Holy Week

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Even at the saddest Christian funeral we also speak of New Life, resurrection, and Hope.

We do not fail to do so, and we understand that this is our calling: To not only name and acknowledge the reality of true, physical death, but to also speak to God’s message of Hope and Life.

For me as a pastor, that means that the traditional hard division between “Good Friday” and “Easter Sunday” is unhelpful, to say the least.

Christian theologians, especially in the Western Church, theologize endlessly about the meaning of Jesus’ death. As many of you know (and perhaps get tired of me saying), this can lead to an “out of balance” obsession with Atonement Theologies.

That’s why, as your pastor, I would urge you to always keep the entire week in focus.

Yes, Good Friday is a truly horrible moment, just as is the physical death of our own dear loved ones in our own lives. But its significance cannot be truly understood unless it’s paired with Easter Sunday’s hope.

The Holy Week message is always —or should always be— about embracing the reality of death and mortality while simultaneously speaking to Hope, New Life, and the healing of our human heartbreaks.

Let me say it another way…

Can you imagine a memorial service where nobody offers any message of Hope? Where we just focused on the horror of death?

Conversely, can you imagine a memorial service where the preacher only talked about resurrection and didn’t acknowledge the human suffering of family and friends?

(Sadly…I bet you can imagine *both* of these! Yes, they do happen. Some of you tell me about these that you’ve attended in other places…)

The goal or the point of any truly good memorial service is to hold BOTH things in tension…at the same time.

The Holy Week is similar. It’s a BOTH/AND message, not an “either/or” one.

Holy Week is Good Friday…
Where we don’t deny the truth of Jesus’ death at the hands of Roman Imperial Power. Where we understand that this death stirred up confusion and grief among his Disciples and friends.

When we acknowledge how, even in our own day, human beings “scapegoat” those who offer hope and healing.

The Romans are long gone, but the “Powers that Be” in our world still crucify the hopes and dreams of too many who seek to love the world unconditionally.

But Holy Week is ALSO Easter Sunday….
Where we hear the remarkable Good News that God overcomes our death-obsessed culture with New Life.
Where God rejects our rejection of God.
Where God turns our greatest heartbreaks into moments of grace and transformation. Death is never the final word.

Our journey is “life into death…into life.”

This is what I mean by saying Holy Week is “both/and” not “either/or.”

Jesus came to live, to spread the Gospel message of Good News to all people (Luke 2). But the Powers That Be killed him. Earthly, human power killed him. The great miracle of Holy Week is in how God overcomes that death with New Life.

So, this is why we never have a memorial service (at least a good one) without both embracing the hard truth of death while simultaneously speaking of Hope and Good News.

And it’s also why during Holy Week I hope you’ll take the whole journey. Finish the hard road with us at Kessler Park as we retell the holy story of Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

This has been our journey all along during this season. And this is our calling in this special week.

Hope to see you Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

Eric Folkerth

Holy Week

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

When Easter comes soon after “Spring Break,” sometimes it can sneak up on you. I’m going to guess this might be the case for some of you this year.

And so today I just want to remind you that Holy Week is upon us, and this weekend kicks everything off with several events I hope you won’t miss…

First, on Saturday we’ll host “Eggstravaganza.” This is a yearly event for neighborhood families featuring an egg hunt, bounce house, games, food and more. As you know, ministering with children and families is a major part of our mission at Kessler Park, and events like this are a sign of this.

Please come out, meet your neighbors, and help us celebrate.

Then this Sunday is “Palm Sunday.” In worship we’ll have a procession of the palms, again featuring some of our church and neighbor kids.

Palm Sunday is, theologically, a high-point reminder of the kind of earthly ministry Jesus wanted and intended to have. The humble procession of a humble servant….the incarnational nature of such a public gathering…the human joy and celebration. This is what God’s holy community, led by the Messiah, was supposed to be.

The Powers that Be destroy that dream, temporarily, before God “rejects the world’s rejection of God” through the power of the resurrection.

But it’s good to remind ourselves of what we see on Palm Sunday…holy community sharing the joy of life. It’s a reminder of what God hopes for us each day.

After church we’ll move directly to Roberts Forest for a church-wide picnic. Bring your own lunch and join your church family for a time of celebration and community. The weather should be nearly perfect, and Palm Sunday is the perfect time for us to gather together for the reasons I have just mentioned. Holy community was the POINT of Palm Sunday…and the threat to the Powers that Be. So…let’s gather together as God’s community this Sunday.

So, as I said, I can guess that all of this activity has perhaps snuck up on some of you this year. You’re just getting over “Spring Break,” and BOOM… here is Holy Week.

That said, consider this a friendly reminder to join your church community at Kessler Park this weekend!

More details about all of this elsewhere in this newsletter.

See you then.

Eric

Infrastructure is Grace?

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Years ago during one of our Connections Band shows, one of our core leaders, Rev. Paul Escamilla, said a confounding thing from the stage.

Right in the middle of the show, in between two songs, Paul said, “Well, you know what they say….‘Infrastructure is Grace.’”

I looked down the row of microphones at him, slightly dumbfounded.

“Infrastructure is Grace?!”

“Who has EVER ONCE said that?!”

I’ve slept since then, but I’m pretty sure I literally said all of those words out loud in that moment on my microphone.

Paul looked at me. I looked at Paul. And suddenly it was like the awkward banter between the “Smothers Brothers” on stage in between two of their songs.

I just had no earthly idea what Paul was talking about, and about why he would choose those words —“Infrastructure is Grace”— in between a Billy Joel and Fleetwood Mac song. It seemed like a bizarre non-sequitur.

We quickly moved on with the rest of the show, but I kept puzzling on just what Paul could have meant.

Much later he explained himself…

You see, we had just been thanking the church for hosting us. We’d been thanking the volunteers for setting up chairs and plating up desserts. Each show we did, raising money for various mission causes around the world, involved using the preexisting “Infrastructure” of every local United Methodist Church where we played.

Without the buildings, the HVAC systems, the volunteers, the chairs and stage, our “connection system” of churches and mission work…none of it would have been possible.

This was what Paul meant when he said “Infrastructure is Grace.”

He never DID explain who “they” were, though. And I still don’t know any “they” who has ever said this.

But now, many years later, I do now know that my friend, Paul Escamillia, was 100% correct.

Infrastructure IS grace.

The infrastructure of our church is what makes everything else here possible.

I am thinking about all this today because there are new WiFi extenders being installed all over our building. We’re getting a major upgrade to our cabling and extenders so that we can use WiFi for things like check-in for our Day School parents, better classroom streaming both on the ground floor and upstairs in our youth room.

It’s something that we’ve needed for a while, and it’s happening right now.

And so, I’m grateful to our Leadership Board and all our lay folks and staff who keep working behind the scenes to update our infrastructure.

Infrastructure is never the most exciting thing a church will do. The stuff we’ve done here the past few years…a new roof on our building, a new parking lot, new playgrounds…it’s easy to get lost in the weeds of such mundane things and fail to see the real truth.

In terms of our ministry here, Infrastructure IS grace.
It’s what what makes everything else here possible.

I hope you’re grateful for the grace of it, too.

Eric