Podcasts about midweek lenten

On this special episode, we are sharing our Lenten Bible Study, "Love So Amazing."  Taught by Pastors Nolan Donald and Tim Thompson, this study will focus on the last days of Jesus' life as recorded in John 18 and 19.Scriptures Referenced:John 19:16-30Colossians 115-23Art Referenced:Christ Carrying the Cross by Hieronymus BoschChrist of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dali

----- Trinity Lutheran Church, School and Child Care have been "Making Known the Love of Christ" in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and throughout the world since 1853 as a congregation gathering around God's Word and Sacraments to receive forgiveness and life everlasting. Trinity is located in downtown Sheboygan, only one block from the Mead Public Library and the Weill Center for the Performing Arts. We invite you to visit us in person! Trinity Lutheran Sheboygan is a proud member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit their website: https://www.lcms.org/​​​​ Music for this production was obtained through a licensing agreement with One License, LLC. The copyright permission to reprint, podcast, and record hymns and songs is acquired through ID Number: 730195-A #LCMS #Lutheran #DivineService

----- Trinity Lutheran Church, School and Child Care have been "Making Known the Love of Christ" in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and throughout the world since 1853 as a congregation gathering around God's Word and Sacraments to receive forgiveness and life everlasting. Trinity is located in downtown Sheboygan, only one block from the Mead Public Library and the Weill Center for the Performing Arts. We invite you to visit us in person! Trinity Lutheran Sheboygan is a proud member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit their website: https://www.lcms.org/​​​​ Music for this production was obtained through a licensing agreement with One License, LLC. The copyright permission to reprint, podcast, and record hymns and songs is acquired through ID Number: 730195-A #LCMS #Lutheran #DivineService

On this special midweek episode, we are sharing our Lenten Bible Study, "Love So Amazing."  Taught by Pastors Nolan Donald and Tim Thompson, this study will focus on the last days of Jesus' life as recorded in John 18 and 19.Scriptures Referenced:John 19:1-15John 20:31Matthew 27:19John 18:36-371 Peter 2:18-23Matthew 27:241 Samuel 8Acts 7Romans 10Philippians 2

Reflection by Confirmation Student David Burke at the 7:00 Midweek Lenten service at Our Savior's.  Gospel: Luke 7:36-48.

----- Trinity Lutheran Church, School and Child Care have been "Making Known the Love of Christ" in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and throughout the world since 1853 as a congregation gathering around God's Word and Sacraments to receive forgiveness and life everlasting. Trinity is located in downtown Sheboygan, only one block from the Mead Public Library and the Weill Center for the Performing Arts. We invite you to visit us in person! Trinity Lutheran Sheboygan is a proud member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit their website: https://www.lcms.org/​​​​ Music for this production was obtained through a licensing agreement with One License, LLC. The copyright permission to reprint, podcast, and record hymns and songs is acquired through ID Number: 730195-A #LCMS #Lutheran #DivineService

On this special midweek episode, we are sharing our Lenten Bible Study, "Love So Amazing."  Taught by Pastors Nolan Donald and Tim Thompson, this study will focus on the last days of Jesus' life as recorded in John 18 and 19.Scriptures Referenced:John 18:28-40John 3:14John 8:28John 12:32-33John us for this study LIVE on Wednesday throughout Lent beginning at 11:45 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall at First Methodist Church of Opelika.

----- Trinity Lutheran Church, School and Child Care have been "Making Known the Love of Christ" in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and throughout the world since 1853 as a congregation gathering around God's Word and Sacraments to receive forgiveness and life everlasting. Trinity is located in downtown Sheboygan, only one block from the Mead Public Library and the Weill Center for the Performing Arts. We invite you to visit us in person! Trinity Lutheran Sheboygan is a proud member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit their website: https://www.lcms.org/​​​​ Music for this production was obtained through a licensing agreement with One License, LLC. The copyright permission to reprint, podcast, and record hymns and songs is acquired through ID Number: 730195-A #LCMS #Lutheran #DivineService

On this special midweek episode, we are sharing our Lenten Bible Study, "Love So Amazing."  Taught by Pastors Nolan Donald and Tim Thompson, this study will focus on the last days of Jesus' life as recorded in John 18 and 19.Scriptures Referenced:John 18:15-24Join us for this study LIVE on Wednesday throughout Lent beginning at 11:45 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall at First Methodist Church of Opelika.

