Ride on! ride on in majesty! Hark! all the tribes Hosanna cry;
O Savior meek, pursue Thy road With palms and scattered garments strowed.
~ Ride on Ride on in Majesty (stanza 1)
Ash Wednesday delivered the invitation: In the name of the Lord and his Church, begin a holy observance of Lent – through honest self-examination, meaningful penitence, heartfelt prayer and sacrificial giving.
It was an invitation to strengthen your disciplines of reading and meditating on the Word of God, and to make a new beginning toward walking in newness of life through Jesus Christ. You were invited to sing out with confidence, hope, and assurance before the Lord, our Creator and Redeemer.
I invited you to remember your ashy-ness – that God formed your earthly body from the dust of the earth, that it is to dust that your earthly body shall return, and that God loves dust – no matter how messy it is!
Now comes Palm Sunday with its invitation into Holy Week and the long, agonizing walk to the Cross. These steps that you are now about to walk you do not walk alone. Jesus walks with you. Though you are you, and he is he, together you truly are one. His way of the Cross 2,000 years ago and your “way” now are also one.
But note this difference: His life was incomplete until he crowned it by his death. Your steps will only be complete when you have crowned them by your life.
So, accept each moment as it comes to you, with faith and trust that all that happens has Christ’s mark on it. Seek Jesus not in far-off places. He is close at hand. Your workbench, office, kitchen, classroom – these are the places where you offer love. And Jesus is there with you.
Go now! Take up your cross, and with your life, complete your way in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Ride on! ride on, in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die;
Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, Thy power, and reign.
~ Ride on Ride on in Majesty (stanza 4)
Together on the Way, Pastor Grant