On the Way to Wonder

First Reading: Acts 4:5-12

⁵The next day [the] rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, ⁶with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. ⁷When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” ⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, ⁹if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, ¹⁰let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. ¹¹This Jesus is
 ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;
  it has become the cornerstone.’
¹²There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

Psalm: Psalm 23

 ¹The Lord| is my shepherd;
  I shall not be in want.
 ²The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures
  and leads me beside still waters.
 ³You restore my soul, O Lord,
  and guide me along right pathways for your name’s sake.
 ⁴Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
  for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 
 ⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
  you anoint my head with oil, and my cup is running over.
 ⁶Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
  and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

Second Reading: 1 John 3:16-24

¹⁶We know love by this, that [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. ¹⁷How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
  ¹⁸Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. ¹⁹And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him ²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; ²²and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
  ²³And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Gospel: John 10:11-18

[Jesus said:] ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for thesheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

         If I were with you, I would remind us of the children’s song, “I Just Want to Be a Sheep.”

         I just want to be a sheep, baa, baa.  I don’t want to be a goat, nope, cause they don’t have hope.

         I just want to be a sheep, baa, baa.  I don’t want to be a Pharisee, nope, cause they’re not fair you see.

         I just want to be a sheep, baa, baa.  I don’t want to be a hypocrite, nope, cause they’re not hip with it.

         I just want to be a sheep!

         Let us pray:  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

So far this Easter season we have looked at the testimonies of people who saw the risen Christ.  Mary Magdalene saw Jesus at the tomb and recognized him when he called her name.  She responded “Rabboni – Teacher”.  Cleopas and friend saw Jesus that evening, were lead through Scripture by Jesus, and recognized him in the breaking of bread.  They rushed back to Jerusalem to tell other followers who were gathered behind closed doors.  We have no idea how many people saw Jesus then but we know Jesus appeared and was real.  Thomas was not there but Jesus came again a week later and again appeared and proved he was not only risen but had a real body.  Thomas responds, “My Lord and my God.”  We know something is real because it passes the touch test or the taste test.  Our senses confirm reality.

         But many things are real that cannot be seen.  Wind cannot be seen but we know it is real because we see its affect.  We feel it.  Love seems real and we make promises that we hope will last the test of time.  Today’s text is given to us for us to ask ourselves:  Does the risen Christ meet the description of the Good Shepherd given in Scripture?  Is his life congruent with his teachings and all that the Savior was promised to be.  We will look at the title Good Shepherd for this theme can be seen in the Old Testament in Psalm 23 and in the teachings of Jesus in John 10 as one of the “I AM” claims of Jesus.

         Jesus lays out three ways to know a if his claim to be “the Good Shepherd” is congruent with how we experience him in life – beyond touching him and seeing him.  A Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.  Jesus says that means that

1. He does not run away in danger. He knows his sheep and they know him.
2. He is able to shepherd sheep in many folds.  His sheep know his voice and listen to him.
3. The Good shepherd has the power to lay down his life and take it up again.

Are Relationship, Voice, and Power observed in this risen Christ?

Relationship

¹“I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 

¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.”

         The shepherd laying down his life for his sheep is often understood as Christ dying on the cross for us.  He did not run away from ransoming us from the penalty of sin – death.  We may die but we do not perish.  We may walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” but we know that he walks with us.  We know that his kingdom is eternal and not of this world.  We hear those promises but they are a bit far off and accepted by faith.  Are there ways that we see Christ laying down his life for us today?  How does that become three dimensional so we can touch and feel and know that God in Jesus is real?  Today.

         The first thing that comes to mind is the model of how parents – and friends for single people – share resources.  They are willing to “lay down”, give away, part of what is theirs so another will be happy. Parents love children even when the child is naughty and immature.  They love them when they are tired and grumpy.  They care for their creation and share with it; even so God cares for us.  We sing “This is my Father’s world” and we can affirm that the sun shines on the good and the bad, on the obedient and the disobedient.  We can affirm that blessings of flowers and nature are for everyone.  God doesn’t play favorites. If the “climate change” people are right, it is not God who is destroying nature but the greed of people, the hirelings, who were put in charge of “ruling over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. (Genesis 1:26)  Nature itself affirms that God gives life and does not randomly take life, shoot people and destroy.  When fire races through an area, it will not be long before new life begins to blossom again.  Nature suffers under the condemnation of sin but it is always growing life.

         But, you might say, that is all pretty much a passive, perhaps automatic relationship.  Good people and bad people like to grow gardens and water flowers.  Nature does not necessarily speak to a risen Christ.  So my second example of the good shepherd laying down his life and not running away like a hireling is the way parents with wayward children are willing to wait in the sidelines while “youth sow their oats” and mature, praying that someday the child will return home.  They often lay down the life of their ego for their children. The parable is the prodigal son.  God does not force us to be good, programing us like a robot or drone. The parent lays down his life, shares of his inheritance before his death, welcomes the wayward child, rewards the faithful child and prays for all the whole time.  Just because I do not touch Jesus right now, does not mean that he is not there.  He is interceding for us.  He is speaking to us through dreams, through the Word, through friends.  He lays down his life by working with us rather than insisting we do it his way and when we stray, he comes and looks for us.

         Direct contact with the risen Lord today is often done through his representatives – the Word, the people, the music, and more.  Does our heart not burn within us like the two on the road to Emmaus when we read the word and a verse speaks exactly to the dilemma we are facing?  Does not our spirit rise within us when we hear the music playing that speaks Christ’s words to our weary souls on Sunday morning?  Does not love enter our barren spirits when we are hugged, embraced and cared for by friends – even when we have blown it?

         Jesus is the Good Shepherd that brings life to our world today and does not run away like a hireling.  He stays in relationship with us.  He speaks daily through his creation, through his partnering with us as we grow and learn his ways, and through his various representatives.  He does not run away like a hireling when we are ugly, sick or grumpy.  He cares and leads us to green pastures, beside still waters and restores our spirit – for his name’s sake.  He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death and prepares a banquet for us in his kingdom.

Voice

⁴I am the good shepherd.

I know my own and my own know me, 

¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

The voice of Jesus today is worldwide, building a universal church that includes people from every tribe and nation and which speaks every language.  Those early disciples did not imagine that there would be followers of Jesus in the United States, half a globe away, even if they had known the world was round.  One of the proofs that Jesus lives is how the early church quickly evolved into a mission group reaching out to the then known world – England, Rome, India, Ethiopia all had early witness and churches.  Our challenge today is molding the great diversity of a living Christ into a universal Church where all are welcome and hear Christ’s voice. 

         “The sheep hear his voice.”  Was Jesus speaking about an auditory experience to be expected by the saved?  The “in” people hear and the “out” or “not-quite-in” people must keep straining to hear. Not likely.  If I have “voice”, it means I have the right to speak, to offer suggestions, to make my opinion known realizing it will be listened to.  It does not necessarily mean I am the only voice in the room or the determinative voice on a matter.  I am not the commander nor am I a beggar, I am partnering with the community.  So listening to Jesus’ voice may not necessarily carry the sense of command as much s the right to comment and contribute, to partner with me.  As I grow older, I realize partnership with Christ is not the same as the power struggles of becoming I had with my parents.  Jesus partners with his sheep, speaking to them, guiding them.  He is not driving and domineering.  He moves them at their pace, looking for food and directing them but never in a demanding way.  He may sing to them and he knows each one.  We hear his voice in all aspects of life.

         But so often God seems silent.  To this response, I think of our modern day active listening slogan – hearing someone into voice.  When God uses his voice through silence, it does not imply absence but focused listening.  As we speak and God listens, we clarify our thoughts, our wishes, our petitions and find our own voice and identity.  God’s silent voice partners with me to draw me into voice.

         Religion is universally identified with prayer.  Here prayer, hearing God’s voice, is linked with Him knowing our name.  For the Christian, there is a personal relationship. After the crucifixion, resurrection, there was no physical Jesus but perhaps followers reflected on the Good Shepherd and looked for voice. Was there personal relationship where the follower has voice?  The post resurrection experiences point to experiences with the risen Christ who knew names, knew histories and personalities, and who personally partnered with follows to accomplish goals. Those qualities still grow in Christians, in you and me today, and direct us to meaningful goals.  We hear his voice through prayer, through Scripture, through music, and through community as his silent voice guides us into our better selves.

         Perhaps a question worth pondering from our text today is to ask ourselves how much time we spend listening to the voice of Jesus and catching up on his news daily?  If we believe he is alive, risen and active in our world, do we tune in to hear his broadcast daily or are we content to receive a Sunday vitamin pill that is being regurgitated by the pastor? I find as a retired person, having time to sit and listen is a great blessing.  I love Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof when he sings about being just a little wealthy  and reflects that then he would have time to sit with the holy men by the Eastern wall and reflect on the words of God.  Jesus is alive, is risen, and does speak today but are we listening?

Power

¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 

¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Power is the third witness to the reality of the risen Christ present in our world today.  Jesus had the power to lay down his life and the power to take it up, to live again.  Jesus walked through death in order to show us that death does not have the final say, is not the end of the road.

         I see this power in hospitals started in his name, hospitals that defeat disease.  I see it in schools that defeat ignorance.  I see it in translation efforts that defeat the barriers of language.  I see it in refugee camps that resettle people running from war and terror.  These efforts are not just generated by Christianity but Christianity does have a long record of reaching out to the needy.

         Personally, faith in the reality of Christ in our world gives us power to do that which we thought was impossible and which the world does not model.  We can forgive our enemies, those who hurt us or abuse us.  That does not mean we keep allowing abuse but we can forgive those who were less than we wanted them to be. We can turn the other cheek more than seventy times seven. 

         Christ alive gives us power to love the difficult to love.  Many parents find deep love for children born with developmental challenges.   Others are able to persevere with children in drugs, children who are wayward and children who are ungrateful.  It is not easy but God gives us the power, the power to take up life again after the death of our dreams.

         That first Easter season must have been a very confusing and emotional time.  The early followers did not have centuries of Christians sorting out theology and beliefs.  They met behind closed doors in fear of being killed.  They were the first to live into what resurrection would mean and how it would shape their future.  Relationship with Jesus would not be broken but would take on new dimensions.  They would hear his voice in new ways – prayer, music, friends.  And they would find new strength and power to face the trials they would face.  Jesus was indeed the Good Shepherd who did not abandon his sheep during times of upheaval.  They would learn to recognize him in new ways, even as we are learning today. 

The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall not want!

First Reading: Acts 3:12-19

¹²[Peter] addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?¹³The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. ¹⁴But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, ¹⁵and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ¹⁶And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
  ¹⁷“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. ¹⁹Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.”

Psalm: Psalm 4

 ¹Answer me when I call, O God, defender of my cause;
  you set me free when I was in distress; have mercy on me and hear    my prayer.
 ²“You mortals, how long will you dishonor my glory;
  how long will you love illusions and seek after lies?”
 ³Know that the Lord does wonders for the faithful;
  the Lord will hear me when I call.
 ⁴Tremble, then, and do not sin;
  speak to your heart in silence upon your bed. 
 ⁵Offer the appointed sacrifices,
  and put your trust in the Lord.
 ⁶Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?”
  Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.
 ⁷You have put gladness in my heart,
  more than when grain and wine abound.
 ⁸In peace, I will lie down and sleep;
  for you alone, O Lord, make me rest secure. 

Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-7

¹See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. ³And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
  ⁴Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48

^36bJesus himself stood among [the disciples] and said to them,  “Peace be with you.”  ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence.
  ⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

         I’m going to read a famous poem about six blind men having an argument.

THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT

IT was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind. 

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me!—but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried: “Ho!—what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ‘t is mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:”I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!

The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“‘T’ is clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

         Our text today looks at Easter evening through the eyes of Luke as the disciples and friends gathered behind locked doors discussing the events of the day.  We know that by this time Mary Magdalene has encountered the risen Christ – but no one believed.  Peter has encountered Christ but we do not know the details.  The two on the road to Emmaus have returned to report their encounter.  This gathering is like our six blind men from Indostan who have had an experience and are trying to put their stories together – but just like Jesus’ parables, the meaning is not very clear.  I would imagine that conversation was very animated.  According to Luke, Jesus appears in the midst of the chaos.

