title: Spicy Mustard

themes: kingdom-of-god power-as-domination faith-the-size-of-a-mustard-seed letting-go-of-control flourishing witness-and-martyrdom power-in-weakness

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 4:26-34; Ezekiel 17:22-24; Matthew 17:20
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preached June 16, 2024 on Mark 4:26-34 (the seed growing secretly and the mustard seed) with Ezekiel 17:22-24, this sermon contrasts the world's power-as-domination with God's power shown through weakness. Drawing on the pastor's family practice of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, mustard, plutonium, and the unlikely youngest brother, it argues that Jesus calls for faith only the size of a mustard seed—a 'spicy mustard' faith with a kick that lets go of the desire to dominate, win, and conquer. The church has too often sided with domination and shown faith smaller than a mustard seed. Mountain-moving faith is ultimately Jesus's own; he draws us into his life so that he moves mountains with and in us. The closing invitation: let go of self-destruction, take up sacrifice and love, start with God's love, and grow into who God created us to be.

**Illustrations:** bjj-assessing-power, mustard-seed-into-mustard, plutonium, youngest-brother-in-the-fields, spicy-mustard-kick, domination-of-modern-life

---

# June 16
## Spicy Mustard
## Ezekiel 17:22-24
## Mark 4:26-34

Thus says the Lord God:

I myself will take a sprig
    from the lofty top of the cedar;
    I will set it out.
I will break off a tender shoot
    from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will transplant it
    on a high and lofty mountain.
On the mountain height of Israel
    I will transplant it,
and it will produce boughs and bear fruit
    and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
    in the shade of its branches will nest
    winged creatures of every kind.
All the trees of the field shall know
    that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree;
    I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
    and make the dry tree flourish.
I the Lord have spoken;
    I will accomplish it. - Ezekiel 17:22-24

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.”
He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. - Mark 26-34

What does power look like?

A few years ago, my family started practicing this martial art called Brazilian jiu jitsu. My wife, Alina, had done some boxing and kickboxing earlier in her life. Dominic, our eldest, had done a little bit of karate as a small kid, but that was it. Ephraim started. Then, one by one, we all got into it eventually. I was the least likely to pursue something of this kind. Surprising everyone, I really enjoyed it. Jiu Jitsu made me think about the puzzle of how to use my precise physical attributes, plus my skill level versus another person's attributes and skill level, and then seeing what happens. It's up in the air.
Competitions in jujitsu are like wrestling or boxing or MMA or other similar sports in that they are weight based. So if you're at a competition, you compete against people of a similar age and similar weight as you are.

I had never been a part of any competitive weight based system before trying Jiu Jitsu. And one of the things that practicing jujitsu and competing in it taught me was this way of assessing other people, judging someone's weight by how they walk, how they carry themselves. Judging someone's power based on the powerful people I’ve rolled with.

Someone can be very powerful and small as well as not very powerful and really big. Someone can be very strong and not know how to use it. The most surprising thing in jujitsu for me were those times when I would end up rolling with someone fifty or sixty pounds heavier than me or clearly stronger than me. And I would survive. More than that, if they were new to the sport, there would be very little that someone could do against me. It isn’t arrogance or confidence, but reality.

A mustard seed does not look powerful. They are tiny. If you spill them, they go everywhere and they are hard to clean up

The youngest brother out in the fields, who has never lifted a sword, that brother doesn't look powerful.

There are elements that don’t look powerful but carry tremendous power. Plutonium doesn't look powerful. We know it is powerful by reputation. We know it is powerful because of what you can do to transform it. We know it is powerful because of the radiation damage that it can cause. You don't even have to turn it into a bomb for it to be a deadly device, for it be deadly object.

A mustard seed is not powerful. The seed is very, very small. Mustard seeds can taste good after you transform them. You smash them together, mix in a little vinegar and turmeric, and get mustard. It tastes good on a sandwich.

The world understands power as domination. We should admit this. You have power over someone when you can dominate them. This functions, as well, in jujitsu. I've visited gyms in different cities. When you get ready to roll with someone, you have know idea how good they are going to be. People can look big or small. They can have upper belts or lower belts. You won’t know until you actually roll with them.

But it doesn't take long to realize whether you can dominate them or not. Is this going to be a challenge? Are we equally matched?

In that sense, it is power as domination. This is how power works in the world. This is how it works in the workplace. Maybe not explicitly, but the bosses, the owners dominate. This is how it works in politics. This is how it works between countries. This is how it works in the real world. Only the strong survive. The world keeps telling us this.

What does power look like?
The power of domination looks one way. The power of mercy looks another. The power of love. God’s power. God doesn’t need to dominate to show power. God is power. Instead, God shows power through weakness.

Jesus offers a different kind of power than the world. And this power can look even the size of the mustard seed. It's important here that we remember Jesus doesn't talk about the faith of a mustard seed, but faith the size of a mustard seed. This small. It doesn't take much faith to move a mountain. The famous mountain line is in Matthew, but the implication is still felt in Mark. Jesus says:

With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

So the real question is, why haven't we flourished like the mustard bush? Why haven’t we moved any mountains? Is Jesus just giving us a nice little metaphor to feel good about ourselves? Move mountains, like, you know, change hearts, you know, move mountains. Like, do good, do a little good, do a little more good than bad. Is this what Jesus is talking about? When we stick to the mark passage, we  can justify Jesus’s words. Look at our nice building! Look at the global population of Christian’s?

However, in the gospels, the only time Jesus is trying to make us feel good, we were already in a bad situation. If you are not currently in the valley of the shadow of death, the words of Jesus should convict you towards something greater, a life closer to the life you were created to lead. If we are satisfied with growing to be the size of a mustard bush, we should push ourselves to the mountain? How many mountains have you moved?

Are we moving mountains anymore? Have we humans ever moved mountains?

It is convenient to think of the past as a simpler time, a more faithful time, but history does really bear that out. Maybe we were told simpler stories, maybe we were simpler, but people have always been complex and life has always been challenging.

The Christian church has often shown a lack of faith. The church has sided with power as domination again and again. The church has sought relevance more than faithfulness. The church has sought social control more than souls transformed.
The church has often acted with faith smaller than the size of  a mustard seed. I include myself in this. I think we should all hold ourselves accountable. I'm not doubting your faith. Jesus is the one who puts us on notice concerning how much we believe.

There's a lot of Christianity you can do today without believing much. There's a lot of Christianity that fits very well with worldly ideas of power, with power as domination. There's a lot of history of the church is filled with domination.
Whenever we're holding on to that kind of power, we have no space for the power of the mustard seed, the power of love.

We must let go of the desire to dominate, to win, to rule, to conquer, to be right, to be better than the Joneses, to have the best kids, to have the best grandkids, to win at life, to have the greatest bucket list, to fill it all out, to have the healthiest life, to have the least problems, these constant desires to dominate, all of these desires point to an exceeding lack of faith. Every moment of domination of another is a denial of Jesus Christ. A faith the size of a mustard seed begins with letting go of domination.