Mark 4:1-20. The Parable of the Sower 4 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The Purpose of the Parables 10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.'” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.[a] 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” ----- Trinity Lutheran Church, School and Child Care have been "Making Known the Love of Christ" in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and throughout the world since 1853 as a congregation gathering around God's Word and Sacraments to receive forgiveness and life everlasting. Trinity is located in downtown Sheboygan, only one block from the Mead Public Library and the Weill Center for the Performing Arts. We invite you to visit us in person! Trinity Lutheran Sheboygan is a proud member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit their website: https://www.lcms.org/​​​​ Music for this production was obtained through a licensing agreement with One License, LLC. The copyright permission to reprint, podcast, and record hymns and songs is acquired through ID Number: 730195-A #LCMS #Lutheran #DivineService

Midweek Lenten Worship - February 21, 2024 - Pastor Marcus Schulz

On this special midweek episode, we are sharing our Lenten Bible Study, "Love So Amazing."  Taught by Pastors Nolan Donald and Tim Thompson, this study will focus on the last days of Jesus' life as recorded in John 18 and 19.  Scriptures Referenced:John 18:1-11John 12:27-28Exodus 3:13-14Join us for the study LIVE on Wednesdays throughout Lent beginning at 11:45 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall at First Methodist Church of Opelika.

March 1, 2023 - Pastor Mark Tiefel

Jesus Faces Pontius Pilate - John 18:28-40

The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem - John 12:12-26

Matthew 14:25-33And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!' And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.'Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.' He said, ‘Come.' So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind,* he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!' Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?' When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.' I changed a light bulb in my bedroom closet last week and it didn't go as planned. I replaced a dead bulb with a faulty, energy efficient bulb, and when I flipped the switch the thing flashed like a seizure-inducing strobe light at a rave.It took me a few days to get around to changing it again, but that faulty light bulb reminded me of something.I can't remember the teacher, but I know I was in First or Second grade. And I remember where I was sitting and in which Sunday School classroom at Providence Lutheran Church, in Holland, Ohio, at the time. And I remember that my Sunday School teacher taught us about faith by using the example of lights and electricity. She asked us to think about how often we go into a dark room and flip the switch on the wall and expect the light to come on and fill the room. “That's faith,” she said.And that's not bad, really. Using her example, trust and expectation do, perhaps, equal faith – especially to a classroom full of elementary school kids. But my Sunday School teacher hadn't been to or considered my bedroom closet on Redbird Trail and how easily my faith would be challenged – and lost – if it was as easy as flipping a switch.This is a tough one – lamenting the loss of faith, I mean. I saved this lament for last in our series because it seemed like a good way to wrap up all that we've been lamenting over these last several weeks – war, greed, illness and grief. I saved this one for last because, it seems to me, all the rest of our laments – and there are so many more than just the war, greed, illness and grief, we've spent time with – all the reasons we have to lament are often also reasons we have for losing our faith, or at least struggling mightily with it, when the bad stuff hits the fan. Or, maybe when the light switch is flipped, but things don't go as planned.And loss of faith is quite a thing these days. It's almost a movement, really, the way so many people are being drawn away or pushed and pulled away from engagement with faith – or with faith communities and congregations, at least – as most of us have come to understand them. There's a whole category of people who identify themselves as “ex-vangelicals” often because of the experiences they've had in what they generically refer to as “white evangelical Christian” churches.Some of these experiences are horrifying examples of physical, sexual, emotional abuse, of course. All of that destroys the faith of God's people who suffer from it.Some of these experiences stem from theology that's simply incompatible with how people view and experience the world anymore – women still not allowed to preach, preside, teach, or lead; too much mischaracterization of sexuality as sinful; too much fear-mongering and proselytizing that pretends to be faithful evangelism and outreach. That stuff challenges the faith of the thoughtful and curious.Some of the experiences that threaten our faith may be the result of simply being unable to ask hard questions about any of this – hard questions of the Church, hard questions of its leaders, and hard questions of the God we preach, teach about and worship. Lamenting, like we've been doing these last several weeks isn't always encouraged or practiced or welcome in some circles.And some of the experiences that drive people away from their faith are nothing new under the sun – the same things that have always shaken the faith of God's people – war, pandemics, disease, loss of a loved one, unanswered prayers, the evil and ugliness of the world around us...And some of all of this is that there just aren't answers – easy or otherwise – to explain many of the experiences or to answer some of the questions that burden us as people on the planet.But the reason I lament our “loss of faith” when it comes, isn't because it shouldn't happen. It's more, for me, about the shame and guilt and pressure we inflict upon ourselves and each other when it does. The truth simply is that faith can be hard to find, hard to keep, hard to hold onto at times – and it's always been that way.The point of Adam and Eve's story, way back in Genesis, is that they lost their faith in God's promise to provide for and sustain them and so they took things into their own hands.The Israelites did the same. They lost faith in God's willingness or ability to care for them as they saw fit, and according to their timeline, so they created and lived by their own devices and their own vices, instead.The disciples and other followers of Jesus did it, too. They misused and misunderstood so much of what Jesus was trying to offer them. When he encouraged them to follow they refused. When their friends died they blamed him. When he died they despaired. When he was raised, even, they refused to believe it.And people! Jesus, in utter solidarity with all of that lost faith – and with yours and mine, too – lost faith, himself, at least once. In that moment on the cross, after all of his suffering, in the midst of his greatest despair, I believe his faith was lost … gone … decimated … destroyed when he cried out “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!”So, I want our invitation to lament our loss of faith or our struggle with faith or our hard, holy questions about faith to be – in and of themselves – strangely enough, expressions of the faith we can be so uncertain about, so unconvinced by, so unmoved by some of the time.This may sound harsh – and hard to hear or believe, coming from your Pastor – and I may very well be wrong … but I kind of think that if you haven't found faith hard to come by at certain times in your life – if you haven't lost or left or felt lost or left by your faith or by our God at some point – then maybe you're just better than the rest of us – but it may also be that you're not doing it right.Because the truth is – no matter how great your expectation, no matter how deep your trust – if it hasn't happened to you yet, I'm here to promise you it will. The light switch won't work. Sometimes the bulb of your faith is faulty or burned out altogether. Sometimes the power is just out. Sometimes darkness is all there is and feels like all there ever will be.And sometimes darkness is exactly how, where, and when God shows up for us. In the emptiness. In the void. In the doubt and fear and uncertainty we're running from or feel so self-righteously indignant about in those moments when we've given up, chucked it all, thrown in the towel.And that's worth lamenting because it's sad and scary. Not because it's sinful, mind you. But sad and scary, for sure.But tonight we're called to acknowledge it. To give it a voice. To lament it. And to be as patient as we are able letting hope hold us when our faith can't, until faith – however great or small – finds us by the light of God's grace.Amen

