12 They want to blot me from memory, forget me like a
corpse in a grave, discard me like a broken dish in the
trash.
13 The street-talk gossip has me "criminally insane"!
Behind locked doors they plot how to ruin me for good.
14 Desperate, I throw myself on you: you are my God!
15 Hour by hour I place my days in your hand, safe
from the hands out to get me.
16 Warm me, your servant, with a smile; save me
because you love me.

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
(The Message)
Philippi was a Roman colony and a major
"retirement village" for veterans of the Roman army.
Issues of authority, respect, and social rank were
prominent in the local culture. We know from Acts
that there was at least one slave who had become
part of this congregation (the demon-possessed
slave-girl who was freed by Christ through the
ministry of Paul, landing him in prison!), and Jesus
takes on the form of a slave. Everyone in a Roman
colony understood crucifixion to be the most
shameful form of execution in the empire.
Jesus: he emptied himself; God exalted him.
5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of
himself.
6 He had equal status with God but didn't think so
much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages
of that status no matter what.
7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the
privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave,
became human!
8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an
incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special
privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life
and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst
kind of death at that: a crucifixion.
9 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and
honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever,
10 so that all created beings in heaven and on earth -
even those long ago dead and buried - will bow in
worship before this Jesus Christ,
11 and call out in praise that he is the Master of all,
to the glorious honor of God the Father.

LUKE 22:14-23, LUKE 22:34-56
(or Luke 23:1-49)
(The Message)
Luke's account of the Passion
(a longer and a shorter form).
14 When it was time, he sat down, all the apostles
with him,
15 and said, "You've no idea how much I have looked
forward to eating this Passover meal with you before
I enter my time of suffering.
16 It's the last one I'll eat until we all eat it together in
the kingdom of God."
17 Taking the cup, he blessed it, then said, "Take this
and pass it among you.
18 As for me, I'll not drink wine again until the kingdom
of God arrives."19 Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to
them, saying, "This is my body, given for you. Eat it in
my memory."
20 He did the same with the cup after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant written in my blood,
blood poured out for you.
21 "Do you realize that the hand of the one who is
betraying me is at this moment on this table?
22 It's true that the Son of Man is going down a path
already marked out - no surprises there. But for the
one who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man,
this is doomsday."
23 They immediately became suspicious of each other
and began quizzing one another, wondering who might
be about to do this.
Luke 22:34-56 (The Message)
34 Jesus said, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Peter,
but before the rooster crows you will have three times
denied that you know me."
35 Then Jesus said, "When I sent you out and told you
to travel light, to take only the bare necessities, did you
get along all right?" "Certainly," they said, "we got along
just fine."
36 He said, "This is different. Get ready for trouble. Look
to what you'll need; there are difficult times ahead. Pawn
your coat and get a sword.
37 What was written in Scripture, 'He was lumped in with
the criminals,' gets its final meaning in me. Everything
written about me is now coming to a conclusion."
38 They said, "Look, Master, two swords!" But he said,
"Enough of that; no more sword talk!"
39 Leaving there, he went, as he so often did, to Mount
Olives. The disciples followed him.
40 When they arrived at the place, he said, "Pray that
you don't give in to temptation."
41 He pulled away from them about a stone's throw,
knelt down, and prayed,
42 "Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not
what I want. What do you want?"
43 At once an angel from heaven was at his side,
strengthening him.44 He prayed on all the harder. Sweat, wrung from him
like drops of blood, poured off his face.
45 He got up from prayer, went back to the disciples
and found them asleep, drugged by grief.
46 He said, "What business do you have sleeping?
Get up. Pray so you won't give in to temptation."
47 No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a
crowd showed up, Judas, the one from the Twelve, in
the lead. He came right up to Jesus to kiss him.
48 Jesus said, "Judas, you would betray the Son of
Man with a kiss?"
49 When those with him saw what was happening,
hey said, "Master, shall we fight?"
50 One of them took a swing at the Chief Priest's
servant and cut off his right ear.
51 Jesus said, "Let them be. Even in this." Then,
touching the servant's ear, he healed him.
52 Jesus spoke to those who had come - high priests,
Temple police, religion leaders: "What is this, jumping
me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous
criminal?
53 Day after day I've been with you in the Temple and
you've not so much as lifted a hand against me. But do
it your way - it's a dark night, a dark hour."
54 Arresting Jesus, they marched him off and took him
into the house of the Chief Priest. Peter followed, but at
a safe distance.
55 In the middle of the courtyard some people had
started a fire and were sitting around it, trying to keep
warm.
56 One of the serving maids sitting at the fire noticed
him, then took a second look and said, "This man was
with him!"

