A Message from Pastor Kaji

Click here for Pastor Kaji’s sermon playlist

Dear Church:

First, thank you. Thank you! This past Sunday’s Town Hall was alive with your incredible input and creative energy. As I shared the vision for 2026 and our staff offered their perspectives and observations, I felt the Spirit moving through *your* ideas, your questions, and your hopes for what The Park can become. We are building this future together.

Now, I hope you will join us this Sunday for Homecoming Sunday. We will celebrate 215 years of The Park and also my own 9th anniversary as your Senior Pastor. It will be a joyful moment of remembering who we are and recommitting ourselves to the work ahead.

Turning to Sunday’s worship: Our text is one of those passages that encodes so much. Buried in its details are signals of what’s at stake, who truly understands Jesus, and how God prepares us for what lies ahead. We’ll open it together on Sunday. But for now, I’ll just say: there’s a lot happening in these verses.

Study Guide

The text situates us in Bethany, a village just two miles from Jerusalem, during the pressure-filled days leading into Holy Week.

A jar of oil makes an appearance. This is no ordinary oil. Its origin and meaning carry weight far beyond the surface. Pay attention to who acts, who reacts, and who truly “sees” Jesus. Sometimes the quiet gestures carry the loudest proclamation.

Questions for Reflection

1. Where in your life do you feel like you’re standing on an edge between what was and what’s about to be?
2. Who around you has shown you how to prepare for what’s ahead, not with words but with actions?
3. How do you respond when God is preparing you in ways that feel costly or overwhelming?

I’ll see you Sunday, ready to celebrate our past, our present, and the unfolding future God is shaping with us.

Pax Christi,
Pastor Kaji

SCRIPTURE
Mark 14:3–9 (Year C, p. 315)

3 Now Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon who had a skin disease; as he reclined at table, a woman came with an alabaster vessel of pure nard ointment – very expensive – she broke open the alabaster and poured it on his head. 4 But some being angry said among themselves, “For what was the nard wasted? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, [three hundred days’ wages] and given to the poor.” And they were indignant with her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Why do you trouble her? A good work has she done for me. 7 For always shall you have the poor with you and whenever you wish you can do good by them; but me, you shall not always have. 8 What she had it to do, she did; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9 Truly I tell you all, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”