Pray the Lord to Send Laborers - Matthew 9:35-39

March 30, 2022

John 11:17-37When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Daniel and the Lions' Den - Daniel 6:1-23

Mark 5:25 – 34Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?'” He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Most of us know what I mean when I refer to “the world's oldest profession.” I'm not sure what the sociology is behind that understanding, but I've often suspected that “healer” or “medicine man” or “sage” or “doctor” were a close second on the list of ancient occupations.The desire for healing from sickness; and for comfort from pain; and for survival from dying is such a natural, instinctive, basic desire for living creatures that humanity, no doubt, has turned to ‘healers' from the beginning of time for answers and rescue. And, as you know, we still regularly turn to medicine – whether it be a doctor, a nurse, a counselor, a pharmacist, or a drug – for healing, for comfort and even for our very survival.(Raise your hand if you do or have worked in a hospital, in a doctor's office, a pharmacy, lab, at Eli Lilly, or anywhere connected to the health care industry in some way? How many here have been to see a doctor of some kind, for any reason, recently?)So, without a whole lot of work, we can see – or at least imagine – where the woman in this Gospel is coming from. If you need some help with that, consider the list of our prayer concerns we included in tonight's bulletin. You won't find “hemorrhaging for 12 years” anywhere on it, but you will find pretty much everything else, it seems – cancer, broken bones, lymphoma, Parkinson's disease, stroke, transplants, death, and more …Like the woman in tonight's Gospel, we've either been there ourselves or we've loved someone who is or has been … sick for years, I mean; sick and tired of wrong answers; sick and fed up with expensive treatments that may or may not work; sick and out of money, out of energy, out of patience, and out of time, even.You name it and we need to be healed of it. You name it and it's in our life or in our family or in our house or in our bodies. You name it and we want it gone – or fixed – or healed.And the temptation is to read tonight's Gospel and pray for a miracle – and we have likely done that. The temptation is to search for a quick fix or a magic pill – and maybe we have tried that, too. The temptation is to reach out and try to touch someone or find some thing that will make the sickness and disease just go away.And that's why faith healers are a thing. I don't see them on TV as much as I used to – they were really a thing back in the 80's and 90's – these men and women who feed that temptation. And they're still around. On my way to Vegas a few weeks ago, I saw a church sign advertising a “Miraculous Night of Healing,” sometime in March – like there was a time and a place and a party planned for when your healing would come. (That church wasn't in Vegas, by the way. It was off of I-74, in Indiana, between here and Cincinnati.)Anyway, while Jesus played doctor and miracle-worker in some really wonderful ways, as far as the Gospels tell it, he never claimed to be an easy answer or a quick fix or a magic pill for anyone and everyone. Jesus was smart and sensitive enough to know that for every hemorrhage that stopped, for every demon that was quieted, for every crippled person who walked, and for every blind man that regained his vision there were plenty of others left bleeding, screaming, stumbling, and lost in the dark.And it's no different today. For every tumor that shrinks, for every surgery that's successful, for every addiction that's under control, there are millions of others left suffering and hurting and, literally, dying to be healed.So, the answer for Jesus wasn't easy because it wasn't always, only about abracadabra or hocus pocus or magic of any kind – otherwise, I think he would have healed everyone, all of the time, and made a big show of it like some sort of televangelist. No, the answer for Jesus – and the answer for the bleeding woman tonight – was about faith, really, in a way that this story hit me differently during this season of “Lenten Laments,” than it has in the past.See, I've been wondering if what healed the woman in this Gospel story – as much as whatever happened with her body when she touched Jesus' cloak – was that her utter desperation, her total vulnerability, her powerful lament that she was at the end of her rope, out of options, entirely at the mercy of whatever grace she could receive from God, in Jesus … that that depth of humble faith … is what healed, not just her broken, bleeding body – but healed her soul and her spirit, too.And there's hope in that for me, because isn't that what we need as much as anything when we're falling down, sick and suffering, fear-and-trembling kind of scared?When the pain and suffering and terror are so great… When we're sick or scared and lonelier than we've ever been… When we're in need of real healing – or when we care for someone who is – we'll do anything to get it – just like the woman who touched Jesus' cloak. She fought the crowd. She broke the rules. She forgot about her pride and her safety. She didn't care about what all those people might have said about her. It was at her moment of greatest despair and lament when she found Jesus. And that's when she found her healing, too.And maybe that's where we'll find it – some measure of healing – not just in our bodies, but in our minds, our souls, and our spirits, too. Maybe the cancer won't disappear, or go away forever. Maybe the surgery won't fix everything. Maybe the addiction will be a constant, ever-present struggle. Maybe the cure won't come in time, or as soon as we would like. And maybe our desperate lament can only be that that sucks; that the pain of it is unbearable; and that none of it seems fair. And God knows that's true.So let's lament the illness and disease that plague us in so many ways in this life. And let's let God receive the full measure of our anger, frustration, fear, trembling, and desperation for that – because God can handle the full measure of our anger, frustration, fear, trembling and desperation. And let's make this lament because it really is an act of faith, after all – like it was for the hemorrhaging woman – that we aren't in control of this; that we are humbled in the face of whatever afflicts us; but that we are more than our bodies and that God is more than all of it. Because as unfair as all of our illness and disease can seem, it's also not fair that we are loved so deeply and that we have the chance to experience and share that love with others. It's also not fair that we are forgiven so graciously in ways we don't deserve to be. It's also not fair that we have been given the gift of faith in and hope for something greater than what our physical bodies can always endure on this side of heaven.So let's pray mightily about whatever healing we long for and need, here and now. And let's expect God to do something good – miraculous, even – with those prayers and our deepest desires.But let's let our lament be honest and mighty, too. And let's allow it to inspire or lead to faith that we will be well and healed … that we will be whole and redeemed … by God's grace, on the other side of it all, come what may.Amen

Listen to the Passion of our Lord when He is at the Palace of High Priest. Midweek Lenten service at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lexington, MO.

