Healing and Prayer: Finding Serenity When Facing the Hard Portions of God's Will

Being the Fourth Sunday of March, this past Sunday was our Healing Service.  The Scripture passage was the story of the Raising of Lazarus from John 11.  The sermon is going to be shared below but there are two prayers that I want to highlight that were integral to writing this sermon.

The first is The Prayer That Never Fails.  Yes, there is one.  It goes as simply as, “Lord, Your Will Be Done”.  To share the prayer is one thing, to live into the results is something else. 

The second is the Serenity Prayer,

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference"

The first line of the Serenity Prayer is a very human response and follow-up to the Prayer That Never Fails.  We are on the cusp of Easter, where Jesus dies for us in a more horrible fashion, to be raised again For Us.  The power of the story of the Raising of Lazarus is, in part, how deeply the grace and the grief of our Lord Jesus extends into the life of all God’s Children.

From the Lord’s Day, Sunday, March 22, 2026:

John 11: 1-45

SERMON    “All For The Glory of God”

In our faith, we have the prayer that never fails.  Simply put, it goes, “Lord, Thy Will Be Done.”  Having prayed this prayer, know that it can disappoint us, confuse us, back us into a corner, make us afraid, as well as liberate us, grant us courage, grant us peace, and align our souls with the Will of our Lord.  Because the Lord’s will is not our own.  I have seen most faithful Christians who have to painfully put their trust in Jesus afresh when struggling with this.  I have also seen tentative Christians whose lives of faith have deepened in aligning to God’s Will.

God’s Will Be Done, that might lead us to conclude that we ought to, anyone know this tune? “Sit back, relax, and let yourself go with the flow…”, because it’s God’s flow.

Which is nice, a comfortable sentiment, let God take the next steps.  But might that make us little more than passive?  I think perhaps the Serenity Prayer is a better guide if we are truly going to dare to entrust ourselves God’s Will.  You know the prayer, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference"

I find both these prayers, the Serenity Prayer and the Prayer That Never Fails find roots in the story of the raising of Lazarus. 

Is the story a familiar one to us?  There are three siblings, Martha and Mary and Lazarus.  We’ve met the sisters before, but not Lazarus.  He is ill.  Word is sent to Jesus, to summon Him.  Already, there is evidence of ‘courage to change the things I can’…send for the Healer.  But Jesus delays, intentionally.  His words, “This illness does not lead to death, rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

And then we have Jesus’ followers.  The Clueless.  Also known as the Disciples.  In the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, I remember they have a recurring theme.  They are in the background singing “What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a happening, what’s the buzz, tell me what’s a happening…”  And they live into that role today.  First, well…if Lazarus is sleeping, like Jesus said, he’ll just wake up, right?  And it was Jesus who, maybe through gritted teeth, “No, you beloved morons…metaphor…sleep, death, sleep, death.  YES, HE DIED!  But that’s what is going to change.”

And second, they are fixated (with good reason) that the authorities are out to get Jesus.  To go to Lazarus is to go to Bethany, two miles from Jerusalem, the viper’s nest.  Where they are now is across the Jordan, a day’s journey minimum, after the events of the last chapter.  That is where the minds of the disciples are.  It is Thomas the Twin (the doubter) who says, “Okay, Jesus is going to die, lets go die too.”

When Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days.  Jesus comes to each sister in turn.  To Martha, the “practical” one, He knows she understands she will see her brother again at the Second Coming.  But there is a caveat.  “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Then Jesus speaks some of the most powerful words in the Bible, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”  This Martha believes.

Then Martha goes on ahead to alert Mary and Mary meets Jesus at the tomb.  Mary is the “contemplative” one.  “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  But if Martha spoke in regret, Mary is speaking through her tears.  And Jesus does not try to explain himself, or his Messianic role, or the Hope of the Future.  Those are all true but useless in the face of the moment.  She’s lost her brother.  What she needed from her Lord were not words but presence.  And Jesus wept alongside her.

Some appreciated His presence, but others were nattering on the edges, “He healed the blind man, could he not have healed Lazarus?”  Or, where were you Jesus?

When Jesus, broken hearted, ordered the tomb to be opened, it was Martha, the practical one, who introduces that bit of humor, as inappropriate as it may feel, but how often do we suddenly find a moment of laughter in our own grief? 

Martha says, “Jesus, really? Its been four days.”  To quote her words from the King James Version, “By this time he stinketh.”  But Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

Then the tomb is open and Jesus calls for Lazarus to come out.  And the way Jesus says, “Unbind him, and let him go…”  This is another moment of humor for me.  I always pictured Lazarus wrapped up like the Mummy from a Univeral’s 1950’s monster movies.

