This is one of those days that I think everybody really likes. It’s Palm Sunday.

This is the celebration. This is a high point of the church year. Jesus is coming in. He is in charge of this scene. He tells them exactly what to do. He’s not the large and in charge Jesus that we hear in John’s gospel, but he still is orchestrating the events.

He knows, tells them exactly what to do. It appears from the scholar’s point of view, looking back at this, that he’s completing the prophesy from Zechariah 9:9-10.

Jesus is coming in riding a donkey from the east side of Jerusalem from Bethany and Bethesh. At the same time, Pilate and a whole. legion of Roman soldiers are coming into Jerusalem from the west. Because they also know it’s Passover. And there is a history that during Passover there have been riots. So Pilate is bringing extra soldiers in to keep the Roman peace. They don’t want any trouble. They don’t want any uprisings.

So here, you’ve got this humble man coming from the east and you’ve got Pilate and the war horses coming from the west.

If you’ve read Zechariah 9, you’ll understand how that is all part of that scripture. We are called to sit up and take notice. We are called to pay attention to what’s happening in this scene.

Look at the difference, and notice it. Look at where the love and the compassion is.

So, Jesus comes in during the day, and at night, he goes back to Bethany. He goes back to the house of Simon the leper. This story of his anointing, Takes place in all four Gospels. It is worth noting when they happen and how they happen. And who. Because, in some situations it becomes a character. The woman is named as Mary. Most times the woman is not named.

So what I find interesting when I have a passage like this that occurs in four different gospels, number one, sit up and take notice. It must be an important story or it wouldn’t be in all four gospels.

Then I look at what’s different about Mark. What’s different in this story? Matthew and Mark’s versions are the closest. Now, remember, and I actually put them in that order, because Luke’s is so different, and even John’s is different. But Mark’s would have come first. Mark’s gospel was written first. Matthew definitely used Mark when he was writing his gospel. So those are the closest.

Both of those accounts, the woman, it’s an unnamed woman, and she anoints his head. Now, you have to stop and think about what does that mean? What does it mean to be anointed on the head? Well, anointing is an ancient Jewish practice. It was done to the kings. This is also important. It was done to David and to Solomon. They were anointed as the kings of Israel.

So, it’s meant to make us think, is Jesus a king?

It is also done when something is marked for holy purpose or that the holy is there. Think about Jacob anointing a pillar of stones because he encountered God.

So, there’s something holy and divine about Jesus. This is recognizing that also. She breaks open this jar, Mark is the only one in which she breaks the jar.

It is Nard, and Mark has Jesus tell us it’s because she’s anointing me for burial, which also is foreshadowing that he knows he’s going to die, according to Mark. He knows he’s going to die, and I even think you could go as far as to say she’s anointing him because she knows they’re not going to be able to anoint his body after his death.

But I kept sitting with this, but why did she break the bottle?

It only happens in Mark. I went looking for other scholars to say something about that, and I didn’t find them. Not that they’re not out there, but I didn’t find them. So I had to sit with it myself. Why was it important?

Because that’s the thing about Mark. Mark uses the least number of words he has to. It’s the shortest gospel. Things are explained briefly. So for him to use that word, and it’s the same word that they use in the story about the Gerasean, sometimes they call him the demoniac in different versions. The crazy man who’s out and he breaks his chains. There is this breaking. It’s definitely breaking. She specifically breaks the bottle.

But what I came up with were two things. If you break the bottle, that means you’re using all of it. You’re going to use the whole bottle at once. Which means Jesus is going to be overwhelmed by that oil and that smell. Both for himself, he’s going to smell that for the next few days. Because remember, they didn’t take showers every day like we do. So that smell is going to be with him, reminding him, reminding others as they encounter him. I think it is also part of this foreshadowing that not only was the bottle broken, but he will be broken. His body and his heart will be broken by the events of this week.

We need to sit up and take notice. We need to notice this.

We need to notice where we are in the story. We know this isn’t the end of the story, that we’re coming back next week for an ending that we could not see at this point. But this is the point in the service where we shift from palm to passion. I do hope that some of you come on Thursday and come on Friday to experience the rest of the story before we get to Easter. That I’m giving you a little bit of this passion because we do need to sit up and take notice.

