Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 28th:  Psalm 31:9-16; Lamentations 3:55-66; and Mark 10:32-34.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.  Only John shares with us that the people in Jerusalem “took branches of palm trees and went out to meet [Jesus],” (12:13) but it is a tradition that has caught on all over the Christian world.  The ecstatic crowds greet Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  Hosanna is Hebrew for “Save, we pray.”  Son of David is a Messianic term.  The crowds expect Jesus to save them as the Messiah, the successor of King David.  David expanded the nation of Israel through military conquest, and the Messianic hope is that Jesus will free Israel from Roman occupation.  Why else would Jesus fearlessly enter the city of Jerusalem around Passover, the Jewish feast of liberation?  Jesus’ parade taunted both the religious and military/political leadership of that time.  Jesus came in the name of the Lord.  The people expected a divine intervention that would lead to victory and freedom. 

In this way, the palms that will be distributed at church tomorrow both honour Jesus and warn us about false praise and worship.  They warn us against making Jesus into who we want Him to be rather than who Jesus is.  The same crowds that shouted “Hosanna,” will be the ones yelling “Crucify Him!” when they realize that Jesus is not the Messiah they expected, they demanded.  This is not a condemnation limited to the Jews of 2,000 years ago.  This is a warning for anyone who wishes to follow a Jesus of their own making.  Instead, may we imitate the faith of the Psalmist who today offers, “But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’” 

Since Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week, we also read the entire Passion account.  This year we will read Matthew’s version.  We do this so that the faithful will be reminded of all that transpires over Jesus’ last days – the Last Supper, the institution of Holy Communion, the new commandment, the arrest in Gethsemane, the torturous death upon the cross, and the quick disposal of Jesus’ corpse in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb.  The Passion will be read in parts by various members of the congregation.  It serves as both our Gospel reading and sermon.

Palm Sunday and Holy Week are the necessary precursors to Easter.  I truly believe that the promise and joy of the empty tomb cannot be fully experienced without first walking our Lenten journey, and the week ahead is the culmination of that journey.  I invite you to join us tomorrow for our Palm Sunday Service that begins at 9:30am. 

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 27th:  Job 13:13-19; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 1:21-30.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is our sixth Lenten Friday, the last one before Holy Week begins.  Jesus is journeying with other pilgrims to be in Jerusalem for Passover.  As Mark tells the story, a heaviness hangs over Jesus and His followers.  This would set them apart from other pilgrims who are approaching joyously the Temple for the Jewish feast of liberation.  Those with Jesus feel it necessary to give Him space. 

Being alone is not the same as being lonely, but a person can feel desperately alone in a crowd.  It is not the proximity of others that is determinative.  Isolation is the inability to connect with others.  Jesus is alone and isolated as He proceeds closer to Jerusalem.  On two prior occasions, Jesus had tried to prepare His followers by foretelling His suffering and death, and on both occasions He was met with confusion.  His followers could not process what Jesus was trying to reveal to them.  They could not accept the possibility of a suffering Messiah.  And yet, the inevitability of Jerusalem was getting closer and closer.  With each step forward along the road, Jerusalem loomed more imposing over Jesus, and the disciples’ intransience more disheartening.  Thus, “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them [alone].”  (10:32)

The same Greek word is used at 10:32 to describe the “amazement” of the disciples as was employed to express their “bewilderment” at 10:24 when Jesus had professed how hard it would be for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.  They are culturally unable to process the revelation of a crucified Messiah, and their bewilderment isolates them from Jesus and Jesus from them.  And Jesus continues to carry that wreckage with Him as He climbs up the road to Jerusalem.

Even the more casual followers of Jesus sense that something is awry, and they are “afraid.” (10:32)  This group may simply be other Galileans taking the same pilgrimage route to Jerusalem for the Passover festival, but they are made afraid by this sense of foreboding that engulfs Jesus and the disciples.  And Jesus’ isolation grows deeper.
Nothing and no one seem able to break through, until Bartimaeus.  This is the last story in Mark’s Gospel before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday.  Jesus has just had to deal with the third failure of His disciples (10:35-45), the ones He had hoped would continue His ministry.  The possible futility of His life and ministry had to torment Jesus, adding to His isolation.  Through all of this Jesus hears the plaintive cry of Bartimaeus, struggling over the crowd’s demand that he be silent.  Jesus hears, “‘Have mercy on me.’” (10:47)  Even as Jesus marches toward Jerusalem and all the horrors that await Him there, He stops and makes time for a beggar.  Jesus restores sight to Bartimaeus.  When others could not break through the isolation, when others who by now should have known better failed, when futility had to torment Jesus, His compassion broke through all of this as Jesus heard Bartimaeus’ desperate plea. 

