title: Maundy Thursday

themes: new-commandment foot-washing holy-communion humility self-giving-love pride remembering-the-dead

text:
**Scripture:** John 13:1-17; John 13:34-35; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18
**Series:** Lent

> A Maundy Thursday sermon on John 13. The title comes from the Latin mandatum: Christ leaves a new commandment to love one another, continuous with the Shema and Leviticus 19 but stripped of the comparative 'as yourself' and replaced with Christ's own example. The sermon weaves together foot washing and Holy Communion as two tactile, embodied gifts. Communion has a low barrier (all welcome at Christ's table); foot washing has a high one, exposing the lines we draw around what we will and won't do. Both call us to humility, overcoming the pride that refuses to kneel for others or to let others serve us. Christ gives himself ('eat me, do this') so we are not consumed by pride and sin. The new commandment does not change God but changes us, freeing us from sin and pride for love. Closes with a prayer to do, not merely know, the call to serve even enemies.'

**Illustrations:** lines-we-will-not-cross, groceries-pride, communion-vs-footwashing-barrier, do-i-have-to-hell

---

# Maundy Thursday

”Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.“
- John 13:1-17

Something new is taking place this day. Something that none of the disciples have ever experienced.
Christ leaves for his friends a new commandment, a new mandate. This is why the day is called Maundy Thursday. It is from the Latin mandatum, a translation of the Greek entôle
A new commandment I leave to you: love one another.
Earlier in the gospels, Jesus was asked: What is the greatest commandment? He responded with the Shema: Here, Oh Israel. The Lord your God is one. You shall love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength. And this is also the greatest. He then quotes from Leviticus 19, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
When Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you, he's not making something up from scratch. There is clear continuity between the love commandments and John 13. What is absent is the self. We no longer have any comparative in love. We no are longer asked to love as ourselves.
We have, instead, the example of how Christ lived and loves. This is what we are given at the table of the Lord.
It is an action for us to do in a remembrance of Christ. In one sense, it is a memorial. In another sense, it is a recapitulation of Christ's offering for us. Christ is present in a fresh way every time we receive him at the table, and Christ will be there for us.
He gives us an amazing treasure in the table of the Lord. He also gives us an amazing treasure in the practice of foot washing, of burying ourselves with others.
Our feet go in dirty places. Our lives go in hard places. We’ve all had times of disappointment. Our expectations have been shot through, and we have had times when we have disappointed others and that shame is hard to bear. Only by grace can we reveal it. Sometimes it is revealed by the simple act of taking off our shoes.

Even when we don't admit them, we all have lines that we draw around our own behavior. We have things we're willing to do and things we're not willing to do. Through the community in which we are all in, through church, through our family, in all sorts of ways, there are things that I do. These are things that I don't do.
Often, when preachers talk about moral codes and ethics and things like this, it's about right and wrong and about don't murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery. It's the 10 commandments. We can bring those out. But today, tonight, the words of Jesus are not about sins or ethics as they are commonly understood. The words of Jesus are: do this in remembrance of me.
Communion is one of those practices that has a low barrier of entry. We give communion to those who seek it. Every time we serve communion, I say that “this is not a United Methodist table. This is not this church’s table. This is Christ’s table.  All are welcome.” Low barrier. Just come forward. I don’t give a quiz about metaphysics. I offer it freely.
Foot washing has a much higher barrier of entry. Some people are comfortable with it or have no personal image issues or care issues about their feet. For others, it is a line that they are not going to cross. There's a line, it is something they are not going to do.
And the irony is that sometimes it goes both directions. I may be comfortable washing your feet, but I'm not taking my shoes off for anyone. Not going to do it. You don’t have to do it. Though oddly, in faith contexts, necessity is quite stark. We have add to the words of Jesus something like this: “do I have to? If I don’t do this, will I go to hell? No. Then it is not for me.” Necessity presents the life of faith in a minimal light with a focus on what I get out of it. Jesus doesn’t say do this or you’re going to hell. He says, Do this in remembrance of me.

Foot washing is a symbol of humility. More than a symbol: it is an act of humility. It takes humility to get on your knees for another person, to help another person.
The sin of pride goes both ways. You can be too proud to ever get on your knees for another. You're not that kind of person. And you can be too proud to ever let anybody wash your feet. You can be too proud to ever ask for help when unloading the groceries and you can be too proud to go forward and offer help when you don't know how they will respond.
The washing of someone’s feet is tactile. It is not a necessity but an opportunity to connect more with the God who is love who became flesh for us. The God who is love who washed his disciples feet with his hands. Jesus touched them. Then, at the lord’s table, Jesus offered himself in a tactile way so that we can touch him. Communion is tactile. You touch the bread. You taste the bread. You touch the juice. You taste it. Communion is not just about a nice snack In the morning or the evening. Communion is a weird thing to do.
It is a weird practice that only becomes a normalized if you've done it a lot. Why are we doing this?
Jesus says, this is my body here. My body for you, this bread Is not just bread. It is me and I give it to you. I am the son of man, I, the word made flesh. I, the second person of the Trinity who became flesh as a child, Lived your experience, suffered your worries, your hungers, your pains, was tempted as you are tempted, but did not fall. This is me offered for you. Not just once. We're not done. Do this. Mandatum. Do this to remember me. Eat me. Consume me. I will be with you so that you will not be consumed by your pride, by your lust, by practices of destruction, by desires of the heart that lead astray.

Jesus offers a new commandment. A new mandatum. This is where Maundy Thursday comes from. A mandatum, a mandate, a commandment.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””
John 13:34-35 ESV

And the love Christ speaks of is not just a metaphor. It is concrete. It is tactile. And that means the lines we used to have about what we will or will not do no longer have power over us.

Eat me. Do this. My blood is here for you. Take it in your hands. Touch it, Not just this bread, but your savior,.
Not just this juice, but my love My all for you. If I give myself this way, what limits are left for you? You are free Taste and see the Lord is good. Do this in remembrance of me.

Christ offers himself to us. He is freely given to us. He gives us a command to love one another in a concrete way. He shows us how to do it: he washes his disciples’ feet. We have to let Jesus wash our feet. We have to open up to him, even the dirt. We have to accept him at the table. We have to follow him even in strange places.

On this day, may we see that the commandment that has been offered in a new way does not change God. It changes us. We are asked to live to a far greater level. And that commandment is not a burden, but a gift. A gift of a life not chained to sin. A gift of a life not chained to pride. A gift of a life freed for love, freed in order to love one another.

Let us pray,
Oh Lord, you call us to wash feet and serve in the hard and the messy. You call us to serve others without glamour and without acclaim. You call us to leave the table where we might be served and to do for others instead. And not just to serve those who love us. You ask us to serve my enemies with equal compassion and humility. Lord, you know this is not our nature.  You know how we seek the comfortable and the lovely and the self-affirming. But you have not only modeled it; you’ve command it.  “Now that you know these things.” Now we know. Knowing isn’t so hard. It’s the doing. Help us, Lord, to do. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


site: sermons

title: Not Easy to Watch

author: Wilson Pruitt

church: covenant-umc

series: After Pentecost

themes: scripture-interpretation truth-telling john-the-baptist-as-forerunner passion-of-christ resurrection-hope congregational-decline

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 6:14-29; Matthew 15:22-28; Psalm 127:1; Psalm 69:1-3; Mark 10:17-22
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preaching on the lectionary text of Herod's beheading of John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-29), the sermon argues that difficult Scripture, like difficult films we avoid, must be faced because God finds us in the murk of life, not only its Christmas-card moments. Herod's lies expose a truth worse than the lie itself, and his rigged court prefigures the unjust trial and death of Jesus. The preacher insists Christ saves all of us or none of us, that resurrection only makes sense if we refuse to skip the cross, and applies this to Covenant UMC's 43rd anniversary and its real facility, financial, and ministry challenges. Hope lies in a God not silenced by sin, so the congregation is called to name their challenges and lay them at the foot of the cross.

