This morning, we are starting a new series called The Cup of Freedom for the Easter season as we look at the freedom that we receive from God.

That is what Easter is about: the open tomb, the empty cross. We are freed to live. Our sins are forgiven. All that we have done, all the regrets that we have, we can release them because in God’s eyes we are whole and loved.

But to really feel that ourselves, we have to get honest about who we really are. We have to admit the times that we do hurt each other, the times that we have hurt each other, that we hurt those we love, the times that we have hurt others, and the times that we have been hurt.

This is a picture from an Easter Sunrise service a couple of years ago. We didn’t see the sun this morning, but it’s good to remember that it’s out there. A lot of us don’t like Holy Week, and we don’t come to those services because we don’t like to be reminded that we are just like those first disciples and we will betray, deny, and desert God, Jesus’ beliefs.

We will go the other way on a lot of things, maybe because of the crowd. A lot of people don’t like Good Friday because they don’t want to believe that they would be one of the ones who would say, crucify him. But, if we’re being honest. Could that be us? I think it could. I think it could be any of us, because we’re not as perfect as we want to believe that we are. We all have the potential.

You may be thinking we came to hear good news. Well, I think Easter sermons are hard because the story’s the same. We have a general sense of what’s going to happen, right? And although they change a little bit from gospel to gospel, there’s a running storyline that we have that the women will go to the tomb, and it will be empty. They’ll tell the disciples, these disciples won’t believe them. Peter will go and check himself, and then everything’s wonderful.

But what I noticed about Luke’s version, Luke 24:5b-12, is that only Luke says this, “but these words seemed to them an idle tale” – Luke 24:11. Idle tale in Greek is the word lēros, which means nonsensical, lacking credibility or seriousness. In other words, they didn’t believe them. In the version I read at the early service, it translated as that they were lying.

I wonder how often we hear the story of another person and we question it.

We question the validity of someone’s story because it wasn’t our experience. That happens to people of color, to immigrants, to LGBTQ+ people, and members of the queer community. I know that because I hear their stories, and we are called to hear their stories and to believe them, just as we want to be believed.

In this story, I think this tension happens when the women aren’t believed. Shocking, especially in the first century, because women were property, they had no voice and no claim on anything.

How would life be if we actually believed one another?

If we actually took seriously what one another says, then maybe we too would experience new life. Maybe we would experience the freedom that God has for us.

God wants us to enjoy this life, to be let free, to forgive ourselves for the things that we wish we hadn’t done. We all have those moments where we wish we could take that back, that we hadn’t said that, or that we wish we hadn’t done that to that person. We can forgive ourselves, and we can forgive those who have hurt us, and in that, we can find new life.

The beauty of today is that we get to celebrate that in communion. To me, communion is at the heart of what we do because communion reminds me that I am loved and forgiven. I don’t believe that it actually becomes the body and blood of Christ. That sounds gross to me, but I do believe that in partaking of communion, I am drawn closer to God. I am drawn closer to you because we are going to eat it together. We’re going to eat one loaf, and we become the body of Christ, the Hands, and the feet of Christ, who are called to share this freedom that we have with every person we meet.

A good way to do that is by listening to their story and believing them, even if it’s not our story.

I think that we are living through a time that will be written about in the history books, and only they get to judge us, but we get to do our best at being loving and compassionate. People who act out of our empathy, who are willing to listen and to do the next most loving thing in every moment, and I decided that we needed to say the words that we’ve been using through Lent, we needed to do it one more time.

“Careful the things you say. Children will listen. Careful the things you do. Children will see. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look to you for which way to turn, to learn, what to be. Careful before you say, listen to me.”

May it be so. Amen.

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Join us as we celebrate 50 years of faith, fellowship, and community at Church of the Apostles! Our 50th Anniversary Celebration Dinner will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2025, starting at 5:30 PM, with dinner served at 6:00 PM.

Enjoy a delicious catered meal with your choice of turkey, beef, or stuffed shells, along with green beans, mashed potatoes, tossed salad, and corn. For dessert, choose between carrot cake or apple crumb pie.

 Tickets are $35 per person. If you’d like to generously sponsor a ticket for someone in need, please contact Donna Carr.

The evening will feature a special 50th-anniversary slideshow highlighting our journey together and guest speakers who will reflect on our rich history and bright future.

Come celebrate this milestone with us! Click Here to buy your ticket now through April 28th.

As I was thinking about our theme for today, which is, cultivating a life of self-giving, I was reminded of a film I saw in seminary called Bette’s Feast.

This comes from the eighties. It is a French film about a village in Denmark, a small village that was started by a pastor. He was very much about a life of piety and he taught them to live with the most modest means.