Up to now, the heart of this passage has always been the exposed heart of Jesus weeping alongside Mary and the others.  Despite His God-powers, our pain is His pain.  But here’s the piece that niggled at me this time around.  This was all for the glory of God.  Jesus says so at the beginning and says so again to Martha at the graveside.  And that bothered me.

Because we are going to torture this family, put the sisters through the grieving process, kill Lazarus outright, so that Jesus can make an example of resurrecting him?  For the glory of God?  That Jesus could have been there, could have done exactly as both Mary and Martha pointed out, healed him before he ever got to the point of death? 

The prayer goes, ‘Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”  Neither sister was serene in the moment.  We don’t see it explicitly, but each sister in turn greets Jesus the same way.  “Lord, if you had been here…”  It’s normally read with a certain basic respect for Jesus as the Son of God.  But what if Martha was speaking through clenched teeth, no ‘hello’, but “If you had been here, my brother would NOT have died!!”  And Mary, it says she was weeping, but what if she were beating her fists on Jesus’ chest as she greeted him with, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother Would Not Have Died.”

Lord, Thy Will be done…sure, but if you had been here…that’s not just a voice of two sisters, that’s a voice among of the community of the grieving.  Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…  That comes at the end of the process we call grief.  In the moment, the idea of this being done for the glory of God?  For God’s will to be done?  God’s will was to take my beloved?  In the moment of death, that can feel a mockery. 

The Serenity prayer goes on, an ask of God for the courage to change the things that I can.  We see Martha already moving in that direction.  She’s ready for the acknowledgement that she will see her brother at the Resurrection, the Second Coming.  She is ready to hear that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, she says it, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”  Jesus does not press Mary on that, she’s not there yet.

It takes courage to grieve, to move into this painful process of healing.  And it is really only in the abstract that I can say grieving is a healing gift.  Because in the moment, it sounds like pandering.

The third piece is wisdom, to know the difference of what I can do and cannot do.  And knowing that which I cannot do, I have serenity in releasing for God to do.  Thy Will be done.  But this wisdom is not, like the song, to ‘sit back, relax, and let yourself go with the flow’.  Courage to do what I can is a call to action, to do what and everything I can.  We, people of faith, know that grief is not a pit but a process, not to be avoided, not to be denied, but to be journeyed through.

It may feel like we are endlessly reliving the pain of the moment, but there is more to it than that.  Every time we care to tell the story, in our pain, every time we begin to draw out the emotional poison of good and amazing memories of someone who is now in Jesus’ hands. 

I say this in funeral sermons, the Peace of Christ in times of death is of two sorts.  The first is the sure and certain knowledge of eternal life of Jesus’ own.  The second is that Jesus is with us every step of the way as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  That is the glory of God that Jesus is trying to get across to the Clueless, I mean the Disciples, at the beginning of this passage. 

God’s will WILL be done, whether we pray for it or not.  And, at the beginning, it can disappoint us, confuse us, back us into a corner, make us afraid, but if we can surrender to God what God can do, if we can embrace the courage to do everything that we can do, if we find the wisdom to understand where those are distinct from one another, God will liberate us, grant us courage, grant us peace, and align our souls with the Will of our Lord. 

Amen.

 

Pastor pete

Scripture Reading for the Lord's Day, Sunday, March 22, 2026 John 11: 1-45: The Raising of Lazarus

 This is the passage for Sunday, shared in the NRVS, the KJV, the Pirates Bible, and the Message Remix versions of the Scriptures:

https://youtu.be/3WORXa5JnF4

Pastor pete

Jesus Came for the Outcasts, Especially the Outcasts of the Outcasts.

Our Scripture Lesson is John 4: 5-42, Jesus speaking to the Woman at the Well:

 ⁵ So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

²⁷ Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” ²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹ “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” ³⁰ They left the city and were on their way to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

         While the woman at the well is not named in the Scriptures, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, her name is Photini (or Photina), meaning ‘the luminous one’.  And Photini is an outcast person amongst an outcast people.  To take the last part first, she is a Samaritan. “Good Jews” don’t mix with people from Samaria. 

          Why are she and her people outcasts?  She says it in the passage, they do not worship at Jerusalem.  That’s a mark of a True Jew.  In the time of Jesus, True Jews lived in two sections of the Promised Land.  They lived in the southern region, what was the tribal land of Judah.  And they lived in the northern end, around the Sea of Tiberius out to the Mediterranean along the Jezreel Valley.  We know this area as Galilee.