**Illustrations:** difficult-films-vs-action-movies, lectionary-vs-self-chosen-sermons, covenant-umc-43rd-birthday-challenges, rich-young-ruler, canaanite-woman

---

# July 14
## “Not Easy to Watch”

“King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.”
Mark 6:14-29 NRSV

When I was in my twenties, I used to love watching great classics of world cinema: Kurosawa, Truffaut, Godard. It was enjoyable to see the history of film, to watch movies and languages in which I was not an expert.

Today, it feels like a lot of work to watch an “important” movie. I don't really feel like watching a movie that is difficult too much anymore.
If Alina is in a work trip and the kids are asleep, I watch bad action movies with simple plots. Go from a to b to c, and that's it.
You may have never gotten into foreign films, but I imagine that for a lot of us, if we're gonna watch a movie or a show, we're not really looking for something super difficult at 9 PM on a Tuesday. Life is difficult enough.

Life is difficult enough that it can be hard to read passages from the Bible like our gospel reads by for today. We have Herod and his daughter and the death of John the Baptist. This is not a passage of the Bible that is used for VBS. It's not one of those passages that people hold up on signs at football games. Nobody paints this on their eye makeup. Nobody is putting Mark 6:14 with a hashtag under their social media profiles. People usually don't come to church on Sunday morning in order to hear about a prophet getting beheaded, but that is what we have here.

When I first started ministry, I preached the lectionary. And then I went through this cycle of planning these elaborate sermon series on topics of my own choosing that I felt were relevant to the lives of the people in the church. I was trying to help take people from a to b, but the preaching and writing was too focused on me and my ideas and I needed to center myself more on God than my own plans
The lectionary is a series of texts of the Bible split up over 3 years. It doesn't cover everything. I wish it did, but most people aren't really ready sit and hear a 15 minute scripture readings. And so they split it up a little bit.
The lectionary gives you a text to preach. You don't get to pick it; you receive it. You have to wrestle with it and deal with it. And like, many aspect of life, I feel like when I get to choose, I choose the easier path. I wouldn’t choose Mark 6, in the beheading of John just like I wouldn’t  choose to watch a difficult movie at 9 PM on a Tuesday.
Were I left to myself, I would probably choose a nice parable or a nice verse of Paul. Maybe a nice story about the young life of David. But, no, we are given a wicked king, this creepy relationship with his wife and daughter, and the prophet who loses his life. What are we to do with this?

This passage reminds us that God finds us where we are, not where we wish we were. God finds us in the murk and complication of our life, not just in the Christmas card or wedding photo moments of our life. When we read the Bible only for the nice and easy parts that make us feel good, we ignore those parts of our life that don’t feel good.

Christ doesn’t just save the good parts of us. Christ either saves all the parts of us, or none of us.

Mark 6 is worth thinking about even beyond simply being difficult. Herod hears a rumor that John the Baptist has returned from the dead. Clearly not everyone had heard the full story about what had happened to John the Baptist. If they had seen the head, maybe they wouldn’t have spread such a rumor.

But Herod is stuck because if he tells the whole truth, he looks like a creepy, scary, easily manipulated person. All of the people would see how weak he was and no longer acknowledge him as king.

Herod can’t tell the truth because it would expose a lie. The lies of his life go deeper than the surface.

This isn’t a simple action flick with a plot that’s easy to follow and a satisfying ending that makes us feel good about ourselves and the world. This isn’t a nice romantic comedy where the protagonists end up together after all the misunderstandings have been sorted out. The truth is worse than the lies.

The lie Herod promulgated is that John the Baptist was arrested and executed for disobedience, most likely. Herod was afraid of John. Herod knew that John was a holy man, but John had spoken against Herod marrying his brother, Philip’s, wife. Herod’s respect for John did not keep the king from arresting the baptizer. He didn’t want the truth of the whole affair to be let out.

The truth is that the king was manipulated, first by his wife, and then by his wife’s daughter into beheading a man beloved of the people.

How are we to respond to the reality of the lies we tell about ourselves and the world?

But like all of the Gospels, Mark 6 should never be read isolated from the eventual suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Mark 6, no matter how sour a taste it may leave in our mouth, gives us a foretaste of the eventual suffering and death of Jesus. We think about Christ’s death during Holy Week. We name Christ’s death in the creed and during communion. We sing about it and pray about it, but we don’t often linger with it.

Even during Holy Week, it is difficult to linger on the suffering of Jesus. It is easy to linger on the consequence of Christ’s suffering, on the resurrection, on the salvation he wrought for us.

So when we look to Mark 6 and the death of John the Baptist, we need to see the death of Jesus. We need to see the trial of Jesus.

We often try to give an aura of respectability to the trial of Jesus but the reality of it was just as dirty as Mark 6. Pontius Pilate holds no moral superiority to Herod. Both systems were rigged and unjust. One is a little more salacious than the other.

Christ died in a broken world and broken system. But his death is not the end of the story and John the Baptists death was no the end of his story.

We believe in a God who is not silenced by sin and destruction. We believe in a God is not excluded from a world by corruption and hatred. We believe in a God whose power is greater than all the brokenness and all the destruction and all the anger and all the lust and all the powers and principalities of this world.

We must admit and confess the times that our story and our life has been one of brokenness and sin but that is also not the end of our story.

These dark moments, though, should not be forgotten. The hard moments. The difficult moments to watch. The more we erase the difficulties of our life from memory, the less we give to Jesus.

The rich young ruler wasn’t desperate for Jesus. He had enough. He followed Torah. He cared an adequate amount. But when he asked Jesus what he must do, the answer wasn’t what he wanted to hear, so he walked away sad because he had many possessions.

The Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 did not walk away from Jesus. Matthew writes:

> He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. - Matthew 15:22-28

Jesus saves us from the midst of a broken world. Jesus doesn’t save full stop. Jesus saves us from the brokenness and self-destruction of this world. And that brokenness hurts and it is tempting.

Just like it is tempting to skip over a “serious” or “important” or “difficult” film in place of something you are more in the mood of. The thing is, we are rarely in the mood for challenges until we find ourselves in the midst of them or we find our loved ones in the midst of them.

Today we are celebrating the 43rd birthday of Covenant United Methodist Church. There have been a lot of wonderful things to celebrate over the last 43 years. There have also been some challenges. We are currently facing some challenges. Not like John the Baptist or Jesus on the cross, but they are not the movies that make for easy Tuesday nights. We have an aging campus with a number of roofs that will need replacing. We have the stucco on our walls that is separating and could separate further and cause eventual foundation issues. We have been replacing AC units but we will have to replace more of them. These are just facility issues I have been thinking about this week.

We have financial challenges that don’t go away. We are spending barely any money for expenses, as I lead the praise band and directed the choir in the spring, and yet our expenses are still greater than giving every month. Times are hard and I am grateful for every cent graciously given to God’s ministry, but if we believe in a God of resurrection, we can’t avoid the reality we are in, no matter how difficult.

We have challenges of ministry. We need to reach our immediate neighbors. We need to build relationships with the schools next to us. We need to connect the food pantry clientele to the life of the church and be welcoming for spiritual needs as well as physical needs. We need every single member making time to serve at least once a month.

We have challenges but we are not without hope.

As Psalm 127 says, unless the Lord builds it, in vain do the builders labor.

We believe in a God of resurrection. We lift up a holy book where there are challenges which are not dismissed. The Psalms are filled with challenges greater than Mark 6.

Psalm 69.

>Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.
I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.

If we ignore the challenge, we miss the story. If we ignore the cross, we miss resurrection. If we ignore sin, we miss new life. But sin is not the end of the story. Challenge is not the end of the story, for Jesus or for us.

