Today begins with this very uncomfortable scene.

The women go to the tomb with expectations. They expect to find a dead body. They expect to do what they feel called to do. They want to anoint this body. This is a gift that they want to give to Jesus. To have his body anointed, even though we know he was anointed. We had that scripture a couple weeks ago. With the woman who broke the bottle and poured the gnar all over his head. He was anointed for burial, but they needed to do something. So they go to the tomb and they have expectations.

They’re already thinking, how are we going to move the stone? But interestingly, they don’t bring anyone with them to do that. Probably because the ones that they know best are hiding, remember? Because they didn’t want to be picked up by the Romans. They didn’t want this to end the same way for them. So those guys are in a locked room, but they go because the Romans aren’t looking at them, and what they find does not meet their expectations.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you expected something to play out a certain way, and it didn’t?

It can be frustrating and confusing. Especially when you meet someone that you don’t know who they are or what they are. Maybe they’re an angel.

Somebody dressed in a white robe sitting in a cave by themselves saying his body was there but not anymore. The grave was not robbed. He has been raised. Can you imagine how scared they probably were?

But, I wonder if it isn’t in those moments when our expectations are thrown off, that we actually can have a God moment. A moment where we realize that God is present.

Then he says something very interesting, He says, Jesus goes ahead of you to Galilee. I think that that’s important because the Bible gives us little phrases and asks us to think deeper about them.

“He goes ahead of you.” It’s like a throwaway phrase. But it also means that he has already done everything that we would do. He has lived this life. He was born as a human. He experienced birth, growing up in this world, in his world, not ours. It’d be interesting to see what he would be like today, but he grew up in that world, and he experienced all the heartaches.

He knew what it would have been like to cut his finger or to touch something hot. And he has already died. He knows what it’s like.

Even worse, He knows what it’s like to have his best friends betray him, deny him, all of that, be hurt by those closest to us. I’m guessing some of us know what that’s like. But so does Jesus. And Jesus goes ahead.

That’s a clue. Galilee is where Mark’s gospel started with John the Baptizer. It’s like, go back to the beginning. This is typical for the Jewish people. Jewish people read through the Torah, what we call the first five books of the Old Testament, and when they read Deuteronomy, where Moses dies, then they go back to the beginning, and they start with Genesis 1 again.

So Mark is saying to us, it’s time to go back to the beginning and work through the story again, because you’ll hear things differently this time.

We are not the same people that we were last year. We haven’t read Mark since 2021. Are you different than you were on Easter of 2021? Do you remember Easter of 2021? I remember Easter of 2021. We were in the parking lot, and I ordered 200 cupcakes because I said we are going to come together and we are going to eat.

We have changed since 2021. We are a different people. Thanks be to God. Right? I don’t know how many of us want to relive ’20 and ’21.

We are called to be witnesses.

That’s what the people are. That’s what the women are called to be. And yes, Mark’s gospel doesn’t leave us feeling all warm and snuggly because it says they ran home and told no one.

But we know eventually they told somebody. Because we have the stories. We wouldn’t have the stories if they hadn’t. Right? They did eventually tell someone, but they didn’t tell that someone right away, and that’s okay.

If you’ve ever had an experience of a loved one coming back to let you know that they’re okay, most of us don’t talk about it, but you all tell me. So I know lots of those stories. You don’t want to admit it to each other, but I know lots of those stories.

We’re called to be the witnesses.

So how do we witness to Jesus? Life? We live it. We work for justice. We feed the person who’s hungry. We give water to the person who’s thirsty. We visit the person who’s imprisoned and we work to change systems so that when people are sick they don’t go unpaid. When people need medical care they get the care they need. That’s how we witness.

We recognize that we are meant to be the love and mercy of God present in this world.

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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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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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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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Today we have this verse, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Me.”

We have to sit with, What is the cross that we are called to bear? What does that mean? What does that look like? It does call for sacrifice. That denying of oneself. It does call for us to put the needs of others ahead of our own needs and wants.

It also sounds like it could be asking us to become martyrs. But rather than thinking about martyrs,
or of being a martyr, that’s not to be our goal. So that we would get the glory, of whatever glory there comes with martyrdom.

But it’s meant to be about pointing towards God. This is really important right now, in this time and in place that we live, because there are people who are trying to perceive themselves or saying that they are martyrs. Martyrs are not looking for revenge. Martyrs are people who are seeking righteousness and justice.

We say that we are about justice.

That’s important. That’s a very important distinction today. Because there’s a lot going on in our world. And It’s hard. Taking up our cross means that it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be painful.
And yet, we are called to do that.

We are trying to create God’s kingdom here on earth, which is not like ours. It is not about power, or money, or prestige. It is about love and it is about mercy.

So when we take up our cross, we need to be taking it up or bringing in more love and justice into the world. I struggled with this one mightily, because there’s plenty of people who feed on martyrs, they feed on people who are willing to give up everything that they have to please another person and that is not what this is saying.

The only reason to give up everything is for God.

It is not to please one’s spouse, one’s partner, or one’s friend. It is only to bring more love and light into the world. If what one is doing is not bringing more love and light than it is not of God.