          These regions are connected on the east side by the Jordan Valley.  But between them is the Hill Country of Samaria.  These people are ‘Jewish-ish’, but not ‘pure-bloods’.  In the time between the Assyrian Conquest of the Northern Kingdom and the Babylonian Exile of the Southern Kingdom (defining moments in the history of the Old Testament but WAY beyond the scope of this post…BUT well worth further study in the Scripture), other peoples were imported.  Because that is how things operated then, entire populations were uprooted, moved around, and swapped.

          These outsiders stayed and married into the remnant Jewish families in the region of Samaria, only to be subsequently outcast by the ‘pure-blood’ Jews who marked their purity by a few metrics including where God was to be worshipped. 

          Why was Jesus even in the territory of the Outcasts?  The ‘pure’ Jewish leadership was already plotting to kill Jesus.  Makes sense that they were watching the road to the Jordan, watching the route to Galilee in an attempt to intercept Him.  But it was not His time.  So Jesus took ‘the long way’, up through the Hill Country of Samaria, through the land of the Outcasts.

          But even the Outcasts have Outcasts.  We get the first hint of this at the time Jesus met Photini.  Noon.  The heat of the day in a heat-filled climate!  People of good repute came for water at cooler moments, like dawn and dusk.  Outcasts came in the heat of the day, when the odds of meeting others were at their lowest-unless the Lord had a meeting in the works.

          Bad enough that she is an Outcast, but she is a SHE.  Photini is a woman.  At the time of Jesus, in the popular culture, women are second-class at best, exploited property at worst. 

Photini is an Outcast among the Outcasts because she has been married five times and is presently living with a man who is not her husband.  That actually sounds tame by today’s standards, but in the time of Jesus, this was scandal upon scandal.  Enough that she could not mix in polite company for the activities of everyday living, but had to come out at midday to get water.

          Where she meets Jesus.  And her life is changed. 

          It has been argued that her ‘outcast’ status should be made worse by the fact that she lied to the face of Jesus when she said she was not married (without any of the ‘juicy’ bits).  That feels like overkill to me.  Do we really expect her to admit all her sins to the Lord Jesus?  Well, when we put it that way, yes.  But she didn’t know who He was, at least not in the moment.

          But it was precisely her ‘outcast’ status that was Jesus’ way into her life and faith.  He walked her through her life choices that led to this status, but not to condemn her or make fun of her, but to lead her to the truth.  Note, Jesus begins by speaking to her of the living waters, the promise of new life, of salvation.  Then they discuss her life choices, which leads to a discussion of the differences in worship styles between the Jews and Samaritans-not shock nor condemnation over her lifestyle. 

          Jesus meets her respectfully in her place, an Outcast from polite society as well as a Samaritan Outcast from his place, as a Jew, and guides her to know that something bigger is in the works.  Then she makes the leap, admitting that there is a Messiah who is coming who is supposed to share all things with them.  Only then, when she is in the right place, does Jesus share the reality of His own identity as the Messiah.

          And the Outcast is brought in from the cold fringes of polite society.  She is so overwhelmed by the loving truth spoken by Jesus that she ignores her own status as shunned outcast and goes to proclaim His presence to the rest of the Outcasts, her fellow Samaritans. 

          In the meantime, the disciples come back and are taught an important life lesson on the place of Outcasts in their work.  They are people, just like everybody else.

          Then back comes the Outcast with her fellow Outcasts and over the next two days, there is a revival meeting the likes of which had not yet been seen in the ministry of Jesus.

          Because, as they share the truth, Jesus is the Savior of the world and all the Outcasts to be found within it (and WE are all Outcasts as sinners against God).  Thanks to Photini, a living lamp of Jesus unto her own people.

 

Peace

Pastor Pete    

Our Scripture for Sunday, March 8, 2026

 https://youtu.be/mI9nHyaYXfw

Our Scripture for Sunday is John 4: 5-42, the story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well.  Find the story shared here in the NRSV, the KJV, the Pirate's Bible, and the Message.  Let these words lead you this week.

Peace

Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/mI9nHyaYXfw

Now That's The Good Stuff: John 3: 1-17 Our Scripture for Sunday, March 1, 2026

Our Scripture Lesson is John 3: 1-17, Nicodemus coming to Jesus:

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” ³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that 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.

            The question I have about this passage is ‘when did Nicodemus put it together’?  When did he ‘get it’?  Because Jesus is very clear that he has all the tools to comprehend.  Jesus puts it flatly, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” (vs. 10).

          There is a level of frustration in our Lord Jesus whenever he deals with the religious leadership, Pharisee, scribe, Sadducee, priest, etc.  Jesus, described as Rabbi, is out of the Pharisaic tradition.  He ‘speaks their language’. 

