Easter 2, 2026

 

Some stories are just really hard to believe, especially ones that seem too good to be true.  As the Artemis moon orbiter splashed down on Friday evening, I found myself wondering if conspiracy theories would be concocted about this space flight as they were about the moon landing.  Would photos emerge of Hollywood studio sets and secret filming sessions because it was simply too hard to believe that people had safely left Earth’s atmosphere, traveled to the moon, landed, walked and rode a vehicle on the moon’s surface, and got back in their rocketship, flown back to Earth, fallen to the Earth and safely stepped out into regular life again.  Now that I say it, it does sound pretty hard to believe and incredible, unless you consider all the brilliant people who came together with math, science, and a dream to make it happen.

               Easter morning, something too good to be true is starting to dawn on the Disciples as they are locked up in fear in the upper room together disbelieving what the women have told them.  And Thomas for one week gets to represent all of us who have not seen and waiver between doubt and faith and often experience a combination of the two.

               Jesus’ resurrection too has felt for many too good to be true or too difficult to believe, especially because we cannot see for ourselves, touch Jesus’ hands and feet or see his wounded side.  That Jesus would be tried, condemned, beaten, and crucified, pierced, placed in a tomb, gone to depths to claim those who have died, the raised and appearing, breathing, eating, blessing, and sharing his Holy Spirit, can be hard for us to do, unless we remember who is the one doing this work, God the Creator, with power and the will and the dream to reunite heaven and earth and give us new life.

 It is not clear to the disciples what is happening. They are afraid for a lot of reasons. They are afraid of the Jewish authorities, that they might hand them over like they did Jesus, but also because the disciples are proclaiming Jesus the Messiah, they are expecting to be thrown out of the synagogues and kept from the Temple. They will be disconnected from their families and their faith.

The disciples are also afraid because it would be reasonable to expect Jesus to be angry with them for denying him and abandoning him at his lowest point. Certainly they would expect to be taken to task for that. They might also be afraid because this is a lot of power that Jesus has to have risen from the dead—it's scary when something so unexpected and unsettling happens.

These disciples they are still in the fear and grief of the cross. This story really is a continuation of the story of the last supper and the washing of the feet. When Jesus appears to them, he says, “As God sent me, so I send you.” This is picking up the conversation from before. Jesus is sending them for what, to where? He has answered this in his washing of feet. He is sending them to wash the feet of each other and those who are poor and in need.

Then Jesus breathes on them and gives them the Holy Spirit. Some of the Gospels wait 50 days until Pentecost to give the Holy Spirit, but for John it doesn't wait. The disciples need this power now. How will they go out and wash feet, by what authority and power? What will help them overcome their fear? The Holy Spirit will empower them to do what they need to do and say what they need to say.

If we weren't sure this story was a continuation of the one before, we have the evidence of the crucifixion in Jesus' hands and side. Jesus' wounds remain. His flesh is torn. He's not all prettied up. He still has holes in his body from what was done to him.   

Unlike Thomas, we don’t see Jesus hands and side, but we get to witness people’s scars, the evidence of the violence of this world, the proof of the battles people have fought, the proof of vulnerability that people carry, and proof of their resilience.  We don’t go into the world to present a perfect image or be our Easter best, but we go out, hurting and flawed, marked by our lives so far, to bear witness to the world’s pain and woundedness, to see Jesus in our neighbors and to bring the blessing of Jesus and receive the blessing of Jesus. 

Today is the second Sunday of Easter.  Easter continues.  It is the continuation of what has come before, Jesus’ ministry, God’s love making an impact on people who need it most.  The disciples are holding the fear from all the scary and surprising things that have happened and they hold it together with joy, because now they are back with Jesus again, and not only has their friend returned, he wishes them peace, he asks them to forgive as he forgives, he empowers them to do the work that he has been doing and he sends them out.