Abraham Prays for Sodom—Genesis 18:23-32

Matthew 19:16-26Then someone came to him and said, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; also, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "I have kept all these; what do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, "Then who can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible." In last week's edition of “Christian Century” Peter Marty, the magazine's editor and fellow Lutheran, told about a thing that happened in the late 19th Century, in New York City, that I was stunned to learn about. (Marty, himself, learned about it from a book by Stephen Nissenbaum, called The Battle for Christmas, which tells about the history of Christmas as a holiday of excess in our country and culture.)Apparently, back in the late 1800's, well-to-do New Yorkers paid admission to watch the city's poor people eat.They staged enormous public dinners at the old Madison Square Garden during the Christmas season, with more than 20,000 people in attendance. They called these events “galas” – (in my mind I see something like a modern-day Met Gala) – that featured galleries and box seating filled with wealthy people, dressed in their finest, ready, willing and eager to watch hungry children eat, like it were some kind of sporting event.According to an 1899 New York Times article, titled “The Rich Saw Them Feast” children from, quote, “illimitable abodes of poverty and wretchedness,” stood in line to enter the arena for a meal while the wealthy, paying spectators found their seats. Those wealthy, paying spectators were described as “men in high hats, women in costly wraps . . . many who had come in carriages and were gorgeously gowned and wore many diamonds.” And it gets worse.“As if to keep the rich from mingling too closely with the poor,” Marty explains, “gifts for the children were dangled from ropes and lowered by pulley systems attached to the roof.”And, lest we think we've evolved beyond that sort of primitive, exploitative, obtuse expression of greed, privilege, classism, and humiliation, Peter Marty recalls that hockey game half-time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota – just last December – where a handful of public school teachers got on their hands and knees at center ice to scramble for and grab as many $1 bills as possible from a $5,000 pile of cash. (They've been doing this stunt since at least 2018, from what I could tell, so I'm not sure why it just made a stink last year.)Anyway, whether we're talking about the meals at Madison Square Garden in the 19th Century or the “Dash for Cash” sort of nonsense just last year, it all shines a bright light on our confused priorities, our misguided views about charity, and the power of greed's sin in our lives, which is something worth lamenting in these Lenten days, it seems to me.Greed is the sin that blinds us to what's most valuable in our lives and in this world. And it's more than that, too.Greed makes us imagine all the things and stuff and money that we COULD have, or SHOULD have, or DESERVE to have. Greed is that sinfulness in each of us that compares ourselves with the neighbors or with our friends or with our family members even. Greed is that broken, shallow sinfulness that keeps track of what we don't have; it's that sin that turns wants into needs; it's that incompleteness within us that convinces us that having more will make more of us – either because life will be easier then, or because we'll have succeeded then, or because we'll finally have as much as _____________ (you fill in the blank).And I'm not just pointing the finger, believe me. I had to look in the mirror more than once as I prepared for this evening. And one thing I see there, more often than I'd like to admit, is the way I keep track of things; how I compare with others; how I rationalize what I deserve or what I could get or what I should be able to have. (more square footage, more retirement savings, more money for college, more whatever …)But what I try to do – even though it's harder to swallow – is imagine what others might be giving up in order for me to have all of that “more.” Which hits me hard whenever I consider things like those meals at Madison Square Garden, those teachers on their hands and knees at the hockey game, my friends in Haiti, the refugees fleeing Ukraine, or those suffering so mightily in other places, like Yemen, these days.Because, if we're honest with ourselves – whether it's groceries or gasoline, square footage or our life savings, even – if we have more of whatever it is, it means there are people out there in the world who may not have as much, or even enough of what they need. Some of you have heard my spiel about Mary Poppins and stewardship before, so I'll keep it short and spare you the “Spoonful of Sugar” song and dance. But there's this point in the movie where Mary Poppins sings that song and shows the kids how fun it can be to clean the nursery, to the point that they want to keep cleaning the nursery, even when the job has been done. Mary Poppins tells them, simply, "Come now. Enough is as good as a feast." Which is the lesson and the challenge for me, where the lament of my greed is concerned. "Enough is as good as a feast." “Enough is as good as a feast.”In other words, you can only get a room so clean all at one time. Just like you can only wear so many shoes at once. Or eat so much food. Or live in so many rooms. Or drive so many cars. Or whatever. And while I'm pretty sure Jesus wasn't thinking a thing about Mary Poppins at the time, I do believe this is what he was getting at in tonight's Gospel. This rich man wants to know what it takes to enter into the Kingdom of God, and Jesus doesn't pull any punches. "If you really want to know, sell your possessions, give the money to the poor and follow me." And he goes on, "It is harder for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle."It's not as sweet as Mary Poppins, so before we start rationalizing about how rich we aren't compared to those sitting around us … or about how much less we have than those who live next door … or about how much more we give away than some friends and family we know … let's notice that (even more clearly in Luke's Gospel) Jesus says to sell all of your possessions – ALL of them – not 10%, not half, not what we might comfortably be able to do without – but ALL. (This is where every Christian I know forgets about their need to take the Bible so literally.)Now, I happen to believe that grace changes hearts and lives more meaningfully than judgment and shame ever could, which is why I want us to see that Jesus gives us his own holy shot of sugar to help this medicine go down. Jesus says that, for us mortals it is, indeed, impossible. But for God, all things are possible. The power of God's resurrection in Jesus is our spoonful of sugar. The joy of God's forgiveness in spite of ourselves is our encouragement for tomorrow. The promise of God's unconditional love is all we need to make sharing our selves and our stuff – and wanting and needing less of it – part of our way of life in this world.So, in these days, as we recall the sacrifice of God in Jesus Christ for the sake of creation – and as we lament our greed for such small things in the face of that cosmic kind of sacrifice, generosity, and abundant love – let's recognize when enough is enough for us.Let's lament and be liberated from our greed.Let's lament for and with those who have less and let's make due with less, ourselves, so that they might have enough, for a change. Let's lament and learn to give freely, with gratitude and joy, because Jesus promises, when we do, that we'll know more about the Kingdom of God – on this side of heaven, right where we live. Amen

