'iFrom the Pastor “Arise, Get up, my dear friend, my fair and beautiful love—come to me! Look around you: Winter is over; the winter rains are over, gone! Spring flowers are in blossom all over. The whole world’s a choir—and singing! Spring warblers are filling the forest with sweet strains. Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed, and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms. Oh, get up, dear friend, my fair and beautiful love—come to me! Come, my shy and modest dove—leave your seclusion, come out in the open. Let me see your face, let me hear your voice. For your voice is soothing and your face is ravishing.” (Song of Songs 2:10-14, The Message) What wonderful, invitational, celebratory words we find in the Song of Songs! This book of the Bible is love poetry, and traditionally a spiritual metaphor for how crazy God is about us. “Arise andCome!” (Doesn’t that sound like what Jesus said to Lazarus in the tomb?) The winter is passed. New life is bursting forth all around us. It is time for resurrection and reunion. It is time for love. What welcome words as we move into the next chapter of the times in which we live. Covid numbers are dropping around us, the weather is warming up, the earth is awakening, Easter is coming, and we are all so hungry for connection, for LIFE, for love. It’s been 10 months since we re-opened our church to in-person gathering, in addition to our maintaining our virtual presence. It’s been a slow process as each person and family made (make) decisions that were best for them. We are so blessed to be able to maintain our online ministries, reaching those who are unable to or uncomfortable with meeting in person. AND, what an absolute joy it is to gather face-to-face, to laugh together, to hug, to leave our seclusion and come out in the open – as each is ready. I, myself, have shed a few tears of joy at being able to see, hear, and reunite with so many of you. Our children have grown! Our hair may now be different lengths and colors. We have persevered through the long winter. And now, it is good to be together, when we are able to safely do so. (If you are not yet ready, that’s ok, too!) We remember the first Easter and the scattering of Jesus’s closest followers as they hid in seclusion. What a joy it must have been to again see, touch, hear, and be reunited with Jesus and with each other after their separation! To love one another differently. What a shift in EVERYTHING they must have experienced. Which was followed shortly thereafter by Pentecost and the sending out of believers to proclaim this same Good News to the rest of the world. This year, as we celebrate Easter, I think we hear the stories differently. The pandemic has changed what we know about seclusion, isolation, danger, distance, wondering if we are loved or forgotten. Conversely, it has also changed how we hear an invitation to reunion, a call to arise and come together, what life after death means and looks like, and what it means to be beloved. This Easter, whether you are joining us online or in-person, know that you are God’s beloved, and also so loved by your Church family. That is the message of Easter. “This is how much God loved the world: God gave the Son, God’s one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending the Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.” (John 3:16-17 Message) Beloved, arise and come! Let us love one another. Alleluia! In Christ’s Love, Pastor Lynnet me. It's easy.

    2022

Calendar and Newsletter
Click here
 to download a copy.  

Join us for Sunrise Service on Easter Sunday at 7am

I'4/10 Sun: PALM SUNDAY — Holy Week Begins!

11:30 Fellowship time

11:45

Showing of The Chosen

4/12 Tues: 10 am Devotional Livestream

5pm Admin Committee meeting (in person)

4/13 Weds:

10 am Devotional Livestream

10:30 Bible Study Noon Lenten Lunch

1pm Grief Group (In person)

4/14 Thurs:

10 am Devotional Livestream

6pm MAUNDY THURSDAY SERVICE @ JUMC (with JFPC, JUMC, Allen UMC)

4/15 Fri:

GOOD FRIDAY

6 pm COMMUNITY GOOD FRIDAY TENEBRAE SERVICE @ JFPC (with JUMC and Allen UMC)

4/17 Sun: EASTER!!!!

7 am Sunrise Service in the Memorial Garden

10:30 am Traditional Easter Service with communion (live-streamed and in-person)

Prayer is the key to heaven but Faith unlocks the door

Join us for Easter Sunday Communion

– Spiritually Prepare for Lent – A Healthier Body of Christ February, 2022 Page 2 As our Sunday worship scriptures have reminded us, we are the body of Christ. Many of us would like our physical bodies to be healthier. So, throughout the Season of Lent, typically a season of self-denial and repentance, we will be offering opportunities for our congregation to become a healthier body of Christ – spiritually, of course, but also physically. What does this mean or look like? That will be up to you. Let Pastor Lynne know if your goals center around healthier eating, increased exercise, weight loss, drinking more water, or something else. We’ll design the program from the input we receive. Perhaps you’ve heard about the special tv series “The Chosen” and wondered what it was all about. Maybe you haven’t even heard of it. The Chosen is a series that tells the Gospel stories from the perspectives of the followers of Jesus. The producers have gone to great lengths to be authentic and compelling. During Lent we will offer a study to watch the episodes and discuss them together. Come and see!

Photos Needed!!!

In 2023 Jonesville First Presbyterian Church
will celebrate an anniversary (170 years since
our first church building was erected, and
145? years since we have been in our current

building). We would love to compile a col-
lection of photos of our church throughout the

years. If you happen to have wedding pic-
tures, Sunday School photos, or others of our

church from earlier years – different paint
colors, before the Fellowship Hall wing was
added, etc, we would love to make copies of
them!

Welcome  to  2022