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Prelude
Welcome and Announcements Lenten Reading Jeremiah 31: 31-34 Reader 1: Friends, once again, we are asked to observe a holy Lent, that by prayer and supplication, meditating on the Word of God, and being in service to others, we might grow closer to the heart of Christ and joyfully witness to his love and grace. Reader 2: Hear the words of the prophet: The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. Prayer God of the covenant, in the glory of the cross, your Son embraced the power of death and broke its hold over your people. In this time of repentance, draw all people to yourself that, we who confess Jesus as Lord, may put aside any deeds that deny the depth of his sacrifice and accept the life of your kingdom. Amen. *Hymn 664 Morning Has Broken Prayer of Confession Merciful God, we are a people prone to wander, tempted to satisfy our immediate desires, or the most efficient solution to our challenges, instead of seeking a wider view that would lift up a just, peaceful, and plentiful world for all. Holy One, remind us of your love and purpose for all your children. Restore all our relationships and guide us home. Amen. Hymn 698 Take, O Take Me As I Am Assurance of Forgiveness Our God is loving, just, and merciful. God delivers us from sin and restores us by grace. Friends, I declare to you, in the name and by the power of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven and we can be at peace. Epistle Reading Philippians 3:17-4:1 Moments With Our Young Disciples Gospel Reading Luke 13:31-35 Morning Message I’m still trying to get used to reading the paper late in the day, as the paper is delivered with our mail now. I usually get to it after dinner with a cup of tea-Twinings English Breakfast, if possible. And so it was that on a Thursday evening some time ago, I opened the paper to see that a very dear friend of ours had died. I had no idea what had happened. Though our families had been close for many years, brought together by our daughters and their school friendship, he and his wife had moved to the Cincinnati area to be near their daughter and her family, which included their one grandchild. The visitation was from 6 to 8, and it was 6 on the dot. So, I rushed upstairs and got myself put together enough to make a visit to the funeral home. I tried to reach Ed on the way. He was in Charleston for the All State Music Conference. I knew this news would hit him hard. I was right. I finally reached him as I was walking into the funeral home. I could hear the grief and disbelief in his voice. I detected a note of regret that we had lost contact with our friends. I was feeling it, too. When we confess our sins each week in worship, we sometimes ask God to forgive those things we have done that we should not have done, and to forgive those things we should have done, that we failed to do. I was feeling the full awful truth of that in those moments. Feeling plenty convicted, I waited behind a long line of friends and neighbors and colleagues to speak to the family. Then I was wrapped in a fierce embrace that closed the gap that absence and neglect had created. I started to apologize that I was so completely out of the loop and so sorry to learn of her husband’s death. She gave me one of those looks that said, “Stop. You need to hear the rest of the story.” And so I did. I learned that for nearly the whole time they had lived in Cincinnati, her husband had been battling a brain tumor. He undergone surgery and radiation treatment to no avail. He suffered two massive strokes. The illness devastated his body and his mind. His death was a blessing. His suffering and theirs was ended. He had been received into the arms of mercy and everlasting peace. My friend further let me off my guilty hook by saying their lives had been consumed by her husband’s health issues. There was no time for much of anything else. And, the pastor and members of the church they had joined had been very supportive and helpful and present with them through the whole ordeal, just as their friends here would have done. And then she said, “I want to tell you something. You will understand.” “One Sunday, our pastor spoke about finding your purpose. And I spent a good deal of time that day really thinking about that. What was my purpose? What is my husband’s purpose?” Now, I would have said she had found her purpose in being a devoted daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother, and for thirty years, a teacher. And her husband found his purpose in being a son, brother, husband and father and in his career as an engineer. And those are but minimal descriptions of their rich and meaningful lives. Then she said the most interesting thing happened. “I went to the facility where my husband was a patient, and found myself at the nurses’ station asking them if they had ever thought of holding a worship service at the facility. The nurse said no, but, did I know of a church that might be approached about it?” My friend said, “See that church across the field? I go to that church. I’ll ask the pastor about it. The next Sunday, there was a worship service at the nursing facility and from then until now there has been an on-going relationship with the church and the facility that is far more than a single weekly service. She said that was confirmation that she and her husband were