March '24
March 1
On Sunday we will hear John’s telling of Jesus turning over the tables in the temple. This event occurs during Holy Week in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In John’s gospel, Jesus enters the temple and shakes things up at the beginning of his ministry.
I suspect we could spend some time considering what it is about the temple practices that upsets Jesus. We might benefit more from considering what tables Jesus would overturn in our lives, in our Church. That seems like something we might want to do during Lent, taking note of the places in our lives where we find ourselves out of step with God’s desires for us and for our world.
May we all repent where needed, and return to our God, who loves us with a never ending compassion and grace.
Blessings, Pastor Phil
March 2
Here is a prayer grounded in our scripture texts for tomorrow.
Holy One, creator of the stars and seas,
your steadfast love is shown to every living thing:
your word calls forth countless worlds and souls;
your law revives and refreshes.
Forgive our misuse of your gifts,
that we may be transformed by your wisdom
to manifest for others
the mercy of our crucified and risen Lord. Amen.
3rd Sunday in Lent
March 3
I hope to see you in worship today at 9:00
The service will be posted on the Trinity web site.
The Prayer of the Day
Holy God,
through your Son you have called us
to live faithfully
and act courageously.
Keep us steadfast in your covenant of grace,
and teach us the wisdom that comes only through
Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
March 4
Yesterday we heard the story of Jesus “cleansing the Temple.” One preacher had this to say about Jesus overturning the tables of the moneychangers:
"I read the cleansing of the temple as a stark warning against any and every false sense of security. Misplaced allegiances, religious presumption, pathetic excuses, smug self-satisfaction, spiritual complacency, nationalist zeal, political idolatry, and economic greed in the name of God are only some of the tables that Jesus would overturn in his own day and in ours."
"Subtle as a Sledge Hammer: Jesus 'Cleanses' the Temple," Daniel B. Clendenin
Is it possible for us to have an “accurate sense of security?”
I trust there is, and I trust that our Lenten pilgrimage is a road to living in God’s grace and bearing God’s love to this world in need.
May God be with you today, Pastor Phil
March 5
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,
about those who have died,
so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
I Thessalonians 4:13
I have sad news to share with you.
Yesterday we lost two Trinity friends. Lou Reeves became ill this past weekend and she died early Monday morning. Willie Frisbie also died yesterday morning. She was with her daughter in Parkman, having moved back to Wyoming in January.
Let us join together in prayer for their families and loved ones, that the faith of these women might be a gift to them, and to us all, as we trust that Jesus has washed them in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.
A Prayer:
Almighty God,
we give you heartfelt thanks for the grace you have granted to Lou and Willie
and to all who have finished their course in faith and now rest from their labors.
Raise us with them from death to life,
that when we die we may rest in our Redeemer,
receive the inheritance prepared for us from the beginning of the world,
and find perfect fulfillment and joy in your everlasting glory;
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen
March 6
Tonight we will consider the Prayer of Good Courage:
This prayer has been in our last 3 hymnals, the present ELW, the cranberry hymnal, the green LBW, and the red SBH, which was published in 1958..
I have shared this prayer with many of you in the midst of challenges and concerns we have faced. My dad really appreciated this prayer, and so we used it in his funeral service.
I hope you can be there tonight as we visit with this prayer, and encourage one another to turn to these words to give voice to our conversations with God:
Lord God,
you have called your servants
to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden,
through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage,
not knowing where we go,
but only
that your hand is leading us
and your love supporting us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
March 7
Kate Bowler is an interesting theologian and writer and - through her podcast - online friend to many. I subscribe to her weekly (or maybe more often) email missives. Here, halfway through Lent, she is promoting a course she is offering during the 50 days of Easter. She shared about the course, but added she didn’t “want to rush us to Easter.” Then she made a humorous observation; “I like to say, ‘Don't Easter my Lent!’”
That’s a good one.
I smiled at that thought, and immediately thought about the fact that we regularly “Easter our Lent.” Each Sunday, of course, is a celebration of the first Easter morn, that’s why we worship on Sunday, and not on Saturday…
But more than that, we Easter our Lent whenever we turn to the resurrection hope in the midst of this season. We may well want to observe Lent faithfully and well, yet as people baptized into Christ, Easter slips in all the time.
