Palms as Sign for Tree of
Life
The Tree of Life for us Christians is the Cross of Our
Lord Jesus Christ. For Jesus hanging on
the tree meant death which offers all people the fruit of His Life as a free
gift for our salvation. Jesus is real food
and real drink. He says: I AM / the
Vine / the Lamb of God/ the Bread of Life / the Cup of Blessing / the Good
Shepherd / the Light of the World / the Resurrection & Life / the
Way-Truth-and Life /. All hung on that
one Tree of Life for the salvation of the world as Gift.
Did you ever notice how many more people show up for a FREE anything? Free lunch, free food, free meal, free Ashes,
free Palms, free gifts that all bring people out. But we all know that nothing in life is free
and that is true even with God’s gifts to us! The cost for God’s most
important gift of salvation and every other gift we receive throughout our life
is the cost of Jesus’ death on the Cross.
Jesus died on the Cross for our Salvation.
So what does so great a gift cost
us? Nothing,
the gift is 100% free on God’s part with no strings attached. The only thing God looks forward to from
us is to be part of God’s Life forever.
This is precisely the place where True
Stewardship comes into our life. Our
desire to give arises out of our heart which desires union with God. The more we are apart of Giving the more
closely we are joined to the Tree of Life.
Sacrificial giving is a way of life that leads us to a closer unity with
God. When we take our time and offer assistance to another in
their journey of faith we are united to God.
When we share our talents freely
without expecting something back for our effort we are united to the way God
gives to us all. When we spend our treasure as a free will commitment to
our parish community we are united with the whole Church in teaching, preaching
and sanctifying the people who are entrusted by God to our care. We participate because we remember all God
has already done for us and the gift we can never repay suddenly and
unexpectedly is fully integrated into our own Tree of Life as a community of faith. We become what we celebrate. As members we constantly receive blessings
from God as gracious gifts and we need to constantly give blessings as thanks for
gifts received. May we become people who
share Jesus as Time with another, as Talents for His people, and as Treasures
to spend in the service of God’s Kingdom.
As faithful stewards we are forever united to Jesus and the Tree of
Life.
As you take a palm home today say
a prayer at how you might bring a portion of your life back to feed all who are
connected to our Tree of Life. Fr
Terry
Practices for Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday will be
Monday March 17th at
Practices for Good Friday is Tuesday March 18th
at
All ministers are encouraged to attend especially servers.