If you cannot be with us, please consider the following methods for making your tithes and offerings:
To be added to the church remind system: Text @hartwellf to 81010
April 5 Regulars, Heroes & Heroines (Chapter 5.5)
Superhero: Black Panther
Real-life Hero: The Four Chaplains; Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace
Black Panther
Publisher: Marcel Comics
First Appearance: Fantastic Four (July 1966)
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Place of Origin: Wakanda, Africa
Abilities: Power of previous Black Panther (history); Super human strength, abilities, reflexes; Master fighter; Vibranium, suit
Chadwick Aaron Boseman (Anderson SC)
Real Life Heroes:
George L. Fox, Alexander D. Goode, Clark V. Poling and John P. Washington had met at the Army Chaplains School at Harvard University. Fox was a Methodist minister, Goode was a rabbi, Washington was a Catholic priest, and Clark was Reformed Church of America pastor but history brought them all together in February of 1943. All four were aboard the Dorchester, a renovated luxury liner being used to transport troops with 902 souls on board as it sailed through the treacherous Atlantic waters. On the evening of 2 February, a torpedo from a Nazi U-boat scored a direct hit, dooming the ship.
All four chaplains got busy looking after others, giving up their lifejackets, refusing to abandon the ship. They tended to the men who had been wounded by the explosion and for those unable to get off the ship, they offered spiritual counselling. Survivors spoke of seeing the four holy men linked arm-in-arm, praying aloud to the very end.
Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace
Sara Tucholsky was a senior from Western Oregon University
Tucholsky had had just three hits in 34 at-bats in the season. Then in the 2nd inning, hit one straight over the fence with 2 on base. The overly excited Tucholsky missed first base on her home run trot and reversed direction to tag the bag when her right knee gave out with a torn ACL. The two runners who had been on base already had crossed home plate, leaving her the only offensive player on the field of play just a few feet from first base and a long way from home plate. If touched or replaced, she would have the hit recorded as a two-run single instead of a three-run home run on this senior night.
“‘Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?'” The voice belonged to Mallory Holtman, a four-year starter who owns just about every major offensive record there is to claim in Central Washington’s record book.
Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace lifted Tucholsky off the ground and supported her weight between them as they began a slow trip around the bases, stopping at each one so Tucholsky’s left foot could secure her passage onward.
Accompanied by a standing ovation from the fans, they finally reached home plate and passed the home run hitter into the arms of her own teammates. Then Holtman and Wallace returned to their positions and tried unsuccessfully to win the game.
Scripture:
John 12:1-3,12-15
1Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
Verse 1: The quiet rest of that last sabbath with the dear family at Bethany is such a marvelous picture. It was a triumphal feast and anointing, “six days before the Passover,” was the day on which the lamb used for Passover was separated from other animals, and consecrated for this holy service (Exodus 12:3-6; Hebrews 7:26).
Earlier, by visiting to the house of Zacchaeus, Jesus proclaimed the new spirit of His kingdom; by healing the blind man he gave an illustration of the work of grace needed by all his disciples; by resting at the home where human love and Divine power had been so wonderfully blended he called the most solemn attention to his supreme claims of self-sacrifice.
2 Lazarus and his sisters hosted a dinner for him. Martha served and Lazarus was among those who joined him at the table.
Verse 2: At that table there would be seated two transcendent proofs of the power of Jesus to save. One from possession and the other from death.
3 Then Mary took an extraordinary amount, almost three-quarters of a pound, of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She anointed Jesus’ feet with it, then wiped his feet dry with her hair. The house was filled with the aroma of the perfume.
Verse 3: God’s anointed Lamb and Priest was anointed on his feet with the spikenard of faith, the best and costliest thing that she could offer. The perfumed nard ran down to the Savior’s feet and the skirts of his garments. Then Mary wiped off the extra perfume from his feet with her hair.
This simple act proclaimed the self-humiliation and adoration of her unbounded love. It was a mark of unusual self-abandonment! John adds an interesting feature, “and the house was filled with the aroma of the ointment;” and the whole house of God ever since has been fragrant with her immortal and prophetic act.
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
Verse 12: John omits the great discussions in the temple, the withering of the fig tree, the cleansing of the temple, the parables of the judgments on scribes and Pharisees, and the prophecy of the future, he portrays the inner life of the Lord.
13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him. They shouted, “Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the king of Israel!”
Verse 13: Bethany was “the house of dates,” and the palm branches for the Feast of Tabernacles, on its first celebration after the Captivity were fetched from the mount. The palm tree was a sacred symbol for Israel “Tamar,” a palm tree, was a favorite name for a woman.
The multitudes cry, according to – Matthew 21:9: “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed be he that cometh in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” Mark 11:9, 10: “Hosanna; Blessed be he that cometh in the Name of the Lord: Blessed be the coming kingdom of our father David: Hosanna in the highest.” Luke 19:38, remembering the angel’s song: “They praised God with a loud voice…. Blessed be the King that cometh in the Name of the Lord: in heaven peace, and glory in the highest.”
John says they went to meet him, palm branch in hand, and cried, “Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the king of Israel!”
These differences show how various groups used with freedom the tones and sentiment of the 180th psalm, adopting the welcome with which the priests were accustomed to greet the pilgrims to the festival. But each account demonstrates that, on this occasion, there was a general ascription to our Lord of Messianic honor. He is hailed by the people as King of Israel, as the Head of the coming kingdom of their father David, and as giving glory to God.
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
Verse 14: The foal implies that the animal had never borne another burden. The account of Matthew refers to the mother and the foal, as though they were inseparable, and together bore the sacred burden.
The Galilee pilgrims take up the demonstration, which was commenced, as we see from John’s Gospel, by “the Jews” and those Jerusalemites who had been profoundly moved by the significance of the resurrection of Lazarus.
15 Don’t be afraid, Daughter Zion. Look! Your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.
Verse 15: John, as well as Matthew, sees here a symbolical fulfillment of what had been declared by one of the latest of the prophets, as the peculiarity of the Messiah (Zechariah 9:9)
The prophecy does, however, suggest the modesty, the absence of all pomp or display of worldly wealth and power; nay, the humiliation on the part of the true King. Our Lord and his disciples adopted here the idea of a Jewish Messiah, stripping it of its worldly characteristics.