I’m tempted to conclude; “and that’s okay.”
If you think about it, its much more than okay.
This is a life-giving wonder that shapes all that we do and say and believe and hope.
A blessed Lenten Thursday to you today; and if Easter slips in to this day, let us give thanks for such marvelous gifts! Pastor Phil
March 8
Now that we are headed into the second half of Lent, I would like to share this reflection on Repentance. I am not sure if I’ve shared this before- but, as Dr. Alvin Rogness said to me when I thanked him for some of his writing that I had put to use in sermons and such; “We all have to steal from somebody, you might as well steal from somebody good.”
This is good:
Often we think of repentance as traveling down a road and then making a conscious turn in another direction, sometimes a simple turn to the right or the left, sometimes a complete 180-degree turn in the opposite direction.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if repentance was that simple? Instead, repentance more closely resembles a tornado. As repentant people, we weave our way on an unpredictable path, twisting and turning to look back at the behaviors and attitudes that lure us even when we know that we must turn away from them.
Repentance is usually not a singular event. Like a tornado, we repeat our sin, then turn away from it only to return again. The good news in the gospel of Jesus Christ is that repentance, like a tornado, brings with it transformation and restoration.
Like a tornado - Daily Grace - Oct 22, 2016 This message is adapted from “Pardoned, Me?” by Terry L. Bowes in the March 1998 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.
A blessed weekend to you, Pastor Phil
March 9
“For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish
but may have eternal life.”
John 3:16
Tomorrow we hear from the third chapter of John. Part of our reading will be John 3:16 “For God so loved the world…”
Here is a prayer grounded in our readings:
God of mercy,
who sent your Son into the world not to condemn it but to save it,
open our eyes to behold Jesus lifted up on the cross
and to see in those outstretched arms
your abundant compassion.
Let the world's weary and wounded
come to know that by your gracious gift,
we are saved and delivered, so immeasurable is the love
with which you love the world.
We ask this through Christ,
with whom you have raised us up in baptism,
the Lord who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.
Amen.
From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.
4th Sunday in Lent
March 10
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world…”
I hope to see you in worship today at 9:00.
The service will be posted on the Trinity web site, click here.
The Prayer of the Day
O God, rich in mercy,
by the humiliation of your Son you lifted up this fallen world
and rescued us from the hopelessness of death.
Lead us into your light,
that all our deeds may reflect your love,
through Jesus Christ,
our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God,
now and forever.
Amen.
March 11
For we are God’s handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10 - New International Version
This week, for the dinner before the midweek worship service we are having a pot luck, and I hope you can be there. If your life is too busy to prepare something, I suspect the rest of us will provide enough for all. Please join us!
Yesterday we heard wonderful words from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians…
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God —
not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are what he has made us,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Ephesians 2:8-10 NRSV
Some ten or fifteen years ago, my dad told me that this had become his favorite Bible verse. (I know that favorite Bible verse might not be the usual talking point for most, but we had more than a few conversations that might be considered a bit odd!)
I love how Paul pairs our being saved by grace, and our calling to give our lives away in service to this world that God loves.
God has sent Jesus in order to make you God’s own child. (John 3:16-17)
This is God’s gift, and requires nothing from you.
Now, you have been bought with a price, (I Corinthians) and your life, prepared for you by God, is a life of love and service.
Serve well!
Pastor Phil
March 12
Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning,
for in you I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Psalm 143:8
I set this beautiful prayer aside at the beginning of Lent, and today seems a good time to share it for Trinity Connections.
Prayer – You are the Way
Jesus,
you are the way in our wanderings.
You are the truth in our wonderings.
You are the life that is always at work among us.
Be our way
in times that trouble and confuse us.
Be our truth
in the face of words that harm and condemn.
Be the life
uniting us as one body.
Even broken, we are made in your image.
Gathered as one body now,
we ready ourselves to go with you
on your way to the cross.
Shine your light so we can follow you. Amen
Alissa Bender (Canada), 2022.
Creative Commons: Together in Worship www.togetherinworship.net
May we follow well! Pastor Phil
March 13
Tonight we will be spending some time with a prayer from the Service of the Word in the ELW.
