This is, of course, the most glorious day of the Christian year, the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We are doing so without a congregation, which can make us anxious, as our whole situation has. Following Matthew’s account of Easter morning we note that the women are astonished by the sudden appearance of an angel who tells them Jesus has been raised from the dead, and they are to go back to Galilee to meet him there. Does this mean they’re to act as if things are back to normal? Are things back to normal?

Although usual attendance at Good Friday worship services is only a fraction of attendance on Easter, this year we are all Good Friday people. We can see ourselves like the disciples who, in that day, feared abandonment, wondered whether God was present, and fled for their own safety. Even Jesus cried out his own abandonment from the cross. When Jesus breathed his last breath, it must have seemed like the disciples, too, had been forsaken by God. But we remember the witness of the women who remained present in every way they could.

For Maundy Thursday we read John’s version of the Last Supper in which Peter is confused because his expectations of Jesus have been turned upside down. Jesus took a posture of servitude to wash the feet of the disciples, and Peter could not understand why Jesus would lower himself to do such a thing. In this period of pandemic, we, too, find that our world has been turned upside down. But Jesus’ lowering himself to the role of a servant was an act of love, and it was a great example for us to follow, especially in the midst of our current pandemic.

Today we celebrate Palm Sunday and with it the beginning of Passion Week, with its deep lows after the high celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. In fact, at our current time with social distancing and restrictions on gathering, the threat and reality of grave illness, and the effect on individuals and the economy, the scene of Jesus in agony in the garden after the Last Supper seems closer to us than it ever has. And maybe that is cause for us to hope and to have faith rather than to despair.

We end our series on the Sermon on the Mount with the Matthean passage that ends the sermon in chapter 7. It is the familiar story of two houses, one built on sand and the other on rock. It is easy to understand the difference, but what does it mean for Jesus to caution us to build our house on rock? And how, in our current situation of needing to keep our distance from others during the COVID-19 threat, do we hear the words and act on them?

We continue our series on the Sermon on the Mount with a familiar passage in which Jesus bids the people not to worry about what to eat or drink or wear. This comes at a time when we have experienced devastating tornados, a virus that is causing us to modify our lives radically, economic fallout from those things, and a potential split in the United Methodist Church. And we’re being told not to worry? What if the examples of the lilies of the field and the sparrows are meant to reorient our focus instead?

We continue our series on the Sermon on the Mount with a passage in which Jesus is instructing his disciples in the practice of fasting. (Jesus talks about how not to fast as well.) Although fasting was a common practice in those days, it is less common among us. But self-denial, one type of which is fasting, is often a part of Lent. Why is that, and what is accomplished by fasting?

We continue our series on the Sermon on the Mount with the familiar passage where Jesus teaches his disciples to pray. After giving some do’s and don’t’s about praying, as an example of proper prayer Jesus gives what we now know as “The Lord’s Prayer.” As many times as we have all used this prayer, there is much to glean from re-examining it, both what it includes and what it does not include, and then modeling our own prayers after what we learn.

We continue our series on the Sermon on the Mount with a look at disturbing words when Jesus says that if our right eye causes us to sin, we need to pluck it out, or if our right hand causes us to sin, we should cut it off. And he has just defined lust as the same as committing adultery. Is being a follower of Christ so strict? Isn’t anger, for example, just part of being human? What is Jesus really saying?

We continue our series on the Sermon on the Mount with a look at two very familiar sayings where Jesus tells the people, “You are the salt of the earth,” and “You are the light of the world.” In fact, these are so familiar that we may not have stopped to consider some aspects of the declarations, like who Jesus might mean by “you,” and that he says “are” rather than “should be” or “could be.” How are we to view ourselves and our roles through the metaphors salt and light?