We need to face them and not ignore them. We need to speak clearly and honestly and not dismiss them. But we are not our worst. We are not our challenges. We are children of God. Redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ for a purpose in this world.

If you are in the midst of challenge. If you are in the midst of movie you would rather skip, God is with you. We are with you. You are not alone. You don’t need to pretend to have it all together. None of us do. And the world which causes us to lie and cover up the challenges wants us to fail so that we could need it more.

Let it out. Let’s take a moment to let it out to God prayer.

Name those challenges and lay them at the foot of the cross. We need not ignore them, but we are also not defined by them. You are free. You are redeemed. You are loved.

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: Opened Eyes

series: Easter

themes: resurrection-appearances bodily-resurrection purpose-of-the-church repentance-and-forgiveness servanthood messianic-fulfillment

text:
**Scripture:** Luke 24:36-48; John 20:24-29; John 20:30-31; Romans 14:21; Acts 1:23-26
**Series:** Easter

> Preaching on Luke's resurrection appearance, where the startled disciples mistake the risen Jesus for a ghost, Pruitt notes Jesus goes beyond offering his wounds to touch (as with Thomas in John) by eating broiled fish to prove his physical resurrected body. A digression on his unpublished seminary research into Bible diets concludes there is no Jesus diet: Scripture focuses not on what you eat but on whom you eat with. Jesus then opens the disciples' minds to all of Scripture, summarizing the gospel as the Messiah's suffering, rising, and the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness to all nations, notably absent of heaven, hell, and church committees. From this Pruitt draws the church's purpose: service (touching Jesus' wounds), fellowship (breaking bread), and worship/proclamation. Acts' casting of lots for Judas' replacement shows church order and committees, while not the heart of the gospel, still matter for gathering the body of Christ. He closes calling the congregation to be the church together, serving, fellowshipping, and worshiping with opened eyes.

**Illustrations:** soap-opera-resurrections, doubting-thomas-wounds, seminary-bookstore-job, bible-diet-manuscript, daniel-plan-diet, acts-casting-lots-judas

---

# April 14
## Opened eyes

–While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.“ - Luke 24:36-48 NRSV

It is hard to imagine what it would be like to see someone alive again after you thought they were dead. Some movies and TV shows have normalized this to some extent, especially if you have ever watched soap operas that have characters who would die and come back over and over again.
The reality of someone coming back from the dead would be one of the most jarring experiences imaginable that doesn't happen very much in human history.

The people standing there when Jesus showed up didn't respond as they thought they should. They didn’t have poise. They reacted. They were scared and their first thought was that he was a spirit. It translates here as ghost, but it's the Greek word pneuma for spirit, something not material.

Then Jesus does what he did last week with Thomas, but he goes a step further. Last week, we read about doubting Thomas in the gospel of John chapter 20 and how Jesus appears to the disciples. Some of them see him, one of them doesn't. Thomas comes up later and is like, “Hey guys, what's up?” And they're like, “we just saw Jesus.” And he is like, “No you didn't. I don't believe it until I touch his hands and put my hand on his side.” And so the next week Jesus shows up, And Thomas doesn't believe until he touches the wounds and then, but he believes good for him, okay? Here in Luke, Jesus offers for them to touch his wounds. And then he goes a step further because even after touching his wounds, they don't believe. And so he is like, “Hey, are you guys eating fish? Lemme try some of that fish.” So Jesus eats some fish. This is the one moment in the gospels where Jesus eats.

There wasn't a lot of comment upon Jesus' diet in the gospels. Jesus doesn’t have much food advice for us.

When I was in seminary one summer I took, I took Hebrew in the mornings and then I worked at a campus bookstore in the afternoons and it wasn't, it wasn't connected with the seminary. So it was like all the students came and there was, when there were still new Harry Potter books coming out and there was one coming out that summer and Duke used to have a bunch of camps in the TIP program where kids from all over the country came to campus if they got a certain PSAT score. And a lot of those gifted and talented kids were really into Harry Potter. Spent a lot of time trying to talk to me about Harry Potter. That was most of my customers during the summer. The other major customer base was professors with poor social skills bumping into each other or the walls and shelves because they were reading a book.

But mostly, it was a pretty low pressure job. I had a lot of time on my hands; not a busy environment. So I worked on researching a book about food and dieting in the Bible and I got a full manuscript on it. I never really edited it. I mean, this is almost 20 years ago now.

One of the things I looked into came about because my parent were talking to somebody at their church about what I was doing and they said, “oh, it'd be great to know what the Jesus diet would be or the Bible diet.” After studying the scriptures with a focus on this, I came to the conclusion there is no Jesus diet. Jesus doesn’t give one weird trick to lose ten pounds.

I mean, I know that somebody sold millions of copies of this thing called the Daniel Plan, which is basically Atkins and Paleo marketed for Christians.
The dietary concerns of the Bible mostly take place in Leviticus and in Torah and following the kosher laws. And this is dismissed and this vision that Peter has in the Book of Acts.
But the Bible doesn’t hold on to eating whatever you want. Paul tells us in Romans that if you're with somebody who's not eating meat, you shouldn't eat meat. You shouldn't harm the witness just because you want to do what you want. The relationships you make are more important than the food you eat. The Bible doesn’t focus on what you eat. The Bible focuses on the people with whom you are eating.
And all that gets us to this one moment where Jesus eats a specific food. The point is not the fish. The point is not that Jesus is promoting a fish only diet.

Spirits can’t eat. Everyone knows this. Spirits don't need material sustenance. You could touch them, maybe, but they definitely wouldn't need to eat.

Jesus eats with them. He eats with them and opens their eyes. Then, as his eating, he explains all of salvation history to them. He explains Moses or Torah, the first five books of the Bible. He explains the prophets. He explains the Psalms, what a Bible study to be a part of!

And then Luke gives us the explanation of what all the scriptures come to. Thus it is written that the anointed one of God is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day. And that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.
That's the story.
You know what's missing from the story? Heaven, hell church committees, many other things, but I'm just gonna focus on those three. Heaven, hell and church committees. They're not here.
We have Jesus summarizing his own good news as proclaimed throughout the scriptures. The Messiah is to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And that repentance, the repentance of the Messiah's suffering, death and resurrection and that forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in all nations beginning in Jerusalem and all peoples it has been offered.
The point of the Bible is to offer repentance and forgiveness of sin to the world.
John says as much in his gospel when he writes at the end of chapter 20, if all the books in all the world, all the books in all the worlds could not contain the actions of Jesus Christ. But these things were written so that you might have life abundantly. This is what is offered.
This abundant life is offered, a life of mercy and repentance, a resurrection life lived out. In Luke, Jesus shows the scars. In Luke, Jesus eats the fish. In Luke, Jesus shares the explanation of all of the Bible to the people. We have all of this. We have the purpose of the church given here in in all its ways.
We have service. It starts with service. The purpose of the church starts with service, with touching the wounds of Jesus. And we have fellowship eating together, breaking bread together to show that we are human, to show that we are alive and then we have worship.
Then we have the proclamation of God's good news of mercy and forgiveness in this world. It's all here.
In the book of Acts, the story of Luke continues. That is the story of the people who follow Jesus. It doesn’t go so great. It starts on a high note when Jesus ascends into heaven.
Then we have the first church committee meeting in the second half of Acts one. I'm not even joking here. The disciples cast lots to see who will take the place of Judas. They have an open committee assignment and the nominations team decides to go with the draw lots strategy, kind of risky.
But what it does show is that bureaucratic things matter, that the ordering of the church matters. It doesn't always work out right, but it matters. It's not something to be dismissed.
I mentioned how church committees weren't a part of the gospel explained in Luke 24. They are not. Church committees are not the heart of the gospel. However, church committees are a part of the story, the gathering of the body of Christ, the ordering of God's people towards these things, towards serving our neighbors, towards fellowshipping and growing in faith towards worshiping and studying the scriptures. There are ways of helping us be organized in that way so that we are not each an island unto ourselves, but called to be the church together.
My brothers and sisters, may you feel called to be the church together.
May you feel called to love together. May you feel called to serve together. Whether you're, if you're not a member of this church, may you feel called to join us in this journey. Join us in this journey of serving our neighbors. Join us in this journey of breaking bread together. Join us in this journey of worshiping our Lord together.
Let us give thanks for this journey. Let us give thanks for this day. Let us give thanks for our Lord Jesus Christ, who showed himself to his disciples, who showed his wounds and his scars, who ate with them to show his physical resurrected body and explained everything so that they would understand why he did what he did and what we are offered because of it.
May we receive forgiveness this day. May we receive mercy this day. May we receive his love.

