Rector’s Message (Sunday, March 29, 2026)

Rector’s Message: Sunday, March 29, 2026

Today we begin Holy Week. It starts with Palm Sunday when our Lord was welcomed by a crowd in Jerusalem with palm branches and shouts of Hosanna. At the end of the week, on Good Friday, another crowd shouted “Crucify him.”

Our Lord entered Jerusalem, knowing that he would face false accusations, an unfair trial and be crucified. But there is a note of hope underlying the week, that even as our Lord lay in the grave on Holy Saturday, that God was at work, transforming the defeat of the grave into the glory of resurrection.

The theme of the hope of vindication after suffering is present in the readings for today.

In the first lesson from Isaiah, we hear the third Servant Song, when Isaiah tells us of the suffering that the servant endured for being obedient to God’s will. Yet he remained faithful. He was sure that God would declare him innocent in the end.

The psalmist lamented that he too faced trouble. His enemies, neighbours and friends abandoned him but he knew he could call on God to save him.

The epistle tells of the humility that Christ took on for the sake of humanity, even to die on a cross. But God raised him from the dead in the end, and we are invited to join all creation in confessing that Jesus Christ, once crucified, is Lord.

Therefore as we hear again the story of our salvation, may we hear in it, the hope that has been won for us, the hope that could not be defeated by the worst suffering the world could give, the hope that is ours today, if we choose to place ourselves in God’s hands and trust God to save us even when all hope seems lost.

We extend a warm welcome to all our visitors and friends. May God continue to bless you all.