April 1, 2022

Dear Road Church Friends,

This Sunday we will have as our guest, Mojie Friel, Special Events Coordinator for the Westerly Warm Center, which is one of the local missions that Road Church supports. Mojie will bring us a report on their current activities and needs. She will also join us for coffee in our Parlor after the service.

After Mojie’s report we will share together in Communion. The Gospel reading is the story of Jesus and his disciples’ ‘last supper’ in the home of their dearest friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. It is a celebratory occasion, highlighted by Mary’s extravagant act of anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. One guest sees it as a waste, but Jesus sees it as a supreme act of love considering that his impending death means that his time with them is drawing to a close.

SCRIPTURE: John 12:1-8 Extravagant Love

     Six days before the Passover Jesus was a guest in the home of Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus, who had died and Jesus brought back to life. The sisters were putting on a celebratory dinner party in Jesus’ honor. Lazarus reclined beside Jesus while Martha and Mary served all their guests. After the meal Mary did an extraordinary thing. She washed Jesus’ feet with a very expensive perfume. Then she dried his feet with her hair. Throughout the house the air was heavy with the fragrance of the perfume. The guests were amazed and also deeply touched by the extravagance of what Mary had done.  But Judas criticized her, saying, “Why was this perfume not sold and the money given to the poor?” But Jesus defended her saying, “Leave her alone. Mary bought this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have opportunities to the help the poor, but my time among you is coming to a close.”

MESSAGE:  “A Report from the Westerly Warm Center”

by Mojie Friel, Special Projects Coordinator.

PRAYER:

DEAR LORD AND FATHER OF MANKIND

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind, in purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness, till all our striving cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

by John Greenleaf Whittier

PRAYER

     Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change, and where we are right, make us easy to live with.        by Peter Marshall

Blessings,

Pastor Norm

Our service on YouTube: https://youtu.be/w7Q45u73pw0