From the Pastor’s Desk
February 27th, 2026
Dear Friends in Christ,
There is a week coming that the church has set apart from all others — not because we are especially pious, and not because we have something to prove, but because something happened that changed the world forever. We call it Holy Week. At its center is a story that is at once deeply human and utterly beyond us: a man who was hailed as king on Sunday, betrayed by a friend on Thursday, executed as a criminal on Friday, and raised from the dead on Sunday.
That story is the hinge on which all of Christian faith turns. As Lutherans, we are a people of the cross. Martin Luther understood that God is not found
where we expect — in power, in triumph, in the comfortable and the convenient — but hidden in weakness, in suffering, in the places we would rather look away from. The cross is not an obstacle to God’s love. The cross is God’s love, poured out without reservation for a world that did not deserve it and could not earn it. This is grace — not a reward for the faithful, but a gift for the broken.
Holy Week invites us to walk this journey together, step by step. On Palm Sunday, we begin with palm branches and hosannas — and then we stay for the whole story, feeling the shadow of the cross fall even over that moment of joy. On Maundy Thursday, we gather around a table where Jesus knelt as a servant and offered himself as bread and wine for the life of the world. We hear his command — love one another as I have loved you — and we are sent into the darkness of the Three Days. On Good Friday, we do not look away. We sit with the weight of the cross and hear John’s account of a strange and costly victory: the one dying on that hill
is, at the very same moment, reigning as King of all creation. And then, on Easter Sunday, the silence shatters. The tomb is empty. Death does not have the last word. God does.
This is not ancient history that has nothing to do with us. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of everything we do and everything we hope for. It means that the brokenness we carry — the grief, the guilt, the weariness, the wondering if any of it matters — is not the final word about us either. Because Christ is risen, we are free to live differently: to serve rather than grasp, to forgive rather than hold grudges, to hope when the world tells us hope is
foolish. Easter is not a holiday. It is a way of life.
I want to invite you — warmly, earnestly — to come and observe the fullness of Holy Week with your community of faith. You don’t have to have it all figured out. You don’t need to feel especially religious or spiritually prepared. Bring your faith, your doubts, your questions, and your tired heart. There is a place for you in this story. There always has been.
I look forward to walking through these holy days with you. May God grant us the grace to
see, once again, just how wide and deep and costly and resurrection-shaped his love for us
truly is.
In Christ’s service,
Pastor Marty Milne
Christ Mertz Lutheran Church · Fleetwood, PA
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