In our household, we consider the prayer phrase: “Give us the light we need” to be especially inspiring. If you think about it, that request might take a different shape for each person gathered for worship. This prayer is not asking for luxuries, it is a request for the light we need from God to make our way in this world.
I look forward to our time together tonight as we visit with these words, and consider how this prayer of ‘Thanksgiving for the Word’ might give voice to our gratitude, our hope in Christ, our calling to serve and our resting in the promise of the resurrection.
O God of justice and love,
we give thanks to you that you illumine our way through life
with the words of your Son.
Give us the light we need,
awaken us to the needs of others,
and at the end
bring all the world to your feast;
through Jesus Christ,
our Savior and Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory forever.
Amen.
ELW page 220
May the light of Christ shine forth for you today. Pastor Phil
March 14
Preparing for last night’s worship, I read this “Thanksgiving for Light” and thought it would enrich our service. This is part of an Advent midweek evening prayer liturgy, and is a variation on the Thanksgiving for Light that is in the ELW Evening Prayer Service (Page 310).
Our liturgies and prayers have phrases and ways of ‘speaking’ that can provide words to the prayers of our hearts. I suspect that they can also shape our own prayers, as a gift from our forebears in the faith.
Blessings to you today, and may you find yourself bright with God's wisdom and aflame with God's righteousness. Pastor Phil
Thanksgiving for Light
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
We give you thanks, O God,
for in the beginning you called light into being,
and you set lights in the sky to govern night and day.
In every age, you call imperfect people
to be bearers of your light,
bright with your wisdom,
aflame with your righteousness,
like the stars forever.
Enlighten our darkness by the light of your Christ,
kindled in the stable, magnified on the cross,
and reflected in the lives of your holy people.
With them, and with all your creatures we give you glory,
through your Son Jesus Christ,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Amen.
March 15
“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week...
...Jesus came and stood among them and said,
“Peace be with you.”
John 20:19
I've shared quotes from Rachel Held before. She was an insightful writer who died five years ago at the age of 37.
Here is a reflection on the Psalms, which I think might also speak of the prayers we have been considering during Wednesday midweek worship...
“The Psalms are, in a sense,
God’s way of holding space for us.
They invite us to rejoice,
wrestle, cry, complain,
offer thanks, and shout obscenities
before our Maker
without self-consciousness and without fear.
Life is full of the sort of joys and sorrows
that don’t resolve neatly in a major key.
God knows that.
The Bible knows that.
Why don’t we?”
–Rachel Held Evans, "Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again." p. 111
While Rachel was wrestling with a version of Christianity that is much more certain, possibly more stifling than we generally tend to be, she still has much to offer us.
In the prayers of our liturgies, in the words of the Psalms, God provides space for us to express all that we bear. In the promise of the Gospel, God brings healing and grace, forgiveness and challenge to all of life.
Yes, things often do not resolve in a major key. Yet God is with you, and in the end, Jesus speaks that beautiful greeting and invitation. "Peace."
God's peace to you this weekend, Pastor Phil
March 16
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival
were some Greeks. They came to Philip… and said to him,
"Sir, we wish to see Jesus."
John 12:20-21
Tomorrow we will hear from the 12th chapter of John.
The request made by the Greeks might well be a life-giving prayer for all who seek to follow Jesus in our lives:
“We wish to see Jesus."
May this be our prayer, today, tomorrow, and always, and may God grant us vision to see Jesus, in those in need, in all acts of love, in God’s great mercy toward you and all the world.
Peace, Pastor Phil
5th Sunday in Lent
March 17
A blessed St. Patrick’s Day to you!
I hope to see you in worship for this for this 5th Sunday in Lent.
The Prayer of the Day
O God,
with steadfast love you draw us to yourself,
and in mercy you receive our prayers.
Strengthen us to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit,
that through life and death
we may live in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen
March 18
Mary took a pound of costly perfume
made of pure nard,
anointed Jesus’ feet,
and wiped them with her hair.
John 12:3
The daily devotional Bread for the Day on Saturday offered a reading from John 12, and a prayer that I thought I would share with you…
(Note: There are still 2 or 3 copies of this year’s devotional available at the Church.)
