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Prelude
Welcome and Announcements Lenten Reading Michael and Stephanie Noel Reader 1: Friends, once again we invite you to observe a holy Lent-by prayer and fasting, reading and meditating on the Word of God, by acts of service done in Jesus’ name. On this third Sunday in Lent, we see Jesus in an unexpected way. We witness him overturning the tables of the money changers at the temple. His actions surprise us. Yet, in our lives and in our world, we find much that needs to be overturned and driven out that the kingdom of God may be more fully revealed. Reader 2: In John 2:13-22 we read this account. The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found people selling cattle, sheep, doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned 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 it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Prayer Merciful God, in Christ you make all things new. Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory, through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen. *Hymn 475 Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing Prayer of Confession Holy God, you have called us to love you with heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. But, if we are honest, we know that sometimes we hurt each other and fail to keep our promises to you. Forgive us, God of grace. Teach us, day by day, to turn away from what is wrong and to turn to you in faith, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Hymn 698 Take, O Take Me As I Am Assurance of Forgiveness Hear the good news: We are dead to sin and evil and alive to God in Jesus Christ. Friends, I urge you to walk in his light- forgiven, reconciled, and free! Old Testament Reading Exodus 20:1-20 Time With Our Young Disciples Gospel Reading Luke 13:1-9 Morning Message Is the Lord with us or not? When calamity strikes, or a disaster occurs, when a loved one is hurt, when our jobs are in jeopardy, have you ever said, “Is the Lord with me or not?” I sure have. Scripture teaches me that God is always present, but, when I am troubled by something that is too big for me to solve, I wonder if and when God is going to show up. The Rev. Sarah Jackson Shelton says she was driving home from the church one day, after collecting her toddler son from the church’s day care center. She fastened him safely in his car seat and started toward home. She says her son was quite active and was always talking. But he surprised her that with one of those questions- you know the kind you have to think though for awhile before answering. Why is that? Because children, especially very young children, think in concrete terms, not abstract ones. So when he asked, “Mom, can we have a baby at our house?” Sarah was caught off-guard and barely stammered out what most parents say when asked such a question. “Well, we’ll see.” To which her son responded with, “How do we get a baby, Momma?” Not wanting to get into a biology lesson, Sarah simply said, “God will give us a baby.” Now this is turning into a real volley between mom and son. “Momma, where is God?” “Son, God lives in your heart.” And without missing a beat, the little boy stuck his head inside his shirt and shouted, “Hey, God! Can we have a baby at our house?” And sure enough came this announcement: “God said, Yes!” The next day, also while driving, her son had another probing question: “Momma, where is God?” And Momma was prepared for this question. “Oh, son, there is nowhere you can go that God won’t be there. God loves us so much that God wants to be with us all the time.” There was silence from the back seat. Sarah looked in her rear view mirror to see her son turning his head side-to-side as if looking for someone or something. “Son, what are you doing?” “I’m looking for God.” “Well, did you find him?” “No, Momma, my God ran away.” This conversation was between a young child and his seminary-trained mother. On the surface, it seems like such a simple exchange, just a request for information. But it is a profound one, containing questions we may ask at all ages and stages and circumstances of our lives. When God’s people, Israel, were traveling through the wilderness, they became weary, worn, hungry and thirsty. They begin to lose faith in their leader, Moses. So, they turn on him in this text and blame him for their plight. And we hear them raising their voices, too: “Did you just bring us out here to die? Is God with us or not?” The late Rev. Dr. Andrew Greeley, a Catholic priest and academic, offers these thoughts in his book, The Great Mysteries: “Life is filled with so many senseless events. Mindless tragedies fill our newspapers every day-airplane crashes, the murder of innocent children, insane terrorism, natural disasters. And much of our own lives seems without purpose or meaning-like a rainstorm on a picnic day, a bad cold when we are having a party, a handicapped child, the early death of a parent or spouse, a broken marriage, a car that won’t start in the morning, a wrong number in the middle of the night, the treason of friends and envy of our neighbors.” We aften wonder why these things happen and if there is a purpose or point to them? Do they come as some kind of judgment on us for the sins we have committed? Is God with us or not? Does God even care? The Israelites aren’t the only ones to ask those