Monthly Archives: April 2025

Sermon Notes Luke 23:32-47, 24:1-12

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04.20.25

Words are essential to life moments, remembering those words are essential to life. 

Easter words are markedly different than Christmas words.  Christmas words are centered on a long awaited arrival of the promise while Easter words are centered on personal experiences and pivotal moments, they are  personal, more subjective, more experiential, more transformational. However, words such as LIFE and PEACE are unarguably elemental to both Christmas and Easter.

The Story – Catching Up on an eventful week following Jesus’ arrival…

[Slide] Jesus entered Jerusalem amid cheers and praise.

[Slide]Jesus confronted the religious establishment.

[Slide]Jesus differentiated between Human rule and Eternal rule.

[Slide]Jesus taught in the Temple for what would be the last time.

[Slide]Jesus taught theology and history, resurrection and destruction.

[Slide]Jesus challenged the powerful and the penniless.

[Slide]Jesus ate a final passover with his disciples who soon abandoned  him.

[Slide]Jesus, later, corrected his disciples regarding greatness.

[Slide]Jesus prayed, Jesus was arrested, and Jesus remained steadfast.

[Slide]Jesus mourned as the crowd’s cries changed from ‘Praise to Jeers.’

[Slide]Jesus stood before the powerful as they listened to false witnesses.

[Slide]Jesus endured floggings and beatings.

[Slide]Jesus was sentenced as a criminal and was hung on a cross.

[Slide]Jesus said, ‘Father forgive them’ and Jesus said ‘It is finished.’

[Slide]Jesus would not remain in the grave, Jesus would not continue to wear burial cloths, Jesus was not finished, Jesus would continue his journey.

What a week.

[Title Slide]

However, before we step forward, let’s step back to remember a moment with Jesus that we witnessed last week. A moment that occurred as Jesus approached the gates to the city of Jerusalem, as Jesus began to feel the heaviness of the cross, the weight of the sin of all mankind. 

[Slide] As Jesus came near to Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over the city and its inhabitants, and through his tears he said, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!” 

[Slide] But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. 

[Slide] They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:41-44)

[Title Slide]

Let’s understand, once again, what Jesus was referring to in these tearful words, this was not a prophecy of retribution but words of reality…

  • Following the reign of King Solomon, What had been the promised land called Israel, was organically divided into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. This happened largely because the north and the south could not agree on the next King. Frequent fighting between the two nations, and, sometimes, they allied with other nations against the other Kingdom. For these, Jesus wept.
  • Then, Israel was conquered by Assyria in 722 BC and Judah was conquered by Babylonia in 587. Neither Judah or Israel in their separate states would exist as a self governing nation again. For these Jesus wept. 
  • Then a series of ruling nations from the Assyrians and Babylonians to the Romans and even the Britians would rule and oppress the Isrealites for almost 2 thousand years. For these, Jesus wept.
  • Then, after WW2, officially around 1947, Israel once again became a unified and self governing nation. For these Jesus wept.
  • Today, Israel remains a nation who, along with their neighbors, all participate and live in turmoil, hatred, brutality, and strife. For these Jesus wept.
  • Today, an entire world is somehow tied to Jerusalem, a thread that even encompasses us. A world wide interest and intrusion that continues the thread of division, racism, disrespect, and unholiness. For these, for us all, Jesus wept.

But, even in the bad times of those times, as well as in the bad times of our times, Jesus does not remain in a tomb. Jesus is not dead. Jesus rose so that we too could, and can, live the life Jesus came to lead us to live.

Jesus wept for the reality that peace would always be fleeting.

And, in the course of those tumultuous times, and I will be so bold as to say our tumultuous times, a bullied and rejected prophet named Isaiah said…

[Slide] God said ,  “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
(Isaiah 43:18-19)

So, we look at the life of Jesus…

  • [Slide] When Jesus gave his first sermon, Jesus’ radical words were evidence that God was already doing a new thing.
  • [Slide] When Jesus forgave instead of judging and condemning, God was already  doing a new thing.
  • [Slide] When Jesus mingled with the sinners, when Jesus sat at at table with a tax collector, when Jesus said ‘You are forgiven’ to the adultress, God was already doing a new thing.
  • [Slide] When Jesus fed the thousands, healed the hundreds, and comforted the failing and ailing, God was already doing a new thing.
  • [Slide] When Jesus proclaimed hope to the hopeless, God was already doing a new thing.
  • [Slide] When Jesus revealed that God is love, that we are loved, and that we are called to love all peoples, God was already doing a new thing.
  • [Slide] When Jesus called on women to preach to, explain to, and comfort, the male disciples, God was already doing a new thing…a new thing that has still not been affirmed by many who are religious and/or powerful.