Let us pray,

Heavenly Father, thank you for gift of mercy. Thank you for forgiving us. Thank you for opening our eyes. Thank you for showing us how to live. Thank you for showing us how to care. May we live with opened eyes to see as you see and love as you love. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. amen.,


title: Palm Sunday

series: Lent

themes: works-of-love means-of-grace self-examination methodist-identity serving-others

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 11:1-11
**Series:** Lent

> A Palm Sunday sermon on Mark 11:1-11 that frames Jesus' triumphal entry as a celebration of arrival that is not the end of the journey. Wilson develops the irony of Palm Sunday: the crowds praising Jesus don't know what they're praising him for, which mirrors how we often act without knowing our true motives. The real resistance isn't just to Good Friday's betrayal but to change and to love, since we tend to praise Jesus hoping he'll do the work so we can keep our status quo. He insists love is not a sentiment but a practice requiring discipline, grounded not in proving ourselves but in being first loved by God. Drawing on the Methodist tradition's union of faith and action, he presents the means of grace (prayer, scripture, fasting; worship, communion, holy conferencing; feeding and clothing others) as ways to meet Jesus here and now. The sermon closes with a Holy Week charge to self-examination, prayer, and concrete action, quoting Leo the Great and Andrew of Crete on Christ's self-emptying and our becoming the garments spread before him.

**Illustrations:** finishing-a-marathon, mallory-because-its-there, kennedy-moon-not-because-easy, singing-hosanna-in-a-crowd, love-like-riding-a-bike, iron-man-superhero-juice, atrophying-heart-lace-up-shoes

---

# March 24
## Palm Sunday
## Mark 11:1-11

”When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.“
Mark 11:1-11 NRSV

It is a great feeling to accomplish something, anything. Running a marathon, completing a family road trip, painting a room.

One of the great things about painting a room is that you can look at it and be like, “wow, that is different. I did that.” You organize your closet and you can immediately see a difference. Finishing a marathon is a great feeling. It doesn't matter how fast I went. It's like, I did that. I finished. People cheer you on and it feels great. It’s work to get there, but it feels great.

Today is Palm Sunday. It is a festival, a celebration. We are having a party today. That's a big aspect of the beginning of holy week.
It is a festival. If it seems like Lent has been going on a long time, it is actually over now. We're not in Lent anymore. We're in a different season. It is good to feast, to relax a little bit, to celebrate, to lean back in your chair. You just made it. The children waived the palms down the aisles. The eggs are ready to be found.
We are celebrating the journey that got us here. And Mark, chapter 9, Jesus goes up the mountain for the transfiguration. In everything after that, there is this steady build up and preparation for the entrance into Jerusalem. After going up the mountain, Jesus turned his face towards Jerusalem, and now he is there. And there's cheering. People are laying the garments down. There's a prophecy about a Colt or a donkey that they found, and he is riding on it as a Victor in the war. A long road brought him to this place, but the journey is not finished.

Jesus made it to Jerusalem. He did that. The people cheered him on. We can celebrate something amazing that has taken place, but the journey is not over. Jesus didn't have to train for his journey to Jerusalem. He didn’t go to the gym. He didn’t run hills.
He trained, for sure, but the long road to Jerusalem was about us as much as it was about him. It was about the disciples as much as it was about him. He had to prepare them for what was going to take place, and still they didn't get it.
Palm Sunday is ironic, but the irony of Palm Sunday is not solely found in the reality that the same people praising Jesus this day are going to yell, crucify him At the end of the week.
The irony is that they don't know what they're praising him for.
The irony of so much of the Christian life is found in those moments. When we don't know what we're praising Jesus for. The power of the crowds is effective.

You're in a group of people and they're all singing the same song. It feels great to sing the same song together. It is like a concert or a church service.. Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna

It sounds cool. Hosanna. It gives me a good feeling in my chest. I would probably join along. Or Maybe you have a fond memory of church. Maybe being in church makes you feel good about yourself and the decisions in your life.
Knowing why we do things is a lot harder than it seems. It's not just about church or Palm Sunday. Why do we do anything? Why do people exercise? There are a lot of reasons. Why do people run ultra-marathons? I don't know. Those people are crazy and love pain.
As Mallory said, upon being asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, “because it's there.” That sounds really cool but doesn’t make much sense.
Or what Kennedy said about the moon race, we do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. This also sounds great, but doesn’t make sense. It would be hard to punch the floor for an hour, that doesn’t mean it is a good idea to try and do that. There are reasons we tell people we do things, as well as reasons we tell ourselves, and these are often different from the real reasons we do anything. Yet for all of us, We usually don’t have a single reason to do anything. There are always numerous motivations. Some people make decisions with lists and analysis, others with their gut, nobody wants to say they are doing something because other people are doing things, but it can be the case.

The irony of the crowds praising Jesus is not just about what we're going to do. That is, it isn’t just about Good Friday. It really comes down to what we don't want to do, What we're not willing to do. And that is change. And that is love. We change what we want to change. We love whom we want to love.
We praise Jesus. We sing Hosanna for the one who's gonna do all the work for us so that we can keep the status quo of our lives. But the mirror Of Holy Week, in which we stare back at our own lives, must tell us that the status quo cannot go on forever. The paths we are currently on do not all end with resurrection. Some paths we walk lead to destruction. And it is a long road from Palm Sunday to Easter. The love revealed in Jesus Christ confronts us wherever we are on that road. Love is not just an idea. It's not just a fun feeling in your belly. It is a habit. It is like riding a bike. It is like long distance running. Love is not a sentiment. It is a practice. It is something you do. If you don't do it, you get bad at it.

It takes practice to run. It takes practice to paint. It takes practice to love as Jesus loves. It takes practice to love your enemies. It takes practice to forgive the unforgivable. And this practice is not a competition. Ours is not to compete with the people around us, but to see how far we can go because of who God is for us.

> Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death. [^1]

We don't love to prove ourselves to others, but because God first loved us. You are forgiven. Even if you came here for not the best reason today, you are forgiven and you are loved. So what are you going to do about it?
Covenant comes out of the Methodist tradition. And The best aspect of the Methodist tradition for me, is the way it connects a profound faith with a life of action. God meets us where we are, but God does not leave us there. Doesn't come down to you in the pits of despair and say, you're all good. And then voilà, You get a big shot Of superhero juice. And you're like in an iron man suit and you can do whatever you want. No, God meets you where you are, but God doesn’t keep you there. And he walks with you. So you are stronger. God stays with you, so you're faster. And then God compels you to look around and see who else is in a pit right now, who is in a pit like the one you used to be in? To whom can you go over in the power of the holy spirit to lift them up.
We call these the means of grace. There are some we can do by ourselves: prayer, studying the scriptures, Fasting, Not being controlled by our body. There are some we can do with others. Worship Communion, holy conferencing, which has gathered together as Christians and talking about what matters, How is it with your soul?
As well, there are some we can do for others: feeding the hungry clothing, the naked. These things aren’t charity as a separate thing. They aren’t ways to feel better about ourselves, but ways to see Jesus and meet Jesus. If you feel like you are forgiven and you have a new possibility of life, God is offering you a way to meet Jesus here and now, not just in the future. Here and now.
If you're not doing anything for others, you're not doing anything for yourself. You're not taking care of yourself. If you're not doing anything for others, if you're not spending time seeking those who are hurting, you are atrophying your heart of love, and it is going to be harder and harder to lace up your shoes again and go out.

