Church Family Moment: Week of March 24, 2024 – Palm/Passion Sunday

By Director of Spiritual Formation Rebecca Guzman

1. Fold palms into a cross. Today, we celebrate Palm Sunday. Next week is Easter, which makes this week “Holy Week.” We have started to call today Palm/Passion Sunday because it’s hard for many people to get to worship during the week. We do want to invite you to worship on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, but we make sure to tell the whole story today, so that you can fully experience the joy of Easter! So, it is appropriate to take our palm branches and fold them into crosses. Here is a link that shows you how to prepare your leaf as well as how to fold it.
2. Our Lenten phrase for the day is “It is finished.” We can think about this in a few ways. Will Willimon, who is a theologian, said that maybe Jesus said, “it is finished” the way that Michelangelo said, “Finished!” when he had finally completed the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Our Lenten devotional suggests that “we can find the strength to say ‘we are finished’ with letting fear win in our own hearts, minds, lives, and communities.” What do YOU think it means?
3. The beautiful book He Is Risen: Rocks Tell the Story of Easter by Patty Rokus tells the entire story of Holy Week. Watch and listen. What did you notice? What story from this week is most familiar to you? Which one do you know the least? Can you make your own picture with rocks?
4. Journal, considering the following:
   1. What does it mean that today is both Palm and Passion Sunday? Here is one possible exploration.
   2. What would you like to be “finished” with?
   3. How will you observe Holy Week this year?