In a moment, we are going to say the apostles creed together. If these things about God are true, what are the consequences? Am I living a life that would make sense if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? Or to word it another way, Do I live a life as if the world turned on its axis whenever Jesus rose from the dead? Or do I live a life of practical atheism that doesn't matter really?

My favorite kind of mustard is spicy mustard, the one with a Little kick to it. I think Jesus is compelling us to have a faith of spicy mustard, a faith with a little kick, a faith that does not compete, a faith that lets go of domination, a faith that thinks these things are true, a faith where Christ's love conquers all, A faith that doesn't seek to win, but to witness. A faith that doesn't compete with the past glories, but seeks the broken of today who need mercy, who need community and hope, who need something to believe in.

Jesus didn’t gather up the winners of ancient society. Jesus didn’t come for Caesar or the generals but for poor fisherman and tax collectors and lepers and widows.

The mountain moving faith is ultimately not ours, it is the faith of Jesus. That is the power. Jesus moves mountains with us. Jesus moves mountains in us. Jesus doesn’t give us magical powers to shift the crust of the earth. Jesus shares life with us and draws us into his life so that we live in him. We live in the one who moves mountains. As the prophet Ezekiel writes,

All the trees of the field shall know
    that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree;
    I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
    and make the dry tree flourish.
I the Lord have spoken;
    I will accomplish it.

Have a little faith. May we have a little faith in what God is doing here. May we step out in faith in what God is doing here. Even if we start small, may we flourish into who God created us to be. And if you are struggling now. If you don’t know where to go next, what to do, who to be, start with God’s love for you. You are loved and forgiven. You can be the greatest bush but you have to grow. Growing can have pains, but it leads to life.
Let God feed and water you. Let go of habits of self-destruction and take up habits of sacrifice and love and God will move mountains with you.

In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit.


site: sermons

title: Subterranean Hometown Blues

author: Wilson Pruitt

church: covenant-umc

series: After Pentecost

themes: expectations-as-baked-clay rejection-in-jesus-hometown transformation citizens-of-heaven spiritual-formation

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 6:1-13; Psalm 48:1-3; Jeremiah 18:1-4; John 3:16
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Drawing on Mark 6:1-13, Pruitt argues that real learning means embodying a truth, not just being told it, and that our expectations of people and of Jesus get 'baked' and hardened like fired clay. The Nazarenes saw only their preconceptions of Jesus, so he could do no deed of power there and was amazed at their unbelief. Using Jeremiah's Potter's House, Pruitt insists God can still reshape us. He presses a stark binary: are we citizens of Nazareth who expect something small from Jesus, or citizens of heaven ready to be transformed? He closes with repeated calls to receive Christ anew, to let go of living for self, and to expect Jesus to turn everything around.

**Illustrations:** chewing-mouth-closed, texas-school-testing-expectations, potters-house-jeremiah, hot-stove-burn

---

# July 7
## Subterranean Hometown Blues
## Psalm 48:1-3
## Mark 6:1-13

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within its citadels God has shown himself a sure defense.”
Psalms 48:1-3 NRSV

“He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”
Mark 6:1-13 NRSV

There is a difference between being told something and learning something to the point of embodying the idea or the thought. The most basic forms of this I find often when I look back on my own childhood or I look at my the childhood of my children. Being told to chew with your mouth closed only goes so far. Being told to close the door. Being told to not touch the stove. Directness doesn’t necessarily lead to learning.

Seeing someone chewing with their mouth wide open and seeing the food dribbling out. Also need to look and where it's like, wait a minute. This idea, this simple idea of chewing with your mouth closed, a simple manner, is not about me, but about how my actions affect the people around me. Holding the door open for a person, not touching hot stove, all these ideas, they need to be learned and embodied or else it doesn't matter.

Jesus rarely teaches directly. Paul does. Peter does, but Jesus doesn't. Jesus teaches mostly in parables. Or he teaches in ways like the Sermon on the Mount that challenge and convict people towards faithfulness. Jesus explains the parables in private to his disciples. When people are really with him, Jesus speaks directly.

In our gospel passage today, Jesus goes home. He ends up in his home town and tries to speak to the people but it doesn’t work. The people didn't hear him. They saw their preconceived notions of Jesus.

And this, my brothers and sisters, is life. We often don't listen to people. We often don’t see people. We see what we expect almost all the time. We see what we expect of people. We see what we expect when we meet someone for the first time. We see what we expect in our children, our neighbors, our friends. Your expectations live within status quo of our life in the world. It happens for grown ups. It happens for kids. This is why teaching and education is such a challenge. The child who is open and eager to learn, is well supported, well fed, hydrated, well slept, wants to learn. Teaching can be an absolute delight until we get to the level of administration of bureaucracy. That's a different sermon.

Or is it? It's really not. It comes back to the same thing because the frustrating world of administration and bureaucracy. It comes back to the way humans see our expectations. Administrators see what they expect out of teachers and out of kids. It is all about their expectations. When administrators in Texas public schools or any schools, structure everything around testing, categorize all the kids based on their expectations of testing results, the pie has already been baked. You can't bake it again. Or to use a more biblical metaphor, the clay has already been baked.

But this, my brothers and sisters, is the point. We've all been baked. We've all been shaped by our circumstances and our surroundings. You already see the world a certain way. You already see the people around you a certain way. I do, as well. No matter what age we are, we have been fixed in our ways and it is hard to see what we don’t expect to see. And yet there is hope for us.

In Chapter 18 of Jeremiah, we see a vision of the Potter’s House.

>This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

God reshapes us. There's hope for you even when you have already been baked. God is not finished with you yet.

Jesus went to his hometown, And their expectations of Jesus were already baked. Jesus reverses the process. So often, people read the Bible looking for what the Bible can do for them.
They're told the Bible can do something for them. They're told that they can receive something from this book. They're told directly Jesus will save your life. Jesus loves you. Jesus does these things.

I tell people directly. I try to preach this message, and yet our expectations of Jesus get baked and fixed, and they're hard to move. They're literally hardened. Our expectations can be shaped in such a way that when God does something, we react like the villagers of Nazareth.

Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that he has been given? Is not this the carpenter?

Jesus replies and shows us the stakes involved in our expectations. Sometimes we think it doesn't matter what we do, and Jesus will just help us whenever we're ready for it. But then Jesus says here, prophets are not without honor except in their hometown, and among their own kin and in their own house, and then Mark writes that Jesus could do no deed of power there.
The villagers in Nazareth expected something small.
And they got something small. Jesus laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.
At other times in the Gospel, people are amazed by Jesus, but here, Jesus is amazed by the people. Jesus is amazed by the people of Nazareth. Jesus is amazed by their unbelief.
Are we amazed by Jesus and what he can do or is Jesus amazed by us and what we don’t believe?

What is our expectation of Jesus? What is your expectation of Jesus? If Jesus is a stranger to you, it's probably pretty low. It's based on your experiences of his followers. Many times, it could be very negative.
Christians have often been poor examples of Christ. People grow up in the church and are told one thing about God and then they see another thing in the lives of Christians. They see unbelief. They see hypocrisy.