During this holy week, may you have time to pray. May you have time to discern. May you have time to look at the mirror about ask yourselves how your soul is. What you need to do to respond to God's grace right now. We're here. We're in Jerusalem, but there's a long road to go. Thanks be to God. The the road is not so lonely. Christ walked that road for us. We are together.

> So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him.[^2]

Take the time this week, to call a friend, have a coffee, share about what you can do to live your life more in line with Jesus. How can you meet Jesus more? How can you let go of false expectations more? You are a beloved child of God. You have what it takes, because God is with you.

Let us pray,
Heavenly father, thank you for meeting us here. That you for journeying all the way to the cross. Help us to celebrate with you but also to walk with you in the journey of love, even when no one is watching. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[^1]: Leo the Great
[^2]: Andrew of Crete


title: Pentecost

themes: pentecost-birth-of-the-church ten-commandments salvation-by-grace early-church-community almost-christian scripture-interpretation

text:
**Scripture:** Acts 2:1-4; John 15:26-27; Acts 2:42-45; Acts 4:32-37; Acts 5:1-5; Acts 10:9-16; 1 Corinthians 13:1; Genesis 11:1-9
**Series:** After Pentecost

> A Pentecost Sunday sermon arguing that the Holy Spirit births the church as a community saved by faith, not by keeping a reduced moral code. Wilson contrasts the popular elevation of the Ten Commandments with the whole of Torah and with Jesus, who fulfills the law. Pentecost is the reverse of Babel: many languages gathered to form a temple of flesh. The early church's radical sharing of everything is held up as a neglected biblical witness, with Ananias and Sapphira's sin shown to be withholding rather than giving all. Drawing on Wesley's 'Almost Christian' and 1 Corinthians 13, he insists no amount of outward obedience saves; only faith and the Spirit's love do. He rejects the idea of 'biblical values' (progressive or traditional), naming the resurrection of Christ as the only value, and calls the congregation to empty themselves of expectations and share the Spirit's fire.

**Illustrations:** ten-commandments-capitol-monument, maimonides-613-commandments, ananias-sapphira-withholding, liquidate-401k-give-away, reverse-tower-of-babel, wesley-almost-christian, general-conference-media-presentation

---

# May 19
## Pentecost
### Acts 2:1-4
### John 15:26-27

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. - Acts 2:1-4

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.” - John 15:26-27

Why is there a copy of the 10 commandments on the state capitol
lawn and not a copy of the beatitudes? Why have schools and churches and other government institutions had copies of the 10 Commandments printed and posted and not the beatitudes? Jesus never once cites all the 10 commandments in any of the Gospels. He's never like, the commandments shall be 10.
The reason why they've been lifted up is strange if you understand what the first two commandments are.
Usually, when you think of the 10 commandments, you think about: you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not lie, the prohibitions of this sort. In this way, they're seen as almost this universal natural law that all people in all societies hold in some sort of way. All of us understand that you shouldn't kill. All of us understand that you shouldn't commit adultery. You shouldn't break a vow that you've made to another person. All of us understand that you shouldn't steal another person's property or covet another person's property. It makes sense. And yet those are only half of what's going on in the 2 commandments.

The first commandment is not even a commandment or a prohibition. It is: I am the lord your God. There's no grammatical way you can construe that into a command; nor is it a universal law. It may seem strange on Pentecost Sunday why I start with the 10 commandments, but it's one of those aspects of both Christianity and Judaism that has often been presented broadly to the world.
It doesn't take long for a non-Christian to think about Christianity and until they get to the 10 commandments. And yet again, these commandments have very little to do with Jesus Christ.
In one of the stories in the gospels, when the rich young ruler comes to Jesus, he quotes a few of them: Have you ever lied or murdered or committed adultery? And he says no.
But the law, the Torah, the way of God inscribed in the 5 Books of Moses, are by no means limited to the 10 Commandments. No Jew in history would ever think that the law is limited to the 10 commandments. There actually have been great debates in Judaism over whether you can count up the law at all. Maimonides, the great thinker in the middle ages, counted out 613 individual commandments in the 5 books of Moses. Other rabbis have argued continually against him throughout tradition saying, you cannot number the law of God. The law of God is singular as God is singular and one.

A lot of Christians have held tight to the 10 commandments because it's a way to hold on to the law and not all the other things, the rest of it. Not the ceremonial things. Not blending fabrics. Sure. We believe in the 10 commandments, but we don't think blending fabrics is a sin or eating pork is a sin.
Yet in acts 10, when Peter sees the vision of the angel that allows him to eat even nonkosher animals, this transgression is not just against the dietary restrictions of the Torah. There is no differentiation in ancient Israel between dietary, cultural, ethnic, and moral restrictions in Torah. From Genesis to Deuteronomy, there is no difference. It's all law. It’s all Torah.
Jesus said the law is fulfilled in him, but yet not one jot or tittle, not one iota would go away. The law has not gone away. We do not fill any aspect of the law: Jesus fulfills the law. Jesus is the culmination of the law.

From early on in the book of acts, which means early on in the history of the church, there has been conflict over interpretation of what is commanded. The early church shared everything together and they felt God commanding them to share everything. Ananias and Sapphira sold some land. They weren’t entirely honest with the church and they secretly kept some money for themselves. They didn’t bring it all to God.

I think about that today and how many churches commit the sins of Ananias and Sapphira. And it was a sin. People do it and churches do it. We all put limits on what we can give. I think it's important to read this story as if Ananias and Sapphira had good reasons. They were being fiscally responsible. They're trying to think long term, and they were struck down.

Conflict in the church today gets back to how we read the commands of God.

And this, my brothers and sisters, gets us to Pentecost. Pentecost is the birthday of the church. It is when the church is founded through the power of the Holy Spirit given to the people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate a feast day, a holiday.
Jews from all over the world had gathered. People of many different languages. People filling the streets. It had been many weeks since Passover, since the death of Jesus and resurrection of Jesus. Last week, we celebrated the Ascension. What is important to remember is that Jesus didn't do a lot of public ministry after he was resurrected. He served his friends, his disciples. He didn't go out to the countryside and preach and teach and heal as he had done before. He didn't reveal miracles as he had done before. He didn't even reveal the miracle of his own resurrection to many people.
No. He saved that for his disciples.
Before his ascension, Jesus said that he was leaving so that the spirit of truth could come and bring power, and that, my friends, is what happens at Pentecost. The spirit of truth brings power: the power to forgive sins, the power to unite people around who God is. Who God is for us. To unite people around what we should now do because of who God is for us. Pentecost is the reverse tower of Babel. At Babel in Genesis, the people are of one language, and they come together. And in their coming together, they see themselves as competing with God. And so God crushes their vanity and sends them around the world.
At Pentecost, people of many languages come together and God offers to build a temple of their heart in order to praise God. The new temple is not made with stone but flesh. It is freely offered at Pentecost because of how Jesus offered himself on the altar of the cross for us, and this satisfied all offerings. And made us holy and just. This is by faith.
For you have been saved by faith. As Paul says, it is not your own doing. It is not based on your following of the law. It is not based on your language or culture. You have been saved by faith.
Salvation by faith reminds us it's not about us. There's this amazing displacement that goes on in scripture where in finding God, we find ourselves, but in finding ourselves, we move beyond ourselves. We can no longer be centered on ourselves if we have found God. If we follow the biblical trajectory, we can never rest in ourselves. We must always move outward.
The people at Pentecost found God through the spirit. They found each other, and they acted. They built the church. They shared everything with one another. They shared everything.

