peace

Good evening friends,
Today's reading shows Jesus promising his disciples (including us) peace. That doesn't mean we'll avoid trouble, but it means ultimately, God's peaceful kingdom will come.

God bless,
Sam

John 14:25-31

25”I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.


28You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. 30I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; 31but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.

Good afternoon friends,
We're entering a special time in the church year called Holy Week. Even if you haven't been thinking much about Lent, Holy Week is a great opportunity to focus on the story of the last moments in Jesus' life. As I've learned more deeply over the last month, death and new life are closely connected. The power of the Christian story is that it's all about love and that it's honest about the barriers to love that we face. Christian faith takes the trouble in the world and in our lives seriously, so the tragic notes in the final days of Jesus' life resonate with our experience.


If we spend time in this dark part of the story, we'll be ready to embrace the good news of Easter and the resurrection more fully and honestly. So I invite you to Holy Week in worship and in personal reflection. Our Holy Week worship starts with an ecumenical service at St. Ambrose (Culver and Empire) at 7:30 tonight. The service tells the story of Christ's last week in scripture and music; I can almost guarantee you will find it approachable and meaningful no matter how unfamiliar or familiar you might be with the story.

Today's reading takes us to Thursday night and Jesus' last supper with his disciples.

God bless,
Sam

John 13:1-11

Now 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.” 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

heavenly parent

Good morning friends,

Not everyone has good memories of their family, but for many of us thinking of our parents reminds us of safety and care. Paul reminds his readers that God is like a parent for us in all the good ways. God cares for us and wants to build us up. The passage closes by reminding us that God’s ability to work through us is bigger than anything we can imagine. No matter what challenges we face, God is full of surprises.

God bless,
Sam

Ephesians 3:14-21

¹⁴For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. ¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. ¹⁸I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

²⁰Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.    

driving out the ruler

Good evening friends,

Today's passage shows Jesus talking with a crowd. He makes a point about clinging to our lives too tightly. We see this in our lives too; if we're too anxious about life, safety, health, money, whatever, we clutch it so tightly we don't really live. Jesus takes it a step further saying that when he is lifted up (on a cross) he'll draw people to him. He also says "the ruler of this world is driven out." This is the part I'll be focusing on Sunday. Jesus here suggests that the world as we know it is (partly, at least) ruled by evil powers, but with Jesus' death that power is defeated. We still see evil very powerful, but we hear a promise that evil's power won't have the last word. Even if we have to be realistic about the trouble in the world, we can also be hopeful that love will win in the end.

God bless,
Sam

John 12:23-36

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. ³⁴The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” ³⁵Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. ³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.

biblical satire

Good afternoon sisters and brothers,
Today's reading shows us Job voicing his complaint to God. Job is a great book both for the raw emotion and for the poetry and even satire it uses to express that emotion. In this passage we see Job turning several Biblical images upside down.

For instance, Job says, "What are human beings that you make so much of them," which echoes Psalm 8: "What are human beings that you are mindful of them..." In the Psalm, the writer is amazed and grateful that God bothers with people even though we are insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. Job turns that around to ask why God bothers to torment someone so insignificant. Job also calls God a "watcher," meaning in this case that God looks out for ways to accuse him. We see that same idea of God watching over us in places like Psalm 121, where it is a powerful image of hope and comfort. Biblical images are rich and the more we read them and let them sink into us, the greater our ability to feel and express God's love and the breadth of human emotion.

God bless,
Sam

Job 7:1-21

“Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a laborer? ²Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages, ³so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. ⁴When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?’ But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn. ⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out again. ⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope.

⁷“Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. ⁸The eye that beholds me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. ⁹As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up; ¹⁰they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more. ¹¹“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ¹²Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a guard over me?

¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ ¹⁴then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, ¹⁵so that I would choose strangling and death rather than this body. ¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, ¹⁸visit them every morning, test them every moment? ¹⁹Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? ²⁰If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you? ²¹Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

intro to Job

Good evening friends,
Today's reading we start looking at the Book of Job, our sermon focus for last week and this week. It's a fascinating, troubling and beautiful book, so I'll just let the story speak for itself.

God bless,
Sam

Job 1:1-12

There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. ²There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. ³He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

⁴His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” This is what Job always did.

⁶One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. ⁷The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” ⁸The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”

⁹Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” ¹²The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

the persecutor persecuted

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Yesterday we read how Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and how God spoke to Ananias to minister to Saul so he could receive his sight. Ananias was shocked to get an order like that, since he knew how Saul had persecuted the church, but God told him that Saul would be an important instrument for evangelism and that he would suffer for the name of Jesus. Faithfully, Ananias goes. It doesn't take long for Saul to start living up to his promise, and to receive persecution himself. It blows me away how faithful these folks are to their call. I always come away from Acts convicted because my own faith is meek and lukewarm in comparison. How can you stir up the Spirit within you and follow your calling today?

God bless,
Sam

Acts 9:17-25

¹⁷So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, ¹⁹and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

²¹All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” ²²Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. ²³After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, ²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; ²⁵but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

service and trouble

Good morning brothers and sisters,
First, I'm out of town this weekend and my phone will not work. In an emergency you can reach me at my hotel in Toronto: 416-977-0502, room 1009. I'll be back Sunday night. We read about how the church elected seven leaders to oversee the care of widows in the church. Today we'll learn more about one of those leaders, Stephen. We'll see that while the specific ministry to which he was elected was about caring for people in need, his calling as a Christian led him to preach about Jesus. You never know where your calling might take you.