When you look at yourself, what do you see? Are you a citizen of Nazareth? A citizen of heaven. This is the stark binary Jesus offers us. Where is your home? It's not about other people.
It's not about what they do. It's not about people on TV. It's not about politics or debates or the future of this country or this world right now. What are your expectations of Jesus? What are your desires of Jesus?
What are your desires for your life? Do you want God to do something small so there's not much disruption going on. Do you want a few things healed but not much else to change.

Or are you ready for the son of God to enter your life and to turn everything around? Are you ready to be a new person?
Because that's what Jesus does when he enters a place, when he enters a town, when he enters a heart, he transforms it.

I mean, the people aren't ready for it. He is amazed by their unbelief. It can seem like they had one shot at Jesus, and they missed it. It can seem kind of deterministic in this.

What about the people of Nazareth? Sure. They rejected Jesus, but doesn't he, in turn, reject them? Are they punished eternally for one mistake?

I think it's fitting in Mark how we have this passage about Jesus going to his hometown and being rejected immediately followed by sending the missionaries out, the disciples are sent out in pairs. I imagine that Jesus sent a pair to Nazareth. In all of this, is our sympathy with the folks of Nazareth who rejected Jesus or with the disciples?
Is our expectation of ourselves in this story that we are the rejectors of Jesus that want another chance to accept him again and again and again? Is Jesus amazed by our unbelief? If God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but everlasting life. Why are we making such a small space for God in our life? As the psalmist says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God.
You are loved. Jesus has come to your house and to your town. Even if you grew up with Jesus, even if you grew up in the faith, Don't let those expectations limit what God can do in your life. God can do more. You are worthy of more.
You are worthy of mercy, of forgiveness, of transformation, of a life lived for others, of a comfort radically shifted from the expectations of the world. You're worthy of a life where you are not comfortable unless you are serving, unless you're giving, unless you are offering. You are not comfortable unless you are sacrificing. You are not surprised by Jesus transforming people. You expect it, you offer it, and you receive it.
Receive it this day. Don't let the dust of the angels of God be kicked off in your doorstep. Receive it this day. Don't look for another way. Don't stick your hand on the pot and get burned in order to learn that there's danger.
Receive it this day. You are loved. God is love. Let go of living for yourself. Let go of it.
It is unnecessary. Hold fast to the god who is love, who offers himself to you. He has come to you. Receive him anew this day. Receive him afresh this day.
Receive him in such a way that you can be changed. Let us do that together. Let us encounter our lord. Let us receive his word.
Let us go forth afresh, anew, a fire ablaze, and a heart. That God is love, and in him, there is no darkness at all.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

method: authored, not translated

license_apparatus: CC BY-NC 4.0


title: Take Up Your Cross

themes: take-up-your-cross self-denial messianic-fulfillment son-of-man identity-in-christ evangelism

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 8:27-38; James 3:1-5; Philippians 4:8; Luke 12:16-21
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preaching on Mark 8:27-38, the sermon recovers the shocking meaning of 'take up your cross' by likening the cross to carrying one's own electric chair to execution. It traces Jesus' question at Caesarea Philippi, Peter's confession and rebuke, the messianic secret in Mark, and Jesus' fusion of the Messiah and Son of Man prophecies. Self-denial means killing the desires and false sources of self-definition (work, family, sports, politics) that cannot save us, and a critique of 'lifeboat evangelism' that focuses only on saving oneself. Drawing on Andrew of Crete, U2, the rich fool, and Philippians 4:8, the call is to find life by laying it down and following the God who is love.

**Illustrations:** electric-chair-cross, andrew-of-crete-cross, yall-versus-yinz, rich-man-storage-units, u2-still-havent-found, longhorns-cowboys-meaning

---

# September 15
## Take up your cross
## James 3:1-5
## Mark 8:27-38

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will face stricter judgment. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is mature, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a such a small fire!
- James 3:1-5

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
 - Mark 8:27-38

The cross meant something very different in the time of Jesus than it does today. State executions don't usually use electric shares anymore, but I think an electric chair is the best modern example of the cross. It is an instrument purely of death. But imagine if you had to carry your own electric chair to your own execution if you're condemned to death. You have to carry the electric chair from one side of the prison to the other while everybody is watching. The town comes out, not only to see you die, but to see you carry that chair.
It doesn't matter how physically weak you are in the moment, you have to carry that chair.

For Jesus to say these words, take up your cross, means, at its heart, to take up the instrument of your own death. And not just a natural death, to take up the instrument of your own execution.
These are striking words in so many ways in the modern world. We have evacuated the cross of its terrible meaning and so the power of the cross within our imagination has been diminished. As an old preacher, Andrew of Crete, once said,

>Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.[^1]

The power of the cross of Jesus Christ is constant. The variable is found in how we understand it and seek it. We are the ones who turn it into kitsch and hollow it out, but the power is still there.

Before we get to Jesus’s claims about the cross, we need to see where he starts. Jesus does a lot in a short amount of time, here in Mark 8. At first, he asks his students, who do people say that I am?
And the students give some examples. I like to translate mathates as student instead of disciple. Disciple comes from the Latin translation of the Greek, and it also means student. Like a good teacher, Jesus asks his students a question and they give him an answer.
And then he hones the question down, who do you all say that I am? Who do y'all say that I am in Texas? Who do yinz say that I am? If you live in the Pittsburgh area.

Peter responds, you are the anointed one. You are the Christos. You are the Messiah. There is no reward for Peter in Mark as there is in Matthew. Instead, Jesus asks them not tell anyone.
It is a curious thing in Mark that Jesus, over and over again, asks his disciples not to share about him. The Jesus in the gospel of Mark is not a very good evangelist. He is constantly trying to tamper down the message. I think a major part has to do with Jesus's understanding that his life doesn't make sense until after the resurrection. And so his goal in the ministry of his lifetime is not to reach as many people as possible, but to prepare people for the new world to come after his resurrection. The life Jesus lives only makes sense after the resurrection.
Jesus is not a utilitarian, he is not trying to to save the most people in the most efficient way possible. That is not what he is seeking in the gospel of Mark. He's not trying to gather as many followers as possible.
It is all purposeful. Peter gives the right answer, but Jesus doesn't want the whole world to know yet.

Soon, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue talking about the son of man, who is a figure alluded to in the book of Daniel and Ezekiel.

So Jesus is talking about these passages from the prophets and trying to explain what they mean.

Jesus isn't equating the Messiah, being anointed, with the son of man, he is talking about a different prophecy. The Messianic prophecies happen, especially in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah, the son of man is a different prophecy.
But Jesus fuses these two in himself and he's not ashamed to teach about the tribulations of the son of man.
One of the unique things about Jesus here is that he merges these two prophecies, the messiah and the son of man, into one. All our hope is realized in God become flesh in Jesus.