“Peace be with you.”

         Can you hear your parent telling you, “Now just calm down and tell me what happened.” I had twins and so I had to make sure both sides shared and of course, they never agreed.  The followers are disbelieving and confused when they enter the room but when Jesus appears, they become startled and terrified. Are they seeing a ghost?  As I write this sermon, we are preparing to go for an MRI.  I admit there is anxiety in the pit of my stomach.  But I also know that when we see the doctor in a few weeks to hear the findings, I will be scared.  We sit on the edge of anxiety as a culture today regarding so many things.  What will life be like for the Queen and her empire after the burial of Prince Phillip?  What will be the outcome of the attack on Iran?  Will violence erupt again when the verdict comes in on the Minneapolis trial?  Those are larger issues that subtly nibble away at us in the midst of our own personal challenging circumstances.  Jesus appears in the midst of these times and says, “Peace be with you.”

         I looked up “peace” on Bible Gateway and they give 340 mentions in the Bible, 163 of which are in the New Testament and Luke mentions “peace” at least 12 times, doubling John and quadrupling Matthew and Mark.  After a healing Luke often has Jesus dismissing the person by telling them, “Go in peace.”  The peace Jesus gives is not the “peace” that signals the end of conflict in the Middle East nor the “peace” I might feel for getting vengeance with my enemy and not even the “peace” of sitting back knowing my barns are full from a good harvest. Bonheoffer was famously known for having amazing peace as he was led to his hanging. 

         Our six men from Indostan argue about who has the best understanding of an elephant and each wants to be heard and be right, there can be no peace.  But if they turn over their individual understandings to a greater power and if they listen to God’s voice, a new kind of wisdom directs their lives and helps them see.  It is not that the circumstances change but perspective changes.  Jesus says, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace.  In the world you face persecution.  But take courage; I have conquered the world! (John 16:33)”

         There is also a peace that comes when we give up the right to control our lives and understand everything.  Jesus comes to Mary in calling her name.  Jesus comes to the people on the road to Emmaus in scripture and breaking of bread.  Jesus comes to some like the trunk of the elephant and to others like the leg.  As we sit back and learn from others, we can gain a better picture of what is happening and release our deep expectations on how an event should unfold and what the implications are for the future.  The peace Jesus is talking about is not peace as we expect in our lives today but something deeper and more pervasive. 

         But first things first.  The disciples think they are seeing a ghost.  Jesus invites them to trust their senses.  The test of a ghost was to feel arms where bones can be felt so Jesus extends his arms.  Jesus asks for food.  The resurrected body is obviously different from our worldly body as it just appeared but it also has characteristics familiar to us.  As we calm down, as we come to peace, trusting Jesus to lead us and inform us, we are able to understand reality better.  Jesus is not a ghost, not a story, not a fulfilled prophecy but a real resurrected incarnation of perfect humanness that will walk into our future with us.

He opened the Scriptures

         After we calm down, take a deep breath, and count to ten (sometimes 20) we are able to listen and receive an improved interpretation of reality.  Believing Jesus is risen is only part of the blessing of Easter.  The resurrection provided Jesus’ followers with a new lens to interpret the Old Testament.  A new interpretation of their history was given as Jesus explains scripture. The present trajectory of their lives was changed.  The resurrection changes our understanding of events today as well as events of the past or some promise of heaven.  People thought Jesus was coming to restore the Jews to their former glories and shake off the domination of the Romans.  Jesus came to bring in a new heavenly kingdom that would include all people.  His suffering, death and resurrection were predicted and not a mistake.  Our suffering, death and resurrection is likewise promised in Scripture.  We do not need to think God has lost control because we have problems.  Nor has God stopped loving us.

         Today we grieve the unexpected death of a member of our congregation.  Death never arrives on the right day and a sudden death is even more shocking.  The resurrection of Christ means that the story of life does not end with death, relationships are not ruptured forever, and that in the midst of grief there can be hope and peace.  Not as the world gives peace but peace in Christ.

Repentance and Forgiveness

Luke now turns and faces the future.  The resurrection is not only a fulfillment of prophecy that Jesus would need to suffer, die, but he rose again and the God-story continues. The resurrection informs our future.  People had been thinking in terms of military confrontations to restore the Jews to their former glory.  Their concept of a Savior was informed by their past and their present.  The Jews fought to gain control of the Promised Land and won many battles with great leaders like Joshua, Saul and David.  Surely the coming of the Messiah would mean the defeat of Rome.

          Luke now adds a big AND or BUT. “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” We have come full circle to baptism by John the Baptist at the river Jordon.  Preparation for the coming Messiah was preceded by repentance and forgiveness of sin. Preparation for the reign of the kingdom of heaven needs to be preceded by the preaching of repentance and forgiveness.   A new lens, a new directive is here given even as at the last supper Jesus gives a new mandate that we are to love one another.  Our faith is not only about our past separation from God and our future promise of heaven, but it is also about how to live today in the midst of other people.

         Repentance and forgiveness are big words we don’t hear in the news too much unless there is a money tag attached for reimbursement for past injustices.  I might even say that the our present desired change that has led to demonstrations and confrontations with power, sounds awfully familiar to the Jews anticipation of a military victory to remove the Romans.

We love the stories of the battles of David, Saul, and Joshua that brought glory and fame.  But the resurrection is bringing about a “change of plans.”  The way forward is through repentance and forgiveness.

         Repentance and forgiveness are a humbling ourselves beneath a higher judge who sees and somehow orchestrates the events of our life.  We talked about this when we talked about Jesus saying, “Peace be with you.”  Peace and the kingdom come when we repent of our self-centered lives, of our sins of omission and commission, and admit our limitations and blindness.  We are the creature and God is the creator.  We are finite and God is infinite.  We cannot see all of reality.  He is the one who holds the whole world in his hands.  We must come to grips with our limitations. But we must also forgive.  That is admitting the limitations of others also.  They make mistakes, sin against us, and don’t see the whole picture.  When we harbor grudges and shortcomings of others, the love of God cannot work in us and through us.  We become frozen in our lesser self and the world is frozen in wars, rumors of wars, and broken relationships.  The message of repentance and forgiveness must be preached, not victory by confrontation and righting all the wrongs in the world.

         Whew, we don’t hear that on the news.  The resurrection is pivotal in history.  Yes we have a new lens to understand our past and see the hand of God forming the events of our history.  Yes, someday we will rise after death and join eternity with other believers.  But also the resurrection ultimately means that we are witnesses to doing life in a new way given us by the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. 

You are witnesses

         Jesus closes with the affirmation that we are all important because we can all witness to the resurrection.  We are witnesses not because we were there that Easter evening arguing like the Indostans over just exactly what happened but because our lives have been changed by the presence of a risen Savior helping us to meet the daily challenges of life. 

         For some Jesus is a wall of protection from the abuse and evils of this world. 

         For others Jesus is a spear that helps them tackle the challenges of life.  

         Some think of God as a snake, winding its way through their life and they are not sure if he is good or bad. 

         Many experience God like a tree that can be climbed to get higher and get a better perspective on life. 

         Jesus is always a fan that helps us calm down when the going gets rough. 

         And in all cases when we come to the end of our ability to cope, God is a rope we can tie a prayer knot in and hang on to during the ride. 

         We need not argue over who is right, we need only witness to God’s truth in our lives.  Jesus is risen and present in our world today.  Amen!

First Reading: Acts 4:32-35

³²Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. ³³With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. ³⁴There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. ³⁵They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Psalm: Psalm 133

 ¹How good and how pleasant it is,
  when kindred live together in unity!
 ²It is like fine oil upon the head, flowing down upon the beard,
  upon the beard of Aaron, flowing down upon the collar of his    robe. 
 ³It is like the dew of Hermon flowing down upon the hills of Zion.
  For there the Lord has commanded the blessing: life forevermore.

Second Reading: 1 John 1:1–2:2

¹We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—²this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—³we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
  ⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

¹We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—²this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—³we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
 ^2:1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Gospel: John 20:19-31

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

  ²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
  ²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

  ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

CHILDREN’S SERMON: Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves

         I was surprised to read this week that the famous phrase we used as children, “Open SAYS me,” was actually “Open sesame.”  It was made famous in the story “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.”  Easter season is 40 days long.  Ali Baba hears about a treasure.  “Open sesame” are the secret words that open the cave where the treasure is hidden.  Perhaps this tale can help us.

         Ali Baba married a poor woman and worked as a woodcutter.  His greedy brother, Cassim, married a rich woman.  Ali overhears a thief talking about his treasure hidden in a cave blocked by a rock.  This is sounding like Jesus buried in a tomb with a stone blocking the entrance.  Ali overhears the secret words to enter, “Open sesame.”  To exit, he needed to say, “Close sesame.”  The brother finds out the secret and gets into the cave to take as much treasure as he can but cannot remember the words to leave.  And so begins the adventure.

         Sesame is a small seed that grows in a pod that opens when it is mature.  Can you think of other plants that grow treasures like that: (audience contributions):  Peas, Sunflower seeds, maybe even cocoons for butterflies. I think today’s passage is similar to this sesame seed!  Let’s pray.

Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Last Sunday was Easter and we are now in the Easter season.  For the next 40 days we will focus on the reality of the resurrection that is the cornerstone of our faith.  Last Sunday the women went to the tomb to anoint the body only to discover it was not there.  Angels told them “He is risen!”  Those three words have echoed through history and been debated.  Was the body stolen?  Was it exchanged on the way to the tomb and Jesus never really died because God can’t die?  Many people saw Jesus in the days between the resurrection and his ascension but as they told their experiences they were met with doubt like that of Thomas in our text today.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”  Locked hearts respond to the message of Easter with doubt until faith grows.  Ali Baba knows there is a treasure in a cave that is locked by a door and only magic words will let him in – and out.

LOCKED

The disciples were meeting behind locked doors that first Easter Sunday for fear of the Jews.  They had heard the words of the women.  Peter and John had also gone to the tomb and found it empty.  These men had seen Lazarus walk out of his tomb recently and had heard and seen but did not understand.  Their hearts were locked.

         What locks our hearts today?  Many hear the testimonies of people who deeply believe in the reality of God in their lives, but they remain skeptical.  As I have talked with people, I often discover there is a story of disappointment.  Some crisis event happened in their life and God did not resolve it the way they thought it should be dealt with and so trust is broken.  We know the stories.  God let my child die – too soon.  We were sure God wanted us to do something and it backfired in our face.  If God is so powerful, how come there are wars and famines and so many people pounding on our borders.  Evil and suffering are so real and God seems locked in a cave promising treasures we just cannot seem to get to.

         Perhaps people believe that there are many passwords to get into that cave.  Do not all roads lead to Rome?  Christians are not the only nice people in the world.  Common precepts seem to be foundational to all world religions.  Tolerance is certainly the mantra in our world today.  We would not want to appear judgmental and so, while it is possible that Mary saw Jesus, I didn’t.  Our materialism insulates us from faith because life is comfortable without God and we do not want to offend someone who sees it slightly differently.  Treasures are wrapped in kindness, tolerance, and acceptance and we are tempted to deny that the cave has a password.  Who needs more treasure, anyway?

         Also, unlike the disciples, we do not fear the Jews.  Christianity used to be considered the rule of our land.  We are free to gather and worship, until Covid anyway.  The Ten Commandments are generally accepted on face value as good guidelines for life.  We do not deal much with “turn the other cheek.”  Efforts to help the poor and needy have been institutionalized by society and so we now demand the government care for the needy rather than accept it as the role of faith.  The platform of actions that differentiate Christians from society in the first century and in times of crisis has disappeared.  Our treasure is locked in a cave that we feel society should open, not faith.  We no longer need a password, just a vote to pass a law.

         Martin Luther describes the cave of unbelief in the explanation of the second article.  “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”  Paul describes our fallen state in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “⁴ Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”  The cave of faith is closed with a huge stone and we do not know the right words naturally.  There is a cave.  There is a big stone.  How will we roll it away?