This is our Saviour, our Jesus.  This is the one we walk with on our Lenten journey to the cross.  He was left so terribly alone on that walk, but now we have the opportunity to be with Him.  We read today in Philippians, “For [God] has graciously granted [us] the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well.”  Paul challenges us to continue the compassionate work of Jesus.  To believe, to understand Jesus, to appreciate who this Jesus is as He stops on His way to all that Jerusalem entails so that he can heal a blind beggar, this sometimes entail “suffering for him as well.”  Faith not only takes; it gives.  Service, ministry, is a sacred privilege that unites us with Jesus.  May Lent help us better understand that this is part of what it means to follow a crucified Saviour.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 26th:  1 Samuel 16:11-13; Psalm 31:9-16; and Philippians 1:1-11.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is Opening Day for the Red Sox.  It’s always a day of hope.  I grew up with the Red Sox long before 2004, and every year the phrase “There’s always next year” was repeated like a mantra.  Opening Day was that day of hope after the previous year’s less than a World Series conclusion.  This is part of the reason why the first of those – at least – 162 games has a bit more excitement.  It’s the expectation of all that is possible.

Today’s first reading is the Bible’s first encounter with David.  Yahweh has rejected Saul as king of Israel, and tells the prophet Samuel that a new king has been chosen.  Yahweh sends the prophet to Bethlehem and to the family of Jesse.  One among Jesse’s sons will be anointed the new king of Israel, but Samuel knows not which one.  The eldest son Eliab is presented before Samuel.  The prophet’s immediate reaction is that this must be the one, but in words that are timeless Yahweh admonishes, “‘Do not look on his appearance … for the Lord does not see as mortals see.  They look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’” (1 Samuel16:7)  Seven of Jesse’s sons pass before the prophet.  Seven is a symbolic biblical number of fullness and completion.  Samuel is perplexed because Yahweh has not chosen any of these seven sons of Jesse, so he asks, “‘Are all your sons here?’” (16:11)  Then, either almost forgotten or intentionally ignored, Jesse tells the prophet the youngest son is tending the sheep.  When this eighth son, the unexpected one past the number of completion, appears before Samuel, immediately Yahweh reveals, “‘This is the one.’” (16:12) 

This is a wonderful story of all that is possible.  It shares a message of unseen, unrecognized potential.  They had to rewrite the ending of “Field of Dreams” after the 2004 World Series because the unforeseen happened.  The expectation and hope of that season’s Opening Day became a reality.  God reprimanded the prophet for looking at appearance, for not taking into account the possible that God envisions, the hope that will be fulfilled.  I love underdog stories.  I think this is why the 2004 season will always be my favourite.  And I love that God sees us not only as we are, but as we may become.  What a glorious and inspiring message of hope and potential.

Let’s now turn to the opening of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.  This is often described as an Epistle of Christian joy and happiness.  Paul can be rather severe in his Epistles, but Philippians has a different tone, maybe one summarized in his closing exhortation:  “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, Rejoice!” (4:4)  And at the other end of this Letter, Paul greets this church community he founded by writing, “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi …”  Today we have a tendency to think of the saints as limited to exceptional Christians, as the ones who have “St.” before their names, but to this first generation church in Philippi, Paul greets them all as saints.  Paul believes in everyone’s potential.  To accept Jesus, means to follow Jesus, means to be saintly, so therefore, “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi …” 

This is not unlike Yahweh’s revelation to Samuel to not judge by what you see, but by what God can see, to look beyond what is and to envision what could be.  David is the forgotten one, and yet David becomes the anointed one.  Of course there were difficulties in the church at Philippi, but Paul reminds them from the opening salutation that they are called to be saints.  We, still today, are called to be saints.  Don’t look for halos.  Look for people of compassion and justice, of forgiveness and charity … and faith.  There is no way to live up to the godly expectations of being the saints if we don’t do so “in Christ Jesus.”  We must ground our humanity in our faith.  We must trust that Jesus will heal, help and hold us as we strive to be His saints.  May these Lenten days help us to trust more impactfully that “in Christ Jesus” all of us can live as saints.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 25th:  Psalm 143; Jeremiah 32:1-9, 36-41; and Matthew 22:23-33.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Truth to power.  That’s a phrase often associated with moral candor.  When others are too cowardly or cowed to challenge the assumptions of those in power, when truth is not being shared no matter how obviously flawed the policy, then reality will eventually force a reckoning.  To speak truth to power is to challenge this self-deluding dynamic.  And it often comes with a heavy price.