          Then Jesus goes on, ¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”

          The most well-known verse in the Bible is a part of this dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus.  It is so famous, the wrestler Steve Austin latched on to it for his own name recognition.

          There is no moment in the passage where Nicodemus goes, “Aha! So that’s what you mean!!”  So we have no way to tell if this Pharisee, who came out under cover of darkness, hungry for the truth, was ever satisfied. 

          Or maybe we do.  Because Nicodemus shows up again at the end of the gospel, in John 19.  Jesus had died on the cross.  It is well known that Joseph of Arimathea, a leader and believer in secret (for fear of the Jews), received Jesus’ body and buried it in his own tomb.  But less well known, in verse 39, “Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came…THEY took the body of Jesus…according to the burial custom of the Jews…”

          Jesus’ usual mode of teaching is storytelling, in the form of parables.  There are few places where he really ‘gets to the point’.  He does with Nicodemus.  Three times in our passage does Jesus use his ‘catchphrase’ that marks something as truly standout, “Very truly I tell you…”  Or as Shakespeare might say, “Verily, Verily I say unto thee” in the King James.

          Or, to quote Kevin Kline in “Silverado”, ‘That’s the good stuff.’

Peace,

Pastor pete

 

A Theology (Meaning: how I think about God in regards to loving my neighbor) of Mission (Meaning: how I offer my strength in loving my neighbor)

The team that works our church's Food Pantry met this past week to plan and review and consider how we do-and do better-our church’s work with people who have food insecurity.  I want to share a part of what we discussed, but with its Biblical and theological (theology being ‘how I think about God in regards to loving my neighbor') foundation.

As a pastor, it is my privilege to be involved in, an observer, and sometimes advocate for soul healing in our community.  One byproduct of that for pastors is that we pick up a little knowledge about a lot of subjects.  Often we, in turn, seek to use that knowledge to illustrate a point in a sermon or explain something in “layman’s” terms.  In my experience, we tend to be 60-70% accurate in the broad concepts, but 15-20% accurate in the details.  But folks get what we mean.

So, in an attempt to use “business” or “not-for-profit” language, we (I) laid out a broad vision for how to consider what we are doing when we do missions.  There is a two-fold focus for missions.  The first is “client” based, aimed to serving those who are in need (ala Matthew 25).  The second is “partner” based, aimed to create those who will serve.  There was, in my heart, a biblical foundation for this, that I did not take the time to share in the meeting.

But I want to here.

So here we go.  Jesus fed the 5000.  That gospel account I want to look at as a ‘case study’ for the broad principles of doing mission.  It works well in the case of our food pantry.  First, take the technical term ‘food insecurity’.  I use that term and not the biblical description of ‘feeding the hungry’, because it has a more precise and yet a more general definition than ‘feed the hungry’.

Consider the 5000.  In the biblical story, they’d followed Jesus far from their homes and immediate sources of food.  In the crowd there may have been people who were without a home or a meal to go back to (the ‘typical’ understanding of ‘the hungry’).  There may have been people who came because they did not have enough.  But the food insecurity in the moment is that the crowd is far from home, so that the disciples suggested they should scatter to the surrounding villages to find food, that they were separated from their usual sources of home and nourishment. 

Those who come to our Food Pantry may not be homeless or starving (or they might be).  Other possibilities?  They may be working people who can provide for themselves perhaps 50-75% of the time, but they do not make enough money to pay for food, and everything else, the rest of the time.  They may have a sudden expense that demands they pull money from the grocery budget to pay it off.  They may suddenly find themselves with a family member on their doorstep in need and not to be turned away.  There are MANY reasons why people find themselves suddenly insecure about having enough food for themselves and their families.  

 To be insecure about having enough to eat is a horrible feeling.  This term, food insecurity, it recognizes a broad range of reasons for needing to ‘get charity’ (it can be shaming to the person who wants to provide for their family) to provide food (it is a basic threat to our survival and well being) whether it be over the long term or for a single space of time when there just wasn't enough.   

What this term is NOT is just the latest ‘fad’ to describe people in need. 

So, in the feeding, Jesus was answering the need of food insecurity.  To do so, he was providing faith-based ‘client’ services.  These were the 5000 men, plus the women and children, who’d followed Him to hear Him teach. 

But this was not simply a miraculous feeding.  Jesus was accompanied by his disciples, he challenged them first to provide the ‘client’ services, then showed them how it was done.  In the end, they gathered up the remainder of the food, 12 baskets full.  This demonstrates faith-based ‘partner’ services.  Yes, the disciples were being trained up as partners in the ministry of Christ, they were learning what do to.