John 12:3-8
Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Prayer:
God of the grieving,
Jesus knew
that Mary's anointing
was part of his journey
through death to new life.
When we mourn,
may we remember
that death is not our end either,
but in our mourning
we await eternal life with you.
Amen
Bread for the Day - Augsburg Fortress; Minneapolis, 2023. Page 90
Blessings to you, Pastor Phil
March 19
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 13:1
We are in the last week of Lent before Holy Week. Lent is given to us as a time to tend to our piety and deepen our faith. How has your Lent gone? Mine has not been as I mapped it out. Which is fine. Or at least ok. Or something.
I have not always tended to my Lenten commitments in the ways I wished to. But I know that God has accompanied me on this wobbly pilgrimage.
I have been interested in those who suggest that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Faith in God is trust in a relationship with God. It is not some measure of knowledge and agreement with facts about God.
In thought provoking ways, this quote from Madeleine L’Engle touches on how God is often experienced as most present in the midst of life’s uncertain and difficult times. This is not at all what many would expect:
It is when things go wrong,
when the good things do not happen,
when our prayers seem to have been lost,
that God is most present.
We do not need the sheltering wings
when things go smoothly.
We are closest to God in the darkness,
stumbling along blindly.
There is no such thing as belief
without doubt or struggle.
- Madeleine L’Engle
Blessings to you on your Lenten pilgrimage. Pastor Phil
March 20
Tonight we will consider a prayer from our hymnal titled: “The mission of the church” It is on page 75 of the ELW.
I hope you can join us for the Lenten Dinner which begins at 6:00, and worship at 7:00.
The mission of the church
Draw your church together,
O God,
into one great company of disciples,
together
following our teacher Jesus Christ
into every walk of life,
together
serving in Christ’s mission to the world,
and together
witnessing to your love wherever you will send us;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The mission of the Church is one we bear together, as well as one we take with us to every corner of our lives.
Peace, Pastor Phil
March 21
Our theme for Lent Midweek worship has been to consider some of the prayers from our tradition that are in our hymnal, the ELW. I took a number of prayers from the ELW, and asked the Worship and Music Committee to choose five for our Wednesday worship. They quickly settled on four of them, and I decided to ask our Council to choose the fifth.
I gave them a page with a number of prayers printed on them, I think 5 prayers. I asked them to read and consider these prayers, and then email me a “vote” on which prayer they would choose. If I recall correctly, our Council members offered two votes for one prayer, two for another, two for a third, and one vote for a fourth prayer.
That seems rather inconclusive. It also is odd to try to choose between prayers from the hymnal, I know.
I will share the other two prayers today and tomorrow.
Blessings to you today! Pastor Phil
Those seeking deeper knowledge of God
Gracious and holy God,
give us
diligence to seek you,
wisdom to perceive you,
and patience to wait for you.
Grant us, O God,
a mind to meditate on you;
eyes to behold you;
ears to listen for your word;
a heart to love you;
and a life to proclaim you;
through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
our Savior and Lord. Amen.
March 22
This prayer from the hymnal is among the “Additional Prayers” before the liturgies. It is in the section titled: “Spiritual Life,” one of two prayers of commitment.
Peace to you this weekend. Reminder; we will have Noisy Offering on Sunday, and Spring Cleanup tomorrow!
Pastor Phil
Commitment
Into your hands, almighty God, we place ourselves:
our minds to know you,
our hearts to love you,
our wills to serve you,
for we are yours.
Into your hands, incarnate Savior, we place ourselves:
receive us and draw us after you,
that we may follow your steps;
abide in us and enliven us
by the power of your indwelling.
Into your hands, O hovering Spirit,
we place ourselves:
take us and fashion us after your image;
let your comfort strengthen,
your grace renew,
and your fire cleanse us,
soul and body,
in life and in death,
in this world of shadows
and in your changeless world of light eternal,
now and forever. Amen.
March 23
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Zechariah 9:9
Tomorrow is Psalm Sunday, with the choir presenting the cantata “What A Morning”. I hope to see you in worship tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
I pray that you can be a part of worship throughout Holy Week.