DOUBT

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe,” says Thomas and many of us who doubt.  Jesus came through locked doors of fear and appears to the disciples who do not believe Mary.  He shows them his side and his hands.  Other Gospels say he invites them to touch him and he asks for fish to eat.  The resurrected Jesus appears, three dimensionally.  It is only as the disciples encounter Jesus that they are able to come to terms with their fears and doubts.  “Peace be with you,” Jesus says and breathes on them.  Open sesame!  The pod, the cave, the heart opens and Jesus walks in.  There is no longer a division between God and his creation and the disciples are at peace.  It reminds me of creation when God creates humans and breathes life into his creation made from dust.  As Jesus breathes on the disciples, life enters, the door opens, and the treasure is there to be shared.

         Thomas has become famous because he was absent from this appearance of Jesus. He doubts the report.  Thomas does not want second-hand faith but demands the real thing.  Sometimes when we share our story it does not appear that anything happens and we get discouraged.  We share our encounter and the magic words but somehow it does not seem to make a difference.  I fear we have made the words into a mantra, “I believe in Jesus Christ as my savior,” is all that needs to happen and instantly we think the person should be saved.  For some, the cave of faith opens just like that, at some revival meeting or after hearing someone share.  The person goes forward or a child kneels by his bed with a parent.  But many others are like Thomas.  We want to encounter Jesus for ourselves.  So how does that happen?

         Many meet the “living Word” reading the written word.  As they read the Scripture a verse touches their heart and faith enters.  The parable of the sower told by Jesus says that sometimes the seed, perhaps a sesame seed, the word of God, falls on good soil and immediately takes root.  Faith germinates.

         Others meet the Lord through prayer.  In college I determined I would read through the New Testament to find Jesus.  I was having a crisis of faith in my World Religions class.  I quickly decided I was not smart enough or patient enough to find faith by analysis of the Bible.  I knelt by my bed and cried.  It was in prayer that God met me.  That emotional experience was grounded in a foundation of Scripture from confirmation and from study.  The apostles had walked with Jesus for three years and so this “aha moment” was the fruition of a preparation process.

         Jesus meets us today in many ways.  Nature, music, testimony and even dreams are ways that God in Christ speaks into our reality today.  As doubt dissolves into certainty about faith, it is as if the pod cracks open or the door of the cave is opened.  Jesus honored Thomas’ plea for proof.  Be patient as we share with others for we are helping to prepared a foundation for the revelation.  The cave can be opened.  We can be at peace.  God breathes on us and we know he is real.

FAITH

The sesame pod opens at the right time and inside is a tiny seed.  Thomas is invited, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas believes and proclaims, “My Lord and my God.”  History has it that Thomas became a missionary to India and died a martyr’s death.  I met a care attendant for an Indian woman and the man claimed he came from the mountain where Thomas was martyred! He was a real person, from a real place, talking about a Biblical person I knew.  He was not Internet information.

         Faith starts like a tiny seed.  It starts like a piece of treasure that Ali Baba found in the cave and claimed to enrich his life.  The faith seed when released from the pod or cave of unbelief, is set free to grow.  The resurrection is the moment when the pod pops open and the journey of faith begins.  In our culture today we buy something and it comes with a warranty for success or at least a phone number to call and talk to someone if you have trouble, and if that fails there is the Geek Squad.  I fear that often we fall into the trap of treating faith in the same way.  Faith should make life work better or easier and if things are not working we expect prayer to resolve the problem and if all else fails, talk to the pastor.  But as you and I know, it isn’t that easy.  Faith is a journey and is a spiritual muscle that needs to be used to grow. 

         I like Thomas’ response to realizing Jesus is risen, is real, and is God.  He says, “My Lord and my God!”  Those words imply that Jesus is not only the creator and provider but is also the master, guiding and directing in ways he may not always like, and Jesus is the counselor, the source of wisdom for the journey.  Take a moment and ponder the title you give Jesus in your heart.  Is he your Lord, your Savior, your Good Shepherd, or your Friend?

         The text concludes:

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
  ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

         We are the people John is talking about and we are the receivers of these testimonies. The story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves does not quite fit ours but it is similar. Jesus is the one who stands at the door and knocks on our locked hearts, he is the treasure that is found when our heart open, and he is the magic word that comes through our locked doors to us.  We cannot force faith and make that stone roll away. Jesus does.  “By grace are we saved, through faith, it is a gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast.”  May the seed of faith be growing in your heart this Easter season as we learn more and more what it means that Christ is risen and wants to be our Lord and our God.

The Old Rugged Cross, verse 1

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

The emblem of suffering and shame,

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best

For a world of lost sinners was slain.

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross

‘Til my trophies at last I lay down.

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

And exchange it some day for a crown.

WELCOME

Leader:  Friday of Holy Week starts Thursday evening as Jesus and the disciples leave the Upper Room and walk to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Our reading this evening starts in John 18 with Jesus’ arrest in the Garden, trial, and crucifixion. Interwoven in the narrative is the honest account of Peter’s denials, political posturing, popularity reversals, and horrific suffering.  The journey this evening reflects the reality of life in the earthly kingdom that is being redeemed by our Savior.  Later we will learn that Peter is forgiven, family is bigger than biological ties, and someday pain and suffering will end.  Covid-19 will not win, corrupt politicians will not rule forever, hatred, prejudice, and racism will be defeated by faith, hope, grace and love. The Holy Spirit will guide, counsel and intercede for us.   Tonight though we sit at the cross. Please depart silently, this evening, grieving the suffering we are walking through.   

Let us begin in the Name of the Father, +the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer of the Day:  Almighty God, look with loving mercy on your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, to be given over to the hands of sinners, and to suffer death on the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

Good Friday Litany

 Leader:     For our sakes Christ became obedient unto death.

All:                          Even death on the cross.

Leader:      By the obedience of one:

All:                          Shall many be made righteous.

Leader:      The chastisement he bore is health for us:

All:                          And by his scourging we are healed.

Leader:      Behold the life-giving cross on which was hung the salvation of the whole world.

All:                          Oh, come, let us sit at the cross.

Leader:      Behold the life-giving cross on which was hung the salvation of the whole world.

All:                          Oh, come, let us sit at the cross.

Leader:      Behold the life-giving cross on which was hung the

                     salvation of the whole world.

All:                      Oh, come, let us sit at the cross.

SCRIPTURE READING

First Reading: Isaiah 52:13–53:12

 ¹³See, my servant shall prosper;
  he shall be exalted and lifted up,
  and shall be very high.
 ¹⁴Just as there were many who were astonished at him
  —so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
  and his form beyond that of mortals—
 ¹⁵so he shall startle many nations;
  kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
 for that which had not been told them they shall see,
  and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
 ^53:1Who has believed what we have heard?
  And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
 ²For he grew up before him like a young plant,
  and like a root out of dry ground;
 he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
  nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
 ³He was despised and rejected by others;
  a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
 and as one from whom others hide their faces
  he was despised, and we held him of no account.

 ⁴Surely he has borne our infirmities
  and carried our diseases;
 yet we accounted him stricken,
  struck down by God, and afflicted.
 ⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions,
  crushed for our iniquities;
 upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
  and by his bruises we are healed.
 ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray;
  we have all turned to our own way,
 and the Lord has laid on him
  the iniquity of us all.

 ⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
  yet he did not open his mouth;
 like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
  and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
  so he did not open his mouth.
 ⁸By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
  Who could have imagined his future?
 For he was cut off from the land of the living,
  stricken for the transgression of my people.
 ⁹They made his grave with the wicked
  and his tomb with the rich,
 although he had done no violence,
  and there was no deceit in his mouth.

 ¹⁰Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
 When you make his life an offering for sin,
  he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
 through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
  ¹¹Out of his anguish he shall see light;
 he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
  The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
  and he shall bear their iniquities.
 ¹²Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
  and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
 because he poured out himself to death,
  and was numbered with the transgressors;
 yet he bore the sin of many,
  and made intercession for the transgressors.

Confession and Forgiveness

Confession:  Gracious God, have mercy on us.  We confess that we have turned away from you, knowingly and unknowingly.  We have wandered from your resurrection life.  We have strayed from your love for all people.  Turn us back to you, O God.  Give us new hearts and right spirits, that we may find what is pleasing to you and dwell in your house forever. Amen.

Forgiveness:  Leader:  Receive good news: God turns to you in love.  “I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live,” says our God.  All your sin is forgiven in the name of ☩ Jesus Christ, who is the free and abounding gift of God’s grace for you.  Amen.

Creed

Let us affirm our faith together in the words of the explanation of the second artlcle of the Apostle’s Creed. (Luther’s meaning to the 2^nd Article)

I believe that Jesus Christ – true God, Son of the Father from eternity, and true man, born of the Virgin Mary – is my Lord.

He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, saved me at great cost from sin, death, and the power of the devil – not with silver or gold, but with His holy and precious blood and His innocent suffering and death

All this He has done that I may be His own, live under Him in His Kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally. This is most certainly true.

Hymn:  When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, ELW 803: verses 1, 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsBiaBTFADI

Psalm: Psalm 22 

 ¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
  Why so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?
 ²My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer;
  by night, but I find no rest.
 ³Yet you are the Holy One,
  enthroned on the praises of Israel.
 ⁴Our ancestors put their trust in you,
  they trusted, and you rescued them. 
 ⁵They cried out to you and were delivered;
  they trusted in you and were not put to shame.
 ⁶But as for me, I am a worm and not human,
  scorned by all and despised by the people.
 ⁷All who see me laugh me to scorn;
  they curl their lips; they shake their heads.
 ⁸“Trust in the Lord; let the Lord deliver;
  let God rescue him if God so delights in him.” 
 ⁹Yet you are the one who drew me forth from the womb,
  and kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
 ¹⁰I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born;
  you were my God when I was still in my mother’s womb.
 ¹¹Be not far from me, for trouble is near,
  and there is no one to help.
 ¹²Many young bulls encircle me;
  strong bulls of Bashan surround me. 
 ¹³They open wide their jaws at me,
  like a slashing and roaring lion.
 ¹⁴I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint;
  my heart within my breast is melting wax.
 ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; and you have laid me in the dust of death.
 ¹⁶Packs of dogs close me in, a band of evildoers circles round me;
  they pierce my hands and my feet. 
 ¹⁷I can count all my bones while they stare at me and gloat.
 ¹⁸They divide my garments among them;

         for my clothing, they cast lots.
 ¹⁹But you, O Lord, be not far away; O my help, hasten to my aid.
 ²⁰Deliver me from the sword, my life from the power of the dog.
 ²¹Save me from the | lion’s mouth!
  From the horns of wild bulls you have rescued me.
 ²²I will declare your name to my people;
  in the midst of the assembly I will praise you. 
 ²³You who fear the Lord, give praise! All you of Jacob’s line, give glory.
  Stand in awe of the Lord, all you offspring of Israel.
 ²⁴For the Lord does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty; neither is the Lord‘s face hidden from them;
  but when they cry out, the Lord hears them.
 ²⁵From you comes my praise in the great assembly;
  I will perform my vows in the sight of those who fear the Lord.
 ²⁶The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
  Let those who seek the Lord give praise! May your hearts live forever!
 ²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
  all the families of nations shall bow before God.
 ²⁸For dominion belongs to the Lord,
  who rules over the nations. 
 ²⁹Indeed, all who sleep in the earth shall bow down in worship;
  all who go down to the dust, though they be dead, shall kneel before   the Lord.
 ³⁰Their descendants shall serve the Lord,
  whom they shall proclaim to generations to come.
 ³¹They shall proclaim God’s deliverance to a people yet unborn,
  saying to them, “The Lord has acted!”

Second Reading: Hebrews 10:16-25  (You many want to skip this as the readings are so long)

Gospel: John 18:1–19:42

¹[Jesus] went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.²Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. ³So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. ⁴Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” ⁵They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replied, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. ⁶When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. ⁷Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” ⁸Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” ⁹This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, “I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.” 