This is the village people that are left at this point in the story. They always dress in black. There is no color in the village. They have gruel, or oatmeal would be a nicer way to put it, for most meals and maybe a piece of bread. They’re very careful about living a life of poverty. They do not allow themselves any luxuries. At this point in time, the pastor has died. His two daughters, who are sitting at the far end by the windows, have continued on his legacy.

They get together and sing for their worship, but there is quite a bit of disagreement within the village. They’re just getting to be grumpy old people. They don’t have anything that brings them joy or happiness.

And a stranger comes a stranger named Bette Babe. This is set in the 18th century. Bette is a refugee coming from Paris, fleeing the war. She’s sent to the sisters by someone who had been courting one of the sisters years back, and she’s there to be their housekeeper. They say, well, we can’t pay you, but we can offer you room and board. What she does in her time with them, she slowly starts cooking for them and adding spice to their food.

As the story goes, she also has a lottery ticket from Paris and at this point she wins 10,000 francs in the Paris Lottery. With her winnings, she decides to throw them a French banquet. She spends all of her money on one dinner to celebrate the pastor’s 100th birthday. There’s quite a difference from this scene with their very modest bowls and their simple tablecloth to the beautiful China and they have a glass for each different kind of wine. All of the candelabras and dishes, it’s quite a change.

What happens after they have this meal, it was like the joy within them started to awaken and they remembered the pleasures of life. Not that they would be that way always, or have those things always. But that life that God gives is a good life. That all came about because of Bette’s willingness to give of herself, to give of everything that she had, knowing that it was okay. She was okay giving a meal, just one meal with everything that she had.

We are at the this point in the Holy Week story where Jesus is also about to give all that he has.

Jesus is coming into Jerusalem. Jesus is on the donkey and his followers are putting cloaks down, and palm branches are coming in on one side of Jerusalem. On the other side of Jerusalem is Pilate and the military.

What we have is like a poor people’s protest and a military parade. The question is, which parade will you attend? Where will you go? Jesus said “No one has greater love than this to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” – John 15:13. But when people are willing to serve our country’s military, we celebrate them because they are willing to give their life to defend our freedom. We are grateful because not all of us can do that. But how willing are we really to lay down our life for a friend?

I know of parents who will lay down their life for their children. Partners who will lay down their life for a spouse. Those will give up everything to see that one survive and thrive. But a friend, would you do it for a friend? Would you do it for someone you don’t even know? That’s what this week is about.

There’s this scripture when Jesus got to Jerusalem, he wept and said, “If you, yes you, had only known on this day the things that would bring peace to you“- Luke 19:42.

What are those things that make for peace? Well, I think one of those things is gratitude, recognizing that who we are and what we have is not because of our efforts. We are who we are today and have what we have today because of who our families were, who our friends are, the teachers that we’ve had, our life struggles, and the gifts that God has blessed us with.

Because we have all that we need to be the people God intended us to be. The question is, do we live it? Is that who we are in life? Do we recognize all of that and do we use our gifts that we have for the benefit of others?

I think the other part of it is that we have to recognize that the needs of others may be more important than our needs. We have to put the needs of the many over the needs of the one, and that’s a hard thing. Our self-interest, our egos, everything in us wants to preserve us, and we have to fight against that to say, no, the whole is more important than me.

That’s what Jesus does. That’s who Martin Luther King was. That’s who Bonhoeffer was. That’s who Oscar Romero was. They said that their lives were not as important as the rest of us.

Let me go to a lighter place. I watched Moana 2 yesterday.

Her story is that she’s willing to go where no one else has gone and risk herself for her community. That’s the storyline. I’m not giving anything away. It’s worth watching.

I want you to pray for Jonathan Paredes this week. Jonathan, Lucy and the boys, because Jonathan got a call to go back to El Salvador. He has been going back every holy week for quite a few years to a camp where he has helped to run. He told them last year that that was his last year because he’s in his first pastorate and holy week is kind of a big week to not be there. But, he got the church’s permission to go. They called him and they usually have like three or four thousand kids at this camp that he goes to, and this year they have 10,000 kids going to this camp. They asked him, can you please come back? The whole family’s getting on a plane this afternoon to go to El Salvador.

That is not the problem. The problem is will he get back? He has a passport. They all have passports, but will he get back? That remains to be seen. He’s coming back on Easter, so we’re going to pray that everything works. But I’m nervous and I’ll name that he’s nervous too, but he’s going because it’s the right thing to do.

I think life can be frightening and overwhelming. Right now, we don’t have all the same resources, we don’t have all the same gifts, but we come to this table and to this space with the gifts that we have. By sharing our gifts, everybody has what they need. That’s the beloved community of Christ.

