Remain in Love

Love, its the theme of almost every song you hear on the radio, shows up constantly in our TV programs and movies, every novel seems to be a love story. We are surrounded by love, bombarded with it.

We crave love, try desperately to find it, to draw it to ourselves. Some of us find love illusive, we are disappointed in love.

Jesus tells his disciples that they are to abide in his love, to remain in it. He wants them to spread this love around too. He wants them to love each other.

These seem like pretty high orders. How can I love someone I may not even like, someone who has hurt me or others, someone who is just unlovable. Jesus seems to be asking too much, and in reality he is.

This Sunday, Mother's Day, we will consider the impossibility of Jesus command to remain in him and to love each other.

GEMS Sunday 2015

Every year, for as long as I can remember, we set aside a Sunday to recognize our GEMS (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior). This Sunday is GEMS Sunday.

The girls and their leaders have been working hard to prepare for this service. They will lead us in song, and movement. They will point us beyond themselves as we worship a God who loves us so much; a God who wants to have a relationship with us. It is exciting to know about such a God, to have a Savior like Jesus.

When we are excited about something we want to tell others about it. We want to share our excitement, maybe even introduce them to the reason for our happiness.

Long ago, the prophet Isaiah met God in a very personal way. It moved him so much that he volunteered to go as God's voice to his people. He put up his hand and said "Here I am, Send me". Isaiah is the only person in the Bible to ever volunteer to carry God's message.

We too have a message to share, a story of our personal encounters with Jesus. Can we say, with Isaiah, and with our GEMS "Here I am. Send me"?

Macie Numan

Yesterday we celebrated the baptism of Macie Danae Sergovich Numan, infant daughter of Anthony and Aimee. The picture of God reaching out to us before we are able to reach out ourselves is a wonderful one.

Blessings to this family.

Jesus in the Midst of Us

Luke tells us about Jesus' appearance to the disciples just before he records Jesus ascension into heaven. In terms of ink used, Luke spends a lot more of it telling about the visit than he does with what might have been the more amazing sight of a crucified and risen Jesus rising out of sight into heaven. One might wonder why that is?

Jesus ascension is a one time, historical event. It is important, because our advocate in heaven is flesh and blood, like us and knows us intimately. Jesus appearance among the disciples, though, is an every day occurrence. Jesus is among is, lives among us, is part of our everyday existence.

How do you see Jesus in your life? In the life of the church? Do we recognize him as being actively involved, or do we see him as far away, unreachable. Luke would have us look for him close by.

This Sunday, we will spend some time talking about the implications of recognizing that Jesus is among us.

I Have Seen Jesus

Dark on a Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene approaches the tomb where Jesus had been hastily placed following his crucifixion. She finds it disturbed, rushes for help, returns, and when everyone else has left, has an encounter with Jesus.

She doesn't recognize him at first, thinking him a gardener, but at the sound of her name, Mary, recognition flowers, her heart leaps, her sorrow and disbelief evaporates.

This Sunday, Easter Sunday, we will spend some time reflecting on this encounter and Mary's response to meeting Jesus in that cemetery.

Celebration

Hosanna!

While this word literally means "O Lord, save (us)" by the time it was being shouted by a palm waving crowd, accompanying a colt riding Jesus, it was likely understood to mean something like "Hail the King". The people were excited, celebrating, the Messiah was riding into Jerusalem to, in their minds anyway, make some major changes, bring Israel back to glory. Celebration was in the air.


We will celebrate this week as well. Our Sunday School children will swing palm branches and we will sing songs of celebration, hosanna. We are also celebrating the completion of the restoration of our building, damaged by fire in August.

Of course, neither Jesus ride into Jerusalem, or the completion of our building are the end of the story. Jesus ride was really the prelude to the beginning and we find ourselves in the middle of the story of salvation, the time between Jesus' comings. We are kingdom bringers and, as such, will celebrate God's goodness and the help extended to us by our community in our special Palm Sunday service this week.

A Snake in the Wilderness

Esteban March (1610 - 1668)

There's a little story, tucked into the record of the people of Israel's movement in the desert toward the promised land. It's a story about God's punishment for disobedience, but also of a loving God who provides a way to survive the punishment, a way to come out the other side.

The story is only five verses. Its a story of a grumbling people who are punished with poisonous snakes. The way out is a bronze snake and whoever had been bitten, if they would look at the snake raised on a pole, would live. The way out was given because God loved the people.

This little story is echoed in the gospel of John. Even the well known words of John 3:16 have hints of the earlier story. The difference is that the Son of God, raised, cures more than a deadly snake bite.