Peter hears Jesus’s words in the midst of these others in the synagogue and rebukes Jesus. He rejects Jesus. Jesus said that the son of man is going to be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the writers, the scribes.
And then Peter rejects Jesus through his rebuke. Peter has good reason to, he doesn't want his rabbi, his teacher to suffer, but Jesus in turn says, get behind me Satan, for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things. Peter is thinking about the human consequences of Jesus's words and not the divine ones.
Not the divine meaning or import. And so he's acting like the accuser there. Like Satan. Peter has a wicked spirit and Jesus calls him out on this.
This is the point when Jesus makes his radical claim. He calls the people around him. He's in the synagogue, so he calls people around him again and speaks in a different tone.
>If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross.
Let them deny themselves and take up the instrument of their own destruction. Pick it up and then follow me.
And here we have an explanation of what this means.

>For those who want to save their life will lose it. Those who lose their life for my sake will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and yet lose their Soul?
What do you get?

>Those who are seeking to save their life will lose their life. Those who are seeking to save their soul will will lose their soul and those who lose their soul for my sake and for the sake of the good news, will save it.

## Evangelism Critique
I think there's an implicit critique here for a lot of the ways evangelism has taken place over the last 2000 years and now people have shared about the church. What I would term lifeboat evangelism. Lifeboat evangelism is trying to convince people to become Christians by focusing exclusively on saving themselves or out of a concern for saving themselves.
The great example is the question:
Where will you go if you die?
Jesus has words here about that question. God offers us life everlasting, a dwelling place with many rooms.
But our life to come is centered on God, not our own skin.
If you are trying to save your life and save your soul, you will lose it. This works beyond evangelism, beyond the faith.
If you are trying to save yourself with other things, with your job, with your family, with the longhorns, with the cowboys, with politics, and by save here, we could also say give meaning, if you are trying to give meaning to your life through these external things, you will lose it.
If you're trying to give meaning to your soul, it's not going to work. It will fall short.

Denying ourself means letting go of these tools of self definition that destroy us, that can't save us. They can feel good and they can feel like purpose and they can feel like peace, but it is a false peace.

## Parable of the Rich Man
Like the parable of the rich man who had so many things that he needed to build more storehouses for his things. He didn't have enough space to put away all his stuff, so he bought a storage unit and then another storage unit and then another storage unit, and then he said, Soul, you've done well. But then that very night his life was taken from him and all of those things did nothing.

Denying ourselves and taking up the cross is not simply about wearing a cross or about being unselfish. It is about killing those desires that keep us from love. It is about looking at your life and realizing what you don’t need.

There is an old U2 song that can help here.

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

We will keep looking until we find Jesus. When we find Jesus, we will find what we were looking for. Jesus is sufficient

If Jesus is the word of God made flesh. If God is love and in him there is no darkness at all, and so Jesus is love embodied. Jesus is all love with no remainder. He also shows that our bodies are capable of love without remainder.

All good things in this life, all truly good, positive experiences are good in the way that they reflect Jesus.

All of that heady theology for this one point: when Jesus asks the people in the synagogue to take up their cross and follow him, he is saying that he is enough and that you are enough. The cross is an instrument of death to the world, a terrible death. The only way to pick it up willingly is by faith. To give yourself away you truly find yourself because to give yourself away you find Jesus, the Lord, the giver of life.

By realizing that Jesus is the one whom we are looking for, it is not to discount other interests, but that Jesus is the answer to Paul’s request in Philippians 4:8
> Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Jesus has already said yes to you and nothing can separate you from him. We are called to be his students. To learn from him. And one of the biggest lessons is letting go of what we don’t need. This makes us see something beautiful in the cross because the death it marks is no longer to be feared. As Andrew of Crete wrote,

>Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation—very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honorable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.[^2]

 So take up your cross. Take up your electric chair. It may be an instrument of death to the world but it is nothing next to the power of God. Take it up. You don’t need to protect your things. You are offered what really matters and it doesn’t need to protecting. The more you hoard, the less you have. The more you give, the more you receive. Find your life by laying it down,

And follow the God who is love by loving, by serving, by praying, by giving.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[^1]: Andrew of Crete
[^2]: Andrew of Crete


title: The Baptism of the Lord

themes: baptism-of-jesus repentance humility prevenient-grace unworthiness-before-beauty holy-spirit infant-baptism

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 1:4-11; Genesis 1:1-5; Luke 1:26-37; Zechariah 12:10; Zechariah 13:1; Matthew 28:16-20

> Preached on the Baptism of the Lord, this sermon reads Mark 1:4-11 alongside Genesis 1 and the annunciation to argue that the natural human response to God's beauty and power is a sense of unworthiness, like John feeling unfit to untie Jesus' sandal. Pruitt distinguishes humility (which positions us rightly and allows growth) from self-pity (the envious twin of pride that freezes us). He explains metanoia as both repentance and conversion — a turning that begins our part only because God's prevenient grace turned to us first in Christ. The decisive gift John could not give is the baptism of the Spirit, by which Jesus is anointed Messiah and empowers the baptism his disciples carry to the world. The sermon closes on a Methodist theology of baptism as God's unrepeatable gift (hence infant baptism and no rebaptism), leading into a baptismal remembrance ceremony.

**Illustrations:** waynes-world-not-worthy, groucho-marx-club, mary-annunciation-fear, sandal-untying-servant, beauty-that-humbles, baptism-not-paint-job

---

# January 14
## The Baptism of the Lord

When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
 - Genesis 1:1-5

so John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the whole Judean region and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
 - Mark 1:4-11

When we are confronted by what is beautiful, one of the most natural reactions that we can have is a sense of unworthiness. A beautiful sunset, a beautiful painting, a beautiful piece of music, a beautiful person. It is like in the classic movie from over 30 years ago, Wayne’s World, when Wayne and Garth meet the heavy metal musician, Alice Cooper. They are inspired to idolatry in bowing down to him and saying over and over again, “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”.

They are inspired not by his physical beauty but by the beauty of his music. Not everyone finds Alice Cooper’a music beautiful, but they do and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. They find themselves inadequate next to what they see as beautiful. Before we can know if something is good or true, we see it to be beautiful. We sense that something special is going on, even if we do not know what that is.

When John the Baptist meets Jesus, he feels unworthy to untie the man's sandal. Now, Sandal untying would be a servant’s job. You don’t take off the shoes of your friends but the shoes of your masters. It already admits a giant gap but John doesn’t feel he even qualifies for servant hood.

There is a deep symmetry here between John the Baptist and Mary when the angel Gabriel comes to her and she is frightened. Fear and unworthiness are very similar emotions that manifest in comparable ways by freezing us in place. We don’t know what to do next. We see that when we go back to Luke 1 when the Angel comes to Mary

Mary and the angel. Luke 1:26-34

”In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”“
Luke 1:26-37 NRSV
https://bible.com/bible/2016/luk.1.26-37.NRSV

Both John and Mary are able to admit their insufficiency next to the beauty and glory of God. It is the insufficiency we all face when confronted with the reality of God.

A deceptively powerful argument against the existence of God works as follows, if God is so great and powerful, why would God care about me? Since I am so weak and insignificant. I call this the Groucho Marx argument, I would never be a part of a club that would have me as a member.

