You are invited to the in-person Palm/Passion Sunday Service on April 2 at 10 am.
The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.
You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 Meeting ID: 965 881 6441
You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.
Palm/Passion Sunday
Sunday, April 2, 2023, 10 am
This Sunday is In-Person Lego Sunday!
First, children will be in worship. Following the Special Music, the teacher,
Joan Culbertson, will lead our children to the Nursery Room
Special Music: The Holy City, Carmelita Abenoja, Solo
words by F.E. Weatherly Music by Stephen Adams
Carmelita picked this sacred classic to honor the memory of her late husband Lemuel Abenoja on his 10th anniversary of his death, April 14th. Lemuel loved this aria and sang it a number of times in his baritone voice with other choirs in his life time.
Message “Not Jesus, But Barabbas” Rev. John Song
On this Palm/Passion Sunday, we conclude our Lenten Sermon Series: “Rendezvous with God” with “Not Jesus, But Barabbas”. Join us as we commemorate Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem when people greeted him as their king with waving of palms, singing and rejoicing with “Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!” But it was short lived as people turned against Jesus through the incitement by religious leaders and when he didn’t meet their expectation of the “worldly” king. Palm/Passion Sunday begins the Holy Passion Week of Jesus where he suffers and dies on the Cross. Without it, there is no Easter.
“Evil is a ‘militant ignorance’. Evil actively and militantly refuse consciousness.
Evil attempts to escape and hide from their own conscience through self-deception.”
~ M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, 1998
“Liars travel in pack.”
~ James Baldwin, an African-American writer and activist in the 50s and 60s
People prefer comforting lie over uncomfortable truth.
People believe in confident lie over tentative truth.
People listen to the loudest voice in the room over a quiet voice of reason.
People follow a charismatic liar over an integrous leader.
People are susceptible to self-deception.
God, on the other hand, is incapable of self-deception and being deceived.
~ John Song
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~ T. S. ELIOT from Four Quartets
