 Christ abidesMatthew 21:1-17
Grace, mercy and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Amen. I think it is very easy this week to lose ourselves in the past. In melancholy memories or angry grief. This is, after all, nothing like the Palm Sundays we have celebrated in years past. In the past we began by gathering close together, shoulder to shoulder, out in the lounge. The youth passing out palm branches, bulletins and hymnals, the Sunday school kids and choir ready to lead our procession into the sanctuary. And the whole company of saints waving palm branches and singing and praising and parading through the sanctuary and up to the altar. And then, the children would sing for us all and they would remind us —if we had eyes to see and ears to hear -- that the true inspired and enduring praise of Palm Sunday comes from the mouths of infants and babies and children noisily celebrating the arrival of our long-awaited king!
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 "...But Now I See"John 9: Jesus gives sight to a man born blind
Lent 40 days to a new life ... true in surprising ways The sign outside our worship center on Old Post Rd reads … “Lent: 40 Days to New Life.” When Tony put up that sign, who could have guessed the true and surprising ways the promise of that sign would be fulfilled? LIVING WATER John 4:5-42
Simply going to the store has been an adventure these past few days. On Wednesday night we came in to set up for our soup supper and realized that we didn’t have the keys to our supply cabinets. We went to Shop-Rite to buy paper plates, bowls, spoons napkins and a case of bottled water. When we got to the water aisle, the shelves were almost bare and at the far end of the aisle a couple of workers were unwrapping a pallet of water and people putting cases in their shopping carts as fast as they were unwrapping it. We just needed one case, I thought, but it was easy to get caught up in a kind of competitive frenzy that made the acquisition of this water a kind of battle. I had to get a case of water, I thought. Maybe I need three or four, I thought, but I fought through that anxiety and just got the one we needed for the night. And when we got out of the water aisle and returned to my senses, I thought … wait. We have all the water we need for tonight … for tomorrow and the next day … just by turning on the tap.  What is Jesus saying to You?It is always a challenge to hear familiar words with fresh ears and open hearts. For most of you, the words you are about to encounter ... words that truly are God’s Word ... the preaching and teaching of the man who was the Word of God in human flesh ... these words are most likely too familiar.
So let’s try something different. Let’s try to hear Jesus speaking to us. Let's be aware of the Word’s impact on us at a gut level, a human level, an emotional level. Let this word happen to you and take notice ... without judgment, just note it. Read it out loud. FALLING IN LOVE ALL OVER AGAINJohn 21
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In these weeks after Easter, we are considering what this good news of Jesus’ resurrection means for us. We start with the simple facts ... the empty tomb; the cast aside grave clothes; the witness of the angels; the appearance to Mary and the other women and finally the disciples, including Thomas, who like us all, struggled to accept the completely unheard of news that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. We then begin to understand that Jesus’ resurrection is the start of something new -- a new creation, a new covenant and relationship with God, a whole new world, and of course, a new us. But how, how can we who have grown old be born again? HOPE BIG ENOUGH ... This year at our family Christmas Eve services I was telling the Christmas story to a bunch of our children. (Now maybe it was because my own boys were getting to the age where we should be having “the talk,” but the story took on a new life this year.) I start the story by telling how the angel Gabriel comes to the Virgin Mary and tells her that she will conceive and bear a child, and she will call him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Then Mary asks, How will this be since I am a virgin? Gabriel explains that the Spirit of the Lord will overshadow you, and you will conceive and the child within you will be the child of most high God.
And I'm thinking that one good question from one of the children will change the course of this whole talk. HeArer's Guide to the PassionOver the next week, we will hear read in worship the story of Jesus' last supper with his disciples, his agony and betrayal in the garden, his trial and condemnation, his crucifixion, death and burial, and then his resurrection from the dead. We call this story, the Passion of our Lord because it speaks of Jesus' suffering and death for us. This story is also called the Message of the Cross. This story is central to faith and life, and it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. In one way or another, all Christian preaching and action flows from the message of the cross, but this time of year we tend to let this story, as we find it in Holy Scripture, simply speak to us directly -- in passion reading, song and liturgical action.
As we prepare to enter into the mystery of faith, here are some things you can keep in mind as you hear again for yourself the wonderful story of God's love and grace in Jesus Christ. You can read the story for yourself in Mark 11-16.
So what does this mean for us?
Sermon for Epiphany 5Love and serve all people following the example of Jesus Christ.
Mark 1:29-39 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. As we start to live and act as Jesus’ disciples we discover that Jesus leads us to speak with grace and to act out of love. That, I suppose, was central to his teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum that we’ve been reading about these past few weeks. It begins with hearing God’s word and promise -- the good news of God’s kingdom — and responding with faith and trust in God and God’s will and purposes. The first expressive response of faith is simply getting up and following Jesus. That is as good an entry into reading a Gospel, like the Gospel of Mark, as there might be. When we read the Gospel we follow Jesus — hear what he says, see what he does — understanding that this is to strengthen our faith and kindle our love and to serve as a guide for what will be our words and actions. Share the good news ... in word and deed!Mark 1:21-28
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The gift of God in Jesus Christ is so truly amazing that it seems almost unbelievable that people would find it offensive. The grace we receive in the Gospel is the gift of a relationship with God that sustains us in this life and through death to an eternal life. This relationship with God is a gift that gives our life purpose, meaning and direction. In accordance with God’s will and God’s purposes, it is a gift that sets us free, truly free, to live as God’s children, whole and well in God’s praise. And so it seems almost incomprehensible that this word, this grace, this promise would evoke such violent reactions and responses in the hearts of the very people it sets out to love, save and bless. Behold! I Make All Things NewGrace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
This is a night to remember Ursula. Even though remembering makes us feel the sadness of Ursula’s absence, it also keeps her present and part of our lives. Our memories of Ursula can be expressions the love we had and shared together, and so, those memories are simultaneously painful and happy. There are other memories there as well, I am sure. Maybe memories that fill us not so much with love as with regret or guilt or shame. These too are part of the reckoning me all must do at the end of something, a settling of accounts, so to speak. That is why a service such as this reminds us that we will be okay, and that we will not have to bear the full weight of our mourning or grief all by ourselves, but that Jesus himself bears that weight with us and for us so that we might remember love, receive forgiveness and pardon, and live on in hope of the new thing that God Himself is revealing in the world. |
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