Month: March 2021

Palm Sunday 2021

Collect

ALIGHTY and ever living God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1-15:47 or 15-1-39 (40-47)

“In the silence of our hearts or in spoken words let us give thanks for the gift of this day and pray for the life of the world.” (from Celtic Treasure)
“You have shown us the way of compassion, O Christ.
You have shown us the heart of kindness.
Awaken the depths of compassion in us.
That we may be alive to one another’s suffering.
Awaken the heart of kindness in us that we may be truly alive.” (From Celtic Treasure)

This Sunday’s Liturgy goes from the celebration of the palms to the despair of the Passion. The drama of the events is heightened by the assumption that the same people who shout HOSANNA! Today will be the same shouting CRUCIFY HIM! On Friday.

John’s Gospel tells the story, Jesus, planned the demonstration as a deliberate challenge to the temple leaders. Pilgrims normally walk to Jerusalem. Jesus had planned with disciples in Judea to have a donkey tethered for him in the village on Mount Olives with a password. “The Lord has need of him.” The donkey when retrieved was draped with cloaks.
The pilgrims from Galilee would have been carrying palms for the festivities. Palms were spread on the road as Jesus passed. The prearrangement also included his disciples coming to escort their prophet whom they regarded as the Messiah. This was a celebration for Jesus “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
What else does this coming week have to tells us?

Have you ever looked at a cross as a gift from God! What are the other gifts from God, what of the nails, the crown of thorns? The garments taken by the soldiers.

Maybe we need to take time to open these gifts in this coming week. By being nailed to the cross, Jesus canceled the record that contained all our sins and charges against us. When the nails placed Jesus on the cross there had to be a list of our mistakes: our lust and lies and greedy moments dangling from that cross is our list of our sins. Jesus knew the price of our sins was death, he could not bear the thought of eternity without us, he chose the nails. Had the soldier hesitated Jesus would have swung the hammer…….Look at it like this quote “He chose the Nails” (From the book He chose the nails).

“Jesus himself swung the hammer. The same hand that cleansed the Temple, cleanses your heart. The hand is the hand of God. The nail is the nail of God.” What was Jesus thinking or feeling on that cross. He was not guilty; He had not committed a sin. But he wore our sin so we could wear righteousness. Think about going to the cross wearing our sin and leaving wearing Jesus’ righteousness, dressed in the “coat of his strong love and blessed with goodness and fairness, and clothed in salvation.”

During this coming week with all the activities; remember as you look to the cross on the altar, the beautiful gift that we have been blessed with.

4^th Sunday Lent
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
Gospel John 3:14-21

Collect

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him: who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

You are our strength and salvation, O God.
You are our hope and deliverer.
In midst of fear and uncertainty in our lives and when the powerless of the world are overwhelmed by mighty forces
Recall us to our true source of help. 
Waken us again to your strong presence within us. 
Awaken us again to hope. 

When I read this passage from Numbers, I could only think how impatient the people were, how ungrateful. They are being freed from slavery and going to a new home, the promised land. It reminded me how impatient we have become over the closing of our churches, not to be able to worship as a congregation, the social distancing, how we celebrate Eucharist.

Patience is a rare virtue, I can relate to the Israelites growing restless on their journey, for many of us we also have grown restless during the Covid19 pandemic. But we need to remember God has not lost sight of us, He is on this journey with us, and will not abandon us in the wilderness.

During the season of Lent, we strive to realize our need for repentance and forgiveness. Today’s psalm is of thanksgiving and tells the story of deliverance for Israel by the Lord. The psalm gives thanks to the Lord for his mercy, and the wonders he does for his people. It is at this time we recognize our need for repentance and forgiveness, as  love for us through the gift we look to God, in awe of the abundance of God’s love for us through the gift of Jesus Christ.

Yes, we will stray from God’s ways, but because of his love and mercy for us, we have been promised salvation and eternal life. We thank God for His mercy with thanksgiving and praise.

The letter to the Ephesians is about God’s unfailing love and mercy, even when we are disobedient and are sinners. We are reminded that it is by grace that we are saved. This passage emphasizes that humans do nothing to earn God’s love or grace, at the end of the passage the author states that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” This does not mean that good works do not matter, the reason we do good works is not in order to earn God’s love or mercy. Our good works have already received the immeasurable riches of God’s grace.