I say that because I do think we have an example of one who bore their cross this week in our news, and that is Alexei Navalny. No he was not killed for his faith. But it is his faith that made him challenge Putin in the way that he did. It was his faith that brought him back to Russia after he had been poisoned and stand trial for allegations of going against the government in 2021. He had a long closing statement in that trial, but what stood out for me the most was that he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”

He said, he didn’t come back for glory. He didn’t come back for any publicity. He came back because he wanted the people of Russia to be free from Putin’s oppressive forces. It wasn’t about him, it was about something larger. And because of his faith, he was free. His faith made it easy, he said, to make the decision. That’s a powerful faith.

When you can trust that you are in God’s hands. All you are doing is following God.

I find it interesting that they combined Abraham’s story with this text of picking up your cross. This is a picture I took in Turkey, of the landscape and up at the top of the hill, it’s covered with sheep. There’s a whole line of sheep up there. Which is what I was looking for an image of for Abraham. I thought, Abraham in the wilderness, you know, Abraham walking through these, this the area of Mesopotamia and into Palestine and trying to find the place.

In our scripture today, Abram got a new name. He’s now Abraham. The point of Abraham story is that he is called and chosen. Because he listened and answered the call. That is Abraham’s only redeeming value. His only redeeming quality is that he answered the call of God to follow what God wanted. So he picked up his whole family and he took them all and said, Nope, this isn’t where we’re meant to be. God says, I’m to follow God, and I don’t know where we’re going. But we’re going on a trip. Going without a map. The only thing I know is God will tell me when we’re there.

The beauty of Abraham’s story, is that God stays faithful to him. Abram makes terrible decisions. That’s is really the beauty of Abraham, we find out that no matter how bad Abraham behaves, including denying his wife and letting the king have her,
to save his own neck. God doesn’t leave him. God stays with him. So the overall message seems to be follow God, and you will live.

Kind of the same message that Jesus has for us this morning.

In this hard text that we have to read, it’s about following Jesus, so that we live. What Jesus is asking is for is this giving up of oneself for the greater good.

Now there’s an interesting dynamic that we need you to know about from history. During the Roman Empire, there was a phrase “Pax Romana”, meaning the peace of Rome or Rome’s peace. In order to have Rome’s peace, the people were told that they needed to sacrifice. They needed to sacrifice, they needed to pay the exorbitant taxes, they needed to do the forced labor for Rome, and if they needed to die for Rome, then praise be. Let them starve to death or die for Rome.
But that was it, then you died for Rome.

I put these two pictures up, because these are from Turkey, these are from Istanbul when I was there. The one on the left is the last palace of the Ottoman Empire, which is as much of a palace that we have left of any kind of empire. Roman palaces aren’t they’re ruins now. So we don’t have an idea of what they look like. But this was the one built in the mid 19th century, and is still in good shape. That’s on the left.

On the right, is a picture of the houses that the people live in. I can’t I can’t take you back 2000 years, but this is in 2006. I’m sure that the houses on the right, probably have some better building materials than they did mid 19th century, although some of those may have still been there in the mid 19th century too. But it was the people on the left, telling the people that lived in the homes on the right, that they needed to sacrifice for the people on the left.
And I want you to think about that power dynamic.

When the wealthy tell you that you need to sacrifice everything you have so that they live, and you live like the people on the right.

This is where we talk about social justice.

In Jesus’s message, Jesus says “If we will deny ourselves and take up our cross for God”, and here’s the difference, “You will live.”

Jesus promises life, not death. Not death and just being a servant to the wealthy and to the empire. But Jesus promises life
because Jesus will be raised again. And eventually we are also promised that we get to rise with Jesus. That’s end game.

I don’t talk about salvation a lot. I’m not one who preaches that you’ve got to be saved because I believe we all are.
I believe we all are saved already. Not because of anything we have done. But because of the love and the mercy of God. Because like Abraham, we are going to make terrible choices.

But Christ is hoping that sometimes we’ll make the right choice to be the love and the light that the world needs.

It might be as simple as the love or the light that a friend needs to see. When they’re in a dark place. When they’re feeling like everything is going wrong. Maybe that’s what we can do. Maybe that’s the something good we can be up to.

As a congregation. We have named that compassionate justice is important for us. So this week I want you to sit and think about what is it that you are being called to do to bring more justice into the world?

What is Christ tugging at your heart with?

We can’t solve it all. But we can make small progress one step at a time.

There’s lots of issues right now. There’s lots of places where our society is breaking down. We need voices of justice.
That we make sure that all people have access to health care and education and that it works for everybody. That we are creating a world that we want our children to grow up in. That we’re making sure there is going to be a world for our children to grow up into.

So what what is the area that you are being called to? That is your question to sit with. What difference are you being called to make in this world? Who needs your help? Whatever sacrifice you can make, to put more love and justice into the world is what Christ is looking for you to do.

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Today starts A New Time.

