For the schedule of events during Lent, click here.

The Walk to the Cross

It’s early in the final week. The table is set and characters enter into the scene. Palm branches are on one end and six-inch spikes lie crosswise on the table near the cross at the other end. A misshapen crown of thornss is next to a pitcher of water that speaks without words of that last night together —raditional Passover meal that was anything but ordinary.

The stage is set and we are all part of the theatre. It is impossible to be a spectator in Jesus’ last week. A meeting has been called between us and God. The words have been given to us . . . we know the story. Pilate is concerned with the number of Passover pilgrims, Peter can’t fathom having his feet so intimately touched by the master he calls Lord. Judas glances over at his Master with furtive eyes. A centurion is available, expecting that, tomorrow, someone will die.

You, too, are in this drama. You have been all along, ever since your first breath, actually ever since Adam’t breath. This is a divine play, orchestrated to draw you in — to guide your life through Holy Week, to encourage you to face the cross. Find your place in the drama. But keep your mind’s eye on one figure, the Nazarene. He, too, is on a journey. He looks like you, he dresses like you, but his focus is on one thing: walking toward Jerusalem, toward the cross. This is the final journey and it is no ordinary walk.

In these days of Lent, let’s walk with him and see and feel his passion, his agony, his obedience — laughing as children laugh with our palms waving, weeping over Jerusalem’s ignorance, getting angry as priests accuse and guards mock. Our drama is full of emotion. The journey of Jesus is our story too.

In this story, God is sovereign. In the death of God's son, the divine plan comes to completion with just one more scene, the scene that includes us again as participants. The Lord invites us to believe that he did it for us, to believe that God loves us so much that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in God shall not perish but have eternal life.

Our world has a lot to worry about these days. We are rightfully concerned about our health, natural disasters, bills or family. Jesus is asking us to take our worries to the cross — to picture ourselves making that walk up the hill to lay our burdens at the cross. Jesus lived for us and he bled for us. He willingly followed his final week all the way to the cross and beyond, holding our picture in his hand with our name on his lips. “Don't let your heart be troubled.” This story has an amazing ending. At the cross, God won the victory. On that first Easter morning . . . the tomb was empty. Alleluia, Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed,

Pastor Pam

First United Methodist’s pastor, Pamela Rossmiller, graduated from Dubuque Theological Seminary on May 9, 2009. While attending school she served as pastor at Broadway United Methodist Church since September of 2007. Pastor Pam was on staff for eight years at Belvidere United Methodist, coordinating small groups and directing the lay ministry. Her husband Vann sells, services and installs industrial boilers, working from his shop in Belvidere. Their daughter, Lindsay, graduated from Wisconsin Eau Claire in 2009 with a degree in music therapy. Garth, their youngest, graduated in 2009 after completing a program in diesel power generation from Ohio Technical College in Cleveland. The Rossmillers have entered with excitement and joy into what God has planned for the next leg of their journey.