Truth to power is the story of fearless activists under oppressive regimes.  They stand up to the fairytales that despots spew regardless of the cost.  Since the authoritarians have no rational argument that is meaningful outside of their own circle of echoed claims, they always must rely on fear, force and punishment.  Alexei Navalny, for example, spoke truth to power inside Putin’s Russia and since those in power had no counterargument, they had to assassinate him.  Truth to power is costly, but for those driven to such a cause it is a cost worth paying.  Such people can only take so much falsity dressed-up as fact.  They are driven to speak out.

Jeremiah was such a person.  God called Jeremiah from childhood to be a “prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)  Jeremiah had the unenviable task of speaking God’s word of judgment and ruin to his very own people.  His prophetic ministry overlaps with the history of Judah and Jerusalem’s national collapse.  God called upon Jeremiah to speak truth to power at such a consequential moment, and the punishment was heavy:  “At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him.  Zedekiah had said, “Why do you prophesy and say:  Thus says the Lord:  I am going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.’”
 
Why do you say?  What else could the prophet say if he were to remain faithful to his calling?  Jeremiah had proclaimed in public spaces in the king’s city of Jerusalem that defeat was inevitable, that the city would fall to the Babylonians.  He advised in God’s name what was judged treasonous in the king’s name, and yet Jeremiah spoke truth to power regardless of the consequences both for the sake of God’s Word and the people’s lives:  “And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord:  See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.  Those who stay in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but those who go out and surrender to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have their lives as a prize of war.” (Jeremiah 21:8-9) 

Obviously, King Zedekiah would be opposed to such preaching, but Jeremiah was a fearless spokesman of God’s Word.  The king imprisoned God’s prophet and interrogated him in the court of the palace guard, demanding why Jeremiah insists on preaching national defeat.  The king only wanted to hear what he wanted to hear.  The prophet was compelled to share God’s revelation, was compelled to speak truth to power, and he paid the price. 

Jeremiah survives the king’s imprisonment and the defeat of Jerusalem.  Jesus is not as fortunate when He speaks truth to power.  He challenges both the religious and political authorities of His day.  As in today’s Gospel selection, Jesus questions the core assumption of the Sadducees so much so that “when the crowds heard it, they were astounded at [Jesus’] teaching,” and the Sadducees were the powerful and connected religious upper class whose power base was the Jerusalem Temple.  They needed stability to remain in power.  They needed the Temple to continue, and that required a devil’s bargain with the Romans.  When Jesus speaks truth to power whatever that power may be, when Jesus threatens the status quo as His preaching always will, He is fearless, and because of this Jesus is doomed to face the consequences. 

I hope we have had time this quickly passing Lenten season to consider what Jesus’ truth may be, and why it is a threat to unhinged power.  And I hope as we approach Palm Sunday’s triumphal, public, challenging entry into the city where both the religious and political leaders are gathered, that we may be more fearless in proclaiming Jesus’ timeless truth even if that truth is not in accordance with power.   

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 24th:  2 Kings 4:18-37; Psalm 143; and Ephesians 2:1-10.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

The Shunammite woman whom we meet in today’s first reading is known for her faith, hospitality, and resilience.  She first appears in 2 Kings 4:8–37 as a wealthy woman from the town of Shunem in ancient Israel.  She recognized the prophet Elisha as a "holy man of God" and showed him consistent kindness by providing meals and later constructing a dedicated guest room on her roof for his use during travels.  Elisha rewards her faith and kindness by prophesying that she will bear a son.  Tragedy struck when her son died suddenly.  In a powerful display of faith, she journeyed Mount Carmel to seek Elisha’s help.  Elisha restored the boy to life through divine intervention.  Her story exemplifies hospitality and trust in God, making her a model of quiet faith and courage.

On this day in 1942, 84 years ago, the US government began incarcerating US citizens of Japanese descent in detention camps under Executive Order 9066.  In 1980, a federal commission was formed to investigate this act.  In 1983, the commission concluded that the forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans had not been justified by military necessity, but instead was executed based on “racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”  Furthermore, it called for an official government apology and reparation payments to those confined.  In the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, the United States acknowledged and apologized for the injustice done to Japanese-Americans through internment and offered restitution of $20,000 to those who were interned.