Something about forgiveness, Jesus tells them “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.  If you retain the sins of any they are retained.”  Jesus has just literally taught them the Lord’s prayer that says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” a plea to God that we would treat others how God has treated us, with forgiveness.  Now Jesus stands before those who have betrayed and denied him and offers them his peace, twice.  He is forgiving them even as he tells them that their forgiveness or lack there of to others has a lasting impact.  Really, there is no retaining sins, since Jesus does not retain their sins in this moment.  Because Jesus can forgive even these sins that the disciples have committed leading to Jesus’ death, and we are given the Holy Spirit, forgiving is at least part of the work we are sent out to do.  Forgiveness is the only option.

I also want to highlight the mix of emotions.  The disciples are fearful and joyful at the same time.  They are hurting and they are receiving peace.  I’m still reeling from our losses at Trinity since Christmas, several dear pillars have died, people who worshipped and served God at Trinity for a great many years, people who volunteered weekly, answered phones, attended Bible Study, made beautiful music to God, bumped Koni’s arm on the way up to communion.  Then add to that several close family of our Trinity friends have also died, mothers, brothers, uncles, cousins, and good friends.  We are carrying a lot of loss and we have a lot of feelings around that.  Life is different without these friends and family, co-workers with us in the Kingdom of God.  We may be sad, fearful, frustrated, or numb.  And at the same time, we carry this joy.  We know that Christ Is Raised and dies no more.  We know the end of the story is that Jesus’ love wins the day.  Sometimes I can’t believe the complexity of emotions.  I’m watching pictures of the earth setting on the moon and feeling awe at the same time bombs are dropping on Lebanon and people are dying.  We hold all these complex realities together including our own questioning whether we are doing enough in the face of all that is wrong with our world. 

Wherever we are stuck, Jesus breaks down walls and doors and comes to us.  He doesn’t let us stay there, but sends us out.  He doesn’t let us avert our eyes, but shows us his wounds and asks us to tend to the wounds of the world.  Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit that we can take all these emotions we carry and still carry the dream of God of forgiveness and nonviolence, and reconciliation and love.  People have just this week orbited the moon and God this week has brought resurrection new life.  Now we all find ourselves  blessed and ready to do the work ahead.

And as for all the things that Jesus has done after he rose from the dead. The scriptures simply say many other things were done that were not written in this book. So we get to look around for signs of Jesus’ resurrection and we do see them in nature, in each other, in people forgiving each other, in people being humble, in leaders putting the needs of the poor ahead of their own ambitions, even in the sound of running feet at church. We know God is with us, that God is powerful and merciful, and we know that blessing first hand that Jesus offers which is what brings us here to praise God’s name and to go out empowered to see and witness to the resurrection everywhere around us.

Easter 2026

 

Padre Josh and I agree that love is absolutely central to the Bible’s message and God’s purpose for sending Jesus.  Since we’ve studied the Gospel of John over our Lenten season, we’ve seen the scriptures that really back this up, especially with Nicodemus, “For God so loved the World that God gave the only son that we should not perish but have eternal life.” and “God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world but that the world/cosmos might be saved by him.”  Jesus shows love for the woman at the well by revealing his identity to her and spending time in her village.  Jesus is loving Lazarus when he weeps for him.  Because love is so important in our Christian faith, so many kids’ first song they learn in Sunday school is “Jesus loves me.”  

Maybe it seems obvious that love is at the center, but when I look at this world and sometimes my own life, I don’t see love being put first.  I see power and money influencing people’s choices and love isn’t always a consideration at all.  We need the Easter message because we forget how powerful love can be, and how plentiful it is, available and accessible to everyone, and how it has the power to change things.  Easter day is about God loving us too much to let us stay the same, God drawing near to us in a relationship of love, showing us in the life of Jesus how to share and grow that love,  the powers in this world being threatened by that kind of power and trying to destroy it and how love cannot be destroyed.