[Slide] The cross was not an ending, it was not a beginning, it was evidence that God was already doing a new thing.

And so, on the day after the Sabbath, 2 days after the crucifixion, the women, as early as permitted, ran alone to the grave to anoint the dead body of Jesus. To anoint their messiah, but, also, to do was expected of a friend – to anoint their friend Jesus. And as they arrived they were surprised that they did not see Jesus’ body but instead, were welcomed by a stranger who spoke strange and unexpected words…

[Slide] “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” Then the women remembered Jesus’ words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven male disciples and to all the other waiting followers.

(Luke 24:5-9)

[Slide] Don’t you remember?

Jesus is risen…

[Slide] Peace.

One more time, let’s step back to Jesus’ tears. 

  • Jesus cried as he knelt down next to Mary joining her in her tears that came out of death, chaos, and the pain of one’s death that weighs on others. 
  • Jesus cried as he looked over Jerusalem, calling out the chosen path of death of the inhabitants and all humanity. A chosen path that had hardened hearts and minds, closed eyes, covered ears, leaving a blindness and deafness, day by day, becoming permanent.
  • Jesus cried for a people who had chosen death over peace and life. Who had missed Jesus’ love lived out for all of humanity to see. Love meant to bring peace.
  • Jesus wept because peace, life, had been rejected.
  • In the birth narrative we hear this word ‘Peace’ as the angels said it to Mary and the shepherds. And, now, it is heard as it is spoken again to the women and then to the men.

Peace…Jesus is risen, Jesus is alive. Peace.

Peace that is outraged at injustice, hatred, brutality, bigotry, and racism. Peace that responds with mercy and compassion to those who are different and might cause us to be uncomfortable. Peace that listens and hears the stories of those who are not heard or listened to. Peace in the prayers for those who seem to be against everything that Jesus said and lived. Peace for a world at war, hostages held in tunnels, children now homeless after bombs have repeatedly destroyed their world, a world that has forgotten the breath of God in every God created human being. 

So, when there is nothing we can think to do, we pray, praying with the remembrance of those times Jesus affirmed and reassured us that hope is not lost. Peace that comes out of a tomb which no longer is a prison cell for death.  Peace that, even now, is not lost.

Sure, Easter is about heaven and eternity. Sure, Easter is about redemption. But, we must never lose sight of the truth that Easter is about life…life abundantly. Life to it’s fullest that exists in peace. Life and peace as Jesus organically lived out. 

Easter is about life yesterday, life in the present, and life lived tomorrow and forever.

It is our calling to remember the words and life of Jesus, even when we are headed to see a dead body. Jesus’ calling was not a calling to death but a calling to life, full life. Death was just a momentary roadblock. We are called to Live life as Jesus lived life.

Peace be to you, peace be to us all, peace be to all peoples.

Sermon Notes Luke 19:29-44

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04.13.25

Interaction – Differences in Luke’s account of Entry (don’t attempt to take notes on this – will all be on site under ‘Order, Words, and Voices’ all week

[Slide]

Authors – different persons guided by Spirit through their perspective

Matthew – Jew, former tax collector, Disciple, Apostle

Mark – Jew, Follower of Apostle Peter

Luke – Gentile, Disciple of Peter, Influenced by Paul, Doctor

John – Jew, Disciple, Apostle, (both questioned-eyewitness feel, or maybe Paul’s disciple)

Different gospel accounts

Entry

MT, MK, LK –When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples…

JN – Does not mention the sending of 2 disciples, instead, we later see Jesus finding a colt to ride on into the city.

Colt

LK – you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here.

MT – you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her

MK – you will find a colt tied

JN – Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it

Crowd

MT, MK – Crowd

LK – The whole multitude of his disciples

JN – Large crowd that had been with him when Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 

Cloaks and Leaves

MT, MK – Branches and Cloaks

LK – Cloaks

JN – branches of palm trees

Proclamation

MT – “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

MK, LK – “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

JN – “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

Closing Response

MT – When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?”… Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves….The chief priests and the scribes …became angry and said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?” Jesus left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

MK – And Jesus 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.