Hymn:  Jesus, Name Above All Names https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-X1EoecpeE

(Naida Hearn from Palmerston North, New Zealand went to her “wash house” to do the laundry one day in 1970.  She carried a list of names for Jesus she had written down for years.  She put the list on the window sill and opened her mouth and started singing, inspired by the Holy Spirit.  She left the laundry and went to the house and wrote down the song and returned to do her laundry. The song spread in New Zealand and came to the USA to bless many.) 

¹⁰Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. ¹¹Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
  ¹²So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. ¹³First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. ¹⁴Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.

Spoken Hymn   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_ZBhSxWots

May the mind of Christ, my Saviour,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.

May I run the race before me

Strong and brave to face the foe

Looking only onto Jesus

As I onward go.

(We know little about Kate Wilkinson, author of this hymn who was a member of the Church of England and involved in the Keswick Deeper Life Movement.  The song has inspired people facing difficult times like Covid-19.  The song was published in 1925 when she was 66 years old. Christ said, “Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me.”)

  ¹⁵Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, ¹⁶but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. ¹⁷The woman said to Peter, “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” ¹⁸Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself.
  ¹⁹Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. ²⁰Jesus answered, “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. ²¹Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.” ²²When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” ²³Jesus answered, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” ²⁴Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
  ²⁵Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, “You are not also one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” ²⁶One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” ²⁷Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.
  ²⁸Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. ²⁹So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” ³⁰They answered, “If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” ³¹Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.” The Jews replied, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.” ³²(This was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.)

Hymn:  Just As I Am:  ELW 592: v. 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zucUa13ciOM

Just as I am – without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

(This hymn by Charlotte Elliot, 1789-1871, is said to have influenced more people than any sermon ever preached.  At age 30 she became an invalid for the rest of her 82 years.  A Swiss evangelist, visiting her challenged her that she could come to Jesus just as she was, distressed, an invalid. Peter denied Christ.  Witnesses lied.  Politics.  We are all guilty of falling short and come to this story, just as we are. These words inspired this famous hymn and she was later considered one of the finest English hymn writers.)

  ³³Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” ³⁴Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” ³⁵Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” ³⁶Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” ³⁷Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” ³⁸Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”

  After he (Pilate) had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no case against him. ³⁹But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” ⁴⁰They shouted in reply, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a bandit.
 ^19:1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ²And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. ³They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face. ⁴Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.” ⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” ⁶When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.” ⁷The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”
  ⁸Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. ⁹He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” ¹¹Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” ¹²From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.”

Spoken Hymn: This is My Father’s World

This is my father’s world
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres

This is my father’s world
Oh, let me never forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet.

This is my father’s world
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is king, let the heavens sing

God is the ruler yet.

(Maltbie Davenoirt Babcock, a minister in Lockport, New York, at the turn of the Twentieth Century and author of these words, would walk beside Lake Ontario.  He always left home telling his wife, “I’m going out to see my Father’s world.  What is truth and where to find it?  God is ultimately king in all circumstances.)

  ¹³When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. ¹⁴Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” ¹⁵They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.” ¹⁶Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
  So they took Jesus; ¹⁷and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. ¹⁸There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. ¹⁹Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. ²¹Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” ²²Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” ²³When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. ²⁴So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says,
 “They divided my clothes among themselves,
  and for my clothing they cast lots.”
²⁵And that is what the soldiers did.
  Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
  ²⁸After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” ²⁹A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. ³⁰When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Hymn: (Solo by Keith?)  Were You There When They Crucified My Lord  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhGYD1svTM4

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, were you there when they crucified my Lord?
(Ohh, sometimes it causes me to tremble)

(This is one of the most famous African American songs that arose from their communal experience of slavery and was first published  in 1899 in William E. Barton’s Old Plantation Songs in the section “Recent Negro Melodies.” Originally it had four stanzas: 1) Were you there when they crucified my Lord?; 2) …when they nailed him to the cross?; 3) …when they pierced him in the side?; 4) …when the sun refused to shine. The United Methodist Hymnal, along with many other songbooks, includes a fifth: “…when they laid him in the tomb.” The series of questions are meant to function as a prompt to memories that go beyond recall to bring incorporation into our present lives and to that become part of our story.)

  ³¹Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. ³²Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. ³³But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. ³⁵(He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.) ³⁶These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.” ³⁷And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”
  ³⁸After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. ³⁹Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. ⁴⁰They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. ⁴¹Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. ⁴²And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Hymn:  Jesus Remember Me When You Come Into Your Kingdom. WOV 740.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGB2E0NzO2A

Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

forever and ever. Amen.

We close in silence.

Welcome

This evening we enter the Upper Room.  First, Jesus washes our feet, forgiveness.  Next we gather around the Last Supper, communion with the Him.  Finally Jesus gives a new mandate, commandment. We head to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Good Friday service tomorrow. 

Place on the table a candle to be lit, a bowl of water to wash in, a piece of bread or cracker, a glass of fluid to consume and a spoon.  This evening we will walk with the disciples through this last meal. Our prayer:  Lord speak to us.

Let us open our service in the name of the Father, +the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Confession and Forgiveness

Leader:  On this night let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor. Let us first bow our heads for a moment and reflect.

Confession: Most merciful God, we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.  We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.  We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.  For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.  Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.

Forgiveness: God, who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in sin, and made us alive together with Christ.  By grace you have been saved.  In the name of ☩ Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.  Almighty God strengthen you with power through the Holy Spirit, that Christ may live in your hearts through faith.  Amen.

Prayer of the Day: Holy God, source of all love, on the night of his betrayal, Jesus gave us a new commandment, to love one another as he loves us. Write this commandment in our hearts, and give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all, your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Gathering Hymn:   Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf_glkmbNbQ

Scripture Reading

First Reading  Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14 

¹The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ²This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. ³Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. ⁴If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. [⁵Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. ⁷They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. ¹⁰You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ] ¹¹This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. ¹²For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. ¹³The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
  ¹⁴This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 

 ¹I love the Lord, who has heard my voice,
  and listened to my supplication,
 ²for the Lord has given ear to me
  whenever I called.
 ¹²How shall I repay the Lord
  for all the good things God has done for me?
 ¹³I will lift the cup of salvation
  and call on the name of the Lord. 
 ¹⁴I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
  in the presence of all God’s people.
 ¹⁵Precious in your sight, O Lord,
  is the death of your servants.
 ¹⁶O Lord, truly I am your servant;
  I am your servant, the child of your handmaid; you have freed me |from        my bonds.
 ¹⁷I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
  and call upon the name of the Lord.
 ¹⁸I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
  in the presence of all God’s people,
 ¹⁹in the courts of the Lord‘s house,
  in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. 

Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 11:23-26

²³For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Hymn:  What Can Wash Away My Sin?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k-MjVTMbUg

Gospel: John 13:1-10

¹Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” 

SERMON Part 1  

WASHING — A bowl of water and towel

Maundy Thursday has three major parts: foot washing, communion, and the new commandment.  The journey we go through this evening parallels our growth in faith. In this final meal with the disciples, Jesus is physically walking them through truth.  First we must be washed. We can then relax in His presence and commune with him.  We then are prepared to relate to others as channels of God’s love.

          Jesus rises in the middle of the meal and washing the feet of the disciples.  Peter objects.  Jesus finally responds,  “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”   Without the washing away of sin, our relationships with God and people are dysfunctional.  Why are forgiveness and daily repentance so important?

         Jesus comes to the disciples, even Judas whom he knew would betray him, and washes his feet.  He knew they all needed to be washed to start the evening.  We all need to be washed for we have all sinned and fallen sort of the glory of God.  We start our service with confession and forgiveness in this truth.  You may wish to use your fingers to mark a cross on your forehead to symbolize washing your thoughts, or on your ears to symbolize what you listen to, or on your lips for better speech, or even perhaps on your heart for grudges harbored.  (Silence for reflection.)

         Let us pray with king David:

         “Have mercy on me, O God; according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I    know my transgressions and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are proved right when you speak and    justified when you judge. (Psm 51:1-4)”

Hymn: Let Us Break Bread Together    Let Us Break Bread Together – YouTube

Gospel:  Matthew 26: 26-29

²⁶ While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” ²⁷ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; ²⁸ for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

SERMON – Part 2

Communion service. Lighting the Passover candles was one of the two duties for women in the Old Testament.  Washed, we now sit at the table with Jesus.

PRESENCE – A Candle

         Jesus assures us that whether we are battling for our lives with Covid-19, overwhelmed by anxiety for the unseen danger that threatens our loved ones, or just plain bored from sitting in our homes, Jesus has covenanted with us to be present. 

Take a moment to read these verses out loud. 

         “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will   fear no evil for you are with me (Psm. 23:4)”

         “He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121: 3,4)”

         The Great Commission ends with, “And remember, I am with you       always, to the end of the age. (Mt 28: 20)”

Hymn: Amazing Grace.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSQCiaG9G8s

Gospel: John 13: 31b-35
^31b“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³²If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

SERMON: Part 3

LOVE – A Spoon

We come to the end of Maundy Thursday and Jesus starts to turn his face to the Garden of Gethsemane, his trial and Calvary.  The meal is finished and he turns to the disciples and gives them a “new commandment.”  Maundy is the word from which mandate or command comes.

Take the spoon in your hand.  It can be held to reach for and drink the water of forgiveness.  It can also be turned upside down so that the water poured over the spoon flows outward to those around.  Jesus in these words is telling us to take that spoon and dip it into the bowl of water to give water to others, to plants in your house, to wash hands or feet, to bless others and to live as forgiven people. 

Jesus in this “new” command reframes the Ten Commandments, not to give a different commandment but to give us a new perspective and way of understanding the Ten Commandments.  Have “no other gods before me,” is “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength.”  Do not swear is now to use God’s name to express love and blessing.  We go to church to refocus on what is important and eternal.  We honor family and commitments.  We don’t take life, we give life.  We don’t objectify the other for our lusts but honor and respect others’ bodies.  We don’t take but we give to others.  We don’t tear down others but build them up.  We rejoice in other’s accomplishments.  Matthew has Jesus answering the question about the greatest commandment in the Law by saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.”

A bowl of water, A candle, A spoon

Tonight we bow in the tremendous knowledge that we are forgiven, we are guardians of God’s light, and we are the spoon to feed others God’s love.  Let us pray.

Lord, Thank you.

Hymn: Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love.

You Tube:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvQz513Jl8M

Prayer

Let us pray for our world.

Turning our hearts to God who is gracious and merciful, we pray for the church, the world, and all who are in need.

God of love, unite your church in its commitment to humble service. Make us your faithful disciples. Speak words of truth and grace through us. Encourage us in self-giving acts of kindness. Let us love one another as you have loved us. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.  

God of love, tend to flocks, fields, and vineyards. Bring favorable weather for crops to grow. Guide the hands of those who cultivate, farm, and garden. Let the earth flourish so that all may eat and be satisfied. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

God of love, you give us a new commandment, to have love for one another. We give thanks for organizations that respond to disasters and for agencies that offer relief and humanitarian aid to populations in need.  We especially pray for those on the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

God of love, give ear to all who call upon you for any need of body or spirit. Provide for those who do not have enough to eat, those who are unemployed or underemployed, and those who rely on the generosity of others. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

God of love, you invite us to your table of mercy. Heal all divisions between members of this assembly. Extend the hospitality of this table beyond these walls, that your love and welcome be made known to all. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

God of love, glorify your servants who walked by faith in this life and who now feast with you. Inspire us by the sacrifice of those who were imprisoned, persecuted, or martyred for their faith. Comfort those who are grieving. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

According to your steadfast love, O God, hear these and all our prayers as we commend them to you; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us close with The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, they kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.  Amen.

Offering Prayer: God of glory, receive the offering of our lives.  As Jesus was lifted up from the earth, draw us to your heart in the midst of this world, that all creation may be brought from bondage to freedom, from darkness to light, and from death to life; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

Dismissal:  The Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord make his face shine upon you.  The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.  Amen.