 The model of faith, kindness, trust and courage exemplified by the Shunammite woman stands in stark contrast to the prejudice and injustice of 1942.  The injustices of others, such as Imperial Japan, do not excuse choosing injustice.  We always have choices when it comes to the examples we will follow.  Will we pursue the higher goals personified by the Shunammite woman or the lower urges of what Paul today refers to as:  “Following the course of this world.” 

Paul makes clear that this choice is real and that it is a choice between evil and righteousness.  He writes:  “All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, doing the will of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else, but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ.” 

The world is filled with examples we can use to excuse our own lower urges, but this only adds to the evil in the world, and Paul makes clear such behaviour is not an excuse in the eyes of God.  These examples lead to death, but God reached into a death-filled world in Jesus of Nazareth and “made us alive together in Christ.”  When we realize that Jesus was charged legally with a capital offense by the Roman state in order to preserve its own power (He was executed as an insurrectionist thus the taunting charge on His cross of Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.), and that Jesus still would not step away from His gospel, we have the most profound testimony that choices need to be made, even when the cost is high, even when the state declares it legal (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/11/arts/harvard-houghton-library-letters-japanese-internment/?p1=StaffPage).  Faith calls us to a higher standard because God “made us alive together in Christ.”

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 23rd:  1 Kings 17:17-24; Psalm 143; and Acts 20:7-12.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

At yesterday’s worship Service, we read the Gospel account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  In today’s readings, Elijah raises the widow’s son from the dead, and then Paul raises Eutychus from the dead.  In all three accounts, the miracles are amazing, but even so, they are raised back to ordinary, mortal life.  Lazarus is unbound from his burial garments, but at some point in the future they will be reapplied.  Lazarus was raised to mortal life; Lazarus will die again at some point.  The widow’s son is revived by the prophet and then given back to his mother.  The imagery is that he returns to what was – to mortal life.  The son will eventually die.  It is the same with Eutychus.  Paul assures the church community that the young man will revive for “his life is in him,” and the church community takes “the boy away alive and were not a little comforted.”  This young man returns to his ordinary, mortal life, but he will die at some point.

These three are accounts of reanimation, of the miracle of restoring life to those judged lifeless.  This is a dim shadow of what resurrection entails.  When Jesus dies and is buried, that is the end of His mortality.  The resurrection is a mystery not a miracle.  It is being raised into the unknown, the ordinary this is not.  Sometimes we equate resurrection with only endless time.  Resurrection is so much more than time, and gloriously what the so much more is, is right now unknowable.  It is mystery not miracle.  A miracle is a temporary suspension of the laws of nature, like reanimation, but mystery is a wholly other reality, an unknowable one at this point.

Barry Taylor was once the road manager for the rock band AC/DC.  He later converted to Christianity, became an Episcopal priest, and transitioned into a theologian and writer.  His journey from AC/DC to a spiritual leader has fomented a unique perspective on faith, mystery, and the nature of God.  Taylor has said: "God is the name of the blanket we throw over mystery to give it shape."  This reflection captures his view of religion as a human attempt to make sense of the unknown.  The things of God, God’s reality, are a gloriously unknowable mystery that is so much more than miracle. 

This coming Sunday we enter into Holy Week.  At worship that day, we will read from Philippians:  “[Jesus] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” (2:7-8)  The idea of emptying Himself is that Jesus sheds the privileges of the mystery of His divinity.  He sacrifices that glorious unknown to become ordinary like us.  This is why the Jesus I believe in and teach is thoroughly human.  His humanity is the reason for Jesus.  This is the sacrifice of Christ:  the forsaking of the mystery of God’s reality for ours, all so that in Christ God can experience life with us, as us, and for us. 

We can’t know the glorious mystery that the Son of God experienced before emptying himself at the Incarnation, and we can’t know the glorious mystery of resurrection’s new reality, but what we can know is that in between these mysteries is the ordinary, revelatory reality of Jesus’ life and death.  This is an unbelievably expensive revelation.  The sacrifice was to empty Himself of a glorious unknown, and then to have that sacrifice amplified to an extraordinary level when they take that all so human body and torture it to death on the cross.  What sort of faith on God’s part in us does this reveal?  And what should be our response?  We have but one week before Holy Week when Jesus will knowingly and provocatively enter Jerusalem and the fate that awaits Him there.  Let us consider the depth of His sacrifice and the height of His love. 

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.