Nicodemus meets with Jesus at night in fear of judgement for his peers: The conversation with Nicodemus is  probably the  most- well known Bible verse of all, “John 3:16: 

God’s love and  promise of eternal life in Jesus is tied by John to the serpents in today’s reading from Numbers 21. The instrument of affliction became the instrument for healing to the people of Israel. Jesus’ death itself becomes the vehicle for imperishability. Death the enemy of life, has become the entrance into eternal life.

Both of these passages we see the people of the Lord have been delivered from death and brought into life. The merciful and salvific actions of God were never to respond to the good works, but rather stem from God’s identity and God’s grace. Christian’s identity is that one saved by grace from the grave, from affliction and desires of the senses. From that identity, we live into the way of life God intended,  doing good and proclaiming  God’s goodness.

Our Father, who sent your blessed Son Jesus Christ to be the true Light of the World, grant us always to live in his Light, as he lives in us, with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.

Amen

Sermon
Third Sunday in Lent
Year B
March 7, 2021

First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Gospel: John 2:13-22

Collect

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which my happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

A Sacred Space

The Gospel: John 2:18-22

” The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”

John’s gospel is different than the synoptic gospel’s Matthew, Mark and Luke, in their teachings of this incident, Jesus entered the temple, and he drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he over turned the tables of money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

In John’s gospel, he went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 

Jesus makes a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He poured out the coins of money changers and over turned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!

His disciples remembered that it was written: 

“Zeal for your house will consume me.” 

“The Zeal of thine house” means extraordinary concern for the temple of God; intense solicitude that he worships there should be pure, and such as God would approve.

Jesus was mad, very mad. 

We get mad ourselves and often, we justify it with an excuse, why? Because we get embarrassed by it or we can’t face the truth that we let our angry get out of control.

If we see someone else getting mad to the point of overturning tables, we might be shocked and cringe a bit.

Story:

One time my parents had visitors, I can’t remember who or why, but they were selling rugs and tapestries from Persia. My parents bought three large area rugs hand woven and three tapestries. Two of the tapestries had beautiful animals on them. I remember one had pheasants on it and the other deer or elk. 

The other was Jesus in the temple overturning tables and driving out the animals and tax collectors. 

We loved all the rugs and tapestries, except the one where Jesus was mad. I guess because we were so used to seeing pictures of Jesus with children or sheep and or someone kneeling before him. Not and angry Jesus! 

Today, I can’t tell you what happen to the rugs and tapestries, but guess what I had folded away?  Yes, Jesus in the temple and now it’s a treasure.  

A Sacred Place:

Let’s talk about the temple, it was designed to be a place that represents the presence of God. And the people in the temple were to be in solitude and people that were pure, where God who be in favor of them.

Not a house of tax collectors, taking advantage of people from far away places, coming to offer to God a dove or pigeon that was something written as an offering. Jesus had been teaching from Cana, to Galilee, to Capernaum to Jerusalem. He was sent by God; he demonstrated his divine power in the wedding at Cana a few scriptures back.

God knows that today; we have un-limited resources and live in a disposable society.

Some feel we need a building, someplace to worship and to hold onto in order to feel and grasp the divine presence of God and keeping him present in an ever-changing world. If we didn’t, God would have become a story that soon would have been forgotten. 

We also know that God is the creator of heaven and earth, He is everything and in everything created. But, in the times of Jesus, the people came to the temple during Passover.   

The temple was that place for the Jews. It was holy ground where people were supposed to come to set their eyes on God and put their priorities in order. After all, they were a nation of blessings and for all the nations. 

But the temple leaders saw a way in the Passover feast, as a way to steal from the poor. People would travel great distances to get there and it would be difficult to travel with what the law required they offer for sacrifice…two doves or pigeons. They would change their Jewish coins for Roman coins and make a profit and steal from the poor. 

The temple is being used to exploit people and not being a place of worship. It is a temple where God dwells.

In our gospel, Jesus is cleansing the temple of this corruption. 

The leaders question him and ask his authority? And demand a sign. He tells them to destroy this temple and he will raise it up in three days. Jesus is talking about himself; he is speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead.   

Conclusion

We have found out this past year how important it is to us, to have a place of worship to come to and show our respect to the presence of God in this, His holy place, we have a “zeal for his house.”

God is with us, no matter where we worship him, in our homes, on zoom using everything that was available to us during this pandemic, as long as we keep it Holy and Pure. 

It is also important for us to remember that Jesus was God’s temple and He sacrificed his life for us, so we could have a better life.

We are called to love the world the way God loves the world. To continue his teaching and his love for the less fortunate. 

Amen

The Reverend Lola Culbreath