Luke 19:41-44As [Jesus] came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” This lament from Jesus, the first in our series for these midweek Wednesdays, feels like he could be sitting on a hill or a bridge or by the roadside somewhere in Kyev or Lviv, Ukraine, this morning.“…your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you … hem you in on every side … they will crush you to the ground, you and your children with you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another…”“If you had recognized this day the things that make for peace!”But, “…you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”Jesus' lament is particular, of course, to the people of Israel in the First Century. He wasn't in Ukraine. He was somewhere between the Mt. of Olives and Jerusalem. And the prediction which inspired his lament came to pass: Jerusalem was surrounded and besieged, the temple was toppled, lives were lost, families were destroyed, and more – all as part of the war between the occupying Romans who took what wasn't theirs; occupied the land of another; laid waste to a people and a place as a show of power and in the name of empire-building.It sounds familiar, right?It's familiar because it's not unique to Rome and Russia, of course. If you spin a globe like a roulette table in Vegas and drop your finger blindly at any point thereon, you're likely able, with a little research and some honest history, to find a time when that land once belonged to… was inhabited by… was called “home” to someone other than whoever is living there at the moment. And there was likely violence, bloodshed and war connected with that transfer of ownership.This would be a good time to remind ourselves and each other about the indigenous, native peoples who lived on the land we call home at Cross of Grace, here in New Palestine, these days. As an expression of gratitude, repentance and lament, let's acknowledge and give thanks for the Lenape tribe of Indians. Indiana means “the land of the Indians,” of course, and the Lenape lived in east central Indiana, in this neck of the woods, alongside the likes of the Shawnee, the Miami, and the Potawatomi, too. This was holy ground to those children of God, long before people who looked like me forced them to give up their homeland and migrate, like so many refugees, to places like Kansas, Oklahoma, and beyond.Which is to say war is so much a part of the human condition, it touches every one of us in some way or another. Whether we read about the horrifying accounts of it in Scripture, do a deep dive into our nation's history and origins, or research the leaves on our family tree, our connection to humanity's “warring madness” – for better and for worse – impacts each of us personally, spiritually, cross-culturally, and more.And that grieves the heart of God, as Jesus himself showed in his lament over Jerusalem way back when.And I don't have an answer to any of this tonight, of course. I'm a “beat your swords into plowshares” and “turn your spears into pruning hooks” kind of guy. I'd melt every gun down into a gardening tool, for that matter, if they'd let me, because I think that's what Jesus would do. I'm a “turn the other cheek,” “love your enemy,” “blessed are the peacemakers” sort of soul, too, because … well … Jesus.But none of that makes for a winning political platform for our kind of Christian nation these days and it is – sadly and shamefully – seemingly impractical in light of current events.So what's a believer to do?As wars and rumors of wars rage... As nation rises up against nation… As widows and children become refugees and aliens… As brother rises up against brother… As neighbors destroy neighbors… As homes and hospitals are obliterated… As life after life is lost… As ego and pride and fear and greed rule the day where humility and faith and generosity should lead…All I know to do sometimes is lament… to cry out… to grieve… like Jesus did – like the heart of God still does, I believe – for the state of things and for our inability to repair what is broken or restore what is lost...…because we fail to recognize, this day … still … the things that make for peace.Since yesterday was International Women's Day – and since March has been deemed Women's History Month – it seems appropriate to share what some of us learned in our study of Rachel Held Evans' book, Inspired, recently. Rachel Held Evans struggled with the prevalence of war and violence in the Bible; with all of the bloodshed and genocide to be found there and very often claimed in the name of and at the pleasure of the God we worship. It challenged her faith mightily – as, maybe it should all of ours. But Rachel Held Evans learned not to just dismiss or condone, rationalize or ignore the ugliness of all the war in our faith's story. She let it get her attention and make her uncomfortable enough to wonder more deeply about it.Rachel Held Evans learned to pay attention to the people in the stories who didn't behave “according to the script,” as she put it. And she specifically tells of the young women of Israel who publicly grieved the unjust sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter in the book of Judges. (Some of you will remember that the girl was sacrificed because her daddy won a war against the Ammonites.) Anyway, the young women of Israel made a public practice and display of lament for the murdered girl, which became an Israelite tradition for women to go out for four days every year thereafter to commemorate the death of Jephthah's daughter.Rachel Held Evans says, “While the men moved on to fight another battle, the women stopped to acknowledge that something terrible had happened … and with what little social and political power they had, they protested – every year for four days. They refused to let the nation forget what it had done in God's name.” (Inspired, p. 74) So, I decided that women of Israel are like that Ukrainian woman who so defiantly, bravely passed out sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers. The sunflower has long been a symbol of peace and unity for Ukraine and the woman told the soldiers to put the seeds in their pockets so that when they die in Ukraine, at least a sunflower will grow from their dead, buried bodies.Or maybe the women of Israel are like that other Ukrainian grandmother who took down a Russian spy drone with a jar of pickled tomatoes.I don't know. I just know it feels like there's not much we can do sometimes, but plant seeds, throw tomatoes, and lament. But lament isn't nothing … it's a deliberate, faithful grief over what has been lost; a sadness for what we haven't been able to change; a frustration over what is yet to come; and an expression of solidarity with the suffering, even in spite of our own apathy and complicity in it, just the same.And I hope some measure of our “Lament for War” – past, present and future – will help us, not just recognize, but celebrate and engage the things that make for peace, instead … until we learn to work for and walk alongside and do the bidding of Jesus, the Prince of Peace; so that we will not learn war any longer; so that we will, indeed, lay down our weapons or turn them into gardening tools; so that we will love our neighbors – and our enemies – as ourselves.Amen We watched the video below as we lit candles as an act of prayer and lament for the war in Ukraine. The audio is from a performance by the Kyev Symphony Chorus, conducted by Matthew McMurrin, in 2012, at Northland Church in Longwood, Florida.