In that scripture, the one that I read, Mark lines out three groups of people. The first group identified are the scribes and the Pharisees who want to get rid of Jesus and Judas Iscariot joins them. There’s the group of people that includes the woman with the ointment who loved Jesus and whose love is extravagant. Right? This was a very expensive ointment. This is an extravagant love of someone. Then there’s a third group that just doesn’t understand. Which is probably where the rest of the disciples are. That’s a running theme in Mark’s gospel. That the disciples don’t get it. And maybe that’s where we are too.

But without saying it, Mark is asking us to think about which group are we in? Do we want to get rid of Jesus too? Will we be the ones part of the crowd yelling for Barabbas on Friday night? Are we part of the group that loves Jesus enough that we will be able to stand and watch and allow our hearts to be broken? Or are we just part of the group that doesn’t understand?

Now, I’m going to say it’s time folks to sit up and take notice what is happening in our community.

This has been a hard week and there are other churches that are celebrating that God’s will was done yesterday. But this week was not about love and was not about compassion. I heard more hate, violent speech, and threats this week than I have in a very long time.

We are called to be about love. I have to find within myself a way to be merciful, because we are to be about compassion, not violence.

Sit up and take notice.

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Join us in celebrating a remarkable milestone as the Apostles Community Preschool marks 60 years of Education and Excellence in 2025, aligning with the 50th anniversary of Church of the Apostles UCC!

From humble beginnings with eleven children and two teachers, our preschool has flourished into a vibrant educational hub serving 170 children with a dedicated team of 18 staff members.

Proudly nestled within Church of the Apostles UCC, this cherished ministry reflects our commitment to nurturing young minds and fostering growth. Explore more about our ministries at Church of the Apostles by clicking here.

Keep an eye out for upcoming details on special events, gatherings, and exciting celebrations to commemorate this significant milestone with the Preschool!

Today is a very unique day because it’s St. Patrick’s Day and Sunday.

As I was putting this sermon together, I also heard a short lecture by a very famous Celtic theologian named John Philip Newell. He was talking specifically about the Celtic cross. They are different than our cross. Celtic spirituality is a bit different than Western spirituality.

The Celtic spirituality dates back to the very beginning days of Christianity. The cross that I’m showing on the right side is from the Isle of Iona. Iona is one of the birthplaces of Christianity in the UK and parts of Europe. So, that cross has been standing there since at least a 1000 A.D, if not before.

Here’s the difference between our cross and the Celtic cross.

The most obvious difference that you will be able to see is the cross, which represents what what Christ died on. We’re not actually sure if that crossbar’s there. It may have been a single stake that Jesus was hung on, but we have the cross. Then, on the Celtic cross there is the circle or the orb that goes right around that intersection. The circle or the orb, stands for God being known in the universe.

The cross itself is God being known through Christ. They look at the cross in three ways. They believe that when you look at the cross, you see the love of God, and it connects with the divine within us.

The one side of a Celtic cross has images from creation. It’s full of orbs and it looks like snakes that intermingle and it’s because it’s showing you the universe. They believe that God is found and known through the universe, the natural world.

But on the other side, which is better seen on the one on the left, there are Biblical stories. So God is known through nature, the natural world. God is known through what they call the small book. We don’t usually think of the Bible as a small book, but when you compare it to the universe, it is a small book.

Then they look at how we are affected when we encounter the cross. In Western Christianity, it was in the words to “Lord, I Lift your Name on High.” We sang about the debt you paid, “You came to heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay”.

Celtic spirituality doesn’t believe that Jesus went to the cross for us to take away our sin. He went to the cross because he challenged the rulers of the time. He challenged the religious leaders. The high priests wanted to get rid of him because he was saying things and doing things that they could not do. He raised somebody from the dead. Caiaphas and the high priests never raised anybody from the dead. He was doing things that were challenging their authority, and he was challenging the Roman authority because he was suggesting that the people should live in a different way. Jesus was very much about getting rid of the oppression on the people.

Our cross and this idea of it is substitutionary atonement. That means that Christ died in our place.

There’s a hymn that we sing about seeing my sins hanging on the cross or nailed to the cross. It’s in “It Is Well With My Soul”. I don’t agree with it, it’s not my theology. So I don’t sing it anymore, because I don’t believe that my sins hung on that cross.

I do believe I’m forgiven through Jesus. I believe that Jesus went to the cross because Jesus loved humanity more than life itself. Do you see that distinction? This theology works so much better for me. It feels right in my body.

Maybe that’s because I do connect to God in nature a lot.