We must admit a certain lack of proportion between God’s power and ours. Who are we compared to who God is?

We see with both John and Mary, as well, the difference between humility and self-pity. Were John and Mary filled with self-pity, no argument from Jesus or Gabriel would have made them agree to the request. Self-pity closes us off from others. Humility positions us properly next to God and others. Humility allows for conversation. Humility allows for growth.

Nevertheless, no matter who we are, when confronted by the power of God, we can deny it, we can ignore, or we can begin to let God change us.

You see, in the journey of life, if we begin with who we are and what we do, we get into trouble pretty quickly. In those moments, we try to fill the God-sized hole in our life with all sorts of fleeting things, with money, with power, with goals, with friends, with family, with many things that may have good in them but which in themselves cannot save us.

Metanoiete, says John. Metanoia is Greek for conversion. It is also Greek for repentance. Repentance and conversion are the same word. Repentance and conversion are the same thing.

We walk along the path one way. This is life. We are going somewhere. It may not be straight, but it is going somewhere. Then we turn around and go in a different direction. This turning is called conversion.

The journey is not finished at the turning, but we must start there. God doesn't start there. God is already working in us from before we even know it. We call this prevenient grace. The grace which comes before. God is working on us and God is working on the ones we love: By working, I mean loving, for the work of God is love.

Metanoia, repentance, conversion is when our part begins. When we turn, we can be easily frightened by the chasm between us and God, by the stunning beauty of God's love which reveals the depth of our own inadequacy.

If Mary let fear consume her, we would not have Christmas. If John let fear consume him we would not have Christ's baptism. The story does not end at fear, it does not end at feeling inadequate, it does not end at saying sorry, because conversion is never about feeling sorry for yourself. Self-pity is the other half of pride. Self-pity is the other half of narcissism. Repentance is not self-pity. Repentance only happens because of humility. It is looking out at the Matterhorn. It is looking at the Pietà or the David or St Peter's or the Grand Canyon. Self-pity is the response that does not move. It is the response of envy.

God does not let us wallow for before we turned to God, God turned to us in Jesus Christ.

Today we celebrate the baptism of the Lord. We celebrate John the Baptist saying yes to Jesus. John was the forerunner, the friend of Jesus. He was confronted by the beauty and power of the Messiah and he said yes not only to receive, but to give.

The baptism which John gave was not identical to the baptism we offer today. Before he met Jesus, John was proclaiming a baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. One of my teachers even connected it to Zechariah 12:10 and 13:1.

”And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.“
Zechariah 12:10 NRSV
https://bible.com/bible/2016/zec.12.10.NRSV

”On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.“
Zechariah 13:1 NRSV
https://bible.com/bible/2016/zec.13.1.NRSV

This all sounds good and beautiful. The baptism of repentance and forgiveness is a major part of our theology of baptism, but it misses an integral notion that only Jesus brings: the baptism of the Spirit.

This is why John is intimidated by Jesus. This is why he feels that he is not worthy. This is why there is a prophecy of one who is stronger. John isn’t super impressed by Jesus’s squat or bench press personal record, it is because Jesus baptizes with the Spirit, which shows his power over the evil spirits of the world. We’ll talk more about evil spirits on January 28 if you are interested.

The baptism of Jesus also marks the point when Jesus becomes the Messiah, which means anointed one. Jesus is anointed by the father through the Spirit at this moment. Jesus receives the anointing of the Father and he blesses the water of forgiveness that he will command his disciples to give to all the world in Matthew 28.

Baptism is a gift to be shared and work of God. It is not a work of humans. God includes us in this work, but we are not the prime movers.

Baptism is a gift. As Methodists, we Baptize children because we believe baptism is a gift of God. This is also why we don’t rebaptize people because God does not make a mistake. You can be baptized and sin again. Baptism isn’t like a new paint job that needs a touch up from time to time. Baptism is a new person. You are buried in Christ’s death and rise in Christ’s life. You are made new and this new you does not go bad.

In a few minutes, we are going to have a baptismal remembrance ceremony. If you wish, during this time, you can come forward and I will mark you with the water to remember your baptism. If you were baptized as an infant, you may not have a memory of that day, but you remember the people who were with you. You at least remember your parents. Remember that day by remembering them. As well, your memory does not save you. God saves you. God was with you then. The same God is with you today.

Let us pray,

Add baptismal remembrance prayer.


title: The Bread of Life: What Are You Hungry For?

themes: bread-of-life spiritual-hunger holy-communion atonement faith-as-seeing calling-and-unity bearing-one-another

scripture: John 6:24-35; Ephesians 4:1-6

text:
**Scripture:** John 6:24-35; Ephesians 4:1-6
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preached on Communion Sunday, this sermon pairs John 6 with Ephesians 4 to ask 'What are you hungry for?' Distinguishing what we crave from what truly satisfies, it presents Jesus as the bread of life who alone satisfies the restless heart against a world that breeds dissatisfaction. Faith means seeing plain communion bread as heavenly manna; received together, the table gives love, community, purpose, and salvation. Echoing Paul, the congregation is called to walk worthily, bearing one another in love.

**Illustrations:** child-bedtime-thirst, oliver-twist-please-sir, room-for-dessert, chips-and-salsa, weeds-by-the-roots, augustine-restless-heart, bucket-list, bull-fu-man-chu, hawaiian-bread-communion, milo-of-croton-calf

---

# August 4
### Ephesians 4:1-6
### John 6:24-35

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. - Ephesians 4:1-6

So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us, then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

John 6:24-35

There are different levels of hunger we each have faced. There are different levels of thirst. We have all been hungry before. Some of us have been in situations where we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from. Others may not have been in those specific situations, but you have been hungry. Same with thirst. All of us have been thirsty before. Even if it is just on a plane as you get ready to land and you forgot a water bottle and there is a malfunction at the gate so you have to sit there for an extra hour. You get thirsty. It is not the thirstiest you can be, but it is still thirst.
As far as rankings go, the second thirstiest person is someone who's been in the desert for a day without water. Their body starts shriveling. They can barely open their mouth. This is the second thirstiest person.

The thirstiest person in the history of the world is every child at bedtime. This is one of those things nobody teaches you about children before you become a parent. The desert cannot match the incredible thirst of a child before bedtime. Can I have a little water? Every child becomes Oliver Swift, “Please sir, can I have some more?”

Children also exhibit phenomenal variations in hunger. When snacks or desserts are available, they're starving. When a sit down dinner is available, oh, there's, there's just not much room, until the dessert comes. And then as every child, every parent knows, every child knows there's always room for pie. No kid is ever too full for ice cream. It doesn't happen. Many kids are too full for broccoli, but never a cookie.

There are some things in our life that we need that we are hungry for. There are some things that we want that we are hungry for.

Our metabolisms also change throughout life. The metabolism of our twenties is not the metabolism of our forties. We may have the same hunger, but our body processes food differently. There are many other factors which impact our hunger. How much sleep we get? How much exercise we get? How much stress we have in our life? There are also our genetics and our historic relation to food.