LK – Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

JN – The Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Let this information serve to be your prompt to consider

[Slide] Lacrimae rerum -Tears of Things/Tears in, Tears for

  • Concept/practice/anger or tears
  • Tears empower us for the next thing
  • Il-Caleb in Van

Jesus Tears before Triumphant Entry complete

[Slide] As Jesus came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 

[Slide] Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side.

[Slide] They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”  

[Slide] Then Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there, and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

[Slide] Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

(Luke 18:41-44)

[Title Slide]

  • Tears for all of Jerusalem, all people and the planet, for us
  • Pushing forward for people not for self
  • Tears empowering Love to proceed for those Jesus loved – all.

Sermon Notes Luke 18:31-19:9

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04.06.25

Today is our final Sunday of lent, next week is Palm Sunday and then the next is Easter, or Resurrection Sunday. We have traveled with Jesus and seen what was of upmost importance to Jesus, to the people, and to us, along the way. We have accompanied Jesus on this journey since he turned his face to Jerusalem. 

I’m actually becoming more and more convinced that this was not as much a journey to the cross as it was a journey for us and all peoples. I think the cross was actually just a temporary roadblock on Jesus’ journey and roadblock that Jesus sacrificially pushed through. 

And now, thousands of years later, we watch as Jesus is just a short distance away from Jerusalem. But, and this is an important point, in what will be just moments from an earthly death, Jesus chooses to continue teaching the disciples, and us, how to live –  this should be no surprise because that is exactly what Jesus was called to do on his journey for us…and all people, however, in moments when he could be working to avoid death, Jesus carries on teach about life.

An interesting thought – God is in the business of ‘teaching humans how to live. That is what led Moses to climb up the mountain when God would teach Moses how to live so Moses could then teach the people how to live. And now, in these final days Jesus is teaching us how to live.

This is a crucial time, what Jesus is saying, the thread that continues through all his moments – his acts of mercy and compassion, are not really any different than before. There was surely a sense of urgency, but, what is see is Jesus’ same commitment to truth and love.

If you remember nothing else, remember this thread – the assurance that we can never be so far away that God cannot find us and, we can never be so far away that God cannot run to embrace us.

Just like us, in our times, the people were in a time when they needed an assurance of love, they needed an outflow of hope and peace. A time when they, a time when we say, ‘Lord Have Mercy.’

So…

Jesus is coming closer to Jerusalem. 

Jesus is coming closer to the cross.

Jesus will enter the city of Jerusalem as a hero.

Jesus will teach the teachable.

Jesus will heal the afflicted and the brokenhearted.

Jesus will confront the ones who spread deceit, those who hide behind religion to abuse the faithful and the frail, those who have allowed themselves to become tools of hatred and evil.

Jesus will strengthen the weak.

Jesus will leave footprints for the disciples and followers to step into.

Jesus, ultimately, will leave the city, not as a hero, but as a slaughtered and humiliated lamb.

Jesus, once inside of Jerusalem will not find a bed in the city until he is in the prison cell…

…and will then be carried to, and sealed in, a borrowed tomb.

Jesus will not leave a world hopeless, for that tomb, inside and out, was not impervious to true hope…nor was it void of unconditional love.

In the coming weeks as we continue to follow Jesus to the passover, to the arrest, to the trials, to the cross, to the tomb, to the womens’ sermon of resurrection to the disciples, to the men’s shock at the epiphany of Jesus alive, may we never forget, that Jesus endured for all of us as well as for all who are not us.

Our passage today is not filled with parables, instead it begins with a “Then’. A ‘Then’ in which Jesus gives the disciples an insight, which they will not understand, and then as he allows them to be a part of two moments, with 2 men, who miraculously do seem to grasp much of what the disciples miss.

Prior to the passage we heard, Jesus had taken his disciples aside and said to them, 

“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the ancient prophets will be accomplished. For the prophets wrote that I will be handed over to the gentiles, and I will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. 

After that they will flog me and kill me, and on the third day I will rise again.” But the disciples understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

Now, along the way, Jesus’ told, reminded, his disciples and close followers of the promise of his own coming fate and all the horror that would accompany that.. Actually, in the book of Luke, Jesus shared this three times during the journey to Jerusalem.