My experience in Iona was very eye opening because I do have an Irish-Scotch background. When I was in Iona, I was at home. I felt connected to the earth and everything. Then we did some research and the Irish surname that I have, it’s Nordic.

That means I was part of the Vikings. I’ve got Viking heritage. So, although I may have had linkage somehow to those first Celtic spirituality people on Iona, in the 800s, the Vikings conquered Iona and burned everything to the ground. Now it was rebuilt, and Roman Christianity came in. But the point that our cross and substitutionary atonement both tell you that you are wrong, that you are unworthy of God’s love, which aligns with the empire.

That’s what the empire wants you to think. The Empire wants you to think that you are not good enough. In the 4th century when the Empire and Christianity went together, then Christianity claimed all the same things that the Empire did. They wanted to control people. They knew that they could control people with shame and guilt, and have done it for a long time.

In Celtic spirituality, when they look at the cross, they don’t see guilt and shame. They don’t feel that their sins were forgiven on that cross. What they feel is love. For them, the cross is revelatory. It is almost like an icon, and it helps them experience God. Because those who love God, will do God’s will, which is to love others. Which is to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Which is how it ties into the scripture. That was part of the scripture for today.

I had the privilege of going to see this movie yesterday, and I’m going to recommend it to you.

It’s called One Life.

It does star Anthony Hopkins as Sir Nicholas Winton. I’d never heard of him before, but he’s a very famous Brit, who in 1938, he was a broker, and he had connections who went to Prague.

I think they were doing banking in Prague, and they got involved with the Jewish refugees in Prague. He decided that even though he was an ordinary man, he could make a difference. He could lay down his life. This is my words. This isn’t in the movie. He would tell you he’s an ordinary man and he could save at least one life.

But what he and his three other companions did was they got 669 children out of Prague and to England. That meant getting them the 50 pounds it cost to get a visa. He had to find foster families in England who were willing to take all these children, and he had to have all the information on the children.

It is a powerful movie. It is a wonderful story. It is based on the true story. He was knighted by the queen. So he is Sir Anthony and he has passed. He lived to be 106. But he always had guilt that he could have gotten more children out.

When we think about our lives, if we think that we just have one ordinary life.

Think of how you as one ordinary person can make a difference in the world.

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Get ready to roll up your sleeves and embrace our mission of environmental care and advocacy as we dive into the work of caring for God’s earth.

Join Church of the Apostles UCC on April 7th, 2024 at 10:30 AM for our Rader Park & Brubaker Run Clean-Up. Starting by the garden shed in the park, let’s unite from 10:30 AM to Noon to beautify our community space.

Before the clean-up, members and guests are invited to attend worship starting at 10 AM, where our congregation will bless all our volunteers. Afterward, Rev. Kuhn will lead those willing to help down to the park.

As environmental advocates, Church of the Apostles UCC is committed to preserving and nurturing our natural surroundings, starting with maintaining the beauty of our own park.

Let’s make a difference together!

Learn More About Rader Park and Our Vision & Mission of Environmental Care & Advocacy.

Sunday April 28th, 2024 at 3PM

Join us at Church of the Apostles UCC on April 28th at 3 PM for a mesmerizing performance by Silver, Wood, and Ivory! Tracy Dietrich and Cindy Wittenberg will enchant you with their musical talents, featuring 19 flutes and recorders, piano, and Celtic harp. Admission is free, and a will offering will be taken in lieu of tickets. Don’t miss this extraordinary musical experience! Visit their website to learn more about this musical duo.

To See More Upcoming Apostles Academy Concerts: Click Here

If you came today for a feel good sermon, you picked the wrong day.

If you came hoping that there would be a lot of images, because I usually use a lot of images, there’s only one. This is a very different sermon. It almost looks like it’s very black and white. Because there’s a lot of words, white words on black backgrounds. I don’t mean it to be quite that black and white, because I believe in a lot of grey in this world.

I want to start by defining some terms.

One of the things that we need to know is definitions on what is sin or trespasses.

In the Ephesians text, the word trespasses is used. So sin and trespasses are essentially the same thing, both of which are in opposition to God’s benevolent purposes for the world.

It’s something that opposes God. Not trespasses as in our contemporary, meaning you stepped on my property and I didn’t want you to. Trespasses as in something that is going in against what God wants, or in opposition to God, or even away from God.

Salvation, or being saved, means being reconciled with God again.