Throughout scripture, hunger and thirst are used often both literally and metaphorically.

What are you hungry for? What do you desire?
There are  two ways of asking the question of hunger: what are you hungry for and what will satisfy you? These are two different questions. A lot of times, what we're hungry for is not what will satisfy us. I love chips and salsa. I have mentioned this before. When I was in college, I would go out to eat with friends at a Mexican food place and order a water and only eat chips and salsa. I was hungry for it, but it was not satisfying. At the end of the night, my stomach would have words with me about my dietary choices, and since my only dinner was chips and salsa, I would be hungry an hour later and need to eat again.

I think this is how we need to understand what Jesus is doing in John six.
The bread of heaven is what will satisfy us. Everything else falls short.
This is a radical claim of Jesus's. It's radical in a literal sense. The word radical comes from the Latin word for root; it goes to the roots of something, or to pull something up by the roots. A radical transformation is something where the roots have been changed as well. It's not just on the surface. If you have a bunch of weeds in your yard, if you all pull up the green parts and not the roots, it will look different. The bed will look nice for a little bit but those weeds will come back.

Jesus is trying to radically change our understanding of hunger and thirst. Jesus is trying to pull out the weeds of worldly understanding roots and all.

We live in a world that tells us to be unsatisfied, that tells us to be dissatisfied. That tells us to question ourselves, to doubt ourselves, to doubt where, where we live. To doubt what we do, to doubt our friends.
It is a world that that desires us to always want more, seek more, be more.
This is the the state we are all in apart from God. It is the place we find ourselves before we consume the bread of life or drink the cup of salvation.

In the words of Saint Augustine, our hearts are restless until they rest in you of Lord.
This is the heart of faith. The salvation and deliverance of Jesus Christ brings us to the place where we no longer desire more and thirst for more because we have received what we need.

When Jesus talks about being the bread of heaven, those who eat will not hunger, those who believe in him will not thirst. It doesn't say drink him. It says believe in Him. Those who have faith in him. We eat the bread of salvation. To drink the cup, we believe that Jesus is God. That the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has kept the promise to save the people, and not leave them behind. The one God is fully revealed, laid bare to us, in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah.

What do you want? What do you hunger for? What do you long for?

Some people have a bucket list. The first recorded mention of the phrase “bucket list” was in 1977, but it was extremely rare. I used the Google nGrams to find this so it literally could have been a list of buckets for sale and not the idiom we know today. It was 2005 would the phrase ballooned in popularity and by 2008 there was a film starring Morgan Freeman with the same title. Bucket List refers to a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket.

People list out places they want to visit, people they want to see, things they want to do. Not needs, but wants.

What do you hunger for? What do you want to do before you die?

The radical call to faith that Jesus is making here is to realize that if you believe Jesus is alive and that God raised him from the dead, take and eat of this bread and drink of this cup and you will be satisfied. There will be nothing more that you need. This is the bucket list. Here. This is everything. All the good of all the things we do in this life are found here. The beauty of that beach sunrise. The joy of our child’s graduation. Skydiving. Rocky Mountain climbing. 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu. All those experiences and emotions or vestiges and imprints of the love of Christ for you found here.

It is all at this table offered to you freely. That is what Jesus means by never hunger. "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”

This is salvation. This is deliverance. This is rescue. It is all a gift offered to you like bread on a table, like juice in a cup.

From one perspective, this table looks plain. It looks like Hawaiian bread with Grape Juice and a few gluten free crackers. It does not look like a meal that is going to fill you up. Very few people could fill themselves up on one trip down the communion line. This is the worldly perspective. This is the perspective that is hard to satisfy.

In another perspective, we can look at this table with the eyes of Jesus and see heavenly bread. See manna given by God. Manna that gives us what we need. Manna that satisfies our souls and not our bellies.

What do we need? We need to be loved. We need community. We need connection. We need purpose. We need to be saved from destruction. We need to be saved from destroying ourselves. We need to saved from the manipulations of this world and the lies that tell us that we are never satisfied.

The lies that tell us that we will be loved if we do these things. If we earn this. If we satisfy others. If we do enough. If we save enough. If we get enough.

It is a leap of faith to see this bread through the eyes of Jesus. It is a leap of faith to see beyond the obvious. It is a leap of faith to see beyond the lies the world tells you about yourself.

The amazing thing is that you don’t need to take the leap alone. You are not alone. We are together. We come to the table together. We seek Jesus here together.

You have been called. For some of you, that may seem strange to hear, but it is true: you have been called here. You have been called by God or else you would not be here.

Throughout the Bible, the term walk is used to describe the journey of faith. Walking around, more directly.

Because we were called to this table, we should walk in the way of the one who called us.

As Paul says,

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love

Come to the table with humility and gentleness. You have been given everything here. You have been given salvation. You have been given life. What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your life?

Come to the table with patience. Be patient with yourself. Be patient with the people in your life. Patience is a gift of faith. It takes faith to be patient. It takes thinking beyond what you immediately see. Like coming to this table and seeing bread and realizing it is Jesus.

Come to the table bearing one another in love. It is hard to carry another person. There is a story about an ancient Olympic wrestler, Milo of Croton, who would carry the same calf every day between Olympics that took place every four years, and by the time the next Olympiad came about, he could carry a 4 year old cow on his back. He won wrestling five times in a row starting in 532 BC.

Some of the people we bear in life weigh like a calf. Some weigh like a four year old cow. The call of Jesus is not bear as long as it is comfortable but to bear each other in love. The call is not to bear the heaviest burden in order to show how strong we are, but to bear what God gives because God does not give us too much and God never gives it to us alone. Again, this is an act of faith. It is believing more in God than in your own capabilities.

It is all here, as Paul continues:

there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Because there is one God, we who are many are one with the bread of life. It is all here.

You have done enough. You have worked enough. You are good enough. You are forgiven. You are welcome. Come to the table and share together so we can go forth and walk in a manner worthy of our God who first called us.

All are welcome. All you need is here. Life is here. Purpose is here. Eternity is here. God is here. Come.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: The Concrete Faith of Thomas

series: Easter

themes: doubting-thomas the-wounds-of-christ faith-as-seeing the-poor-and-the-presence-of-christ easter-works-of-love vulnerability

text:
**Scripture:** John 20:19-31; Hebrews 11:1; Luke 23:42-43; 1 John 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
**Series:** Easter

> An Easter-season (Second Sunday) sermon on John 20:19-31 reframing Thomas not as a failure but as a model: the disciples who saw and believed are no different from us, and Jesus pronounces a greater blessing on those who believe without seeing. Drawing on Hebrews 11, the thief on the cross, and 1 John, the preacher argues that faith is conviction of the unseen, yet honors Thomas's 'concrete faith' that needs to touch the scars. The risen body still bears the wounds of Good Friday; we touch those scars today by serving our neighbors, seeing Jesus' face and wounds in them. The call is to be resurrection people who, comforted in affliction (2 Corinthians 1), comfort others.

