Good morning brothers and sisters – and what a beautiful morning it is!
A reminder, the last few Sunday mornings I have talked briefly about the vital ministry Wilkinsburg Community Ministry.  Mission emphasis: feeding children, supporting families. Please take a moment - maybe right now? – to affirm this ministry and support the work with a donation.  Giving is easy, it must be done on-line.  Support the Critical Needs Alert Giving Event sponsored by the Pittsburgh Foundation, go to:

1. Type www.pittsburghgives.org/wcm into the address bar.  You will be directed to the page for WCM contributions
2. Click on the DONATE box.  You will be directed to the giving page.
3. Type in the amount you wish to give (minimum $25.00) ….respond to the few questions….at bottom of page click – add to cart. 
4. YOU DO NOT NEED TO SIGN UP AS A REGULAR DONOR – scroll to bottom of page and click GUEST DONOR
5. Fill in the information for credit card and billing address.  Go to bottom of page and click on – accept terms.  Click – add to cart 
6. You will be directed to your CART  - you may be asked to click confirm donation – click on it -
7. YOU HAVE GIVEN TO A VITAL MINISTRY.  Thank you. 

That’s it – you are done.  If you have not given on-line before, be patient…and calm…the instructions are straightforward.  If you would like assistance, call or text me at 412-298-3140.
Grace and peace.
Pastor Michael

Good morning everyone,            
                We awaken to a morning of sunshine!  The spring we have longed for has sprung!
                This morning my time of meditation (go to www.pray-as-you-go.com) focused on the gentle and sure advice of Jesus: Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; believe in me.
Reassuring words in a troubled world.
                This coming Sunday morning, two of our young men are going to confirm their trust in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Years ago, Jake and Spencer’s parents made a commitment to raise their child in the Christian faith.  This congregation made a commitment to provide education, support, and love.  It worked.  As it has for generations.  Sunday we celebrate a coming of age moment.  Please join us in worship this Sunday and rejoice with the Lehrian and Santo families as we witness Spencer and Jake make their public commitments of faith.  See you then.
Grace and peace be with you,
Pastor Michael
 
PS – there will be no adult class this week.  Elders who can make it, please meet in the lounge at 10:15 a.m.  Thanks.

HI all,
Oh my, isn’t it beautiful out there?  A day all of us have been longing for!  Enjoy. 
Our delight can continue and be shared tomorrow morning.  We will worship at 11:00 a.m. The praise ensemble will lead our voices and spirits in song.  The scripture passage is about doubt.  And faith. And the doubts many people in our world continue to have about the risen body of Christ…that is, the church. 
See you tomorrow morning!
Pastor Michael
 
The adult Bible class is beginning a new study based on the resource, “Living the Resurrection.”  Class begins at 9:45 in the lounge. 

Dear brothers and sisters,
CHRIST IS RISEN! 
One of the first things Jesus said to his disciples after his resurrection:  Peace be with you.  Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.  Wherever you spend your Easter morning – “Peace be with you.” 
HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Pastor Michael

Good afternoon,
                The funeral is over.  The body has been buried or placed in columbarium.  The funeral luncheon is over.  The food is gone.  So are family and friends.  Then the sadness and loneliness take hold our hearts – we wonder if it will ever let go.  I wonder what the disciples and Mary and Martha and Lazarus (!) and so many others were experiencing on this day?  They thought it was over.  Their worst fears had come true - the powers of this world…the Prince of Darkness…had won.  Jesus, the Son of Man, was dead. 
Where can I go from your spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence? 
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
It is Holy Saturday.  We wait.  We trust. 
Pastor Michael
See you tomorrow morning – 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary. 
(Scripture from Psalm 139:7,11-12 and John 1:5)

A SONG FOR THE TOMB
Teresa Morgan
 
Ages before Jerusalem was founded
I was formed for this day.
God said, shall these sea bones live?
I will sculpt me a tomb: a lime white chamber
fit for a king.
 