That’s the whole journey of the Bible, is that we started with God, somehow we broke off from God, we stopped following God, we tend to follow with our free will, we tend to go our own ways, and we forget about God, and we need to be reconciled with God. That is being saved or that is what salvation is.

Grace is God’s favor that is given to us.

Mercy is also used and mercy means compassion or the word also can mean pity. So God can have compassion on us or grant us favor when we don’t deserve it.

We’ve done nothing to deserve it. Those are important points that you just need to remember when you look at these scriptures.

I’m going to focus on John 3:16-17. Then, a couple verses out of the Ephesians text.

This is probably, at least by John 3:16, the most recognized scripture of all. I don’t know that everybody knows what it says, but we paint it on our barns and we make signs and take them to ball games.

John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

But there’s a piece of that that I think we forget or we gloss over. That is that word “Whoever” or the old language was “Whosoever”. Some of the more contemporary ones use everyone, but that everyone believes in him.

I lift that because that’s not what we’ve practiced. That’s what it says, but then we said, “You don’t look like us, you don’t talk like us and you don’t act like us. So, sorry, that doesn’t apply to you.” How dare we? Who do we think we are?

That’s not me saying that to just you. That is the church, Big C. We’ve been doing this for years. Saying who’s in and who’s out. Who’s really saved and who’s not. Because they don’t follow or believe the way we do or think the way we do or look like us.

Whoever believes in him means we don’t get to choose.

I found a beautiful quote by Mary McLeod Bethune. She was a black woman who grew up in the Jim Crow South. She has been described by Alan Dwight Callahan as an educator, activist, and presidential advisor. She was born in 1875 and died in 1955. Here’s her whole quote:

“….Did you hear that word, ‘whosoever’? That whosoever means you. Not just white people. Not just rich people. You! This is where your human dignity comes from- from God, our creator and savior.” – Mary McLeod Bethune

There are no qualifications. Whosoever. That means inclusiveness that we have been talking about. That everyone is invited in. Everyone is invited to the table. Everyone.

Now, I want to look at John 3:17 because I think we often forget this one too. We stop at 3:16 and we forget to read the rest of it. “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

It’s not about judgment and condemnation.

In fact, we are the ones who by our choices create consequences. God’s not condemning us. We’ve lived with that for a long time.

The church, Big C. has made a lot of money, gained a lot of power and influence over making people feel guilty, feel ashamed, and by scaring them. That’s not what John 3:17 says. What this says is that God loves us first and foremost, and that because of God’s love, we’re not condemned, but saved.

But that didn’t suit us. So we’ve manipulated this. That’s where we’ve been wrong.

Christ is our experience of God. Emmanuel, God with us.

We have had an experience of God in Jesus Christ, and we have been reconciled. That’s the story of the cross.

Our sinfulness, it exists, but it does not define who we are. We are broken and whole at the same time. We hold that. We do not understand it. That is the mystery. We don’t know how we can be broken and whole at the same time. But those are the words. That’s what’s there.

We are created not to be perfect, but to be whole and to have an abundant life. Created to be saved, to be reconciled, in spite of ourselves.

That’s where the Ephesians text comes in.

“But God who is rich in mercy…” Let’s say rich in compassion “…he loved us, that even when we were dead through our trespasses, sins, and transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.” – Ephesians 2:4-6

I want you to read this and I want you to think about it. When we read these passages, what do we learn? Did you catch anything that was the same out of both John 3:16-17 and Ephesians 2:4-6?

Here are some of the things that I saw. I see that both of those passages lead with God’s love. God’s love is where it starts and ends. That’s the most important thing. We are saved by love. The love that we have, that we did nothing to earn, except that we are God’s creatures. We are part of God’s creation. And we are loved just as we are. We don’t have to prove our worthiness. We all fall short, but God loves us anyway. It’s not about having to be worthy. We are good just as we are, with our brokenness, with our frailties, our sins, our trespasses. We are loved.

Everyone is loved, regardless. Christ came to help us understand that we’ve had this reconciliation.

That was Christ’s message. If you look at the stories over and over, Jesus goes out and meets people where they are, and reminds them that they are loved and forgiven. Their faith is what drives it. Their sins are forgiven. “Your faith has made you well.” – Luke 18:42

Someone asked me, after a sermon the other week, if I believe that everybody’s saved. And I do. Because of these verses. It’s right there. I do believe that everyone’s saved, except that we still have a choice from the very beginning. We have a choice to say, “No thanks, God. I’m doing it on my own.”