exactly where they were supposed to be. Their lives still had purpose. In fact, they had a fresh purpose, even at 70 years of age. Why do I tell you this story? Because the kingdom of heaven and eternal life are gifts of God and we don’t have to wait until life on the other side to appreciate them. They may be enjoyed now. Today. When we pray, as we will shortly, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are affirming our belief that our lives are centered in a realm that began 2000 plus years ago, accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary, and now we can be living witnesses to that truth. Remember when Nicodemus, in the Gospel of John, asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life, how he could be born again. Surely, he couldn’t enter into his mother’s body to be birthed again. That is a powerful, naked, question. It strikes at the heart of the matter. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, one of the most devout Jews of his day. He was one of the most highly educated people of his community. He was important, respected. Now, it was believed that the most serious, most intense, study was a discipline to undertake at night. And so, here he was, a Jew, a scholar of the law, asking Jesus about life after death and how to secure it. What do we understand in our reformed tradition about life after death? We start with what we know of Jesus’ experience. The Jesus story is also our story. That Jesus died, was raised, ascended into heaven, and sits at God’s right hand prefigures our own story. We will follow him. This means our confessions of faith describe the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as we understand it. From the earliest confessions, it is understood that we are destined, when we die, to follow Jesus into God’s presence. We also take counsel from the church confessions of faith. The Scots Confession declares, “The chosen departed are in peace, and rest from their labors, not that they sleep and are lost in oblivion as some fanatics hold, for they are delivered from all fear and torment, and all the temptations to which we and all God’s chosen are subject in this life.” Westminster is even more precise, declaring that ‘the bodies of men, (and women), after death, return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God.” In heaven these souls “behold the face of God.” If there is a Presbyterian narrative about life after death, this is it: when you die, your soul goes to be with God, where you enjoy God’s glory and wait for the promised day of Christ’s return. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This is the gospel in a nutshell, isn’t it? It is the most-often-quoted verse in the Bible. And this was the ultimate answer to the deep and probing questions Nicodemus asked of Jesus. That verse says the origin of our salvation begins with God. God initiates a relationship with us. Why? Because God loves us. God sent his Son out of love to live among us, to be one of us, and save us. So, behind everything is the love of God. The Letter of First John says, “God is love. Those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.” This is not the picture of God that some present, with God as an angry monarch whose subjects must follow strict orders to please God. The God Jesus speaks of in his answer to Nicodemus is the Father who cannot be satisfied until all his wandering children come home. This answer tells us of the width, the expanse, of God’s love. It was the world God loved. It was not a nation. It was not the good people. It was not only the people who loved God. It was for the world. The unlovable and the unlovely. The lonely who have no one else to love them. The person who loves God, and the person who never even thinks of God. The one who rests in the love of God and the one who spurns the love of God. All are included in this vast inclusive love. Augustine said, “God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.” And that is the essence of the story my dear friend shared with me that Thursday night some years ago. God loved them so much that God used the opportunity of their suffering to bring the good news of the gospel of Christ to others who were in need of love and hope and courage and Christian fellowship, if even for a brief hour. And if that was God’s final purpose for Richard’s life, God’s kingdom did come. *I Cannot Tell (insert) *Affirmation of Faith The Apostles’ Creed p. 35 * Hymn 580 Gloria Patri Sharing Our Joys and Concerns Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings *Hymn 606 Doxology *Prayer of Dedication Gracious, loving, and abundant God, we praise you for the gifts presented today and for the intentions of your people in giving. Bless these offerings, of hearts and resources. May they equip the saints for their ministry and be a comfort to those in need. Amen. *Hymn 702 Christ Be Beside Me *Blessing The cross…we will take it. The bread…we will break it. The pain…we will bear it. The joy…we will share it. The gospel…we will live it. The love…we will give it. The light…we will cherish it. The darkness…God will perish it. From Stages On the Way: Iona Community, Wild Goose Worship Group Congregational Meeting *Postlude Comments are closed.
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PastorCinda Harkless Archives
April 2025
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