A Palm Sunday reading from Zechariah…
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
Humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
And the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
His rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth
Zechariah 9:9-10.
Palm Sunday
March 24
Palm Sunday worship today at 9:00 a.m.
I hope to see you here. The service will be posted online.
We wish you a blessed Holy Week, and look forward with you to celebrating the wonder of Easter!
The Prayer of the Day
Everlasting God,
in your endless love for the human race
you sent our Lord Jesus Christ
to take on our nature and to suffer death on the cross.
In your mercy enable us to share in his obedience to your will
and in the glorious victory of his resurrection,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen
March 25
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.
Jeremiah 31:33
I read this story years ago. It comes from the Jewish tradition, a Hasidic story that reflects on Jeremiah 31; “I will write [the law] on their hearts…” .
I thought this story could accompany us into Holy Week.
"A disciples asks the rebbe, 'Why does the Torah tell us to "place these words upon your hearts"? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?'
The rebbe answers, 'It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay, until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in.’"
Through heartbreak we find compassion and grace. In the cross we see God's heart broken for the sake of humankind. Such an offering might well move us to a similar heartfelt love for God’s world.
A blessed Holy Week to you, Pastor Phil
There are lessons and a Prayer of the Day for each day of Holy Week.
Prayer of the Day
O God, your Son chose the path that led to pain before joy and to the cross before glory. Plant his cross in our hearts, so that in its power and love we may come at last to joy and glory, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Readings for Monday in Holy Week
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 36:5-11
Hebrews 9:11-15
John 12:1-11
March 26
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom,
and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
I Corinthians 1:25
I love that line from First Corinthians, “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” I also love reason and wisdom. I do not think that faith in God is unreasonable. Far from it. Yet, we do not get to the cross and resurrection by reasoning out how God should save the world. We only get there by following Jesus.
May you follow Jesus today and always! Pastor Phil
Prayer of the Day
Lord Jesus, you have called us to follow you.
Grant that our love may not grow cold in your service,
and that we may not fail or deny you in the time of trial,
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
Readings for Tuesday in Holy Week
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 71:1-14
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
John 12:20-36
March 27
He was despised and rejected…
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
Isaiah 53:3 KJV
A daily devotion podcast I (sometimes) listen to, offered an interesting invitation on Monday. It opened with a choir singing ‘Versa est in luctum’: which, the narrator translated: “My harp is tuned for sorrow.”
“Tuning your harp for sorrow” the narrator said, “is a conscious, deliberate preparation for sadness to come. This week, as we begin to recall the suffering and death of Christ, how can you prepare yourself for this sorrow?”
Many thoughts came to mind as I heard this.
One was to consider that it is true, Holy Week is a touching base with sorrow, isn’t it? The sorrow that Jesus entered, in order to redeem us from our sorrows and despair. Another thought was that I really do not need to exert much effort in taking note of sorrow. There is plenty right at hand.
Our Wednesday class has been talking about how we might understand what God has done in the cross of Jesus Christ. This can give insight, yet, in the end, it is the cross and resurrection, the love that God has shown that transforms us. Not any thinking about it.
And so, I’m not sure there is any tuning you need to do. Perhaps the choir sang about something that life has done. ‘My harp is tuned for sorrow’ and now, we will once again hear the story about how Jesus has come to redeem you from your sorrow, and send you to this world in need.
Peace, Pastor Phil
Prayer of the Day
Almighty God, your Son our Savior
suffered at human hands and endured the shame of the cross.
Grant that we may walk in the way of his cross
and find it the way of life and peace,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Readings for Wednesday in Holy Week
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 70
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 13:21-32
Maundy Thursday
March 28
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
John 13:34
Tonight we recall Jesus washing the Disciples’ feet, and the gift of the Last Supper.
In the Small Catechism, Luther asked what benefits we receive in the bread and wine. His answer:
“The benefits of this sacrament are pointed out by the words, given and shed for you for the remission of sins. These words assure us that in the sacrament we receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. For where there is forgiveness of sin, there is also life and salvation.”
I hope to see you at worship tonight at 7:00, where we once again will know the assurance of God’s love for us and all the world.
Pastor Phil
Prayer of the Day
Holy God, source of all love, on the night of his betrayal,
Jesus gave us a new commandment,
to love one another as he loves us.