I was ready when they brought him in:
bloody and broken, like a king from his last
battle.  Dusk was falling.  They hurried, careful.
So careful.  They were brittle with pain.
They straightened him (legs, arms, head) in the niche;
stopped my mouth with a rock, and crept away.
 
We were quiet together.
He slept inside me.  I cradled him,
like a child unborn. Outside,
Earth shuddered; the sun failed; stars shot like bolts
Through warring heavens.
I kept him safe. 
 
til he began to stir
like the child whose time has come.
The deep places of creation whispered,
Let there be light!
A mighty spasm shook the stone.  I gaped.
He rose  For a moment
he stood facing the dawn, then he was gone.
 
Later
there would be angels, blazing-eyed
and docile, folding linen bandages.
There would be men and women, storms of grieving
suddenly stilled.
But first, as the sun rose,
there was just the light and silence. A cave empty
and a world full of promises fulfilled.
 
(from The Journey to Jerusalem by John Pritchard, pg. 123)
 

Good morning,
                Today is Good Friday.  After a betrayal by a companion, hours of mockery, a brutal beating, and being nailed to a cross, the One we call our Savior and the Son of the Living God, said, “It is finished.  Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”  Whoever would have believed that God would allow his own son to endure this awful death?  Whoever expected the Messiah, the Christ, to “humble himself and become obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.” 
How deep and true is God’s love for us.  Now we know.  Even on our darkest, most painful days of despair and dejection we know that God is right there beside us, suffering with us, just as God suffered with his Son.  Today is Good Friday.  This present darkness is necessary.  Even now, it is leading us toward the light of a new dawn. 
Grace and peace,
Pastor Michael 
Please join us in the sanctuary at 7:00 p.m. this evening for our Good Friday worship service. 

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.
When “we breathe our last” – it will not be our last. We will be born again. We will not come to an end of life – we will arrive at a new beginning. We will not die; we will fall asleep and wake up in our new home. We will not be buried in a cemetery – we will be planted in a garden.

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.
My hope is that you will live in this hope. We do not, we cannot, work for it, be good enough for it, earn it, or deserve it. We merely accept it. Receive it. Rejoice in it. Give thanks for it. This is the new life Christ longs to give us. When we receive it, we are living “in Christ.” We are becoming a new creation.

The good news gets even better. We will not have to endure death before resurrected life begins. “I am the resurrection and the life”, Jesus says, not “I will be the resurrection and the life.” A new heaven has come down to us, we will not go “up there.” Marva Dawn is an inspiring theologian who memorably proclaimed, “We do not go to church – we are the church wherever we go.” We will not go to heaven. We take heaven wherever we go. This is the good news of the gospel.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Can those who "read" your life tell? Go in the power of the resurrection to live as Easter people in a Good Friday world. Trusting that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- always goes with you. 

​Pastor Michael

Good morning,
                Somehow the gray, dripping clouds are appropriate for Holy Week.  We are approaching the darkest day on the Christian calendar.  The opposition to Jesus is gaining strength.  There is a sense of foreboding hanging in the air.  Yet, these words, found in both the Old and New Testaments, describe the nature of God’s servant-savior.  When our spirits are down, he will tenderly hold us, God’s Will will be done…  Stay awake.
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
The Lord be with you.
Pastor Michael
(scripture can be found in Isaiah 42:3 & Matthew 12:20)

Good morning,
Holy week, the most important and meaningful week of the year for Christians.  It is a week of profound renewal.  Let us draw close to Christ this as he fulfills the will of the Father.
On Monday of Holy Week we remember how Jesus was enjoying dinner with his friends, in a home just a few miles away from Calvary, the hill upon which he would be crucified.  Mary, sister of his best friend Lazarus, took a pound of costly perfume, anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair.  The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.*  As Jesus walks into the last week of his life, Mary, the only person to minister to Jesus, anoints him…loves him…blesses him…  Perhaps we can open our holy week by giving thanks to God for the depth of his love for us and for the whole world...
How precious is your steadfast love, O Lord!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings…
With you is the fountain of life;
in your light, we see light.**
Grace and peace,
Michael
(*John 12: 3; **Psalm 36: 7,9)
    
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