Satur-deja Vu

We opened the skatepark that I wrote about last week. Pictured left to right above is city council member Ray Black, Mayor Jim Miller, council member Clark Bunch, council member Jim Treglown and the namesake of the park Joe Young. The mayor can be seen holding a giant pair of golden scissors, yes there really is such a thing. By the way, I thought everyone would holding onto the ribbon; it was only tied at one end just long enough to take the picture. The day was a qualified success, drawing a huge crowd that hung around all day. Joe’s dad grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and later smoked a few chickens. The skate park is the latest upgrade to our parks and rec center. If you don’t give kids something to do they will find something to do and you might not like it. We will know where the kids at the skatepark are, in a safe controlled environment. If you don’t plan it then you can’t control it. That’s the thought process behind building skateparks, ball fields, creating teams, opening the gym on weeknights… it’s why James Naismith invented basketball. When you invest in the community you get a better community. (The same principle applies to churches.)

Satur-deja Vu

Today is Holy Saturday also known as Black Saturday. The Sabbath was a day of rest, a legal and moral obligation for the Jews. Some Christians believe Jesus was other places doing other things during that period of time; I will not get into whether or not he literally descended into hell and preached to the condemned. Tomorrow is Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday to many although not everyone agrees on that title. If you are in the Calhoun, GA area the Gordon County Christian Ministerial Alliance is having a Sunrise Service at BB&T Park in downtown that begins at 7 AM. We will have prayer, two or three songs everybody knows and a 15 or 20 minute sermon. At 36 degrees I will remind our speaker the shorter the better. Hopefully 2020 taught us not to take so many things for granted, including worshiping together and visiting family.

Satur-deja Vu

Yesterday was Good Friday. Tomorrow is Easter. Most Christians are familiar with those days. Depending on your faith tradition you may not know about the other days of Holy Week. Today is Holy Saturday, also known as the Great Sabbath, Easter Eve or Black Saturday. It is a time to reflect on the marks left on Jesus’s body. This is the day the disciples spent after Jesus was buried and before they were able to fully understand what he had said about resurrection.

Satur-deja Vu

That’s a very Happy Monday sort of item. We needed to go ahead and share now because we are doing something special all next week.

Holy Week at The Master’s Table – From Palm Sunday through Easter I will not post anything on this blog relating to COVID-19. Look for devotional posts, discipleship, maybe even a few reruns from years past. Happy Monday will look the same but feature none of the coronavirus memes that saturate social media on a daily basis. If you would like a little bit of escape from that particular topic, we will focus on the Passion Narrative of Jesus. That begins tomorrow; today we need to get it out of our system.

Design Note

During certain times of the year I change the cover image of The Master’s Table Facebook page. I switch to the wise men following the star to Bethlehem during Advent and this image of three crosses for Holy Week. I don’t tinker with the banner here for a couple of reasons. One is I’m afraid of messing it up. I know, I know, but I still worry about never getting it to look exactly right again.

There is another reason. Di Vinci’s portrait of The Last Supper is where the idea for The Master’s Table as a title came from. There’s a whole explanation in the About section. That supper took place during Holy Week. It would be totally wrong to take it down this week of all weeks and replace it with something else. That picture is the goal for the Christian life. To eat and drink with the Master, sitting with other followers and listening to his teaching.

He Cannot Save Himself

He Cannot Save Himself
A poem for Good Friday

Many questions were asked of him,
though no answer was heard.
Pilate pressed him to respond,
but Jesus spoke not a word.

A Hero

This song is apparently five years old but it’s only been in the past 12 -18 months that I became familiar with it. With Easter coming up in a few days, it’s one of my favorites right now.

Holy Week

Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Resurrection Sunday (also known as Easter). I have been blogging since 2008 and have posted many times on the events of Holy Week. On the one hand I don’t wish to keep writing and posted material that is already here. On the other hand there are constantly new friends discovering The Master’s Table and following that have not read those previous posts. And we are talking about the greatest story ever told; it is central to our identity as Christians and never gets old.

Satisfying the Crowd

And Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Mark 15:14-15

Pilate did not want to kill Jesus.

Thoughts on Holy Week: Good Friday

If this is the day Jesus died, why is today good?

In the sense it is used good means holy when we say Good Friday. It is also called Great Friday, Holy Friday and Easter Friday in other traditions around the world. This is the day we commemorate Jesus as the atoning sacrifice. Holy Week is a time of preparation and consecration that seeks to take things one step at a time. Don’t jump ahead to the celebration; today is about the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Today we observe the crucified savior. If you’ve been reading the Gospel accounts all week, save that last chapter for Sunday.