Write this commandment in our hearts,
and give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all,
your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Readings for Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Good Friday
March 29
“It is finished.”
John 19:30
“It is finished.”
There, on the cross, Jesus has accomplished God’s purpose for him.
That seems to be what he is saying in his final breath.
It is finished, but that is not all. It is also beginning.
God has worked the wonder of entering the darkest corners of our world to redeem the most lost and most broken places of our lives.
This is no end. Rather, it is a completion of God’s redeeming work, and the issuing of God’s call to you to live your life bathed in God’s love, and assured of God’s eternal care for you, and all the world.
“It is finished.”
I hope to see you in worship today.
Blessings, Pastor Phil
Prayer of the Day
Almighty God, look with loving mercy on your family,
for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed,
to be given over to the hands of sinners,
and to suffer death on the cross;
who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Readings for Good Friday
Isaiah 52:13--53:12
Psalm 22
I Corinthians 11:23-26
John 18:1-19:42
Holy Saturday
March 30
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
John 20:1
I wrote this Easter Saturday reflection a few years ago, and it fits today…
Easter Saturday. This is not a day for church services and all. (The Easter Vigil - while being one of our most ancient liturgies, is a pretty new experience for most all of us.) This is a day for errands, spring cleaning, getting ready for Easter lunch, or something like that. . .
Yet, if we take a look, we might well see that this is a day that describes much of our lives.
Here we are, between the cross and the resurrection. Between sorrow and joy. Not sure what to do.
Do you know the word “liminal”? It comes from the word for the threshold of a door. My dictionary says it means “between or belonging to two different places, states, etc. “
Interesting, belonging in each of two places.
There is an Easter hymn written by Martin Luther that begins: “Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands…” We sometimes skip over the reality of Christ’s death, and rush to the empty tomb. This makes sense. Jesus’ death is so stark and sad and cold. It is so much like a great deal of our world.
I wonder if the Saturday between the Cross and the Resurrection might be likened to the experience of grief that many of us face. We look ahead to the promise of resurrection, but the emptiness of loss is all too present.
Christ lay there, in the grip of death. All day that Saturday.
In this liminal time, when we may well have our feet in a number of places at once. In loss, and hope, in grief and joy, in times of plenty and poverty of spirit, we wait.
It is a liminal time, and while much of the world lays in the grip of death, and each of us knows death's sting, we also know, there is more to the story…
Prayer of the Day
O God, you are the creator of the world, the liberator of your people, and the wisdom of the earth. By the resurrection of your Son free us from our fears, restore us in your image, and ignite us with your light, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Easter Sunday
March 31
A Blessed Easter to you!
Alleluia! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Lutheran theologian, Robert Jenson, said that the way you can tell you are dealing with a living God, is that the living God surprises. The gods of our own making are entirely predictable, always in agreement with our own opinions and ideas.
The resurrected Jesus shows forth our surprising God, who will stop at nothing for you to know God’s love and grace.
May you be surprised by God’s gracious love for you, and may the gift of the resurrection call you to live in surprising ways in this world.
The Prayer of the Day
O God, you gave your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection you delivered us from the power of death. Make us die every day to sin, that we may live with him forever in the joy of the resurrection, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
An Easter Blessing
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The God of resurrection power,
the Christ of unending joy,
and the Spirit of Easter hope
☩ bless you now and always.
Amen.
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Easter Sunday Evening
March 31
Once again, a Happy and Blessed Easter to you.
He is risen!
The reading for Easter Evening is the story of The Road to Emmaus, where Jesus meets Cleopas and his companion. When they share a meal, they recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Cleopas and companion return to Jerusalem to tell the disciples that they have seen the risen Lord.
Lutheran theologian, Robert Jenson, says that the way you can tell you are dealing with a living God, is that the living God surprises. The gods of our own making are entirely predictable, always in agreement with our own opinions and ideas.
The resurrected Jesus shows forth our surprising God, who will stop at nothing for you to know God’s love and grace.
May you be surprised by God’s gracious love for you, and may the gift of the resurrection call you to live in surprising ways in this world.
Prayer for Easter Evening
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread, open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.