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34

³¹The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Psalm: Psalm 51:1-12

 ¹Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
  in your great compassion blot out my offenses.
 ²Wash me through and through from my wickedness,
  and cleanse me from my sin.
 ³For I know my offenses,
  and my sin is ever before me.
 ⁴Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;
  so you are justified when you speak and right in your judgment. 
 ⁵Indeed, I was born steeped in wickedness,
  a sinner from my mother’s womb.
 ⁶Indeed, you delight in truth deep within me,
  and would have me know wisdom deep within.
 ⁷Remove my sins with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
  wash me, and I shall be purer than snow.
 ⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;
  that the body you have broken may rejoice. 
 ⁹Hide your face from my sins,
  and blot out all my wickedness.
 ¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,
  and renew a right spirit within me.
 ¹¹Cast me not away from your presence,
  and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
 ¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation
  and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit. 

Second Reading: Hebrews 5:5-10

⁵Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,
 “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”;
            ⁶as he says also in another place,
 “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

  ⁷In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; ⁹and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, ¹⁰having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Gospel: John 12:20-33

²⁰Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²²Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

  ²⁷“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” ³⁰Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

CHILDREN’S SERMON

Do you remember that scene near the beginning of “Chariots of Fire” when Abrahams, new to the Cambridge campus, prepares to challenge the 700 year old record for racing around the quad at the college?  He has put on his racing outfit, is wearing his racing shoes, takes the proper position crouching down and listens for the bell to strike noon.  Before the 12^th gong, he must circumvent the quad.  A fellow student joins him “to push him along” and comes in a close second.  The bell rings once and the race is started.

Let us pray:  Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Today Jesus gives his last public discourse.  He has come to Jerusalem for the Passover.  The chapter before Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead and so people are excited.  The Messiah has come!  He has been welcomed like a triumphant King by the masses in Jerusalem.  The text starts with Greeks who came to Jerusalem to worship, going to disciple Philip with one request, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”  Let me ask you, we have come to worship today and what is our request? Are we like the crowds in the narrative, hoping to see a Messiah making Israel great again? Making Bethany great again? Are we like the disciples, following but a bit confused by the agenda?  Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and we will enter Holy Week, ending with the crucifixion on Good Friday.  What do we need from Jesus today to make it through the next two weeks?  At the beginning of the race, at the beginning of the week, we don’t know the outcome.  We can only stand and echo the words of the Greeks, “We want to see Jesus.”  This seems to be the gong that signals the start of the Passion story.

Philip and Andrew go to Jesus with the Greek’s request and Jesus responds, “The hour has come for the son of Man to be glorified.”  When we think of “glory” or “be glorified”, perhaps we think of Abrahams standing on the winner’s platform and receiving the gold medal for his country and for his effort.  We might think of the inauguration of our president.  After 45 years of government work, President Biden has been elected.  He has reached a long desired goal.  Perhaps we think of a wedding and seeing the groom and bride smiling at each other.  Glorious.  We remember that moment of birth, seeing a new life – a miracle!  Jesus does not talk about a moment of exaltation, crowds cheering, our emotions overwhelmed with gratitude, but rather talks about a single grain being buried in good soil, to produce a yield, – productive and glorious.  He is talking about the seeming death he and we will experience that precedes glory.  Glory comes at the cost of death.  If we want to see Jesus, we must be willing to fall like that grain so that God can raise a harvest.

^““25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” 

         “Chariots of Fire” traces the training of two very different men as they prepare for the Olympics.  They will both run for the United Kingdom but they train differently.  Harold Abrahams hires a trainer and we see his hours of dedication.  Near the end of training, he tells his girlfriend that he cannot even spare energy to focus on her.  He risks the wrath of Cambridge by hiring the trainer and he risks the rejection of his girlfriend.  He sees his goal and its glory but like that grain he must die to personal desires.  On the other hand, there is Eric Liddel who has returned from China as a student at University but is helping his sister run the mission.  To train for the Olympics he must put aside his studies, turn over responsibility for the mission to his sister, and ultimately decides he cannot run the Olympic trials on Sunday as he believes it is against God’s will.  We see him training with his friend and we see the agony of the decision to not run on Sunday.  There is a kind of death to self.  Death to self is the cost of glory.

         Even we make decisions when we decide to follow Jesus.  I do not know what choices you made but I had to choose between my newly acquired scuba diving license with weekend adventures promised and how I would use my time on Sunday.  I love the ocean!  I love Sunday worship!  The choice was mine.  I believe I have mentioned before the struggle with Friday after school TGIF times with fellow teachers at a local bar that I finally gave up.  Today there are still choices about Sundays, gossip, integrity on IRS reports, and spending money and time.  Following God and seeking his glory will involve turning eyes from self to him and involve a sacrifice of my agenda, a willingness to loose my life.  We keep our eyes on the goal, the big picture.  We choose God’s glory over our momentary pleasure.  Seeing Jesus involves choices that feel like death.

^“26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”

         As we look at Christian history, there are certainly actions for which we hang our head.  The Crusades are not a proud moment in our history.  As we confess in our opening, “we have not loved you with our whole heart.  We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.”  Serving Jesus is not a call to success but a call to faithfulness and following.  Jesus goes to some of the horrible spots in our world – disaster zones, sick zones, uneducated areas – many of the places Christian organizations have gone. Serving means following Jesus to places of death to bring glory to God.  To see Jesus means following him to some of the ugly places of life.

         Service to Jesus comes in many forms.  It is not a momentary decision about visions, but more a course of action.  It is possible to applaud pastors and missionaries but we can also acknowledge the love of parents for children with disabilities or dealing with elders who are cognitively challenged.  I think of my maid who worked for me day in and day out doing dishes, washing clothes, cooking and cleaning.  She did receive a very minimal salary by American standards and sufficient by Kenyan standards but I believe God sees the hours she put in and will reward her some day.  Following Jesus is not going to be in a triumphant parade following the newly elected but will be a challenge of obedience unto death.  Jesus does not sugar coat it.  But Jesus assures the Greeks, those listening and us that God sees and rewards, will glorify Jesus and honor us.

 Jesus then reflects, “What shall I say?” “Father, Save me from the trial?“

Jesus’ soul is troubled thinking of what he is going to pass through and it is not the Garden of Gethsemane yet!   Choice.  It would appear that even Jesus had choice about his destiny.  I do not think he was a programmed puppet of God, destined to live out a preordained plan.  Jesus agonizes over what is coming even as Eric Liddell agonizes over whether he should race on Sunday.  We know the outcome, resurrection, in hindsight but often the choice before us looks like a choice with a definite death outcome.  Jesus chooses to glorify God and not try and save his own life.  He will still battle the decision next week.  Decisions are not easy.  Jesus refuses the temptation to flee and says, no, his prayer is that God’s name be glorified.  To see Jesus is to embrace the unknown future, trusting God.

         “We want to see Jesus!” with the Greeks.  We want God to be glorified with Jesus.  And we will agonize with Jesus.  “What shall I say?” Following Jesus is not automatic because of a decision made during some mountain top experience like the Mountain of Transfiguration or made in our youth.  Following Jesus is an on going choice, it is a daily renewal of our baptismal vows as Luther says.  On Sunday morning of the trial race Eric Liddel was suppose to run, the movie shows him preaching in a church.   He quotes Isaiah 40: 29-31,   

         “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting        God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or      weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength          to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

Liddell reflects through out the movie, “Where does the strength come from to see the race to the finish?”  “It comes from within.”

         Abrahams and Liddell both have the right shoes, the right running outfit, train hard and have natural talent.  Liddell tells his sister, “God made me to run and I feel his delight when I use my gift.”  But the outcome of the race will lay in the hands of God.  The Greeks want to see Jesus.  We want to see Jesus.  This signals the start of a race that looks like a grain falling in the soil, a seeming death to self, that produces the glory of bearing much fruit.  As Jesus dies and is lifted up, many will glorify God.  As we serve faithfully, God is glorified.  And that is what is important.  Making those choices to follow will not be easy.  Jesus had to go through the cross for God to be glorified. We too have to prepare ourselves to do the tasks on our plates.  But we are not alone.  God is watching and is walking with us and the Holy Spirit is interceding for us with deep sighs. “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”  Thank you Lord for the privilege of following you and serving.

First Reading: Numbers 21:4-9

⁴From Mount Hor [the Israelites] set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. ⁵The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” ⁶Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. ⁷The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” ⁹So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Psalm: Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

 ¹Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good,
  for God’s mercy endures forever.
 ²Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim
  that God redeemed them from the hand of the foe,
 ³gathering them in from the lands;
  from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
 ¹⁷Some were fools and took rebellious paths;
  through their sins they were afflicted.
 ¹⁸They loathed all manner of food
  and drew near to death’s door.
 ¹⁹Then in their trouble they cried to the Lord
  and you delivered them from their distress. 
 ²⁰You sent forth your word and healed them
  and rescued them from the grave.
 ²¹Let them give thanks to you, Lord, for your steadfast love
  and your wonderful works for all people.
 ²²Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
  and tell of your deeds with shouts of joy.

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

¹You were dead through the trespasses and sins ²in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. ³All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. ⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us ⁵even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Gospel: John 3:14-21

 [Jesus said:] ¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
  ¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
  ¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON        

My daughter wrote this poem in 2009 for her class of four year olds.  It is a rework of a Veggie Tales song but it works as a poem too.

God wants us to have some patience, please,
When we’re standing in a line
Or are sitting down to dine.
God wants us to have some patience, please
And we get it starting on our knees.

When we’re standing in the hall waiting for our turn to drink
The person in the front takes so long we start to think
That when finally it’s our turn there will be no water there
So we use our hands to shove and we roar like a big bear.
But to shove and roar’s not nice, and it doesn’t help at all.
A better thing to do is count to 10 and stand up tall.
You will get your turn to drink and when you do you’ll take some time.
And you don’t want those behind you to keep shoving out of line.
So remember to have patience when you have to sit and wait
‘Cuz it’s what God says to do even when it’s not so great

When you figure out this patience, you’ll be thrilled to find out, too,
That there’s time when you are slow and when others wait for you
So when all is said and done patience grows in you and me
Sometimes I wait for you, and sometimes you wait for me.
Try to test this patience out…you’ll see…

That God wants us to have some patience, please,
When we’re standing in a line
Or are sitting down to dine.
God wants us to have some patience, please
And we get it starting on our knees.

SERMON

Today’s readings are so full of classic favorite Bible quotes that it is hard to see the forest because of the trees.  The temptation is to sit back and think, “We’ve got this one.”  John 3:16 “For God so loved….” We all know. It has been called “the Gospel in a nutshell.”  Ephesians 2:8,9 “By grace we are saved….” is foundational to our belief in salvation by grace and not by works.  The familiar is so comfortable that often we loose the depth and intensity of its meaning.  As a youth I warbled the favorite love ballads and looked forward to that magical moment when Prince Charming would propose.  He did.  I agreed.  And I discovered I was still me and life still had to be lived.  “Been there and done that!” clouds the magic of someone claiming, “I love you.”  For the abused person, I suspect God’s promise of love is met with some of the same cynicism.  For the abused, “grace” is a difficult concept.  So today I want to look at our texts through the eyes of the Old Testament reading.

         As I look at Numbers, the people of Israel have left Egypt, received the Ten Commandments, and sent spies into the Promised Land who came back with scary reports.  The people panic and see themselves as grasshoppers in their own eyes.  They are now wandering for 40 years while a generation dies off and there is a transition in leadership.  Only Joshua and Caleb will survive to lead the people.  Aaron, their first priest, has died.  Miriam, the song leader, has passed.  The chapter starts with victory and the defeat of a Canaanite king.  We read in v. 4 that following that victory,  “the people became impatient on the way.  The people spoke against God and Moses.”

         “Impatience” leads to their sin of murmuring.  Their wants are not in line with their haves.  The Promised Land has not been reached … yet!  Their eyes have shifted from the God who gave them victory just a verse before, just a year before, perhaps minutes before; their eyes have shifted from God and thankfulness to self and want.

         Paul in our Ephesians reading phrases it, “³All of us once lived among them (the people of this world) in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.”  The pleasures of Egypt are remembered and the memories of slavery have faded. Those of us who have been baptized as infants, raised in a Christian home, and have sought to follow, sometimes dismiss the “testimonies” of the dramatic conversions to Christianity but that does not mean that we, in our own way, have not become impatient with God and had those times when our eyes shift to our wants and our desires.  When life takes a turn to the left and not the right, I am prone to mutter, “Now, God, what was that about!”?  I do not want illness, poverty, riots and arguments and perhaps for a second I wonder what God is up to.  We are all guilty of impatience.  We are all sinners.  “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Did I hear an “AMEN!” to that — or perhaps we hung our head in acknowledgment. 

