How many times have you read or seen or heard the story of Jesus’ last week? Dozens? 50? Hundreds of times?

Whatever your answer to that, it is a well-known story. Many of us can likely quote all the lines (as it were) from beginning to end — this year from the gospel of Mark. So how do we keep such a frequently-encountered story fresh?

Perhaps the same way we keep any good story fresh: by immersing ourselves in its narrative, by opening ourselves to think and to feel again. Perhaps we keep it fresh by striving to really experience the story and let it move us. After all, there must be a reason we continually return to this particular story, mustn’t there?

Perhaps this week we can see the palms waving in our mind’s eye. Perhaps this week we can hear the roar of the crowd in our imagination. Perhaps this week we can feel the tension building between Jesus and the crowd; between Jesus and the disciples; between Jesus and the powers that be.

Power. Perhaps that is the ultimate question to which this story distills: Who has power and how do they wield it?

And the follow up question is like it: What forms of power do we choose and why?

Pastor Dave will consider those questions and more this Sunday, March 28th, in his sermon, “Palms, Passion, and Power.”

Register to worship with us in person Sunday at 10:00 a.m. OR join us online as we live stream worship on our Woodridge UMC YouTube Channel.