I confess I have felt the heavy weight of the world’s troubles recently.  Friends are afraid to travel in case they will be targeted because of their race.  Other friends are affected by anti-trans legislation and sentiment.  There are several major wars raging, one started by our own country with no clarity about why or when it might end.  Children are going hungry in this country of great wealth and plentiful food.  I feel discouraged sometimes and I wonder if anything can ever change.

But I am encouraged by the Easter story.  We repeat the story about love and how much it means and how much it can change us, to give us hope, help us become aware of the world’s joy and pain, and to help us decide how to use our power.  Will we use our power for ourselves or others, for hurting or mending, for controlling or for collaborating?  

The story of Easter is the story of God changing us through love, God changing the conversation from death into new life.  On Good Friday death was all around.  Death was the tool used to control and end the relationships of love that were growing.  It was the tool of discouragement, because discouraged people may well give up their dream.  It was the tool of fear because fear can be used to control people.  Death was on the hearts and lips of the women of Jerusalem and the disciples, the end of this relationship, that hope that Jesus brought, this ministry of helping those who are poor, sick, and imprisoned.  Death and grief gripped everyone who was there at the cross and everyone who stayed home.  And that was the feeling over the weekend.  

Then a new week was starting, the first day of the week.  That’s when God created the heavens and the earth in the book of Genesis, when love began to bring all things into being, Jesus the word, the Logos going out over the waters and speaking each thing into existence.  This Easter day, that word Jesus tore down the gates of hell and put death in its place, so it would not have the final word, but love surpassed death as the most powerful.  That power of love was so strong it tore open the tomb.  It was so strong it made Jesus look like a gardener.  So there comes Mary with death still on her mind, all the thoughts of what could have been, all the finality of a terrible, painful, traumatic ending, and all the power of Rome hanging over her and everything Jesus had ever taught her burning throat.  But despite the threat, she goes to the tomb, out of love, putting aside fear and despair.  

Mary finds a surprise there.  The tomb is open and Jesus’ body isn’t there.  Now she’s trying to make sense of this.  The only possible explanation is that he has been taken away.  But Jesus has given her a powerful tool which is love, so she goes to Peter.  Because of Jesus those who follow him have something very powerful, each other.  They have love for each other.  They face none of this alone.  They have community.  They have each other’s help.  So now Peter and the beloved disciple (probably John) are running to the tomb to confirm the story that Jesus isn’t there.  Then they go home.  

Mary stays.  She sees and talks to an angel, a messenger and then she turns and someone is there who she expects to be the gardener, because they are in a garden.  And let me tell you if anything gives me hope it is a garden.  Jesus has just said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in the garden.”  You’ve heard paradise all your lives but it is the same word as garden.  Here they are in the place of abundant life, the place where everything was in right relationship with everything else at the beginning of creation, they are here in paradise, in the garden, in the place of growth and hope and love.  Then Jesus says Mary’s name and she recognizes him.  The gardener, the shepherd, the love of God on earth knows her name, says her name and finally she sees him and responds.

In our grief and fear the God of love sees us and knows us.  Jesus loves me, this I know.  He calls my name and your name in the garden of love and new life on this Easter Morning.  So change isn’t only possible, it is promised, it is the end of the story that we already know.  So we know we will be changed to be more loving.  We can help that along if we choose by the choices we make.  We know the world will be changed, although it may very well get worse before it gets better.  Still we choose the way of love because we are followers of Jesus and we believe in God’s power, love, and grace.  

We go to the tomb together, all of us in the beloved community and we find it empty this Easter morning.  No tomb can imprison love, no chains can restrain it.  Love is why God created us.  Love is why Jesus came to earth, lived and died.  And love is our power and purpose, bringing us together and sending us out changed people of new life, resurrection witnesses bearing that love to the world.