Right now the church is frustrated and struggling because so many people are out on their own or asking God, “Where were you? I needed you. You told me I was out. You told me you didn’t have love for me. You’ve already lied to me once, I don’t know if I can trust you again. Even if the world’s falling apart.”

That’s where we are today. That the world is falling apart.

People are looking for where they can find answers. Where are they loved and safe? And the question is, is that us?

Our vision and mission says yes! Our vision and mission that we discerned says that God expects us to love everyone, to welcome everyone, and to help everyone know that they are okay.

That doesn’t mean that everything works out beautifully.

For those who say, “No thanks, don’t need you, God”, there are consequences when we do that. Just as I think that there’s consequences when we look at, look at God and say “You told us that we’re supposed to love everybody, but we’re not.”

When we choose to do that, I think there are consequences.

We have had three people who identified as trans commit suicide in the last three to six months. I think some of that was in the fall of 2023, so I don’t think it was just in 2024. We just had another suicide, Ash Clatterbuck.

In my work in the community, I’ve had several people talk to me about it. Different people in different places that just brought up the subject. What are we doing? Who are we as a community?

Ash was loved and supported fully by their family, was loved and supported fully by the church, and yet they couldn’t handle the pressure of the community.

What does that say about us as a community? That’s bigger, right? That’s Lancaster. Lancaster City and County. What does that say about who we are?

We need to look at who we are, because it matters. It matters a lot.

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As I was preparing this sermon, this question came up. What are we doing here?

I love this question. I love when you can emphasize different words and it changes the intent just a little bit. I hope you heard that as I went through that list. That was intentional. But I also want you to pause and think about that question. We’re going to come back to it at the end so you have some time.

Although this question does not appear in the scriptures, I think it is a question that would have been within the Israelites and Moses in the wilderness who received the Ten Commandments.

The Israelites in the wilderness, they were the same people that were complaining because there was no food and they were complaining because there was no water. Asking, what are we doing here?

I also think it was a question that could have been on the minds of the disciples when Jesus walks into the temple and creates a scene. What are we doing here? What is going on? This is not the Jesus we’ve just been with everywhere else. So what is different?

I think the answer is in context. Context matters. So I’m going to give you some context for around this.

The way my brain works, I went to Paul’s scripture in 1 Corinthians. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” – 1 Corinthians 6:19. Now you might be wondering, how in the world did she get to Paul? Well, it’s this idea of being a body as a temple that we hear Jesus talk about; and you’re going, yeah, but this is Paul.

Well, there’s two things to remember when you read the Bible. One is that none of this was written down by a journalist making a news story. It was all written later. The second thing is that they’re not put together in chronological order either. They’re not put together to tell a story about God’s interaction with humanity. But they’re not put together in a way that it actually happened.

Paul’s writing of 1 Corinthians is actually older than the Gospels. Paul wrote this in 54 A.D, and the first Gospel written was Mark in about 70 A.D. This is also significant because in 70 A.D, the Roman Empire desecrated or raised the temple of Jerusalem, so that there was no more temple. Which created this issue again for the people. If there is no temple, where is God? Because they had been teaching throughout the whole Bible that God is in the temple. Even with the Israelites that had received the Ten Commandments, God is with the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant is in the temple. It’s in the holy of Holies. That’s where God is, supposedly.

This idea of our body as a spirit, our body as a temple is playing out in our society right now. Evangelicals hold this up as one of their very important scriptures, that our body is a temple. I learned that when I was an evangelical for a bit during college.

We have something to learn about that. We don’t think about and we don’t talk about how our body is a temple for God. We could. We could get better at that. But they (Evangelicals) believe that and so they want to create laws that control what we do with our bodies. That’s why I stepped over.

So think about that and where we are in today’s society. That’s what’s going on.

Now, back over where Jesus is going to say his body is a temple for God in the scripture.

That’s significant. We need to know about where is God? Jesus’s answer is, he is the temple. He doesn’t come right out and say that. That’s what John’s message is. John’s writing in the 80s and 90s, so he’s writing much later.