Pastor Peter C. Bender

Title: “Midweek Lenten Devotion 5, 2021 – Mary, I Knew My Son As Savior And Lord (Audio)” Speaker: Rev. James Redmann Running Time: 18:21 We invite you to worship with us.  See our contact page for directions. Listen Scripture Lesson John 19:17-30 Donate If you would like to help spread the good news of Jesus Christ, please click here. There […]

Word & Sermon Midweek – Lenten Midweek 6 – 03/24/2021 Hebrews 4:11-16 Lk 23:47-49 Learn more about Zion Lutheran Church and the Christian faith, by subscribing to this podcast, and joining us next Sunday by visiting www.zionhiawatha.org

Title: “Midweek Lenten Devotion 4, 2021 – Annas, I Can’t Believe Jesus Is Lord” Speaker: Rev. James Redmann Running Time: 14:33 We invite you to worship with us.  See our contact page for directions. Listen Scripture Lesson John 18:12-14 Donate If you would like to help spread the good news of Jesus Christ, please click here. There are now options […]

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

sermons/Sunday/audio/210324_001.m4a

God's steadfast love endures forever. No matter what else happens, what else goes on, even a pandemic, God's love endures and we are right to place our trust in God. Thank you to Seminarian John Baynton for this message during our Lenten midweek service. Music provided by and licensed via www.pond5.com

Word & Sermon Midweek – Lenten Midweek 5 – 03/17/2021 1 Timothy1:12-17 Lk 23:39-43 Learn more about Zion Lutheran Church and the Christian faith, by subscribing to this podcast, and joining us next Sunday by visiting www.zionhiawatha.org