**Illustrations:** terminator-nude-arrival, celebrity-dinner-party, peter-john-foot-race, time-machine-to-jesus

---

# April 7
## The Concrete Faith of Thomas
## John 20:19-31
”When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.“
John 20:19-31 NRSV

The story of Thomas the Apostle is the story of us today. Jesus is talking to us. It's a question of faith. In Hebrews, faith is defined as the assurance of things looked for, the conviction of things unseen. Faith is something you do not see.
You cannot see it. You cannot touch it. Hold it. You believe in something in this fashion. The thief on the cross believed in this fashion. He said, “Jesus, remember me. When you come into your kingdom.” Jesus responded, “Truly, today you shall be with me in paradise.”
But when it was all over, Joseph of Arimithea got the body of Jesus and the thieves, both the good thief and the one who mocked Jesus, their bodies were thrown into a mass grave. Three days later, the tomb was empty
At what precise time did it become empty? This is one of those questions to which the Bible never give us a good answer. When did the tomb become empty? It's hard to say. No witnesses were inside the tomb when it took place. It was most likely early on that morning of the first day of the week. The body which had been dead and buried, got up and walked away.
The same body, the wounded body of Jesus, the body of Jesus that had been whipped, that had been nailed, that had been stabbed, this same body got up and walked away.
Jesus could have been naked at this moment. I could imagine it, in some kind of sense, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies. When he comes back from the future timeline, he is tastefully shot and nude and the first thing he does is he goes is looks for some clothes. I don't think Jesus went and stole the clothes off the back of the people like the Terminator, but it doesn’t seem like he was wearing clothes when he died. The Bible says that the guards stripped him and split up his clothes by lot. Artists put a loin cloth on him for decency’s sake, but they probably took it off when he was taken down from the cross. He's got no more use for it. They wrapped him in the linen that Joseph had. What does he need underwear for now?
Instead of going into the mass grave like the two thieves, Jesus is taken to a nearby tomb in a garden on the hill and a stone is placed in front of him. They don't complete the burial that day because it's the day of preparation and the Sabbath is coming and they just don't have the time, but they get him in the ground as soon as possible following Jewish custom. Then he gets up and walks away.
In the gospel of John, during the resurrection account, there's this great moment of this foot race between Peter and John. John is always coy and calls himself the beloved disciple. Needless to say, he wins the foot race in the gospel where he calls himself the beloved disciple..

John's Gospel is the only one that has any of the disciples eagerly going to check on the tomb. It is also the only Gospel with this scene about Thomas. Thomas gets both a fair wrap and an unfair wrap.
I’ll start with the unfair wrap. I mean, it's not fair that Thomas missed one dinner and Jesus happened to show up that night. It's like if you have a regular dinner party with friends and Tom Brady or Beyonce or Taylor Swift show up the one night you don't make it. You're like, “Guys, why didn't you text me? I would have come.” I mean, they didn't have text messages for Thomas, but I think if they did, he would've had that similar reaction. Like, “Guys, text me next time. If Jesus is showing up, I'm dropping what I'm doing and coming to see Jesus.” And then all the other disciples are like, “So what you missed it, why don't you believe us? Yeah. We saw Jesus. You trust us, right? Thomas is unsure.

 And again, as if you had a regular dinner party with friends and this big celebrity came, you might be a little cautious towards credulity when your friends first mention it.
So the next week, Thomas is with him this time, and Jesus shows up again. And here's where Thomas gets a fair wrap. Here's where the doubting Thomas really comes in. It's not during that first encounter. It’s the second one. It's the second one when he sees Jesus. He sees Jesus, but that's not good enough. He needs to touch the scars of Jesus. Only then, will he believe. Thomas does so, and then he bows down. Jesus says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

This is where Jesus is talking about us. You didn't know you were in the Bible. You are right here because the other disciples saw and believed; they're in the same boat as Thomas. There's nothing different. Jesus showed up and they believed. We are the ones who have the chance to not see and believe. And there is a greater blessing offered for us. Hard to believe, but that's what Jesus says.
Maybe some of you have had the thought, at one point in your life, “I wish I could just see this Jesus guy, then believing in him would be a lot easier.” Or, you know, “I wish I could just take my kids in a time machine to see him, and then they would definitely believe in him.”

Jesus, instead, shows us that faith, the believing and not seeing, is something of deep value to God and is offered to us.

As well, there is space for Thomas in our world today. Not the other disciples, who are kind of snooty about things. No, for Thomas, for someone who is credulous about it, someone who needs to touch the scars. Someone who believes in the scars, believes in the resurrected possibility of the scars. Someone who has scars themselves.
One of the miracles of this moment in John is that we see that the resurrected body of Christ still bears scars. The scars of Good Friday are not erased. The scars of the cross, the scars of the spear, the scars of the whip, are not erased.
Some people need to touch Jesus before they believe. John even talks about this in his first letter where he says “We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.”
And this is my word of encouragement for all of us, whether we're doubting or not, we touch Jesus by serving our neighbors. There's this amazing transmutation that takes place through the power of the Holy Spirit, that we see the face of Jesus, we touch the hands of Jesus in our neighbors. We touch the scars of Jesus and the wounds of Jesus in our neighbors. And that can seem intimate. That can seem vulnerable. That can seem uncomfortable. But we do not do it alone. We do it together.

## Conclusion
My brothers and sisters, in this Easter season, may we be willing to live out resurrection in new ways. May we have confidence that Jesus was talking about us that day, that we who believe without seeing have more of God through that faith. Faith is not simply the capacity to understand. It goes beyond that. It is this assurance, this assurance we receive by believing when we don't see, and yet still, may we seek the concrete faith of Thomas that still seeks to touch Jesus. That still seeks to put our hands in the scars. It takes faith to touch the scars today. We may feel like our scars aren’t scar enough, but as Paul says in Second Corinthians,

>Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.

We have a purpose. Let us be this kind of resurrection people. Let us seek out the hands inside of Jesus. Let us touch the scars.

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of the glorious resurrection of your Son our Lord: Give us this day such blessing through our worship of you, that the week to come may be spent in your favor; In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: The Cup

themes: servanthood atonement confirmation scripture-interpretation passion-of-christ christian-community love-not-domination

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 10:35-45; Job 38:1-7
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preached on Confirmation Sunday, this sermon reads James and John's request to sit at Jesus' right and left not as selfish scheming but as a genuine desire to be great alongside Jesus. Jesus reframes greatness as servanthood: the cup he offers is a life of service and obligation to all, and his ransom (lutron) frees us not for worldly power but for the freedom of love. Pruitt urges the congregation to let Scripture speak rather than read into it, celebrates the confirmands and baptisms as commitments to self-giving over power, and calls the whole church to be a mutually dependent team living out the Prayer of St. Francis.

