Holy Wednesday

We pause and catch our breathe in the story of Jesus and in our week. The toll of the events before: the emotion of the death and raising of Lazarus and cleansing the Temple, the energy required to confront the leading religious leaders of his day and preach to the masses. The anticipation of what was yet to be: looking forward to his own death, and greater still, his “becoming sin for us.” These things weighed heavily on Jesus and he needed rest.

So…Jesus stopped. All around him activity was taking place. Jerusalem was a-bustle with preparations for the Passover. People from all over the Roman Empire were converging on the city for this significant festival. There was buying and selling. There was the ordinary pressure of daily life and the extraordinary pressure of a holiday (which never goes quite smoothly and always carries additional expectations). And there was Judas and the Sanhedrin plotting and scheming. The world was busy, but Jesus rested.

We believe that Jesus is our Savior; dying and rising again to offer us forgiveness and eternal, righteous life. We also believe that Jesus is our Example; showing us how to live in an intimate trusting relationship with God the Father. Let’s focus on this latter for a moment. Our right now, as we approach Resurrection Sunday, 2020, is shaped in a context of COVID-19, economic pressures, constantly rubbing shoulders with our loved ones (or being separated from our loved ones), disrupted routines, not to mention all the other challenges we would be facing without the Coronavirus. Let’s follow the example of our Master and heed the words of the Psalmist with renewed urgency, “Be still and know that I am God!”

What does it look like for you, today, to not merely be still, but to be still with the purpose of knowing that God is indeed God? To rest, not in the physical sense of sleeping (though you may need that too!), but in the spiritual sense of offering your deepest trust to God in this time of uncertainty? We can rest because God says, “I will be exalted in the earth!”

Grace and Peace, Pastor Jeff

Holy Tuesday

John 12:20-36

"Here we go again," grumbled the apostles. "He's doing that thing again. Saying he'll be killed, and glorified in the same breath. Man this guy is weird."

Yet they say this after seeing him do the most amazing things. He healed disabled and ill people. He changed the weather. He walked on the sea. He gave them magical Fish Fillet sandwiches! He killed a fig tree! WITH HIS MIND! He told a dead man to get up. And. He. Did. He called them by name.

These are our stories, but were their lives. Our radical transformation experiences are usually...more tame. More personal and intimate. We didn't meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus or Damascus. We met him driving in the car and hearing his call on the radio. As a 6 year old in five-day-club. Wondering what made that woman so kind and different. Seeing that passionate speaker at that one event. We were raised into it by faithful parents. We were raised into it by controlling and ruthless parents. Somewhere, sometime we met Jesus and were caught up in the river of where he is taking us.

We have, or will have a time when Jesus stands at the door of our heart and knocks. Remember, this image was not him knocking at unbelievers' doors, he was at a church. When he does this, he says something...Radical. Extreme. Life-changing and life-giving and life sacrificing. By all practical definitions, he says something wild and crazy. "Feed my sheep." "Step out of the boat." "Don't follow Kosher food laws." (he said a lot of crazy things to Peter)

He says these things to us, calls us to radical new ways of living in his truth. He does this through a quiet whisper in your heart, through the words of our pastor's sermon, through a song, through our own conscience, through our prayer.

Can we hear him, and love him, and follow him? We default to "here we go again" instead of "Your will be done." But his message has not changed. We only heard part of it at first, when we met him. Its not like radical transformation is coming out of the blue though. We just didn't see it, didn't listen. Can we listen now? Passionately devoted, following believers are radical, not crazy. Can we listen to Jesus, and follow him? Can we do this together? We're in this river, we chose it. Don't fight the current or curse the water for being wet. Float, follow the river where it takes you, revel in the breeze and sunlight (this is a metaphor, after all) and experience Jesus.

• Rob Pierce