accusatory questions, are they? Many years ago, one of my church people, the mother of two children, a boy and a girl, called to inform me that her son, elementary school age, had tried to take his own life the day before. The conversation in the car on the way to the hospital went something like this, “Honey, what is wrong? Why are you so sad? How can Daddy and I help you? We love you. God loves you.” “God does not love me. I have talked to God all my life and asked him for only one thing: I have asked God to give me a friend and he hasn’t. So, I don’t think God loves me.” How do you respond to that pain? The good news is that eventually things began to work out for this child but it took maximum effort. He is now leading a successful life and has been blessed with a family. The Israelites in our text have witnessed the presence and power of God. God saved them from the plagues and recues them from Pharoah’s army, allowing them to cross the Red Sea. They have been led by the pillar of fire, and have been fed by manna and quail. They have experienced God’s work in the darkest of circumstances. They have evidence, but what they want now is personal satisfaction, according to author Peter Gomes. “I’m hungry! I’m thirsty! I’m broke! I’m lonely! I’m mistreated!” Sarah Shelton says the wilderness is no longer a geographic place. The wilderness has become a state of mind and faith. But before we ridicule those ungrateful Hebrew children, we should probably stop and consider our own states of mind and faith. How often do we think about what we want God to do for us, how we want God to conform to our needs, and to perform these things on our timetable? I admit that I have done this. I remember one time years ago when the church I was serving was experiencing some turbulence. One of the women with whom I worked closely, who was one of the most troubled at the time, said, “Cinda, we just have to pray really hard for God to change this situation.” To which, another wise friend and church member said, “Let’s just hope God wants the same thing we do.” The truth is there are often long pauses when it seems God is not present and is not active in the world, much less in our lives. But that would be a wrong assumption. Sarah Shelton says that when she shares glimpses of her own life, or her family’s experiences and challenges with her congregation, it gives her flock permission to open up and share of their own experiences. What she has discovered is that their faith is deep and mature. Those who have endured the suffering of this world are those who see God not as a solution waiting to happen, or a quick fix to numb their pain. No. They see God as present in and with our challenges. When we look for the bigger picture, when we think about how our hardships stretch and change us, then suffering is seen as an opportunity to discover the presence and activity of God. When this happens, we practice what Paul encourages in Romans 5- that God neither leaves us in our problems nor attempts to solve them for us, but that God joins us in our darkness. So then, we understand when Paul says, “We rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurances produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given us. I’ve shared the story of Carrie ten Boom before, so I’ll just refer to her briefly. In the midst of the Holocaust, Corrie, a Dutch watchmaker, had the courage and strength of character to house endangered Jews in her home. That is what we could call radical hospitality. She was eventually arrested for this practice and she and her family were herded off to concentration camps, where most died. Corrie survived and upon her release, she established a post-war home for other camp survivors trying to recover from the horrors they suffered. She went on to travel widely as a missionary, preaching the gospel and encouraging forgiveness of sins and moving forward with life post-Holocaust. One Sunday she encountered one of the prison guards who had treated her so cruelly. It took every ounce of faith and courage to face this man with the love of God and offer him forgiveness. If you want to learn more about Corrie ten Boom, read her book, The Hiding Place. Where was God that morning as Corrie recognized her captor? God was with Corrie and the former Nazi guard and with all who had gathered to hear Corrie’s message and God was even with those who rejected the gospel that day. Because that’s who God is. God always initiates the relationship and we only love because God first loved us. “Momma, where is God?” “God is in your heart and everywhere.” May it be so for all of us. “ *Hymn 168 Within Your Shelter, Loving God *Affirmation of Faith 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 Thank you, Lord, for your many gifts-for the world’s helpers, peace and security, recreation and rest, friends and family, life and health. We thank you for your Son, Jesus, who came to embody your love and compassion for the world, calling us into lives of joyful service. We offer these gifts in his name. Amen. *Hymn 443 There Is a Redeemer *Blessing May God bless you and keep you safe. May God smile on you with grace. May God watch over you always and give you peace. Amen. *Postlude Comments are closed.
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PastorCinda Harkless Archives
April 2025
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