Easter Holy Week services bring community together

Easter Holy Week services bring community together

Noontime gatherings continue today, tomorrow

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The biggest meetings in the county go largely unreported. Church meetings each week draw far bigger congregations than do the many good causes or government concerns. But this week, congregations have come together to focus each noontime on the passion and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

Marion First Baptist Pastor Dr. James Nichols could not have expressed the Christian focus any better during his welcome to the multi-church gathering with the West Memphis and Marion Ministerial Fellowship Holy Week Service, on Tuesday.

“There is no finer display of the unity in Christ than what we have on display here today,” said Nichols.

The ministerial fellowship has slated five different preachers at five local churches to remember the last week in the earthly the life of Jesus. The victory of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem to His betrayal in the garden, His trials, the subsequent crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection are especially remembered in the luncheon series.

Nichols himself was the first speaker on Monday from Trinity in the Field Anglican Church in Marion. His presentation from the Gospel of Mark and Christ’s passion in the garden couldn’t have been any more fresh squeezed. Gethsemane means olive press.

“This is the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane,” said Nichols. “I was actually in that garden just three days ago. It’s a powerful story because Jesus was the most vulnerable and yet most willing to go the distance for the sinners in the world.”

Nichols examined the weight of sin as it pressed down on Jesus as He sweet drops of blood during the agony in the garden.

“The weight of our redemption is heavy,” said Nichols. “We may not recognize the full weight on our Lord. But let me tell you, our sin is always the most heavy right before our salvation. Your sin stacks up and weighs the most before your moment of salvation. Ask the drug abuser.

Ask the alcoholic. Ask the one who embraced sin a long time before they embraced Christ and they will tell you, it’s unbearable, weighty, costly, heavy. It’s often our sin that brings us to our knees, but its on our knees that we find forgiveness in Christ Jesus.”

“This week we will reflect on the agony leading to Easter,” concluded Nichols. “But come Sunday morning will not celebrate the agony but the accomplishment of the resurrection.”

The Tuesday luncheon congregation grew larger.

The Fellowship’s gathering was undoubtedly the largest meeting in the county for the second day in a row.

Brother Gary Hair of Calvary Baptist Church in West Memphis preached from the pulpit at Marion First Baptist.

Hair hung a three point sermon from the five verse passage in 1 Peter 2:21-25.

He told the faithful gathered that Christ was the perfect standard for suffering, the perfect substitute for our suffering and the perfect shepherd through our suffering.

Hair concluded by quoting the hymn, On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name.”

Holy Week services continue Thursday at Angels Way Baptist Church in Marion with Cornerstone Baptist Pastor Jim Whaley preaching. The communitywide Good Friday observance marks the conclusion of the lunchtime series at West Memphis First Presbyterian with a word from Chaplain Bruce Evans of the East Central Arkansas Community Corrections Center. Services begin at 12:05 p.m. with lunch following at 12:30. Lunch is provided free of charge by the host church and an offering taken during the service to assist with benevolent ministries of the ministerial fellowship.

By John Rech