Dear Church family
If you are a basketball fan, March madness is the best, full of the agony and the ecstasy of all good sports competition.  If Duke doesn’t prevail, I’ll definitely be rooting for UConn. 
How serendipitous that this “madness” occurs in the middle of the church’s most important season, when we observe the agony and ecstasy of Jesus’ abandonment and death and his glorious and triumphant resurrection.  
We’ll mark that agony as  we gather at 7 p.m. Maundy Thursday to observe his last supper and his gradual isolation in the Tenebrae service.  Good Friday’s somber depiction of his death will be marked by an ecumenical service at 7 p.m. at Trinity Church, Lime Rock
And we’ll celebrate the ecstasy of Jesus’ rising from the dead and greeting the disciples at a sunrise service on the hill at 6 a.m., followed by breakfast, and our 10 a.m. service in the sanctuary.  The sermon will be “The Music of Easter”  (we’ll be doing a lot of singing) and the texts Isaiah 25:6-9 and Mark 16:1-8 
I find Ann Weems' Lenten and Easter poems thoughtful and sometimes provocative.  I especially like this Easter one called “A Time for Kneeling.” 
                              The Lamb has been slain,
                                 and the sheep have scattered.
                              Now is the time for kneeling,
                                 the time for believers
                              To kneel and call upon his name,
                                 to kneel
                                    and to rise again:
                              The community of the resurrection. 
 
See you in church.
 
Rich