Because this was to be their calling.  To serve ‘clients’ as Jesus was serving ‘clients’.  And we do see the results of this in the book of Acts.  The ministry of feeding the hungry became so large in the work of the early church that the Apostles set up a specific ministry, the first Board of Deacons, to care for the needs of widows and orphans, to administer the daily distribution of food in the community of faith.

The distinction for the church is one of great significance.  'Client' services are based on the presupposition that every person is a child of God, a sibling of our Lord Jesus.  While everyone is welcome to join the church, that’s not the purpose of the mission.  There is a stereotype about missions on “skid row”, preaching to the “bums”, that mandated "sermon before soup".  It was based on a theological notion of ‘feed the soul then feed the body’.  It also exploited people in their time of need. 

‘Partner’ services in the church, in missions, is where we gather like-minded individuals who feel called to feed the hungry in Jesus’ name.  It is an invitation to the whole congregation, and while it may not become their long term call, it is a place and a moment when we can fulfill the call to love our neighbor directly in their time of need.  People who were once clients, who were food insecure, once they have found security in their daily bread, will often return as a partner to the mission to feed others.

‘Partner services’ are based on the presupposition that we who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are called to serve Him-in response to physical AND spiritual needs, to do as Jesus did. 

I believe this is how we should look at our missions.  Whether hands on, like the Food Pantry and the Thrift Shop or by our giving, through our Mission Budget.  We serve people, clients, for no reason other than it is the right thing to do (love our neighbor).  We join as partners in the service of people because Jesus said this is the right thing to do (love our God). 

 When we do this, there is a third piece of the feeding of the 5000 we can expect to see.  Call it ‘miracle’ services-from the Lord.  As in the loaves and the fishes.  One way to interpret how Jesus fed 5000 plus families from the five loaves and two fish is the miraculous presence of God to create all that was necessary.  Another way to interpret how Jesus fed 5000 plus families is that as the young man shared all that he had, this led the rest of the crowd to share what they brought and that in this way, God’s spirit of generosity took hold among everyone.  Perhaps the miracle was a combination of the two.  

Either way, there were 12 baskets left over.

Either way, God’s power baby. 

If this rather lengthy diatribe makes sense at all, it is because God’s Spirit has been at work through the people of our church, leading me more than I could ever presume to lead them.  If this is all nonsense, the nonsense is ALL mine.  

Peace to You, Sibs in Christ,

Pastor pete

The First Few Temptations of Christ (NOT a prequel to the movie where Willem Dafoe Played Jesus)

Our Scripture Lesson is the Story of the First Few Temptations of Christ from Matthew 4: 1-11:

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. ² He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. ³ The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone,     but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’  and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, ⁹ and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ” ¹¹ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

          We do not often realize that this is the conclusion of the baptism of Jesus.  John the Baptist dips Jesus in the Jordan, the heavens open, God speaks, the bird comes down...but no splashy finish.  Instead, the Spirit of God (the bird) immediately drives Him out into the wilderness to go toe to toe with the Devil.  The Devil is testing Him.

          The first temptation is straight forward.  Jesus has been fasting for forty days and forty nights.  So the Devil pushes on Jesus to use divine power to change over some rocks into bread.  (I wonder if that is similar to converting water into wine?)  But for Jesus, the fast is done on purpose, in God’s purpose.  He’s hungry but there is more to life than eating (although that does push against my Presbyterian sensibilities I will say).

          Doesn't the second temptation feel like the Devil wants Jesus to show off His phenomenal cosmic powers?  Leap off the temple and let the angels catch you!  I picture the guy who dives off a high platform into a tiny pool of water.  Jesus’ response is interesting.  “Do not put the Lord to the test.”  In other words, “Do not use God to show off...”? 

          The third temptation is a bribe, plain and simple.  Worship me and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and their splendors!  Such is the presumption of the Devil.  Jesus does not even acknowledge the Devil’s presumption of dominating the world.  He simples tells the Devil to get lost!  That we worship God alone.

          The title of the sermon this week is “The First Few Temptations of Christ”, playing on the title of “The Last Temptation of Christ”, a movie I remember growing up that was surrounded with its own controversies.  But then again, when the popular culture considers Jesus, when is there NOT controversy? 

          There is a clincher verse (Hebrews 4:15) that follows up this time of Jesus versus the Devil in the wilderness.  It is a verse of great comfort to me.  That Jesus was tempted in every way, but without sin.  He does what none of us can do.  And he uses that perfection to save us by his death and resurrection.

 

Praise the Lord,

Pastor pete