Have I totally confused you by now? What I want you to notice is that there’s two things that are different about this version of Jesus cleansing the temple. This version, this story, is in all four Gospels. In the three synoptic Gospels; Matthew, Mark, & Luke. Mark would have been written first. Matthew and Luke used Mark to write their version. Jesus comes in, upsets everything, and says, “Don’t make my father’s house a marketplace. It’s a house of prayer.”

It’s not what he said in John. John changes it in two ways. One way, in John he brings a whip of cords that would be made out of leather. He does not, there’s no mention of that in the others. And he goes on to talk about taking down the temple and raising it in three days.

So in John’s gospel, John is giving us what they call a foreshadowing of what’s going to happen to Jesus. I think the whip is a foreshadowing of the beating that Jesus gets. Although I think it’s very important to remember that when we read John’s version of this, even though it says he made a whip, and took it, it does not talk about him hurting anyone. It says that the animals left, the animals moved, so there was a scare factor, or a fear. But it doesn’t say anything about any animals or humans being hurt. Which is very different from Jesus’ experience later with the Romans. The other piece is this idea of, I’m going to raise the temple in three days. What’s Jesus’ issue with the temple?

I’ve had members of this congregation look at me and say we can’t sell things in the narthex or we are making this house of prayer into a marketplace.

That’s not an accurate reading of this because context matters. They were selling things and it was expected that they would be selling things. Especially because Passover’s coming. A month before Passover to 26 days after Passover, Jews were expected to go to the temple and pay their temple tax. Now, most people carried Roman money, which had on the face of it, Caesar’s head and the inscription, Augustus Caesar, son of God, because that’s who Caesar thought he was,

That would have been creating another god besides the true God. So one had to change their money, and they came from all over so they could have also had other money. But they had to change it for temple currency because the temple only received temple currency which did not have an engraving image on it and no other son of God. There was only one, the one true God.

The money changers were always there during this time of year and there were always animals being sold there. Because, again, the laws were that you needed an animal that was pure. You didn’t want to bring one from home that could have been raised by your pagan neighbor. You went to the temple and you brought your animal for sacrifice and you knew it was already clean. All of this was normal.

What wasn’t normal was the fact that the temple had already been desecrated by Herod.

At this point, Herod had put engraved images on the temple. He had done things to desecrate it.

Jesus’s point is God’s not really in here anyway. The God you’re looking for was with John in the Jordan and is with me. That’s John’s version. Remember John has a very different Christ, too. John has put this at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Normally, Matthew, Mark and Luke put this, when Jesus enters Jerusalem after the fanfare of the palms and we know where he’s going. He knows he’s headed for a confrontation with the chief priest.

But here in the second chapter, all he’s done was gone through the baptism, the wilderness, and he just changed. The thing he just did was gone to a wedding with his mother. Where his mother convinced him to make water into wine. Putting it all out there. Right up front. Come on, honey. Just, just give him some more wine. Just one little miracle here.

I talk about John’s Jesus as being large and in charge. This is the Jesus that gives us all the I am sayings. Which we don’t see in the other gospels.

This Jesus comes to make a point. His point is, you’re doing it all wrong.

Here in the temple. You’ve missed it. You didn’t understand what John was doing in the desert, and now I’ve come, and I am.

So, what are you doing here? What are we doing here? Why do we come together?

Our house isn’t big enough for everybody. Isn’t that wonderful? Because this is the biggest space we’ve got forever to welcome everybody in. Because we want to have a table that’s big enough for everyone.

I love the fact that we do Intinction or even when we did Pew Communion, because everybody gets served. The table is bigger than this. If we all came up and just stood around this, not everybody would be at the table. Our point is, there’s always room at the table. Because everybody’s invited to the table.

Well, here’s how I saw it going. I wonder if we come, because it’s the crowd in this scripture that asks Jesus for a sign. Now that’s a theme in John’s gospel too, that they keep asking for signs. There are signs throughout John’s gospel of who Jesus is. But the people want a sign. I think we want a sign too.

I think we are looking, we come because we want to sign that this is true. That this Jesus is worthy of our devotion. He’s worthy of following. That he has the answers we seek.

I think we come looking for answers. I think that we want to sign that in the midst of all of our fears, God’s got this. That there is something there. God is working for good in the world, even though when we read the news, it’s not there.

I think we come looking to hear that in spite of our frailties and our failures, we are still loved and forgiven. We need to be reminded of that, because the world does not make us feel loved and forgiven.

We come together to remind each other to remember together and to invite others in because I am here to say…

“We are loved and forgiven.”

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