Lehman offers many options for Holy Week

This Sunday, April 14, marks Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week and Lehman Memorial United Methodist Church has a full schedule of activities and services planned.

We'll be handing out palm crosses at Sunday's services, made from palm fronds by people in Tanzania to support their families. Proceeds fund aid through self-help grants, which include improving water supplies, health clinics and famine/refugee relief. Donations fund the crosses and support the self-help projects.

On Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday, Christians remember The Last Supper. Beginning with the Upper Room and Holy Thursday, the commemoration of the Last Supper is as ancient as the Christian Church itself. Jesus himself instituted the sacred Holy Thursday Supper. Over the centuries, Holy Communion has fed the flock of Christ's followers with food and drink that lead only to life. At the Lord's Supper, Jesus sacredly pledged his life for ours and for the sake of the world. The bread he broke was his body and the wine he poured was his blood, he said. Good Friday, the Day of Jesus' passion, and Easter, the day of Jesus' resurrection derive their deepest meaning begun on Holy Thursday. Jesus himself asked that we remember him on this holy night. Every time the Church has gathered for the Lord's Supper, whenever and wherever it was celebrated over these many years, the people have participated in a meal rooted in Jesus' Last Supper. Join us for an ancient liturgy and a sacred meal on Holy Thursday, April 18, at Noon. Or come for a modern service of song and sacrament at 7 p.m.

Good Friday, the day of Jesus' Passion, is not about us - our sins, our guilt, our mistakes, our faults - as much as we may selfishly think it is. The day is truly about God. On Good Friday, we see with perfect vision the difference between God and us. In Christ, God bled and died on beams of wood, turning the certainty of death into the eternity of life. Nothing at all like that happens when we bleed and die. On that day, God affirmed for all time and space the gospel of Jesus when he said, "Do not be afraid." Join us on Good Friday, April 19, come and go as you please from Noon to 3 p.m. for visualizations and meditations on the Stations of the Cross and the Seven Last Words. Then at 7 p.m. join us for an observance of Good Friday in prayers and hymns.

Join us Easter Saturday for our annual pancake breakfast from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Cost: $4 for ages 12 through adult, $3 for children ages 4-11, children under 3 are free. Family rate is $20 for two related adults and their children. Proceeds benefit our Campership Scholarship Fund for summer camp.

Easter Sunday is the day for a thousand trumpets to herald "O Christ, Alive!" The eternity of life began that first morning on the first day of the week. The joyful news of the Resurrection makes it possible, and powerful in meaning, to accept life, to make sacrifices, even to suffer, and yet to know that death has no sting left to it. We have only to look closer in our hearts to find Christ alive. Join us at 8:15, 9:30, or 11:00 a.m. to celebrate the Living God, the Risen Christ, and the Holy Spirit! Everyone is invited to join the choir for the Hallelujah Chorus!