          When we are impatient, our focus shifts from God’s wants to our wants.  But also our focus shifts from the big picture to the “now.”  Impatience is not thinking long term but is very present focused and has lost sight of the victories of the past and the promises for the future. The people whine, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”  They have forgotten the slavery of Egypt.  They have forgotten the ten plagues, the sea of reeds, standing at Mt. Sinai.  How easily we forget and become numb to the big picture.  We want to charge forward before we are ready.  I cannot help but wonder if our present cultural outburst of demonstration to demand rights, of partnering and being impatient with commitments, or reports of mass slayings – all points to an impatience with life.  Our wants in the now govern our behavior.

         Impatience seems to me to also show a problem with tunnel vision.  We are so focused on the now and ourselves that we forget the context we are living in.  Poverty, justice, discrimination become centered on my life, here in the present and we lose track of the progress of history and our global context.  That does not make poverty right, it only means we are not looking in context and forgetting our resources.  I worked on a suicide prevention phone service out of Hollywood Presbyterian Church in my young adult years.  People called all night in despair.  As we listened, talked and became a caring presence – and evaluated really how serious the person was about suicide – we tried to help the person identify resources available to them.  The people of Israel were tired of free food provided daily, were tired of being led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  They were tired of having clothes and shoes that did not wear out.  They wanted to go shopping.  They were tired and impatient.  When we become tired and impatient with our plight in life, we are probably looking at our wants that have become needs, we are thinking in the present and we have lost sight of our resources.  We have become impatient and self-centered – we are sinners.

Enter poisonous snakes!

         “⁶Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.”  Do you notice that God is credited with sending trials that catch the Israelites attention and drive them to God?  We all have those “snakes” that kill our joy for life.  Perhaps it is guilt over a wrong we did and we cannot forgive ourselves.  Perhaps it is hate for someone who abused us.  Perhaps it is gossip that cut deep.  So often these snakes sneak up on us and kill life.  Dr. Dirk Lange, my worship professor at Luther wrote a book the Deaconesses are reading for Lent, Today Everything is Different.

          “The book is centered on the experience and witness of clandestine          prayer groups in East Germany that, throughout the 1980s, continued   to grow, becoming more public and occasioning massive demonstrations that finally resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall       (November 1989). (introduction)” 

         “Prayer takes the faith community out into the street,” not in massive resistance and protest marches but seeking space to breath in daily life.  The word resistance was never used!  Poisonous snakes were killing the Israelites even as Communism was suffocating East Germany.  Even so shame, guilt and regret kill us and steal joy.  What do the people do? The people repent, go to Moses and ask him to pray for them.

         The Israelites believe God sent the snakes that cause them to evaluate their priorities, their coping strategy, that face them with their own helplessness and the futility of their grumbling.  How sad that often prayer is our last resort when we are at the end of our rope rather than our first response to center ourselves, remind us of our resources and remind us who is in control!  I find it fascinating that caught in a national pandemic where people are dying, we turn to masks and vaccines and I hear very little about a call for a national day of prayer.  I am not saying that masks and vaccines are wrong but as I watch movies of former days of crisis like the Bay of Pigs and the crisis in Cuba, I see pictures of people flocking to churches, not closing them.  The poisonous snakes face the Israelites with the reality that their lives are in God’s hands and they run to Moses to pray for them.

Nehushtan

         God tells Moses to make a serpent of bronze, nail it to a pole, lift it up and the people who are bitten should look to it and be healed.  This symbol became known as Nehustan and became part of the Jewish religious practice. Eventually it is worshipped itself, perhaps not similar to the magic we give to wearing a cross.  Nailing our snakes to the pole, possibly a cross image, and honestly naming it, opens the door of God’s grace. Grace:  God’s riches at Christ’s expense.  God answered the cries of the people and the prayers of Moses, not with formulas for penance but with grace, salvation that gave the people advocacy (they had to turn to look) and acknowledged God’s power over the dilemma, imminent death.  “⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Grace is a gift given, not a present earned.

         We Lutherans camp on this verse.  I am not saved because of my great faith, not because I turn to look at the pole.  It is Christ’s work of nailing the snake to the cross that saves me.  Because God loves the world, God reaches out and gives us Jesus.  Being in relationship to Jesus saves, not the cross he was nailed to.  Salvation is not our doing but Christ’s.  It is a gift.

         Lent 1 reminded us of God’s grace in saving Noah and his family in the Ark and then setting a rainbow in the sky to remind him and us that God will not destroy us by water.  Lent 2 reminded us that Abraham was chosen by God, to be the patriarch of a stiff-necked people, God’s people whom he would work with so that all nations would be blessed through them.  Lent 3 we were reminded of the Ten Commandments that govern these chosen people and distinguish them.  Obedience blesses and disobedience brings problems.  Lent 4, today, we hear of how people, impatient with God’s ways are saved by turning to the cross symbol. 

         John 3:16, from our Gospel text, is embedded in the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus who came at night asking how to be saved. What could he do to become one of those blessed people?  Jesus responds, nothing!  Birth in God’s kingdom is not a physical act a person can perform but a birth of faith in a gift of grace.  Nicodemus must be born again into relationship with God.

         It is easy to become impatient with God as we look around our world with all its problems.  Perhaps a change in government will help.  Perhaps a vaccine will add years to our life, but will it add life to our years? We read John 3:16,  “For God so loved the world  (you and me)  (even when we are impatient with him) that he gave his only begotten son (Jesus) so that who ever (regardless of language, intelligence, or age) believes will not perish but have eternal life.  Whether we turn to a pole with a snake or turn to an empty cross, we are reminded of God’s love and grace.  We lift our eyes and bow our hearts in thanksgiving.  Let us recite John 3:16 together,

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Lord, guard us from impatience and may our salvation never become a routine truth but ever be received as grace.  AMEN.

First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

¹God spoke all these words:
  ²I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³you shall have no other gods before me.
  ⁴You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, ⁶but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
  ⁷You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
  ⁸Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁰But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
  ¹²Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
  ¹³You shall not murder.
  ¹⁴You shall not commit adultery.
  ¹⁵You shall not steal.
  ¹⁶You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  ¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Psalm: Psalm 19

 ¹The heavens declare the glory of God,
  and the sky proclaims its maker’s handiwork.
 ²One day tells its tale to another,
  and one night imparts knowledge to another.
 ³Although they have no words or language,
  and their voices are not heard,
 ⁴their sound has gone out into all lands, and their message to the        ends of the world, where God has pitched a tent for the sun.
 ⁵It comes forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber;
  it rejoices like a champion to run its course.
 ⁶It goes forth from the uttermost edge of the heavens and runs about to  the end of it again; nothing is hidden from its burning heat.
 ⁷The teaching of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul;
  the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to | the simple.
 ⁸The statutes of the Lord are just and rejoice the heart;
  the commandment of the Lord is clear and gives light to the eyes.
 ⁹The fear of the Lord is clean and endures forever;
  the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
 ¹⁰More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold,
  sweeter far than honey, than honey in the comb. 
 ¹¹By them also is your servant enlightened,
  and in keeping them there is great reward.
 ¹²Who can detect one’s own offenses?
  Cleanse me from my secret faults.
 ¹³Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not get dominion over me; then shall I be whole and sound, and innocent of  a great offense.
 ¹⁴Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be     acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. 

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

¹⁸The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,
 “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
  and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Gospel: John 2:13-22

¹³The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  The Tortoise and the Ducks

         Aesop tells how we all know that the tortoise carries his house on his back.  It is said Jupiter punished him for not coming to his wedding and being so lazy.  The tortoise bemoaned his plight in life, crawling around on short stubby legs with a house on his back.  Two ducks came by and offered a solution.  Hold on tightly to this stick and we will show you the world – and so the tortoise did.  The ducks picked up the stick and carried the tortoise high into the sky.  A passing crow exclaimed, “This must be the king of tortoises!”  The tortoise was so pleased, he answered, “Why certainly…” but as he spoke, he let go of the stick and fell to his death.

Let us pray:  Lord may the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you and may I never forget that your word is the stick that carries my life to heights I never imagined!

SERMON

This Lent our Old Testament readings are reminding us of different “covenants” God has made with us that help us remember who we are and whose we are.  Lent 1, we worshipped a God who gave us the rainbow with Noah and promised never to destroy us again by water.  In the waters of baptism Jesus started his public ministry.  Lent 2, we worshipped a God who gave us a promise through Abraham that God’s intention is to bless us so that we might be a blessing to the nations.  There may be suffering, rejection and death but resurrection will follow.  Today, Lent 3, we continue our journey of remembering who we are and whose we are.  The Old Testament reading is the passage concerning the giving of the Mosaic Covenant, Ten Commandments, that if followed bring blessing and if disobeyed bring trouble. 

         The third commandment tells us

         “⁸Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall    labor and do all your work. ¹⁰But the seventh day is a sabbath to      the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your         daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien     resident in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and          earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day;     therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.”

Sundays are days designed for blessing and renewing us as we remember God.

         One of the few times we see Jesus display anger comes from our passage today.  It is approaching Passover and Jesus is in Jerusalem, at the Temple, the center of worship.  At first glance, we see Jesus’ anger as he sees the temple being treated like a “marketplace.”  Jesus erupts in zeal and overturns the external activity.  The Jews then ask for a sign of his authority to act like this and Jesus talks of destruction and raising of the Temple.  Lastly we learn that Jesus is talking of the temple of his body, not the building, the Temple, that he knows will be destroyed in 90 AD.  Marketplaces, destruction, and bodies – three points for today to remember on our Lenten journey.  Creation, recreation, and new life, these patterns define our lives.

Marketplaces

         We Lutherans tend to be a bit tight-lipped about our identity and if asked who we are, will probably answer relationally or vocationally. We identify by sharing the marketplace of our life.  My name is ….  I’m the wife or husband of ….  I work at …..  I live over there.  These are all descriptors of our marketplaces. Introductions are important.  Six, sometimes seven days a week we spend in the marketplaces of our life.  Jesus is standing in the Temple courtyard, the religious marketplace of that day.

         I was struck upon returning to the United States, how often many modern churches resemble airports, having book stands, cafes, announcements of activities and programs of the church in the entry way.  Of course it is all done tastefully but it reminded me of the airport waiting areas with duty free shops, restrooms, play areas for children and TVs.   Our churches, even like the Temple in our reading, take on the atmosphere of a marketplace.  The creation story opens the Bible with a flurry of activity also.  It is not until the seventh day that God seems to sit back, appreciate, and rest.  The Sabbath is the last day of the week.

         Interestingly, though, when God gives the Ten Commandments, he does not start with the marketplace of creativity and activity but starts with  
“²I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³you shall have no other gods before me.”  Most important is not what we do for God but who God is to us.         Jesus confronts the Jews with anger.  They have their priorities wrong.  God reverses our value hierarchy in the giving of the Ten Commandments.  Our first priority is not to buy a sacrifice for our sin, for what we have done in the marketplace, but to get our spiritual identity clear.  We start, the commandments, with God, his name, and the Sabbath. 

         Also I find it interesting that “marketplace” has become “in” lingo with the Affordable Care Act.  It implies health care that even the poor can afford to invest in.  It implies that not just the “select” but the “ordinary” person can participate. It offers an option that is competitive with other plans and hopefully will drive the price of insurance down.  Perhaps we might ask ourselves if faith these days is a competition for the involvement of people as they pick and choose which church, which faith they want to invest in.   We, the shopper, have been given power as we choose and the market offers us a menu to fit our need.  My son would say, “Drink your kool-aid, Mom, and I’ll drink mine.”  Thus Sunday becomes a choice among many options and we shop for the alternative that fits our budget, that suits us.  Enter Jesus who turns the tables upside down.