Luke writes in Acts

“The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. All the believers were united and shared everything. They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them.”
Acts of the Apostles 2:42-45 CEB

They didn't hold anything back, and this was a witness for Jesus. Luke continues in Acts 4.

“The community of believers was one in heart and mind. None of them would say, “This is mine!” about any of their possessions, but held everything in common. The apostles continued to bear powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and an abundance of grace was at work among them all. There were no needy persons among them. Those who owned properties or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds from the sales, and place them in the care and under the authority of the apostles. Then it was distributed to anyone who was in need. Joseph, whom the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (that is, “one who encourages”), was a Levite from Cyprus. He owned a field, sold it, brought the money, and placed it in the care and under the authority of the apostles.”
Acts of the Apostles 4:32-37 CEB

All this was so until Ananias and Sapphira started holding things back.

“However, a man named Ananias, along with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. With his wife’s knowledge, he withheld some of the proceeds from the sale. He brought the rest and placed it in the care and under the authority of the apostles. Peter asked, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has influenced you to lie to the Holy Spirit by withholding some of the proceeds from the sale of your land? Wasn’t that property yours to keep? After you sold it, wasn’t the money yours to do with whatever you wanted? What made you think of such a thing? You haven’t lied to other people but to God!” When Ananias heard these words, he dropped dead. Everyone who heard this conversation was terrified.”
Acts of the Apostles 5:1-5 CEB

Their sin was not sharing enough. They gave, but not everything. Why is this not listed up as a sin in the church today? Why isn’t Acts 5 put on monuments to remind us to give everything to God? Why aren’t Christians known for this?
It's impractical. Right? It's impractical. Not enough people would do it, so we shouldn't promote it. That's it.
The Bible says share everything and God will be glorified. Don’t share and you will die. The Bible directly says it right here. The people shared everything, and it was good. This is a challenge even to our modern conception of property which goes against scripture. Modern ideas of property go against the Bible. But it would be impractical to challenge contemporary economics by taking Acts literally, so we don't follow it. Right? I mean, I don't know what would happen if I liquidated my 401k and gave it to someone who needed it more than me.

There's nothing in the 10 commandments about giving anything of ourselves. If the law of God to us is limited to the 10 Commandments, it just stays with us. We follow them all to stay clean. And if we look through all of Torah from Genesis to Deuteronomy. If we look through the whole bible and all the words of God simply as guidelines of personal behavior, as ways to act in the world, we are a clanging gong and a clashing symbol. As Paul says in 1st Corinthians 13, if we follow every little thing.

John Wesley, in his sermon, the almost Christian, goes even further than Paul.

>A second thing implied in the being almost a Christian, is, the having a form of godliness; of that godliness which is prescribed in the gospel of Christ; the having the outside of a real Christian. Accordingly, the almost Christian does nothing which the gospel forbids. He taketh not the name of God in vain; he blesseth, and curseth not; he sweareth not at all, but his communication is, yea, yea; nay, nay. He profanes not the day of the Lord, nor suffers it to be profaned, even by the stranger that is within his gates. He not only avoids all actual adultery, fornication, and uncleanness, but every word or look that either directly or indirectly tends thereto; nay, and all idle words, abstaining both from detraction, backbiting, talebearing, evil speaking, and from "all foolish talking and jesting"--eutrapelia, a kind of virtue in the heathen moralist''s account;--briefly, from all conversation that is not "good to the use of edifying," and that, consequently, "grieves the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption."

This is an almost Christian. This person is not there yet. All the things they do is not enough. What is missing is the love of God shed abroad in his heart. If we do all the things, we clang for no reason. There is no thing that can save us. Even doing all the things, everything, it isn’t enough. Only by faith can we be saved and only through the love of Jesus revealed to us in the Holy Spirit can we follow faithfully.

God saves us in this love together. The Bible isn’t filled with individuals coming to the faith one by one. People are saved in community and for community. The people at Pentecost enter a new community of people transformed by grace thanks to the blood of Jesus Christ.

After the service today, I am going to give a presentation about the general conference of United Methodist Church: some changes that happened, some changes that didn't happen in ways that it was presented in the media. What really happened. And I want us to hold on throughout that to the way God calls us to be in the world and to the power of Pentecost.
That if we are going to read the Bible, to take it seriously, To take it as the absolute truth of what the world is, who God is, who God is for us, we need to read it together. We need to read it humbly. We need to read it with the spirit. We need to not read it with cultural expectations of what a Christian is, of how to read the Bible is.
There are no values in the Bible. There are no biblical values. It's one of those things that really bothers me about modern Christian culture. Even if you take away political sides because it happens all over the spectrum. People talk about progressive values of scripture or traditional values of scripture.
There are no values. Save for Jesus Christ who was incarnated in a person, the second person of the Trinity who became human, who did not see equality with God something to be held, but emptied himself, taking the form of a human, putting on mortality, descending even to death, but non stopping there. After that, rising again. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only value. Everything else fails.
Every church, every leader, every pastor, every Internet article, every news story, pales next to the life-giving power of Jesus Christ. Jesus offers you life this day. You can commit to Jesus this day.
On this Pentecost Sunday, let us center our whole lives on that power revealed. Let us empty ourselves of our expectations, all of us of our expectations. Let us empty ourselves and live by faith. Living by faith means letting go of certainty, letting go of expectation, letting go of our 401ks as the center of our life, letting go of our traditions, letting go of our revolutions. Letting go of our social justice. Letting it all go. So that all that is left is the love shared within us by the Holy Spirit, by that fire that burned on that Pentecost so long ago and still burns today. There may be days when that fire looks dim, but it is not dim. We are just blind with sin, sometimes the sin of Ananias and Sapphira who could not see past themselves.
May we take off the blinders. May we feel the warmth of God's power and may we share that fire, not our expectations, not our preconceptions, that fire of mercy and love for this world. Let us pray,
God of fire, flaring on gathered disciples and burning away their stubborn pride, pour out your Spirit upon us. God of miraculous speaking and hearing, amazing the faithful and riveting their attention to what is about to happen, pour out your Spirit upon us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Sabbath and Prayer

themes: sabbath prayer letter-versus-spirit love-of-neighbor trinity

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 2:23-3:6; 1 Samuel 3:1-10; Luke 2:29-32
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preached June 2, 2024 on Mark 2:23-3:6, this sermon uses paradoxes (chicken-or-egg, ship of Theseus) to reframe Jesus' saying that the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. Sabbath and prayer both challenge an identity built on productivity. When two of God's commands conflict (keep Sabbath vs. heal and love neighbor), the letter kills but the Spirit gives life; faithfulness means loving the neighbor most, not doing the most clear and defensible thing. Drawing on Eli's gladness at God speaking through Samuel and Simeon's song, Pruitt rejects a scarcity, zero-sum rivalry with God, who is uncreated and not on our plane. The real question is where we put our faith: in the law, Bible, or church, or in the God who gave them. Citing Herbert McCabe, prayer is not a work but God praying in us; Sabbath rest is both future and now.