So the question is, can you give yourself away in this moment? Do you have compassion, the gift of being present? The gift of your attention, your empathy, that you can share with someone who’s struggling right now, and are you seeing them? Do you see them in our community, at the grocery store you shop at, or the places that you travel to?

Who needs someone that’s near you that you can just give them a bit of your time? Because it matters what we do right now.

I’ve been ending every sermon in Lent with this. It matters what we do because we are teaching our children how to survive in these difficult times. I’ve been reading this piece by Steven Sondheim.

“Careful the things you say. Children will listen. Careful the things you do. Children will see. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look to you for which way to turn, to learn, what to be. Careful before you say, listen to me.”

May it be so. Amen.

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Searching for a massive, budget-friendly yard sale in or near Lancaster? Look no further!

Join us at Church of the Apostles UCC for our annual garage sale held on the Friday and Saturday following Easter. Be prepared to shop early, as there’s always a long line before doors open on Friday!

This years sale is set for April 25th from 8 AM – 2 PM & April 26th from 8 AM – 1 PM in and around Fellowship Hall. Our address is 1850 Marietta Avenue, Lancaster PA. Be sure to follow signs for Fellowship Hall!

All are welcome to attend this fun-filled annual event. We have many low-priced items for you to browse through including clothing, collectables, home furnishings, jewelry, sports items, tools, toys and so much more! Food options include hotdogs, sodas and baked goods on Friday and Saturday! Ample parking, including accessible parking, is available on both days.

If you are interested in donating items, you can donate them the week of the sale, April 21st-23rd, from 9 AM – 8 PM or April 24th, from 9 AM – 12 PM by the Fellowship Hall doors. For additional information please feel free to contact us at office@apostlesucc.org or by calling (717) 392-5718.

Download a Poster to Share!

List of donatable items!

 Connection is what we have been doing today.

That moment of coming together and welcoming our new members, baptizing, and naming that we are the body of Christ in this building. That’s what connection is about. That is the collective piece that we do individually.

It’s about showing up, being present, and wrapped in empathy.

It’s about coming as our true selves to let our vulnerability show and enabling the power of connection and healing that is fueled by kindness. That’s how we build community and connection. In this world, we need that now more than ever.

In this scripture, Luke mentions that the Pharisees are watching Jesus.

So, Luke turns it on them by watching them and commenting on how they’re acting and what he sees in them. The Jewish culture was a culture of honor and shame, and with this verse, he is telling them that they actually could be shamed for the way they act.

“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – Luke 14:11. This reminds us that we are to take a posture of hospitality, but also of humility.

Then he challenges Roman imperialism. The Jewish culture has that idea of reciprocity. If we are gonna have a dinner, well, let’s invite those who we love the most. Invite those who we’re gonna have the most fun with, our closest friends, our family, or maybe those people that we’d like to have an invitation to their house so we’ll invite them to ours. But Jesus says that’s not what it’s about. It’s not about scoring points here in this world.

It is about reaching out to those that society is ignoring, that no one else is caring for the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame. Those are the people we’re supposed to invite for dinner. Those are the people we are supposed to care for because God cares for them. The people that the rest of society is saying no to and pushing out. Those are the people that we as disciples are called to say “Come in. You are welcome. You are invited to our tables and especially to the table of Jesus Christ.”

That’s who we are meant to be. That is our challenge. We come together because it’s hard.

Life is hard right now and we forget. So, we have to come together to be reminded of who we are, of who God is, that we are loved as we are, and that we are to love our neighbor, the stranger, the one who is different from us, as well as our family and friends, and those who do not share our political views. We’re to love them all. And that’s hard right now. That is very hard.

But we come together because, together we remind each other of our purpose and we give permission, encouragement, guidance, and an opportunity to live better. That’s who we are together. The beauty of our connections is this holy moment. There’s this holy moment when each of our souls grieves meets another’s.

Together we are stronger and we support one another.

One of our members reminded me that even though right now I’m doing hard things in my life, I have a 100% success rate of surviving hard things in my life, and so do you. I needed to hear that. I needed to be reminded of that.

Each of our solo voices, when we come together, and this is the secret, we make beautiful harmony. The secret is that not one of our solo voices is gonna save the world, but together we are powerful. We can make a difference and we want to make a difference in this world.

So every Sunday I’ve been doing, I’ve been ending with the words to Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics from Into the Woods, “Children Will Listen”. I know that some of you haven’t been here every Sunday in Lent. Those of you who have been here, I’m hoping that you’re learning this because I want you to hear this in your mind.

“Careful the things you say. Children will listen. Careful the things you do. Children will see. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look to you for which way to turn, to learn, what to be. Careful before you say, listen to me.”

May it be so. Amen.

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