         Jehovah, God, is not a choice among many Gods.  Jehovah is the I AM.  He is the only God.  We don’t buy shares and invest hoping for a future profit.  There are not varying prices to fit the amount of sin we want forgiven or the poverty of our life.  Like the Jews, we tend to make faith and religion, a marketplace like our jobs and relationships.  Jesus forms a whip, turns the tables upside down and creates a scene, a mess.  Lent calls us to reflect on whether we have put the cart before the horse and if we have not made church into “marketplace.”

Destruction and Resurrection

         The Jews are flabbergasted.  By what authority can Jesus just enter the Temple and create a mess?  What is the SIGN of his authority?  Jesus now says the words that will be held against him at his trial.

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 

From our historical perspective, we understand that Jesus was talking about his death and resurrection.  The leaders, though, do not have our advantage and think he is talking about the Temple, the outer courts where the marketplace is happening.  But, as usual, Jesus is digging deeper.  He   has gone from upturning a marketplace for buying for a sacrificial system to reminding the Jews, the commandments are about relationship. Sacrifices allow the person to “purchase” a clean conscience with the earning of their hands, six days of the week. He is going to a more core issue.  Our first priority is God.

          More over,  the Jews should remember that  if the Temple is destroyed, faith will survive.  The Jews have survived the destruction of the Temple in the past and will survive the destruction of the Temple in the future.  In the face of persecution, faith survived because faith is not based on sacrifices but on God.  Jesus points to the past and to the future and prophesies the present that is unfolding.  It is not the Temple but faith that governs the choices we make.

         How faith works in our lives must be turned upside down.    We advertise for Jesus, “try it, you’ll like it” but here Jesus clearly says that his way of faith will create tension – suffering, rejection, and death as we discussed last week – with the values of the world.  Faith cannot center on the Temple and its sacrifices.  Faith centers on people and challenges us to recreate, reconstruct our value system, not just offer a sacrifice for our breaking of rules.  We must not only offer sacrifices but also make choices that will feel like death but result in resurrection.  On Sunday we choose if we are we going to get that rest we so dearly need from the stress of the marketplace all week or are we going to go to church?  Are we going to forgive that stupid offense of the other, one more time!, or are we going to keep carrying the grudge?  That memory of ourselves or the other that just won’t get buried in our subconscious or forgotten keeps popping up at awkward moments and won’t stay put at the foot of the cross!  In so many ways, the life of faith challenges the values of the world.  Sacrifices will continue but do not put the end to sin.  It is only as Jesus is sacrificed that there can be resurrection.

         The first three commandments focus us on God and the last seven focus our lives with each other, and confront our selfish tendencies.  Judging from the divorce rate today, honoring of marriage is a genuine challenge.  Murder still fills our courts not to mention demonstrations and riots.  We call slander, “misinformation” as if truth of events depends on the point of view of the reporter.  Coveting and want are never satisfied as we champion “the good life” that we all deserve, right?  We don’t want life as it is but want…what is it we want?  It is the sign of our actions, our life, as we consistently die to self and grow, rise up, by the power of God that give Christ and us the authority.  Ultimately Jesus has authority because he is God but the sign that gives him authority is his life that is a living demonstration that the Ten Commandments are right.

         The sign of authority of Jesus is the life he lived, his embodiment of the principles he taught.  “Destroy this temple,” destroy this marketplace, take away all the trappings of religion and what are we left with?  Without the marketplace of religion, we are left with faith.  But I think Jesus is saying more than getting our values straight.  People who are not Christian often do all sorts of good.  Other religions have wonderful gurus and leaders that have been exemplary.  Jesus points to something more ominous – his upcoming death.  He must be destroyed, must be eliminated, and rejected, die and his resurrection will be the sign of his authority.  He will be the ultimate sacrifice that destroys death.  The empty cross is his sign.

The New Temple

Jesus has shifted the conversation from marketplace works.  Jesus has pointed to his death and resurrection as the sign of faith that survives the destruction we go through in our battle with the world.  The disciples later realize that Jesus was voicing an astounding fact about the temple.  That focus on temple as building is about to change.  “He was speaking of the temple of his body.”   Jesus predicts the shift that is going to happen as faith moves from faith in a place, the Temple, to faith in Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for sin, to a new kind of temple, “the body of Christ,” the church.  1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul asks us “do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?”   We believe that Jesus’ body and ours is the real Temple that can go anywhere, that will be transformed for eternal life, and that testifies to the truth of God’s love that is stronger than religious rules and laws, stronger than death, and always is as close to us as our own heart.

         The Noah Covenant was God’s promise to not destroy us by water and is demonstrated in the rainbow.  The Abrahamic Covenant was God’s promise to form a nation of people that will bless all nations.  The Mosaic Covenant found in the Ten Commandments is a covenant of what that kingdom God is forming will look like.  New laws will not be voted in with each leader and each congress.  God’s favor will not depend on the sacrifices we can afford to offer nor the good deeds of our life.  God’s favor will be a gift available to all languages and people as Jesus satisfies death and his temple will be found in his body, the church.

         The tortoise was wrong.  He was not cursed with carrying his house but was blessed that wherever he went he was home.  Even so is the Christian who carries the Holy Spirit in his heart.  The tortoise was wrong to think he might be the king and not to acknowledge that he was carried by holding on tight to the stick, the Ten Commandments that carry us to new heights.  The ducks or the “goose” is the Holy Spirit who carries us to see the world.  Thank you, Lord.  Hold on for the rest of Lent.

First Reading: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. ²And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” ³Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ⁴“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁵No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. ⁷I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”
  ¹⁵God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Psalm: Psalm 22:23-31

 ²³You who fear the Lord, give praise! All you of Jacob’s line, give glory.
  Stand in awe of the Lord, all you offspring of Israel.
 ²⁴For the Lord does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;    neither is the Lord‘s face hidden from them;
  but when they cry out, the Lord hears them.
 ²⁵From you comes my praise in the great assembly;
  I will perform my vows in the sight of those who fear the Lord.
 ²⁶The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
  Let those who seek the Lord give praise! May your hearts live forever! 
 ²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
  all the families of nations shall bow before God.
 ²⁸For dominion belongs to the Lord,
  who rules over the nations.
 ²⁹Indeed, all who sleep in the earth shall bow down in worship;
  all who go down to the dust, though they be dead, shall kneel before   the Lord.
 ³⁰Their descendants shall serve the Lord,
  whom they shall proclaim to generations to come.
 ³¹They shall proclaim God’s deliverance to a people yet unborn,
  saying to them, “The Lord has acted!”

Second Reading: Romans 4:13-25

¹³The promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
  ¹⁶For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, ¹⁷as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ¹⁸Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²²Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” ²³Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Gospel: Mark 8:31-38

³¹[Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
  ³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

A favorite childhood tale that originated in the 10^th century in Europe and which has several versions is “Little Red Riding Hood.”  A young girl with a red cape dances through the woods to carry goodies to her grandmother who is sick in bed.  She is not aware that the wolf has arrived first and eaten the grandmother.  The girl is anticipating and expecting her grandmother.  To her surprise the grandmother looks strange for the wolf has put on the grandmother’s gown and is lying in bed.

“Oh, grandmother, what big your eyes you have!”  The wolf answers, “All the better to see you with, my dear.”….

“Oh, grandmother, what big your ears you have!”  The wolf answers, “All the better to hear you with, my dear.”….

“Oh, grandmother, what big your teeth you have!”  The wolf answers, “All the better to eat you with!”  He grabs her and eats her in one swallow.

The woodsman arrives and kills the wolf with his ax, cuts him open and out come grandmother and Red Riding Hood whole and happy.

         Today we are like the girl wanting to have tea and a good visit.  The wolf is Satan.  We become confused when we do not experience what we anticipated and expected.  The woodsman is Jesus who rescues us from death.  Let us pray.

Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart honor you, my rock and redeemer.

SERMON

Do you ever make a “to do” list?  Perhaps you don’t write it down but somewhere in the back of your mind, there is a general idea of your plan, your hopes, your expectations for the day, for the season, before any event.  We anticipate and that anticipation affects to a degree how we celebrate the outcome at the end of the day.  My friend went to a care-center to celebrate the 94^th birthday of her friend last week. She went prepared with all the trappings for a birthday party including cupcakes.  Yup, covid crushed her anticipation as none of the trappings were allowed.  All her work and expense was for nothing.  She could not express her love as she had wanted and felt very frustrated and disappointed. 

         Jesus gave the disciples his “to-do” list of what to expect when they get to Jerusalem.  The problem is that it does not make sense then – or now.  Jesus’ words clash with the disciple’s anticipations – and expectations.  They were expecting a king and deliverer.  Jesus said,  “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”  The disciples are expecting Jesus to chase the Romans away and they are expecting Jesus to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant from our first text and to make Israel great again.  They did not expect suffering, rejection and death.

         Abraham in the Old Testament reading today was 99 years old.  When he was 75 years old God came to him and promised to bless him and that he would have children like the stars in the sky.  Read Genesis 12 for the prelude to today’s reading.  Now 24 years later, Abraham has to be reminded of God’s promise.  I doubt Abraham has forgotten that first God encounter and the promise for we see him trying to hasten the promise with Hagar, resulting in Ismael.  We see Abraham telling the people of Egypt that Sarah is his sister and God protecting her as the designated carrier of the promised child.  He heard the promise and we hear the promises but we don’t understand the “to-do” list to get to the promised blessing.  As my mother always said, “There is often a slip between the cup and the lip.”   At age of 99 God again reminded Abraham of the covenant to bless him and that Abraham would be a blessing.  God’s plan is blessing.  Remember.

         The disciples too hear Jesus’ words about the future suffering and death on the cross but the promise of blessing and resurrection is only remembered afterwards.  They too do not understand.  Suffering, rejection, and death on our “to-do” list come before the resurrection. We too forget the “to-do” that precedes blessing and we are often surprised by trials. We think faith is about happy-ever-after and we confuse God with Santa Clause.  Lent helps us remember.

         I love the song, “This World is Not My Home, I’m just a passing through.  My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.”  This world is not our home and so it should not be a surprise that we feel dissonance and suffer.  James admonishes the early Christians scattered around the known world to “count it all joy when ever you experience trials.”  Suffering develops perseverance and perseverance leads to maturity.  It is fine for a baby to be a baby but when an adult acts like a baby, we look for a doctor.  Life implies growth and learning means mistakes, bruised knees and scars.  God’s goal is growth not pleasure.  Remember.

         Suffering also grows in us compassion and empathy so that we can encourage others who are going through trials.  As a committed sociologist who believes that we are creatures of community and our God is triune, a sociological concept, I believe that when you hurt, I hurt, and we are drawn together to help each other. Hospitals, schools, social services are examples.  Suffering builds community.  Remember.

         Suffering also drives us to God to seek wisdom, James continues.  It is in times of need that we remember we are dust and that we need the wisdom and help of God.  It is in the “dark nights of the soul” that we often grow.  We grow in our ability to persevere, our empathy for others in pain, and in our thirst for a deeper walk with God – we grow in prayer.

         Hmmmm, it is a little hard to give a loud “amen” to suffering.  Let’s skip that part of our “to-do” list and go to the next task.  Ooops, it is rejection.  This world is not my home and so not only will I feel tension and suffer but often there will be conflict of values and I will feel rejection.  The trip to the cross was the result of the religious authorities rejecting Jesus as the Messiah.  The crowds that hail Jesus as the Messiah on Palm Sunday will be yelling, “Crucify him,” by Friday.  The news interviews last night, pondering the future gave examples of how “popular” programs were hailed during campaign speeches but don’t bring the results often resulted in the popularity polls dropping very quickly. We are shocked when Olympic trainers abuse children who do not have the power or voice to reject their actions.  It’s wrong.  It’s sin! The saying is, “You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time.”

         Rejection is a values clarification experience.  What do we believe strong enough that we are willing to risk rejection?  Isaiah says that “all we like sheep have gone astray.”  The sheep I have seen follow the leader, head down and will walk right in front of a bus.  They are considered a bit dumb.  Not following the leader, not following the values of this world, not following the crowd will result in rejection.  It is as we wrestle with this tendency of ours to follow the crowd that we define ourselves and discover what we truly value and believe.