This Sunday as we continue to examine God's covenants with humanity we will see how the serpent raised in the desert is a foreshadowing of a new covenant.

Covenant: Abraham

"Isaac's Circumcision", Regensburg Pentateuch, c1300

Almost 400 years after the God makes a covenant with all of creation following the flood, God calls Abram to leave his home and start out on a trip to a new land. After he gets there, God makes a covenant with him giving his descendants the land he has been wandering around in. The troubling piece is that Abram has no children and age has not only crept up on him and Sarai, it has overwhelmed them.

Then, nearly 25 years after God called Abram to go, God appears on the scene again. Abram is now 99 years old, and again God promises the land to offspring, and promises to be their God. Abram and Saria get new names to announce their fruitfulness and Abraham, along with all of his descendants, and all of his household,  is required to carry a mark of this covenant.

The mark is intimate and becomes part of the very fruitfulness that is promised. The mark also produces blood, blood which seals this covenant, foreshadowing one to come.

Covenant:Noah

The season of Lent is upon us. During this season we will spend time talking about, and learning about, covenant, particularly God's history of covenant with God's people. We'll begin with the covenant God made with Noah and all of his descendants following the flood and we will end with the new covenant fulfilled by Jesus as we come to the end of Lent on Good Friday.

Domenico Morelli Noahs Dankgebet

The covenant God makes at the end of the flood is a broad one. It's not just for Noah and his family, but is made with all living things. Like other covenants with God, there is only a single source of action in the covenant, God. No demands are put on Noah and all the  living things that were with him in the ark.

God promises to hold death and destruction at bay and seals the promise with a rainbow. This Sunday, we will consider how this ancient covenant still affects our lives.

A Gospel of Restoration

The gospel of Mark relates the story of a Sabbath in Jesus life, early in his ministry, when he preforms two miracles of healing. Everyone in town hears about them and bring their sick to be healed as well. Jesus seems to have stumbled upon a ministry, something that would help the people right now, a work that would be of value. But, instead of capitalizing on his powers as a healer, he walks away to the disappointment and surprise of his disciples.

Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law. Orthodox icon.

It is an interesting and revealing story. Jesus sees his purpose as preaching the gospel and will not be tempted to abandon that purpose to do what would be easy, expedient. Instead he picks up and goes on to other villages to preach.

What is our purpose? Are we focused on it? Does it influence all of our decisions personally and as the body of Christ in the world?

This week we will try to wrestle with some of those questions in light of Jesus example.

Where Can We Find Hope?

Sometimes it seems like everything is going wrong, that the world seems to be getting worse and worse, that our lives seem to be littered with trouble. Hope in the face of illness and death, in the face of poverty, in the face of abuse, seems pretty thin sometimes, especially when we look inside of ourselves for the source of hope. When we think we can save ourselves from life changing challenges we often find ourselves at the end of a dark hopeless road.

This Sunday we are going to look into the Psalms for words of hope, particularly Psalm 62. The psalmist says that he finds his hope in God. He calls him a fortress, a rock, a refuge. God is the psalmist's salvation. He says God holds the power in the world.

In this hope, we have something to share with those around us who are struggling to see the way through, who feel lost and powerless.

Come and See

chosenrebel.me

This week the lectionary reading takes us to the Gospel of John and the growth of Jesus' little band of disciples. We meet Nathanael a man who grudgingly responds to Philip's invitation to come and see. His skepticism turns to amazement as Jesus tells him about himself without ever having met him before.

Meeting Jesus has that effect on people, all they need is an invitation to "come and see". Philip gets his friend in front of Jesus, but Jesus does the work of convincing Nathanael that he is indeed the promised Messiah.

This week , we will spend some time thinking about what the call to extend the invitation to come and see means for us in our world.

In the Beginning, God......

genesis1blog.com

"In the Beginning, God", these four words have been the source of controversy for decades.

What did the "beginning" look like? Did the world evolve into what it is today, or did it spring up, fully formed, in a week long symphony of creation? The debates fill volumes, each side berating the other, throwing scientific theory against faith based certainty. Every one of these arguments though, tries to fit God into something we can understand with our finite human minds. We try to put God in a box.

The Bible doesn't do that, It just says that at the beginning, God was there. It sets the tone for the entire history of the universe by centering it around God.

This Sunday, we will look at the beginning, our God, and his love for us in new beginnings in Jesus Christ.

The Anticlimax of Christmas Past

Simeon with the Christ Child in the Temple - Rembrandt

Sunday is already coming again. Before we get there, we will celebrate Christmas. This past Sunday we celebrated with our Sunday School children in the morning and then came back in the evening for a wonderful evening of scripture and singing in our annual Candlelight Service.