God bless,
Sam

Acts 6:8-15

⁸Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. ¹⁰But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

¹¹Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹²They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. ¹³They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; ¹⁴for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.” ¹⁵And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

trouble and child birth

Good afternoon friends,
One person noticed yesterday that the passage sounded very much like John, and today's passage is even more Johnanine in style. Jesus reminds the disciples that even though they will go through some hard times, there is a purpose and they are not alone. That's still true now.

God bless,
Sam

John 16:20-33

²⁰Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. ²¹When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. ²²So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.²³On that day you will ask nothing of me.

Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. ²⁴Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. ²⁵“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. ²⁶On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; ²⁷for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

²⁸I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.” ²⁹His disciples said, “Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! ³⁰Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.” ³¹Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? ³²The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. ³³I 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!”

out or the depths

Good morning friends,
Today's reading is a favorite prayer in trouble for me. We'll sing Psalm 130 during worship tomorrow, so reading it today makes sense. Often we reach out to God when we're at the end of our rope. We pray with neighbors in Boston who have lost friends or relatives this week. We pray with neighbors here in Rochester who worry about losing their homes. We pray when we feel hopeless or powerless in our own lives. No matter where we are, God hears us.

God bless,
Sam

Psalm 130

¹Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. ²Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! ³If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? ⁴But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

⁵I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; ⁶my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

⁷O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. ⁸It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

redo

Good morning sisters and brothers,
I hope your week is off to a good start. Our story today is a strange one about God being sorry that he made people because we are so messed up. The story also mentions Nephilim, an odd type of being that seems to be a cross between "sons" of God and women. The Bible doesn't explain that any further, but you'll notice further along when Israel gets close to the Promised Land, that some of their enemies are said to be descended from Rephadim, which seem to be related. They take on an almost giant-like quality in the later story. This passage is a reminder that there are stories and events that surround the Bible story and that the authors knew about but didn't write down. Most of those surrounding stories are lost, so we're left guessing the whole story from the fragments left in scripture.

Blessings,
Sam

Genesis 6:1-10

When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, ²the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. ³Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”

⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown. ⁵The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.

⁶And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. ⁷So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

⁸But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. ⁹These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. ¹⁰And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

warning and encouragement

Good afternoon sisters and brothers,
Jesus continues his description of the troubles to come that will mark the end of the world. There's always the temptation to predict when this might happen, but Jesus tells us even he doesn't know when the end will come. Instead we should hear his warning that things will be rough before the end and that there will be many who try to deceive us. We know what we need to know to face the trouble that will come. We know Christ loves us and will bring us safely home in the end. In the meantime, we know our calling: to love God and love our neighbor. Anything that tries to pull us away from that calling is not from God. We have the Holy Spirit and the community to strengthen and guide us, so let us keep the faith.

God bless,
Sam

Mark 13:14-23

¹⁴“But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; ¹⁵the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away; ¹⁶the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. ¹⁷Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! ¹⁸Pray that it may not be in winter. ¹⁹For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. ²⁰And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days.

²¹And if anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’ —do not believe it. ²²False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. ²³But be alert; I have already told you everything.

trouble to joy

Good morning friends,
Today's reading continues Jesus' last words to his disciples. They don't understand what Jesus is talking about when he talks about his death and resurrection. Since we know the story, we do know what to expect, but we can sympathize with the disciples just the same. Jesus explains that the disciples will find themselves at odds with the world, in many things, as it turns out. At many points it will seem like the world is right and the disciples will be troubled. In the end though, the disciples' pain is going somewhere; there hardship is giving birth to something new. Hopefully, the troubles we face in our lives will be productive of something new as well.

Blessings on your new week,
Sam

John 16:16-22

16”A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.” 17Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18They said, “What does he mean by this ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”


19Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’? 20Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. 21When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. 22So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

judgment and trouble

Good morning friends,
It's another day in New Orleans after a good, hard day of work yesterday and wonderful devotions led by Rock and Jake. This morning's reading is hard. There's not much hope in this reading, so it can be easy to let it be discouraging. We read something like this and think about the devastation we see here in New Orleans and we wonder what God could be up to. I don't believe God sends hurricanes to punish us for our sins. At the same time, the hurricanes here shined light on our sin as a nation: sins of division and selfishness; sins of neglecting the poor and oppressed; sins of forgetting about our brothers and sisters. Israel faced some of the same sins and faced God's judgment for that. God loves all his creatures so when we selfishly treat people badly God weeps and sorrows for our heard hearts. Judgement is real even if it doesn't come through a hurricane; we are all accountable to God for how we use the amazing gift of our life and how we care for others.

And even though we don't see it in this passage, God is with us. God sends messengers like Jeremiah out of love and in Jesus God walks the darkest parts of human life. God is with us to challenge our selfishness and to call us back to true life. God is with us in our ministry and our daily routine. God is with us in other people: people offering us hope, people asking for our help, people showing us God's way. Let us trust God and seek to serve others in love, no matter what trouble we walk through.

God bless,
Sam

Jeremiah 16:1-14
The word of the Lord came to me: 2You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bear them and the fathers who beget them in this land: 4They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall become like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall become food for the birds of the air and for the wild animals of the earth. 5For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament, or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, my steadfast love and mercy.

6Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them; there shall be no gashing, no shaving of the head for them. 7No one shall break bread for the mourner, to offer comfort for the dead; nor shall anyone give them the cup of consolation to drink for their fathers or their mothers. 8You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. 9For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, “Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?” 11then you shall say to them: It is because your ancestors have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law; 12and because you have behaved worse than your ancestors, for here you are, every one of you, following your stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.