4th Sunday of Easter - 4/21/24

Readings

SHEPHERD WANTED

Must be skilled in finding green pastures and still water.  Respond quickly to any sign of injury or illness.  Nurturing and attentive to sheep in your care.  Recover strays while maintaining integrity of flock. Keep constant watch for predators and avoid known safety hazards.  Must be willing to sacrifice own safety and life for well-being of sheep.  Generous bonus for returning larger and healthier flock at end of season.

I always thought that being the good shepherd meant that Jesus gets an A+ job rating at shepherding. I learned something new this week. It turns out that the word for ‘good’ is not about good or bad, but instead means something more like ‘true’ or ‘genuine.’  Jesus is the real shepherd of God’s people. 

2nd Sunday of Easter - 4/7/2024

Readings

Happy Day of Resurrection!  Our gospel reading this morning brings us to the evening of the day Mary Magdalene discovered that Jesus had risen from the dead.  Because Mark ends his good news about Jesus with the empty tomb and no post-resurrection encounters with Jesus, we are jumping into John (and a little Luke) for the next few weeks.

These 50 days between Easter and Ascension are called Eastertide.  

Eastertide is a time of transition.  Jesus is Jesus, but he is different after dying and coming back to life again.  His relationship with his followers has changed. Nostalgically, he remains their beloved teacher, although he acts more like a mentor now.  He encourages and coaches them to reflect on their faith, empowers and encourages them in their various gifts, and more overtly prepares them to continue bearing witness to the Good News.

Easter Day - 03/31/2024

Readings for the day

Have you ever witnessed a miracle?

Something that defies rational explanation.  

Something that can only be explained by the presence of the divine.

Something that, either immediately or upon reflection, brings deep and lasting joy and gratitude.

Something like the birth of a baby.

An unexplained healing.

Survival of extreme hardship.  

Miracles lead to a changed perspective, a new lease on life.

When they are happening, though, they feel impossible, disorienting, scary.

Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday - 0324/2024

Readings for the day

Didn’t we start this service proclaiming Jesus as the King of kings?  Shouting ‘Hosanna!’ and making lots of noise as we processed with waving palm fronds?

How did we get from a triumphal entry into Jerusalem to Jesus tried and convicted, executed and entombed in one service?

Is anyone else feeling a bit of theological and emotional whiplash?

In the gospel we read outside, the people wave palm branches and throw down their cloaks while Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem. At the time, Israel was occupied by Roman forces, who demanded high taxes and ruled with fear of harsh punishments like flogging, breaking limbs, or death by crucifixion.  Jesus’ compassionate teachings about God’s love and forgiveness for all people, no matter their station in life, resonated with the regular people.  Exhausted and oppressed by a brutal and long Roman occupation, they are ready for the long-awaited new ruler of Israel.  The One promised to restore the land of milk and honey to God’s people.  

5th Sunday in Lent - 03/17/2024

Readings for today

“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” (John 12:24)

Wheat is often used as a symbol of rebirth, or new life, or sometimes of the life of a community.  A few years ago, the kids and I planted a tabletop container of wheat at the beginning of Lent.  Nothing happened for the first two days.  On the third day, we noticed that the seeds were swelling and starting to put out little roots.  By the fifth day, there were little green shoots pushing up out of the soil.  In the second week, there were days when you could almost see the shoots growing, reaching for light.  Four full weeks into Lent, the wheat grass was about 10 inches tall.  The fruit of our wheat garden was the fruit of reflection, of patience to watch it grow, of wondering at God’s amazing creation.

Before watching that wheat spring up in the middle of our dining room table, I never really understood how the symbolism of wheat connects to Easter.  Now I know!! It takes three days for wheat to germinate.  Three days to die and come back to life.  

4th Sunday in Lent - 03/10/2024

Readings for this week

Have your eyes adjusted yet?

How are your other senses feeling?

We describe this worship service as In the Gloaming.  Gloaming is most often used to refer to twilight, that time between sunset and darkness.  It can, however, be used to refer to the time around dawn when the sky is lightening before the sunrise.  Gloaming describes the way objects appear to glow like coals in the changing and indirect light.

3rd Sunday in Lent - 03/03/2024

Readings for this week

Have you heard the saying, “Good fences build good neighbors”? 

It comes from the Robert Frost poem, “Mending Wall.”

The poem is about the conversation and mutual effort of neighbors meeting in the spring to walk the line of a stone fence between their properties.  Each walks on their own side, patching holes, re-stacking stones that have fallen, adding new ones from the field, doing the work of maintaining an old New England stone fence.