Words of Welcome

  John 20:1-18 “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb” (Jn. 20:1). This morning the Gospel of John invites us to join Mary Magdalene at the tomb where, a day before Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus laid Jesus’ body. What might Mary have expected to find when she arrived at the tomb? Do you think she expected that the stone would have been removed and the body missing? The same would have been true for Peter and the Beloved Disciple after they ran to the tomb to check out Mary’s report.  Nevertheless, that is what John reports. Each of the four gospels tells the Easter story a bit differently. According to John’s account, for some untold reason, Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ followers, decided to visit the tomb that first Easter morning. Maybe she went there to pay her respects to her beloved teacher. John doesn’t say why she went to the tomb, but when she discovere...

  Eph esians 5:8-14 You may have heard the phrase “It has come to light.” That phrase often suggests that you are about to hear bad news. Whether it is a matter of moral or criminal behavior, you never want to hear those words. That is especially true if you’ve had some dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. If you’re in his files or visited his island, you might be in trouble. Look at what happened to the guy formerly known as Prince Andrew. Not only did he lose his title and place in the line of succession, but he was arrested for making the monarchy look bad. So, when the light shines in the darkness, it usually brings to light the bad things done under the cover of darkness.  Our reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent from Ephesians 5 talks about leaving behind darkness and walking in the light. This letter addresses a number of practical questions about what it means to live the Christian life in the context of a pagan culture, which embraced ethical and moral conduct that dif...

  Romans 5:1-11 Six years ago, the world was shutting down because COVID was on the march. That included our church services. Everyone was uncertain about what the future held. Would this last a few days or weeks? No one knew at that moment. Just a few weeks earlier, I had shared with the folks at Central Woodward my plan to retire at the end of June 2021. Since I was giving them a nearly eighteen-month head start, I thought we had lots of time to prepare the church for the future. Suffice it to say, things didn’t work out the way I planned.  As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. While we might not be facing a global pandemic, the recently launched war with Iran is making people just as anxious, uncertain, and fearful as we were six years ago. That’s because we don’t know what the future holds. We know that gas prices are going up dramatically, and the stock market is going down. We don’t know how long the war will last and what form it w...

  2 Peter 1:16-21 The season of Epiphany begins with the magi following a star to the home of the Holy family. It ends with Jesus climbing a mountain with three of his disciples, who witness the revealing of Jesus’ glory and mission. From beginning to end, the season of Epiphany invites us to embrace the light that shines in the darkness, revealing God’s love for the world.  As we gather here on Transfiguration Sunday, we get to once again climb the mountain with Jesus and his three disciples. As we approach the mountaintop, we can ponder the age-old question: Who is Jesus? In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter answers that question by proclaiming that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of the living God ( Matt. 16:16 ). While Peter got the right answer, it’s clear from Matthew’s account that he wasn’t sure what that meant. He needed more information, such as the resurrection of Jesus. Soon after Peter made that confession, he witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus ( Matt. 17:1-13 ),...

  Micah 6:1-8 Back during my teen years, a bumper sticker appeared with a request: “Please be patient with me, God is not finished with me.” There’s truth in that request, because God isn’t finished with us. But, hopefully, we’re moving toward spiritual maturity, which, according to the Ephesians letter, means reaching “the measure of the full stature of Christ” ( Eph. 4:13 ). This is a lifelong process. Unfortunately, I think this meme often served as an excuse for bad behavior, especially when that statement was placed on the back bumper of a car that cuts you off.    While I’m thankful that we’re justified by God’s grace, if we read scripture, we discover that God has high expectations of us. This is the message we hear from God through the words of the eighth-century prophet Micah, who lived outside Jerusalem. This prophet was deeply troubled by what he observed taking place around him, as the rich exploited the poor. Throughout this book, the prophet envisions Go...

  Sunrise at Arches National Park Isaiah 49:1-7 After Elwood Blues picked up his brother Jake from the Joliet Prison, they set out on a “Mission from God.” This divinely authorized mission involved raising money to prevent the bank foreclosure on the Catholic orphanage where they grew up. Although their mission from God was a race against time, nothing, not even the Illinois State Police, which was authorized to use “all unnecessary violence to apprehend the Blues Brothers,” was going to stop them from saving their childhood home.  In our reading from Isaiah 49, a prophet commonly known as Second Isaiah, may face different kinds of obstacles than the Blues Brothers, but he also found himself on a mission from God. The prophet speaks to Jewish exiles living in Babylon, offering them hope, encouragement, and their own mission from God. In an earlier chapter, God tells the people: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit up...

  Edwards Hickes, Peacable Kingdom Romans 15:4-13 This morning, we lit the Candle of Peace, which reminds us that this is not only the Second Sunday of Advent, it is Peace Sunday. Peace is something we all hope for, but which always seems beyond our grasp. World War I was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. Twenty years later, an even bigger war took place. This year, Peace Sunday falls on December 7th, the day Franklin Roosevelt declared would live in infamy. Having visited the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on two occasions, I felt the presence of those lives lost that day. But that war didn’t bring an end to human wars. Many more were to come. There were wars in Korea and then Vietnam. I remember in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, there was talk of a peace dividend for the American defense budget. But that talk didn’t last long because war came to the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. For nearly four years, we’ve watched the Russians devastate Ukraine, h...