**Illustrations:** chicken-or-egg, ship-of-theseus, airbnb-rules-list, kids-given-rules, kant-categorical-imperative, kids-dishwasher-care, stone-god-cannot-lift, song-of-simeon, mccabe-god-prays-in-us

---

# June 2
## Sabbath and Prayer
## Mark 2:23-3:6

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” - 1 Samuel 3:1-10

One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They were watching him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. - Mark 2:23-3:6

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Now you need chicken to make an egg. You need an egg to make a chicken. What we have here is a paradox. It's a nearly unanswerable question.
It really depends on your definitions of chicken. Because we could go to a point in history where a pre-chicken animal is not quite a chicken. Lays an egg. That is a chicken. That's why my answer is usually the egg, But it's not super straightforward. Any bird with enough chicken like qualities to lay a chicken egg, we might as well just call it a chicken.

The Ancient Greeks loved paradoxes. They had many, many more than we moderns do. One of my favorites is the ship of Theseus.
The paradox of the ship of Theseus is as follows. Athens has preserved Theseus’s ship for posterity. Every time a board rots, it is replaced. At what point does it cease to be the same ship even when every part has been replaced?

It would work the same thing with a car. It would work the same thing with a house. Makes you think about the idea of a ship, the purpose of it.
When we come back to the chicken and the egg, we think about the idea of a chicken, the idea of an egg, what they mean. These thought experiments, I think, can be helpful in this kind of way. It's not a waste of time. A good thought is never a waste of time.

In the gospel reading for today, Jesus is challenged about the Sabbath, and he leaves these words: The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. Depending on how they are presented, rules are often given as a burden. Don't do this. Do that. Don't do this. Do that.

When you give your kids a lot of rules, they don't take it as a sign of freedom. If you're renting an Airbnb in a place and the rules list is 3 pages long of things you can't do, it doesn't feel like freedom.

Sabbath can feel constraining. There's a focus as much on what you don't do is what you do. Sabbath is about being unproductive. A lot of us get to certain points in our life where our own productivity becomes a big part of our own identity.
We get things done. We do the things. We follow through. We do a good job. It's a helpful and sustaining aspect of identity. Sabbath challenges this.

Prayer also challenges this. Christians have moved away from following Sabbath as it was in Second Temple Judaism, but we still pray. And prayer is incredibly unproductive. We can sometimes have distorted notions prayer that fixates solely upon intercessory prayer. When we read about Sabbath here, I want us to think about prayer.

If you don’t pray before a meal, is that a sin? If you don’t remember someone in your prayers, does God forget them, too?

We should challenge our expectations of prayer so that we have some idea what we are doing. This is what Jesus is doing with Sabbath.

Jesus is challenging expectations of the Sabbath. Jesus doesn't take the law away. He fulfills the law. Here he says he's lord of the Sabbath, ruler of the Sabbath. And the Sabbath is for a purpose. God didn't create people for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for people.
These constraints of the Sabbath are a gift. They're not a noose. And some things in this world can go beyond Sabbath obligation.

There are a lot of systems in this world that don't make space for exceptions. These systems seek to defend themselves from slippery slopes. If we have one exception, that means everyone will take an exception, and so we no longer have any structure. Whether they know it or not, they're following in the footsteps of Immanuel Kant. That is deontological ethics. Kant focused on a singular principle for moral action. “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”
Kant didn't like exceptions. A moral principle had to be universal, or else it ceased to be a moral principle. It had to be right from cause to effect. It had to be right.

Jesus Christ here offers a different principle. The reality of this world is that principles always come into conflict with one another. Ideologies always come into conflict with one another. Ideals, systems, religions, all of these things will clash. People of good faith with good intentions will come into conflict given enough time. We cannot assume an absence of this clash.
Instead, let's prepare for it. What do we hold onto beyond the letter. This is what Paul means when he talks about how the letter kills, but the spirit brings life. The letter kills because if we compare letter to letter, we're no closer to what we should do. In this specific context: following the Sabbath is part of Torah, taking care of your neighbor, taking care of the stranger, healing the sick: these are also part of Torah. Which should we do? In one sense and what the Pharisees see is the clear description in Torah is Sabbath.
So we should do Sabbath. We should not heal.
 We could imagine a situation where two kids are left at home by their parents. They are told to take care of each other and to empty the dish washer. One of these things is clear. The other thing is vague. Taking care of a sibling could entail a thousand different things. Emptying the dish washer is one thing so I will at least do that and worry about the vague things later.

What Jesus shows us is that following God is not about doing the most clear and defensible thing at all times. but loving our neighbor the most, whether that means breaking the Sabbath or not. Sabbath is not a way to keep us from our neighbor. God is not a way to keep us from our neighbor.

The beatitudes, which the choir sang for our offertory, give us a super unclear way of following God and loving our neighbor. They provoke us towards faithfulness by challenging our expectations of what a good life is. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the persecuted. We are not less ourselves when we are these things. And God is not a way to keep us from who we need to be.

We see this in the story of Samuel. Samuel was a child in the temple and he heard a voice. And the only person who could have called him in his mind was Eli. So we went to Eli.
Now the amazing thing for us in this passage is not what happens with Samuel, but what happens with Eli. The child Samuel is a earnest boy through and through. He doesn't get discouraged. He follows what he thinks is right. Eli is the one who has the transformation.
Eli goes from thinking this boy is crazy to thinking God is speaking to this child. Eli is open to God speaking to the child in front of him, more than God speaks to him. Eli isn't jealous. He's grateful. It reminds me of the song of Simeon in Luke chapter 2, when the infant Jesus is taken to the temple. And Simeon sings, Lord, now may you let your servant go in peace. Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people, a light to fulfill you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Simeon is not challenged by the infant Jesus.
He is filled. There isn’t a rivalry between the old priest and the messiah. There isn't a rivalry in first Samuel between the child Samuel and the old priest. They're both seeking God and the character and nature of God and they are willing to let God be present in different and strange places.

In the gospel reading, there was a rivalry going on. There's a scarcity mindset going on.
There is a zero sum environment that is assumed: it's either you or me. It's either him or us. I think the question of the chicken or the egg is a nice intellectual experience experiment. It is a contradiction as much as a paradox. It presents a rivalry between two understandings of generation. There are other kind of contradictory questions that have happened in history. Can God make a stone so big that God couldn't pick it up? It's a logical contradiction. Does god's power as creator, supersede God's power as mover or as active presence.
The answer is no. Nothing can be created that God couldn't move because all that is is created. The question assumes that God is a part of our material world in our system. I think the question of the makes the same assumption. It assumes that God is on the same plane as humans, that the Sabbath is on the same plane.
And we today often fall into this trap where we think of God as, like, a really powerful human. Really big and maybe really far away, but relatable in this kind of sense. Whereas the God of the scriptures is very different. God is revealed in Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, but the nature of God is not created or material. It's the opposite effect.
It is immaterial. It's uncreated. This is gets us back to how we should respond in this. How we should respond where it seems like 2 commands of God are going against each other. The question is, where do we put our faith?
This is what Jesus is pointing out. Do we put our faith in the law or the God who gave the law? Do we put our faith in the Bible or the God who gave the Bible? Do we put our faith in the church or the God who gave the church? Do we put our faith in that spiritual experience or the God who gave us that spiritual experience?

This is faith. It's the faith of Samuel, the faith of Eli, the faith of Jesus. This is the faith offered for you. Faith is not limited by what we can delineate about God because God is not limited in that way.
There have been things that have been revealed about God and the nature of God that we call doctrine. We hold them in the creeds. We hold them in scripture. This is what has been revealed about God, but there's still more. We do not control it.
We haven't been created for the Sabbath. We haven't been created for the law. We haven't been created for the covenant. It was created for us because God loves us. God gave us space to live and to love and respond.
God forgave us for the times we thought we were created for the Sabbath.

God offers us prayer, not as a work by other means, but as a means to connect with God. Even more so, as Herbert McCabe says, we are not even the ones who pray.

>“Grace is not something that comes at me from outside to constrain my freedom; it is a depth within me more central to me than what I call my self. We must keep this firmly in mind: it is God who prays. Not just God who answers prayer but God who prays in us in the first place.”

