Newsletters

THE CREATOR CONNECTION    March 2026
May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK

From Wilderness to the Gates of Jerusalem

Dear Creator Family,

For weeks now we have been walking slowly. Lent does that to us. It stretches time. It quiets the room. It invites us to stay when leaving would be easier. We have prayed with dust on our foreheads. We have listened to stories of thirst, of night-time questions, of wilderness testing. We have practiced honesty … not as punishment, but as home-making. We have named what keeps us from belonging. We have let Scripture expose us … not to shame us … but to return us to relationship. And now toward the end of Lent something begins to shift. The road bends toward Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday will begin in motion. Jesus will enter the city. Branches will wave. Cloaks will fall to the ground. Voices will rise: “Hosanna!” It will feel like celebration. And it is. But this is not a parade of conquest. It is a procession of vulnerability. The One who enters the city does not come armored. He comes exposed. He does not arrive to dominate. He arrives to remain. Palm Sunday asks us a question: Will we stay with him when the tone changes? Because it will.

The same liturgy that begins in praise will move into the Passion: Love That Refuses to Leave. The cheers will thin. The shadows will lengthen. The story will grow heavy. And we will still be there. That is the work of Holy Week. In Lent, we have practiced staying present to our own hearts. In Holy Week, we practice staying present to Christ’s heart. The Passion is not spiritual theater. It is love under pressure. Betrayal. Abandonment. Denial. State violence. Public humiliation. And beneath it all, a refusal to retaliate.

Holy Week reveals something essential about God: God does not save us by escaping suffering. God saves by entering it and not leaving. This is where our Lenten formation deepens. “Staying when leaving would be easier” begins as a personal discipline. In Holy Week, it becomes a revelation about God. God stays. God stays in Gethsemane. God stays before Pilate. God stays on the cross. God stays in the silence of Saturday. And because God stays, we can learn to stay too.

We Walk the Whole Week. It may be tempting to skip from Palm Sunday to Easter morning. To leap from branches to lilies. But resurrection without Holy Week becomes sentimentality. Hope without honesty becomes thin. We walk the whole week because we are being formed into people who can bear reality and still love.

Maundy Thursday teaches us that love kneels. Good Friday teaches us that love suffers.
Holy Saturday teaches us that love waits. And only then does Easter make sense.
So, I invite you: Come for the procession. Stay for the Passion. Return for the washing of feet. Sit in the darkness of Good Friday. Honor the quiet of Holy Saturday.

Let the week work on you. Let it show you the God who refuses to abandon the vulnerable including us. If Lent has been about coming home to truth, Holy Week is about discovering that God has already made a home in our suffering. We are not walking toward tragedy. We are walking toward the revelation of a Love that will not leave. A love that is daring us to hope it could be true. With all y’all on the road,

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Bob

FAITH IN ACTION
Help support the Clinton Christian Community Center (4C’s) and Mississippi College Student Food Bank with non-perishable food items each Sunday. Baskets are marked in the Narthex.

MARCH BIRTHDAYS March 6 Maddie Gray Braley, March 25 Linda Waldbauer

FINANCIAL STATUS January: Income/$8,623.33 – Expenses/$12,008.08

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE
Tuesday, Wednesday- 12 Noon Stations of the Cross
Thursday – 6:30 p.m. Maundy Thursday Service
Friday – 6:30 p.m. Good Friday Service
Sunday – 10:30 a.m. Easter Mass

PALM SUNDAY: THEN & NOW

1. Why were people waving palm branches?
a) To stay cool, b) Palms symbolized victory and kingship, c) It was a festival custom
d) All of the above
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2. True or False: Palm branches were used in the ancient world to celebrate triumph and royal processions. True or False?
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CURIOUS PALM FACT
In the ancient Mediterranean world, palm branches symbolized triumph, peace, and eternal life. Early Christians embraced this image not just as celebration — but as a sign of Christ’s unexpected victory through humility.
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A GENTLE REFLECTION: PALM SUNDAY IS ABOUT WELCOME.
Crowds laid down cloaks and branches in the road. They made space. They made room.
If you had been there that day, what might you have laid down?
A cloak?
A branch?
A worry?
A habit?
A fear?
A burden carried too long?
Sometimes the most meaningful welcome begins quietly in the heart.

COMING SOON:
CREATOR’S WORKDAY SPRING CLEAN UP
Saturday, April 25th 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Lunch served
Shared service lightens the load — come lend a hand!
Sign-up sheet available next month.