In the church year, it’s the season of Lent, which the church has often made a time of giving up, encouraging us to, to be less selfish, and to let go of some of the pleasures that we enjoy. We’re doing a slightly different take on that right now. What I want to encourage you to do is to let go of the things that get in the way of you being fully who God created you to be. Let go of the past hurts the regrets you might have, the times when you wish you had done something differently. It’s time to let go of those things and no longer be weighed down by them.

Instead, choose to be about something good. Choose to be about something that draws you closer to God.

Something that draws you closer to others, so that you can share the good news with them. I think we live in a world today, where a lot of us are just overwhelmed saddened by the latest news, maybe even a bit afraid. We’re getting to the point where we miss the beauty. We miss the birds, or since we are in Pennsylvania, we miss the Tundra Swans and the geese. Do we see them? Are we missing all of that? Because we’re focused on all of the things that are going wrong in the world?

We’re becoming afraid and we’re isolating, instead of coming together and creating community. Those of you who are here, and those of you at home that we hope will join us at some point, you’ve chosen community today. How can we help others know that this is a safe space? That this is a place where we hear a different message?

Because that message of deprival and all of that giving up? Yes, it’s true. We are mortal and our mortality is right in front of us but in the wilderness is our lives. We learn lessons of life, and this is a time to look at the lessons and recognize that through it all, God is with us.

We are never alone.

It’s interesting that they put the rainbow with us on this first Sunday of Lent. Because you know the rainbow reminds us that God changes God’s mind. God was so frustrated with humanity is the way the story goes right? That God sent the flood.
But God changed God’s mind as if God’s heart was broken by not having that relationship with humanity. So God said, I’m never gonna do that again. There’s never going to be a time when I don’t love you. There’s never going to be a time when I leave you.

It doesn’t matter what we do. I mean, it does matter. Obviously God wants us to be better people but there’s nothing that we can do that will drive God away from us. God is constantly reaching out to be in relationship with us. Love wins. God’s love is eternal forever. And the Rainbow reminds us.

Mark’s Gospel

Mark’s gospel is very interesting in that you might have had a flashback when I read the beginning of that, because you’re like, that’s the baptism text. We read that back in epiphany, because we did. We read that on January 14th. Because it was the baptism, but for Mark, all of this is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

He does all of it in six verses, the whole thing. From baptism, Jesus goes down in the water comes up, here’s you are my beloved. And immediately the Scripture says the Spirit drives him to the desert. He has, for some reason, of which we do not know, he has to have that wilderness experience. But he’s not alone in the desert. He’s not alone there, just as we will not be alone.

Yes, he encounters Satan, he encounters all the temptations of our lives. He encounters wild beasts, and the angels wait on him. God is present with him. Just as God will be present with us through all of our wilderness and, and temptations.
We are not alone. God has chosen to give us a new time, a different thing.

Then, as soon as the 40 days are up, Jesus goes to the to Galilee and declares it is a new time. Repent and hear the good news. That also happens just as John is arrested and taken away. John is no longer saying, Repent. So Jesus comes and follows up with this message of repentance. And we’ve made this message of repentance as confession, looking at ourselves, and recognizing what we have done wrong. That is an important piece of it. And there’s more to it.

We also have to choose to be different.

We have to choose to change because it’s a new time. God in Jesus has come close to us. Because God still wants that relationship. God still wants to walk with us, talk with us, share life with us, teach us, model for us, and encourage us to be our best selves.

Will we be? No. But God loves us anyway. But we can be about this idea of repentance.

This quote by Amy Jo Levine really is catching to me. Because it changes that meaning a little bit that repenting means fixing broken relationships, and doing one’s best to restore community that’s coming out of the Jewish perspective. Right? This is Rosh Hashana for them. This is how do we admit that we’re not who God has called us to be. We can be better. We can work on the relationships, our relationship with God, our relationships with one another, and our relationships with the world, and the community. To everyone that we meet, we can be better at those.

We can build community. That’s what I think we need right now, more than ever.

We are living through a new time. We haven’t come out of the pandemic well. There are some people, and I would even say that I’m in that group, that when we get in a large group, we don’t feel right. I don’t like large gatherings anymore. There’s some who don’t. We stay away from large gatherings because they’re afraid of the the germs that are in those gatherings. The pandemic did that for us really well, showed us that those large gatherings are super spreaders.

But now, we also know that large gatherings are targets for people with guns who aren’t stable. You get a large gathering, even the Super Bowl gathering was an opportunity for a man who needs help and a gun. But they do the damage. So we’re like, “I’m not sure if I want to be in a large gathering.” Then you watch the news. There’s a lot of violence in our world right now. How do we counteract that? We have to remind ourselves, that we don’t do it alone.

God is with us. We come together to remind each other that God is here that God is with us wherever we are.

We can encourage one another. We can hold each other up in the hard times. That’s who we are called to be. We are called to create community. To be this inclusive refuge, to serve compassionately, to care about the environment and how everyone is treated. That’s what we’ve said. That’s what God is calling us to be. So can we be about that? Can we be about looking at how we interact with one another and how we greet those who come into our midst to make sure that all feel welcome to experience Christ with us. That’s our challenge.

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