April 1, 2020
View Worship Live on Crievewood’s Facebook page
Pastor’s Pen
Entering the Passion of Christ
“Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith. I don’t agree at all. They are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the Passion of Christ” ―
C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
I greet you, friends, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. We find ourselves in a season of confusion, uncertainty, fear, and change as we navigate life through the course of a pandemic. Anxiety is a natural consequence.
That anxiety is palpable and understandable. We have altered behavior to avoid bacteria we cannot see, to protect people we may never meet. We have slowed commerce to the point where individuals, families, and businesses are concerned for their financial health. And of course, the number of sick and dying from the Coronavirus is still on an upward trajectory.
I want to affirm what C. S. Lewis wrote, anxiety does not reflect negatively on faith, and want to at least consider whether our current anxieties might deepen our experience of Holy Week.
There have been beautiful expressions of sacrifice, care, and compassion in response to the pandemic. We are all indebted to the front line workers essential to the health and safety and even gracious transition of fellow human beings. Neighbors are looking out for neighbors and finding creative ways to inculcate community. In so many places and in so many instances the best of the human spirit is coming through.
Yet, there is real suffering; physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, and aspirational. The Passion of Jesus Christ recounts God’s full embrace of suffering, and though we Christians know the resurrection follows, Holy Week invites us to sit a moment in the pain, agony, and suffering of Jesus. To imagine the confusion, uncertainty, fear, and change experienced by the disciples, and those who loved him most, when Jesus died.
Through the Passion Jesus drew himself closer to humanity. Each year many journey through Holy Week seeking a deeper relationship with God, maybe the anxieties under which we find ourselves today will also draw us closer to one another, to all people.
At the heart of the Passion narrative is the message that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, not anxiety, not suffering, not viruses, not death.
Peter van Eys
Holy Week Schedule
April 5th Palm Sunday @ 10:45 a.m. April 9th Holy Thursday @ 6:30 p.m. April 10th Good Friday @ 6:30 p.m. April 12th Easter Sunrise Service @ 6:00 a.m. | Traditional Service @ 10:45 a.m. |
Worship Life Update We are now streaming our worship service on Facebook Live Sunday mornings at 10:45. I am grateful to the amazing team that quickly made this an option for Crievewood UMC, and to the many who provided feedback and assistance to smooth out audio/visual issues. Frustrations and learning curves are real, the first energizing the second. I appreciate our congregation and the spirit with which it has entered into the shared community we experience online. With that in mind, you need to know that our Bishop has now told us not to gather in person for worship through April. That means that our Holy Week and Easter services will be offered through streaming. There is information listed above about times of the services and some ways listed below that we can engage as a virtual community. I would highlight one particular act of our liturgical life in the coming days. During the Holy Thursday service we will remember the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples, reflect on the meaning of the sacrament of Holy Communion, and share in the early Methodist practice of a Love Feast. If you are planning to stream that service, please have food near you in order to participate in the feast. I look forward to continuing to live out our bond as brothers and sisters in Christ’s name with new and old expressions of faith and community. Finally, if you prefer to receive a CD of our services, please call the office and we can provide that to you. |
Here are two more ways to participate in the celebration of Holy Week and Easter! Palm Sunday at Crievewood: Prepare the Way Participate in Palm Sunday by going into your yard and finding something green to use as a substitute for palm branches. We will all wave them together during the 10:45 am live-streamed worship service. Then, post a photo on Facebook or Instagram with your Palm Sunday branches and use the hashtag #PREPARETHEWAYCUMC . We can’t wait to see your smiling faces and your palm branches! Participate on Easter Sunday: Fill the Cross with Flowers! Help us create a beautiful image of the resurrection by adding flowers to an outline of the cross on the hillside on Hogan Rd. at Crievewood UMC! Any time on Easter Sunday, drive by the church and drop some flowers into the outline of the cross on the hillside by the church sign (you don’t have to touch anything!). Drive back around on Monday to see the beautiful results! |
Weekly Lenten Devotional Available Online
If you missed any of our weekly Lenten Devotionals since we began filming them live on Facebook, you can still view them on our facebook page.
Continue Your Giving while Worshiping Online
During this difficult time, we continue to rely on your gifts in order to continue the ministries of Crievewood United Methodist. Please continue to give as you are able. We appreciate whatever offering you can give.
Give by Mail – Checks can be sent to the church office at 451 Hogan Road, Nashville, TN 37220. Please write how the check is to be applied in the memo line of the check.
Give by Phone – You may call the church and have the office input your credit card information into our credit card reader. To use this method, you will be asked to fill out an authorization form in person or by email.
Give Online – You may give any tax-deductible gift to the church online through at https://onrealm.org/CrievewoodUMC/Give
Give by Text – Text Crievewood UMC followed by the amount you would like to give to the number 73256.
Contacting the Church
Currently Pastor Peter can be contacted at the church office throughout the week, but the rest of the church staff is working from home through the end of April unless it is absolutely necessary to be in the church building. During this time please contact Jan Bassett through the church’s Comcast email at administrator@crievewoodumc.comcastbiz.net