This coming Sunday feels like one we could miss. The story has been told, the songs have been sung, it feels like enough. We know it now.

Luke doesn't see it that way though. He wants the story to keep going. He wants us to see again, and again, that something amazing is going on here, that God has broken into the world. So he takes us to the temple, for the mundane purification rites normal for a first born son. But here again, now in the voices of Simeon and Anna we hear that this is no ordinary baby.

The story told by the angels to the shepherds, is reinforced by these two elderly watchers. It's good for us to hear that the good news is not only reserved for Christmas, but follows us into the regular patterns of our lives as well.,

God's Glory in the Unexpected

Our tendency is to measure someone's status by the way they do things. Important people (or those who would have you think they are important) drive "important people" cars, live in big, "important people" houses, eat at expensive, "important people" restaurants, go to "important people" events, and like to hang out with other important people. There is almost a code of practice for being an important person.

HENRY OWASSA TANNER, “THE ANNUNCIATION” (1898)

You would think that God might be characterized as an "important person"; God the creator of all things, the ruler of everything. There is no doubt that God deserves the title, but the way God comes to be one of us, the Emmanuel, makes us wonder about that status. God chooses an unknown girl whose reputation is about to be destroyed, from an unknown village in a depressed part of the country to smuggle him into our world. Why would God do that when there were lots of other, more flashy, ways an entrance could have been made?

This Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Advent, we will spend some time thinking about God's less than flashy entrance into humanity and what that means for us.

Preparation

This Sunday is the second week of Advent. Last week we lit the candle of hope. This week the candle of preparation. Preparation makes hope real. When we prepare for something hoped for, the thing becomes more real, closer. Hope without preparation in dreaming.

John the Baptist made the coming of the Messiah real for the people of Israel. He is credited with making straight the road for Jesus who would baptize with the Holy Spirit rather than water. John heralded hope for the people, and for us.

This Sunday we will celebrate the Lord's Supper, a physical reminder of the hope we have as we prepare for the coming of the kingdom.

Our service this week is a combined service with our Presbyterian hosts at 10:00 am

Of Sheep and Goats

In Matthew 25, Jesus uses the picture of a shepherd, separating sheep and goats, as a metaphor for his actions at his return. Sheep and goats have many things in common, size, diet, etc. In this parable, they also share a sense of surprise. Neither of them recognized that ministering to the downtrodden around them was, in fact, ministering to Jesus himself. 

Patheos.com

Our attitude toward those around us says a lot about our relationship with Jesus. The sheep were following their shepherd (that's what sheep do) while the goats were less affected by the shepherd's leading, and, in their reply, seem to say they would have benefited from a bit more direction (typical of goats).

This Sunday we will spend some time reflecting on this passages in light of our own interaction with the world around us. 

Practice what you Preach

In the first verses of Matthew 23, Jesus seems to lose his cool. The previous chapters had recounted the priests , Pharisees, and Sadducees working to trap Jesus, to undermine his authourity. In every case he shuts down their questioning, to the point where they are afraid to ask anything else. Now here in chapter 23 Jesus tells us what he really thinks about these folks and people like them, people who preach and teach the truth, but don`t live it themselves.

challengeofabigman.com

This Sunday, we will consider how Jesus words, coupled with those of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2, impact our lives.

It has been said that a theology that does not equip you to live is not a good theology.

What  do our neighbours learn about God by watching us?

Love

www.fanpop.com

We call it the golden rule.

 Jesus identifies two laws which are the most important in answer to a question from a lawyer out to stump him. Love God and love your neigbour. He says every other rule or law in life hangs off of these two principles.

While Jesus' words seem to be common sense, they are actually very radical. This Sunday we will spend some time considering just how radical they are, how life changing they can be.

Join us at 9:30 as we worship at the Lucknow Presbyterian Church

Is it About Authourity?

Jewish rabbis have a long history of debate. They were really good at it. They will often counter questions with another question to draw their opponents out before establishing their own position on an issue. In this week's Gospel reading (Matthew 21:23-32) Jesus uses this technique as he in drawn into a debate about where his authourity comes from. He really turns the question around and leaves the chief priests and elders scrambling to cover themselves.

The whole interaction reveals the type of God followers these folks really are and the way they look at other people. Through this interaction, Jesus shows us again how the kingdom of heaven is surprising and unexpected. He says something about how we act as members of the kingdom.

Come out this Sunday as we unpack this debate and the short parable that is part of it.