LUKE 23:1-49 (ALTERNATE READING)
(The Message)
Jesus was delivered to Pilate.
1 Then they all took Jesus to Pilate
2 and began to bring up charges against him. They
said, "We found this man undermining our law and
order, forbidding taxes to be paid to Caesar, setting
himself up as Messiah-King."
3 Pilate asked him, "Is this true that you're 'King of
the Jews'?" "Those are your words, not mine," Jesus
replied.
4 Pilate told the high priests and the accompanying
crowd, "I find nothing wrong here. He seems harmless
enough to me."
5 But they were vehement. "He's stirring up unrest
among the people with his teaching, disturbing the
peace everywhere, starting in Galilee and now all
through Judea. He's a dangerous man, endangering
the peace."
6 When Pilate heard that, he asked,
"So, he's a Galilean?"
7 Realizing that he properly came under Herod's
jurisdiction, he passed the buck to Herod, who just
happened to be in Jerusalem for a few days.
8 Herod was delighted when Jesus showed up. He
had wanted for a long time to see him, he'd heard so
much about him. He hoped to see him do something
spectacular.
9 He peppered him with questions. Jesus didn't answer
- not one word.
10 But the high priests and religion scholars were right
there, saying their piece, shrill in their accusations.
11 Mightily offended, Herod turned on Jesus. His soldiers
joined in, taunting and jeering. Then they dressed him up
in an elaborate king costume and sent him back to Pilate.
12 That day Herod and Pilate became thick as thieves.
Always before they had kept their distance.
13 Then Pilate called in the high priests, rulers, and the
others
14 and said, "You brought this man to me as a disturber
of the peace. I examined him in front of all of you and
found there was nothing to your charge.
15 And neither did Herod, for he has sent him back here
with a clean bill of health. It's clear that he's done nothing
wrong, let alone anything deserving death.16 I'm going to warn him to watch his step and let him go."
18 At that, the crowd went wild:
"Kill him! Give us Barabbas!"
19 (Barabbas had been thrown in prison for starting a riot
in the city and for murder.)
20 Pilate still wanted to let Jesus go, and so spoke out
again.
21 But they kept shouting back, "Crucify! Crucify him!"
22 He tried a third time. "But for what crime? I've found
nothing in him deserving death. I'm going to warn him
to watch his step and let him go."
23 But they kept at it, a shouting mob, demanding that
he be crucified. And finally they shouted him down.
24 Pilate caved in and gave them what they wanted.
25 He released the man thrown in prison for rioting
and murder, and gave them Jesus to do whatever
they wanted.
26 As they led him off, they made Simon, a man from
Cyrene who happened to be coming in from the
countryside, carry the cross behind Jesus.27 A huge crowd of people followed, along with women
weeping and carrying on.
28 At one point Jesus turned to the women and said,
"Daughters of Jerusalem, don't cry for me. Cry for
yourselves and for your children.
29 The time is coming when they'll say, 'Lucky the
women who never conceived! Lucky the wombs that
never gave birth! Lucky the breasts that never gave milk!'
30 Then they'll start calling to the mountains, 'Fall down
on us!' calling to the hills, 'Cover us up!'
31 If people do these things to a live, green tree, can
you imagine what they'll do with deadwood?"
32 Two others, both criminals, were taken along with
him for execution.
33 When they got to the place called Skull Hill (Golgotha),
they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his
right, the other on his left.
34 Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; they don't know
what they're doing."
35 The people stood there staring at Jesus, and the
ringleaders made faces, taunting, "He saved others. Let's
see him save himself! The Messiah of God - ha!
The Chosen - ha!"
36 The soldiers also came up and poked fun at him,
making a game of it. They toasted him with sour wine:
37 "So you're King of the Jews! Save yourself!"
38 Printed over him was a sign: this is the king of the
jews.
39 One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him:
"Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!"
40 But the other one made him shut up: "Have you no
fear of God? You're getting the same as him.
41 We deserve this, but not him - he did nothing to
deserve this."
42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you enter
your kingdom."
43 He said, "Don't worry, I will. Today you will join me
in paradise."
44 By now it was noon. The whole earth became dark,
the darkness lasting three hours -
45 a total blackout. The Temple curtain split right down
the middle.
46 Jesus called loudly, "Father, I place my life in your
hands!" Then he breathed his last.47 When the captain there saw what happened, he
honored God: "This man was innocent! A good man,
and innocent!"
48 All who had come around as spectators to watch
the show, when they saw what actually happened,
were overcome with grief and headed home.
49 Those who knew Jesus well, along with the women
who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a respectful
distance and kept vigil.
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PALM SUNDAY BREAKFAST WILL BE SERVED
AT 8 A.M IN ADAIR U.M.C.
PALM SUNDAY BRUNCH WILL BE SERVED AFTER
SERVICES IN CASEY U.M.C. (ABOUT 11:30 A.M.)
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MONDAY, MARCH 29TH —
This is Pastor Lynn's and Naomi's day off.
Office is closed today.≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
TUESDAY, MARCH 30TH —
"WOMEN OF THE BIBLE" STUDY IN ADAIR U.M.C.
FROM 9 A.M. TO 11 A.M.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 1ST —HOLY THURSDAY SERVICES
WITH HOLY COMMUNION
IN CASEY U.M.C. @ 7 P.M.
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FRIDAY, APRIL 2ND GOOD FRIDAY SERVICES
IN ADAIR U.M.C. - 7 P.M.
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Our wonderful old planet has been experiencing some
catastrophic events that shake us to the core. People
around the world give their time, and money to help the
victims survive the crisis. The gifts are very much
appreciated, but it is never a short term demand. The
needs are on going. Thank you for your kindness in
these uneasy times.

YOU ALONE
A Prayer When Calamity Strikes

None of us can tame the terror by night
None of us knows when next the winds will howl,
the earth crack,
or the sea swallow the land.

You alone created the heavens and the earth
You alone can tell creation "This far and no more!"
We are powerless against the throes of calamity
But we are your creation too, made in your image.

In the dark of night, the immovable moved.
Solid shifted and shook us awake.
Have mercy on our fragile flesh
Hear our cry, "Comfort us! Heal us! Help us!"

You alone are our strength and our hope
You alone.
by Kwasi Kena
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SUNDAY, APRIL 4TH — EASTER SUNDAY
God Bless and Keep You,
Pastor Lynn