Stretch out your hand and be healed. Stretch out your life and let it be changed. God is already here with you. God is already loving you. God is already praying through you. God is already resting in you.

In the early church, sabbath pointed not only to a day of the week but to our final resting place with God, where we will enjoy God forever.

That sabbath, though, is not just in the future. It is now. Live into the kingdom now. Live into prayer now. Live into sacrifice and transformation and new life now. God is here for you. Share with your life that God is there for your neighbors.

Let us pray,

Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the sabbath. Thank you for giving us prayer. Help us to hold on to the main thing of your love through it all. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen


title: Screening God's Call

themes: answering-gods-call already-and-not-yet call-to-discipleship addiction-and-recovery servanthood god-equips-the-called

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 1:14-20; Jonah 3:1-5; Jonah 3:10; Mark 10:17-22

> Drawing on his dislike of phone calls and habit of screening unknown numbers, Wilson asks how often we screen God's call. Jonah flees God's call like ignoring a voicemail; the named prophets and disciples are few because few can handle being called. Many said no to Jesus, and some said 'not yet'—like the rich young ruler and Augustine—a way of managing Jesus while life goes well. When life turns hard, the need for Jesus becomes obvious; God doesn't cause suffering but uses it, and rock bottom can finally make us humble enough to answer. The call (Mark's 'fishers of people') turns hearts outward; service is grace, not burden, while living only for oneself is the true curse. Jesus qualifies the called, seeing us at our best. He closes by inviting the congregation toward next week's Mission Sunday and to discern where God calls them to serve.

**Illustrations:** screening-phone-calls, pruitt-residence-phone, jonah-ghosts-god, michael-jordan-grudge, rich-young-ruler, augustine-not-yet, memento-mori-roman-triumph, jesus-qualifies-the-called

---

# January 21

”The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.“ ”When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.“ - Jonah 3:1-5 , 10 NRSV

”Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.“ Mark 1:14-20 NRSV

I've never been the biggest fan of phone calls. Text messages were an easy transition for me. I'd rather text and call. I'm an elder millennial in this transitory generational period. So much could happen on a phone call and it could happen fast. You can be confronted by an unlimited list of possibilities and questions with which you might need to respond immediately. Text messages are fairly limited in the amount of information that can be conveyed, and I enjoy that limitation.

Growing up, I never had an issue answering the phone in our home because the phone was never for me. “Pruitt residence. Who may I ask are you calling for?Usually, they would be calling for my parents or my siblings; they weren't calling me, so there was little that I had to think about. Most of the calls I receive today, as I imagine most of the calls that you receive on your cell phones today, are spam. They are automated calling systems trying to get me to answer by any means necessary. They leave messages saying that my car insurance warranty is out, or something to that effect.
I don't answer them. There's a handy screening function with phones today where I can look at the number and see if I recognize it and if I don't, I don't have to respond. I am in favor of screening calls from scams that are trying to get something out of me.
I was thinking about phone calls as I read the scriptures for today. When we look at these passages from Jonah and from Mark, it makes me wonder about how often we have been screening God's call on us.
### Jonah
Jonah basically gets a voice mail from God. He just doesn't respond. He moves away instead of responding, God basically tells Jonah, I love you, and Jonah can't handle it, and so he goes away. He ghosts God. Not many people could handle it. Handle this call of God to prophesy in the city. The list of prophets in the history of Israel is not a long list.

Jesus met a lot of people but the list of disciples named in the Bible is not long. Not many people could handle the call of Jesus directly on their hearts. We don't know how many people said no to Jesus before they said yes. Mark wasn't going around and talking about everybody who said no to Jesus. It’s not in the book.
If Jesus were a normal human, he might have kept score of all the people who said no to him. If Jesus was like Michael Jordan, it would be different. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player who remembers the name of the kid who made Varsity before he did in high school and used that as a motivator to win six NBA titles. Michael Jordan would've remembered the people who said no to him.
Jesus was not petty. Jesus was not petty. He didn’t keep track of many of the people who said no. The Bible doesn’t keep track of them. We have the people who said, yes. With that, we should also acknowledge that a lot of people probably said no. We have some people who said, not yet.
The rich young ruler who comes up to Jesus and asks him, what must I do to inherit eternal life. Jesus says, have you fulfilled the commandments? The rich young ruler says, “yes, I have. I've followed them all my life.” Jesus says, “go sell all you have a give it to the poor. The man walks away sad because he had many possessions.” This is a way of saying not yet. Saint Augustine famously said, Lord made me chaste, but not yet.

The not yet see reasonable at first. There's a life before grace and it can be enjoyable. This Jesus seems cool, but I don't really want do anything about it. The not yet is a way to manage Jesus, A way to manage expectations, a way to keep on going in the same direction we've been going. Now, when life is going great, it's easy to keep on going. When you're successful at your job, your family's healthy, you are healthy, your prospects look positive, it's easy just to keep going.
When the circumstances of life take a turn, it is hard to stay on the same path. When you or your family get sick. When you lose a job, it's hard to stay on the same path. When addiction fills you, it is hard to stay on the same path. The need for Jesus is more obvious in those moments. Desperation offers clarity. The path of Jesus Christ is more obvious in those moments.
God doesn't cause bad things to happen, but God can use them. God offers grace through the suffering. Sometimes, when life is at its darkest, we are most open to change. People call this rock bottom. You can hit it with addiction. You can hit it in a lot of different directions. Rock bottom is one of those things that it's impossible to recognize outside of yourself. You can't tell another person where their rock bottom is. They have to find it. For some of us, it was only at rock bottom that we were humble enough to hear the call of Jesus and not to screen it.
The call of Jesus is not that life is going to be great once you say yes to God or that you'll never face hardship again after saying yes to God. The call of Jesus is right here in Mark, follow me and I will make you fishers of man. I will make you fish for people. The call of God turns our hearts outwards so that we will no longer be centered on ourselves.
The call of God opens us up to an abundant life, even now, but a life that means we need to change. We can't just do the same things we've always done. We need to act in love. The call of God also shows us that service is not a burden, but a grace. Giving of ourselves is not a burden, but a grace, and it opens our eyes to the reality that living only for ourselves is the true burden. Living only for ourselves is a curse. Living only for ourselves limits us. Living only for ourselves marks a road towards destruction.
When Roman generals had a parade through the city after a great victory, they would have a slave on the chariot whispering in their ear: Memento Mori, you will die. These pagans did so because the adulation of the masses was so intoxicating. They needed a way to keep themselves from thinking that they were gods. The modern world is so intoxicating. There is so much that we can do so easily, so much at our fingertips, so much that we can do to try and fill the God shaped holes in our heart. So many reasons to screen the call of God. To say, not yet. To say, I'm not ready.
Jesus doesn't call the qualified. Jesus qualifies the called. I love this line. It's not mine. I heard it from another preacher colleague, but I'm stealing it. Jesus doesn't call the qualified. Jesus doesn't look out and see. These are the ones who are going to be the best candidates. Jesus qualifies the called. You may not feel like you are ready, but it's God's feelings that matter. God sees you not for your worst, but for your best. God has seen your worst and loves you.
Next week we're gonna have our mission Sunday. We're going to share about the missions and ministries of the church. We're gonna celebrate the missions and ministries of the church and have an opportunity to learn more about each of them.
Each of our missions and ministries are opportunities to serve our community. I want you all to prayerfully consider where God is calling you to serve. The call of God is not just what we get, but what we get to do. If there's a ministry that we are not doing who you're passionate about, come talk to me. Let's get involved. Let's be the hands of feet of Jesus in new ways.

Let us pray,

Heavenly Father, You have called us to new life. You have called us to let go of what harms us. Help us to answer your. Help us not to screen your love. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.