         Thus rejection often involves a “public stance.”  It implies that not only am I not believing as another believes but I am also not engaging with them or they with me.  Have you noticed how often when someone gives a “testimony” it involves a values clarification experience whose outcome is rejection but transforms the person?  I made a decision that going out drinking with my fellow teachers as a young adult was not getting me where I wanted to go and I came to a point of rejecting, not joining Friday nights at the bar.  I’m sure as a young adult some of that was realizing I was not meeting young men and often the conversation was a rehash of the grumps of the week – and financially draining.  But more importantly, I was not going where I wanted to go.  I was not having the sort of life I saw promised in Scripture.  Rejection is taking a stand.

         Oh my, suffering is not fun to think about and rejection takes more courage than I think I have.  Let’s keep moving.  Jesus says we must undergo suffering, rejection and death.  What!  Truly this world is not my home and I am just passing through.  We in the United States lead a pretty sheltered life, insulated in our wealth and materialism.  Death is something we think we have within our power to avoid whether that be with a vaccine, or going to the right doctor, eating the right diet, exercising, or living in the right part of town.  Death is something for tomorrow that we don’t want to talk about.  Lent is uncomfortable because we face the darker side of ourselves, of others, and of life.  We don’t want to die and we certainly don’t want our loved ones to die.  Death is for those older than us and usually for some other day.

         We see death as the punishment for sin.  “Whoever eats of this fruit of the tree in the center of the garden will die.”   Yet – we note that the good and the bad die, the young and the old, the rich and the poor.  Death and life seem to go together, not as reward and punishment but more like the half full, half empty glass.  Are we focusing on the pains of aging or on the blessings?  But our knee-jerk response to Jesus’ “to-do” list is that death is not so welcome.  We will all die and it is not “if” but “when.”  That is a serious forecast.

         Suffering, rejection and death await us.  All of these we know.  Jesus does not stop there, though.  BUT…  But what?  But on the third day Jesus will rise – and we will rise too.  That is unimaginable and often forgotten.  It feels like pie in the sky and we are accused of skipping the meat to get to the dessert.  The disciples heard but did not understand.  We hear and try to trust and believe.  We know we are dust and the future is hard to imagine. The to-do list ends with resurrection, not death.  Remember!

         Jesus continues, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  I read “take up your cross” as an invitation to embrace life.  Followers of Jesus are free to embrace life.  We know that suffering has purpose to grow us and develop us and draw us to others we can help.  Suffering draws us closer to our God.  We do not need to fear suffering for Jesus himself has suffered.  He knows our weakness and travels with us.  As followers of Jesus we can step into rejection.  As we learn to stand for something, we are less likely to fall for everything.  As we go public about our beliefs and values, hospitals are created, educational systems are developed, orphanages are built and the needy of the world are cared for.  We do not need to be afraid of being people of principle.  Unlike the disciples, we know that death was indeed followed by resurrection. We know that death does not have the last say.  We know that dust does return to dust, not to be recycled but to arise in a resurrection body.  We do not need to avoid visiting granma because her eyes are too big, her nose too long, and her teeth too sharp.  We can embrace the journey because the woodsman is our friend!

         Jesus closes with a question,

• “³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”  What does it profit us to journey through Lent?   We are adjusting our anticipation and expectations and remembering.  Suffering, rejection and death do not mean God has abandon us.  We will rise.  As we remember, we will not be so easily confused by the wolf that is waiting to gobble us up.  We will rest in the reality that the woodsman is there to rescue us from death. And perhaps we can be more patient waiting for God to fulfill his promises to bless. 
• “What can we give in return”, Christ asks.  I think of the song, What can I render to the Lord for all he’s done for me?  I will offer up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

As we travel the Lenten journey we remember that our lives are important.  God had a plan to bless nations through Abraham and Sarah.  God had a plan to bless the nations as the disciples follow God’s
“to-do” list of suffering, rejection and death.  God blesses the nations through us.  But…but may we remember today that on the third day Christ resurrected and THAT is the end of our journey also.  Remember.

 First Reading: Genesis 9:8-17

⁸God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹²God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Psalm: Psalm 25:1-10

 ¹To you, O Lord,
  I lift up my soul.
 ²My God, I put my trust in you; let me not be put to shame,
  nor let my enemies triumph over me.
 ³Let none who look to you be put to shame;
  rather let those be put to shame who are treacherous.
 ⁴Show me your ways, O Lord,
  and teach me your paths. 
 ⁵Lead me in your truth and teach me,
  for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day   long.
 ⁶Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love,
  for they are from everlasting.
 ⁷Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions;
  remember me according to your steadfast love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
 ⁸You are gracious and upright, O Lord;
  therefore you teach sinners in your way. 
 ⁹You lead the lowly in justice
  and teach the lowly your way.
 ¹⁰All your paths, O Lord, are steadfast love and faithfulness
  to those who keep your covenant and your testimonies.

Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22

¹⁸Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. ²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Gospel: Mark 1:9-15

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

¹²And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON        

How many remember the Disney classic, Lion King?  When our family spent a year in the States in 1994-5 my children played the video daily and could recite it from memory.

         The Lion King Mufasa rules his kingdom from his den at Pride Rock.  He is the “good ruler.”  His brother, Scar, is jealous and bitter.  Scar, “the bad ruler,” together with the hyenas orchestrates the death of Mufasa.  Mufasa’s son Simba, which means lion in Swahili and the heir apparent, sees the death of his father and flees. The theme of what a good ruler is like unfolds.  Simba comes of age, “time is fulfilled,” and he must decide if he is going to return to claim his rightful throne.  “Looks like a real fixer-upper” says Simba’s friend.  Jesus, the true heir, appears to have been deposed by Satan, the prince of the world.  During Lent we walk with Jesus to reclaim our world, “a real fixer-upper”.

Let us pray:  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, the true king.

SERMON

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday.  We were marked with the cross and told to “Remember, from dust we come and to dust you shall return.”  One of my favorite lines from Disney’s Lion King was the turning point near the end when Simba, Mufasa’s son, bounds across the plains to the river, sees his reflection, and hears the voice of his father in the clouds challenging him, ”Remember.  Remember who you are.”  We start the Lenten journey by remembering who we are.  Our Old Testament text returns us to the story of Noah and the flood.   The Gospel reading takes us back to the beginning of the gospel of Mark and Jesus’ baptism.  These are stories that we remember and that define us.  “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

What do we remember?

         As the pastor marked our foreheads, if we were able to go to a church, we were charged to remember our mortality.  We are creatures that will someday die.  In Genesis 3:19 God confronts Adam and reminds him that humans are mortal.  The Noah story of our Old Testament reading reminds us that God holds our mortal lives.   He has the power to destroy and he has the power to bless. How fragile life is.  James echoing the psalmist laments that our lives are like a wild flower, here today and gone tomorrow, or a mist passing through.  People who may have worn masks, may have social distanced, may have gotten the vaccine, suddenly met with death on the icy roads of Texas this week.  It was not their sin that killed them, nor is it our goodness that keeps us alive.  Remember we come from dust and go to dust.

         Jesus incarnated and joined us in baptism. As Christians we remember that when we were baptized, we were baptized into the death of Christ and became children of God. The cross is marked on our foreheads.  We have been bought with a price.  

         I find it interesting that we put today’s gospel of the baptism next to the Old Testament reading of the dove returning to Noah with an olive branch in its mouth, signaling safety.  The Holy Spirit descends like a dove at the Baptism indicating its presence and participation in the journey Jesus is embarking on.  We believe the Holy Spirit enters us at baptism and leads us and guides our lives.  We remember who we are, children of God formed from the dust of the earth with God’s spirit accompanying and guiding us.

         The mark of the cross reminds us that we are children of God under a covenant.  Death is not the end of our days.  This clump of clay, handful of dust, that is me shaped into a person – a person that is valued by the God of the universe for we are his creation.  We remember the giftedness and grace of life.  We are dust.  We are dust formed by God.  We are dust formed by God for a purpose and we are valued.  We bowed our head and asked to be marked.  We remembered.

How do we remember?

         I don’t know about you, but I forget.  It seems to be more often these days.  I love things that help me remember.  Mufasa has to challenge Simba to remember for Simba has forgotten.  The silly uncle in the Christmas classic, It Was a Wonderful Life, ties a string around his finger to remind him and yet he could not remember where he misplaced the bank money.  We make scrapbooks and hang pictures of favorite times and people.  We carve statues and Bible verses that are important.  The wedding rings are not just jewelry.  All these things remind us who we are.    In our passages today God gives us three things to help us remember who we are: the rainbow, baptism, and the voice.

         During the time of Noah, God was so grieved at the wickedness of people’s hearts that he sent a flood.  Noah, wife, three sons and their wives were spared along with representatives of all animal species.  Forty days and forty nights the rain poured down.  Noah and crew emerge from the Ark to face a new world, a new world with a rainbow. The rainbow was there before Noah stepped out of the Ark.  The rainbow was not the reward for living through the flood and caring for the animals. The rainbow is the reminder to God and to us of God’s covenant with us.  He will never destroy the world with water.  God is committed to working with us in our limitations and sinfulness because of his faithfulness.  Remember we are dust and the rainbow reminds us of his commitment to us. Perhaps the question is how committed we are to working with him?

         Fast forward to the time of Mark and we read of the baptism of Jesus.  Jesus was not baptized because he was sinful but he identified with the people preparing for the coming of God’s kingdom.  In our baptism we are marked with the cross and baptized into Christ’s baptism, a step towards the coming kingdom.  Often we are given a candle to remember that special day. Our baptism reminds us whose we are.  We are God’s children and God is committed to us.

         In Jesus’ baptism the heavens are torn apart so that the spiritual world and the physical world are united and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove even as the dove returned to Noah with an olive branch showing it was safe to engage with the new world.  Then the voice of God speaks into our world.  God does not sit off in the heavenlies judging our actions but speaks into our reality.  The Holy Spirit is not far away but in our hearts.  Perhaps you have never heard God’s voice or felt his spirit but we read the words he spoke in the Scriptures.  We hear his voice as Scripture is read on Sundays or as a friend shares a verse with us.  Music brings God’s words to us – through radio, through television, and through zoom.  God cannot be silenced and God’s spirit communicates with us in various ways.  In Lent let us open our ears to listen and remember whose we are.

         The rainbow during storms, our baptism when we are marked with the cross and given the Holy Spirit for the journey, and the voice of God speaking to us through his word, are all ways of helping us remember whose we are.

 Lastly, why do we remember?

         Noah could not predict and survive the flood without remembering his creator, God.  His vision for the Ark came from God.  “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” and for sure we need wisdom beyond ourselves to lead life.   Because we are sinners, we deserve to die, but it is only our relationship with God, remembering we are but dust, that humbles us for the salvation offered on the cross.  Why remember?  We need help and we need humility to remember that.

         One of the great parts of Jesus’ baptism is the appearance of the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and the voice from the cloud speaking.  The Trinity stood together and supported each other in the journey to the cross and through the crucifixion.  The baptism reminds us that we need the community of the body, the fellowship we find with others even though they are made of dust also.  We remember we are part of a body, part of a community with different roles and different gifts, following Jesus.

         Jesus opens his ministry with the call to repentance and belief.  As much as the other may offend us, we must never forget our need to repent, our weakness, and our proneness to hurt the other.  Remembering our own weakness opens the door for asking forgiveness and restoration.

         In Lion King, Mufasa calls to Simba – “Remember who you are.”  But he continues, “You are more than you have become.”  I do not believe that we of ourselves can become more than we are by sheer will power.  Certainly we can achieve great heights, perhaps even claim our own Pride Rock, but it is only as we remember whose we are as reflected in the journey to the cross.  We are dust.  We are marked.  We are valued.  God is committed to us.  We remember that when we see the rainbow.  We remember when we see the cross.  We remember when we hear the word of God.  Why?  Because we need to remember we are dust and need God’s wisdom.  We need our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  We need to humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness so we can be forgiven.

         Our world is a real “fixer-up” but it is God’s world that he is committed to and willing to walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk – all the way to the cross.  Remember!