Words of Welcome

  Revelation 1:1-8 The Easter baskets and candy quickly went on sale this past Monday morning if not before so the stores can get ready for the next big holiday. Though the stores prepare for Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, the season of Easter is still with us. Eastertide reminds us that Jesus spent time with his followers after his resurrection, encouraging them for the journey ahead. Besides, in the Eastern Churches, today is Easter Sunday, what they call Pascha.   This morning’s reading from the Gospel of John takes us to a locked room somewhere in Jerusalem on the evening of Jesus’ resurrection. While Jesus’ followers listened to Mary Magdalene once again give her account of meeting Jesus in the Garden, Jesus himself appears in their midst. When he appeared, he showed them his hands and feet, and his pierced side. Then as his followers rejoiced at seeing him alive, he commissioned them. He told them “as the Father has sent me, so I send you. Then he breathed on them the Holy Sp

  Isaiah 65:17-25, Luke 24:1-12 “Christ is risen! Shout Hosanna! Celebrate this day of days.” [Brian Wren, Glory to God, 248 ].  Death had its say on Friday, but death’s victory was short-lived. We gather this morning to celebrate the good news that life has triumphed over death. We shout “Christ is risen!” because death has lost its sting.    The word we heard from Isaiah 65 was spoken to exiles returning from Babylon. The prophet speaks to their grief at the devastation they found in Jerusalem by telling them that God “is about to create new heavens and a new earth.” So forget about the past and embrace the future. Yes, “be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating.” This is a good word, especially the promise that no one will be hurt or destroyed on God’s holy mountain (Is. 65:25). We hear this word from Isaiah, this Easter morning, knowing that there is war in Ukraine that is destroying lives and communities. There is the continued threat of COVID, which doesn’t want to

  Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29   The time has come to join Jesus in the festal procession to Jerusalem. Let us wave our palm branches and sing “All glory, laud, and honor, to you, Redeemer, King, to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring!” Yes, “You are a child of Israel, Great David’s greater son; you ride in lowly triumph, Messiah, blessed one!”  [ Glory to God, 196] If we take the 118th Psalm as our guide, our parade of palms serves to welcome Jesus not only into Zion but also into our lives. As we do this, we can give thanks to God who is good and whose steadfast love endures forever. The reading from the Gospel of John tells us that a crowd greeted Jesus as he approached Jerusalem. They waved palm branches and shouted out “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord the King of Israel!” ( Jn 12:12-16 ) When Jesus rode into the city that day mounted on a donkey, many in the crowd believed that Jesus was the one who would throw out the Romans and lead the nation

  Psalm 126 Once upon a time, the nineteenth-century “singing evangelist” Knowles Shaw wrote a gospel song titled “Bringing in the Sheaves.” While it isn’t in our hymnals, it regularly pops up in popular culture. You might have heard versions of it in episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, Batman , and especially the Simpsons . For some reason, it appeals to the popular mind, even if Mainline Protestants rarely sing it. Shaw found his inspiration for the song in the King James Version of the sixth verse of Psalm 126: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”  And so we sing: Bringing in the sheaves,  bringing in the sheaves, We shall come rejoicing,  bringing in the sheaves. If we’re going to bring in the sheaves, what’s a sheave? The answer: It’s a bundle of grain. Since  Shaw was the son of a farmer from Ohio, he knew what a sheave was. The same was true of the people who heard him