  1. In the first time Jesus stressed his suffering, rejection, and ultimate death at the hands of the religious elite in Jerusalem: “the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes.” 
  2. In the second time Jesus is far more abrupt, saying primarily that he will be betrayed into human hands. 
  3. Then, in the third time, the final time, Jesus says that he will be handed over to the Gentiles, mocked by them, insulted, spat upon, flogged and ultimately killed. 

Blended together the disciples had clearer picture of all that was ahead. Jesus will be rejected by the religious leadership, then he will be given into human hands, and finally he will be delivered to the Roman political powers who will mock and insult Jesus. The three together reveal the excruciating moments of the coming rejection of the Messiah by the hands of all humankind. And then we hear Jesus say… So that “everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be [was] accomplished.”

Ironically, three times, Jesus shared these reminders exclusively with his disciples, but still, “they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what Jesus said to them was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

To us, there was nothing hidden in what Jesus said, he used very clear words –  Death, Murder, Mocking, Insulting, Spitting, Flogging, and, again, ultimately, Death

We can look back 2.000 years and understand, but, however, they were in a very different moment.

God had taken away their ability to fully grasp Jesus’ words, Jesus destiny, because they were not ready to see and own what Jesus was saying. Jesus’ words were not actually for that moment, Jesus’ words would be for later moments. But for now they did not own these words, but they would, they would have to before they could lead the church.

God put a roadblock up so that the disciples did not understand, and God, at the right and needed time, would remove that roadblock. Just like God often does with and for us.

However, the truth is, I think, that the disciples did not want to hear these words, because they could not fathom having the ability to survive apart from their teacher, Jesus. 

The disciples subconsciously knew they could not handle Jesus’ words. 

Ever have a moment like that? When words were coming that you knew you were not emotionally, physically, or spiritually ready to hear and process? 

Now the disciples’ additional roadblocks, their doubts, their fears, their oncoming hopelessness, were all roadblocks of which God was fully aware. However, the disciples would have to remove these additional roadblocks, and at that moment, they could not attempt such an unimaginable task as accepting Jesus’ coming fate. 

The interesting thing about roadblocks is that they seldom mean that the road can no longer take us to where we are going. Each morning Andrea and I drive up Berry Street to take her to the high school. Frequently, our way is temporarily, or long term, blocked by sewer pipe replacement, or postal/amazon delivery trucks, or flooding, or lawn care equipment, or a mile long back up that is never explained, or….you get it. Now, we never think the high school has disappeared, Andrea never calls in and says she will need to resign because she will never again be able to get to the school. No, we look for a solution, to a way to literally, or metaphorically, move the roadblock. We take a different path, we patiently (kind of) wait, we share the road with oncoming traffic taking turns getting around the obstacle…we don’t quit, we just figure out how to get around or get through the roadblock.

Roadblocks are a reality in all of life, even in our faith life. Often times we are not ready to address them, we remain stuck, until we are ready – then, life begins to make sense and progress is seen.

This morning our focus is on 2 men who have to face and deal with their roadblocks. 2 men who had a bucket full of roadblocks…

Interaction/Participation – This is where you come into this discussion. What are your perceptions of these two men – the blind man and the tax collector?

Notes

Blind Man

“The disciples (like all of us) fail to see Jesus for what he is, but the blind man doesn’t miss him. And in the blind man, who receives his sight because of his sight, there is a model for those who hear this Gospel reading: we too are called to set aside our earthly “vision” and to see Jesus for who he really is.” 

Karl Jacobson, Senior Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Minneapolis, Minn.

Blind man Ignored crowds who were the roadblock, he pushed through with what he had – his voice.

Blind man identified Jesus as the son of David, understood beyond the Abrahamic connection that exists with all Isrealites. He did something the disciples were unable to do, he removed the roadblock of understanding who Jesus was.

It is a kyrie eleison moment…’Have Mercy On Me!/

Zacchaeus

Jesus invites himself to, and into, Zacchaeus house

Assumption that Zacchaeus unethically took more than called for 

Again, a Barrier of people, alliegience, judgement, height, hatred, outcast, dismissed, contrast between the blind man and the tax collector. Jesus is for all people – following up on what you said last Sunday. 

Jesus is for the person with all the power and none of the power. He’s for the victim and the victimizer. Beautiful and probably offensive to some. Andrea

Neither man permitted a man made, or any other roadblock to stop them from seeing Jesus.

Closing

Both men were seen by Jesus after the men had removed their own roadblocks.

What roadblock do you need to move or to be removed?