**Illustrations:** paris-olympics-family, olympics-history, school-success-opportunity, jacob-winks-his-way, mexican-food-dinner-pick, lutron-ransom-word, shot-putter-flavor-flav, prayer-of-st-francis

---

# October 20
## The Cup
### Job 38:1-7
### Mark 10:35-45

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up your loins like a man;
    I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
    and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? - Job 38:1-7

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” - Mark 10:35-45

My family really enjoyed watching the Summer Olympics this year from Paris. It was the first time all of us were into it at the same time. We all had different sports that we really liked to watch. Ephraim was into track events and the sprinting. Alina was really into women’s rugby. Dominic’s favorite event was in the paraolympics: it was GoalBall. I was really interested in the judo, because I know the rules now from practicing jujitsu. And it was great to see just this excellence, these amazing athletes going back and forth. People striving to be the best, to be the greatest at this one thing.

The modern Olympics started in 1896. The ancient one lasted for more than a 1000 years, beginning in 776 BC and lasting up until 393 AD. Greek history was demarcated by the Olympic games. Even into the Roman times, the Olympics were a way to demarcate the passing of time. The Olympics then and now contain people striving to be the best.

Most of Olympians have this drive in them that is unique. That drive to be the best is not necessarily bad. There are a lot of goods that come out of striving for excellence.
You know, we want our kids to succeed in school, to be successful in school, to strive for excellence because that opens up for them many more opportunities later in life. They have more freedom to follow a life that they would like to lead. This is a good thing.

## Mark

In the gospel of Mark in chapter 10, John and his brother James are striving to be the best. I think that's how we should read this and understand it. They are not looking for a handout. They are not trying to make an easy buck or get an easy position in the organization. These are men who have given up everything to follow Jesus.

A lot of times, this story is told as if James and John are trying to wink, wink, nudge, nudge their way into glory. I don't think that's the case at all. And I don't think that they're disappointed in what Jesus has to say. There are other people in the Bible who would try and wink, wink, nudge, nudge their way to glory. Jacob is a great example. Jacob is trying to get out of working in order to get what he wants.
But James and John, I mean, they already gave up everything to be where they are. They're really not striving for worldly glory. They really want to be with Jesus.

Now usually, when this text is preached, there is talk about how important sitting next to someone was in ancient cultures. We need to understand that a lot of that is speculation. We're reading into what's going on in the text when we define what Jesus didn’t define. We're often tempted to do that. I mean, it was a long time ago. But I think it's always important for people today, when they're reading the Bible, to let the Bible speak to them and not to speak into it. Because that gives more opportunity for the the word of God, for the spirit of God present in the text to speak to us, to transform us. The more we put into the words, the more we define the meaning with extra biblical resources, the less space God has to move in us. It's like trying to pick a place to eat for dinner, and you first tell your spouse, “I want Mexican food,” and then there are a few more requirements. “…but not like too fancy Mexican food, but not too trashy Mexican food. It's really gotta have, like, a good enchilada, but not like that greasy an enchilada.” Suddenly, there are not that many places you can pick. There's not a lot of space for freedom.

## Mark Again
When we get back to Mark, the important detail here is the cup. Sitting next to Jesus is a mark of wanting to be excellent, of wanting to be great. We see that in his response. We understand what they're striving for. They're wanting to be the best. They're wanting to be important in a specific way, in a way of service in the power of God and love, these things which are good.

Not every goal is worth striving for. To be the laziest person in the world is not a goal worth pursuing. But being the most loving person on earth, that's pretty darn great. Right?

But there's a catch. This is the catch that Jesus is trying to point out. To be the most loving, to be the most giving, this pursuit may have some consequences in this world. We don't live in a vacuum. We are not an island to ourselves. My behavior effects my neighbors. And their behavior affects me.

In the secular world, in ancient times and then still today, there's a level of greatness people seek that gives them authority over other people. And this is where the catch is. The power found in the presence of God is not worldly power. It does not give you worldly authority. Jesus said, you know that among the Gentiles, those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you.
Instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.

Obligated to everyone. That's the catch. That's the part that James and John don't quite realize that they're asking for. What they're asking for is a life of servitude, which seems to be the very thing that people who are trying to be great seek to avoid. A life of servitude is a life without as many options, without as many opportunities, without as many choices. And then Jesus ends it with this in Mark.
For the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Ransom is a is a Greek word, lutron , which is found at one other place in Matthew 20. And it's, uh, comes from the the verb to lose.
It's a payment that loosens, that releases someone from bondage. That's what Jesus gives. Jesus frees us from sin, but that freedom isn’t the freedom of power or domination. It is the freedom of love.

Today is confirmation Sunday. I'm honored to preach this day to share in the decisions these young people have made for their life. Decisions that may look strange to some. The decision to claim their faith in confirmation is not a decision to seek power in this world or to seek glory from their friends.
It is a decision to say that giving of themselves is better than receiving. The life of love is better than the life of destruction. The god is Triune. The god is real and offered not only to them, but to the world. We're also baptizing two young people today.
Baptism is an act of God. It's not an act of humans. It is a gift of God, which is why we baptize infants in this church. Is offered by God. It is a free gift. So why should we withhold that free gift?

If we go back to the Olympics, the folks who qualify for the Olympics, they were the ones who were in the arena. They were the ones who had to perform, but they had people who trained them, training partners, coaches their friends and family that supported them. Some were in lucrative sports.
Some weren't at all. There was one of the US female shop putters was in Paris and couldn't make rent 'cause she, she wasn't getting anything out of it. She got the ticket over there, but she wasn't making extra money. And it's like the old rapper, Flava Flave came out of nowhere to sponsor her, cover her rent. While LeBron James and Steph Curry make millions every year, she struggled to follow her dream, but she followed it.

What Jesus is saying here in Mark 10 is that to be a Christian is to be a part of a team, to not seek to be beyond the team, beyond the people around you.

Following Jesus is not about dominating the people around you. Even dominating in love, for domination itself points to a fall from grace. It points to the very brokenness in this world that Jesus came to heal.

These people whom we have prayed for this morning, these people we lift up, they need us to continue to pray for them, to continue to lift them up, and even more so, we need them. We need them not just as reminders of our own youth or our own children. We need them as Christians. We need them as the church. We need them to step up in leading, to take on ministry, to take on service, to give, to welcome, to witness.
We need to learn from them about who Jesus is. It is a relationship. It is a dialogue. This is the faith. Paul uses the term Koinaneia, fellowship, brotherhood, sisterhood, community. All this together, wrapped up in servanthood and love around the person Jesus Christ, who gave his life for us.

So, as we celebrate this day, as we pray for them this day, let us commit to learning from them. Let us commit to teaching them,  to including in the full life of the church and let us commit ourselves to step into the full life of the church with our presence, with our service, with our gifts, with our financial support. It is not somebody else's job. It is not somebody else's responsibility. We are all each called in this way.
Let us give thanks to God for these people, but God has brought into our life and let us not disappoint them by acting any less than the people God called us to be.

The choir sang an anthem based on the prayer of Saint Francis. These words can guide all us, whether we are being confirmed or have been Christian’s for decades

>Lord make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
And where there is sadness, joy.

O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive-
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit on Amen.