Palm Sunday, 2026

 

Today we begin Holy Week.  Having walked the 40 days of Lent we’ve been reminded of who Jesus is and who we are.  We’ve spent this Lent in the Gospel of  John with all of his “I am” statements.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  He said, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you,” when the Samaritan woman at the well says she knows Messiah is coming.  He said to Mary at Lazarus’ grave, “I am the resurrection and the life.” We are learning who Jesus is and he is one with the great "I am" who spoke to Moses at the burning bush and liberated the people from oppression.

We’ve learned more about who we are.  We are people seeking a savior and not feeling ready to receive him.  We are people hoping and doubting at the same time.  We are people who are  yearning and yet can’t understand the far-reaching love Jesus brings.  We are people who want to control God and tell God who is loveable and who is redeemable.  We are people not sure if we want a changed life or if we can find room in our hearts for a shepherd who suffers.

But even if we aren't ready, God is ready for change, so we come to this day.  It is a crossroads kind of day.  Jesus is coming into Jerusalem.  This moment has been anticipated.  Jesus has spoken of it with hope, love, dread, and kindness.  He has asked people to keep quiet about his identity so the timing would be right.  Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is something that all four Gospel writers describe, which is quite rare.  They differ on some details such as whether palm branches are spread or cloaks.  Much of what they share is the same, which is that Jesus rides on a lowly beast, a donkey or the foal of a donkey.  The people line the way and shout “Hosannah” meaning God save us.  They greet him with hope.  This event fulfills prophetic scripture. 

Jesus is on the road into Jerusalem and it is Passover week, a time of remembering the people in the desert learning to trust God.  It is a time of high expectation of God’s presence and a time or remembering how far the Israelites have come as a people. 

On Palm Sunday the people celebrate a king and all their expectations of a king.  They want security.  They want prosperity.  They want strength.  So as Jesus comes into the city, they are celebrating him and who they think he should be.  But God has different goals than the people.  God wants to be with those who are bowed down.  God wants the captives to be freed.  God wants people to share what they have.  God wants to be present in the weak and helpless.  So on this road the people’s expectations of God are clashing with what God is doing in that moment.

What we’ve done in the season of Lent is to go from one mountain at the Transfiguration down to the valley and back up to the temple mount in Jerusalem and our emotions have followed this track.  On the mounting of the Transfiguration, Peter’s expectations are for Jesus to be in his glory and to stay there, for him to take his place with Moses and Elijah and stay comfortable there.  But Jesus heads right back down into the hurting people to heal and give new life and head toward Jerusalem.  Now Jesus has walked through these valleys with different people revealing himself with all his “I am” statements which show his priorities: To give himself away, to be with the lowly, to share his love and good news as widely as possible.  Jesus’ emotions have reached the depths as he stands outside Lazarus’ grave where he is deeply disturbed in spirit and begins to weep.  He is with the people in their pain and having raised Lazarus he takes all those emotions to Jerusalem, a place he has wept over, a place that crushes prophets, the place where heaven and earth meet, where power and influence are used to control people instead of to release people from their chains.  Jesus goes there and is celebrated.

It is beautiful and hopeful that he is celebrated.  We get a glimpse of what could be if we would all follow him . But praise is not what Jesus wants.  He doesn’t want all our expectations placed on him as if he would do our bidding, as if we could use him as our personal wishing well or genie.  Jesus came that we might all give ourselves away like him.  He came to change us.  He came to give us new life when what we wanted was comfort and riches and security.   Jesus came to give us relationship, love, community and he came to walk with those in deaths darkest valley.  Jesus can never be the King we wish he was, telling us we’re right and the people we don’t like are wrong. 

So this crossroads could have been a temptation to Jesus to change who he was, but he has already proven that he will never waiver.  So it becomes a crossroads for us.  Do we worship a king if he gives us what we want, wields power over our enemies, and doesn’t ask us to change.  Do we come to church and worship him here with our songs and words and then go home and live the same as we always did?  Or will we follow him to the cross and die there with him, letting go of all of our expectations of glory and power and be changed by him to seek his priorities?

This is a week that we follow Jesus through the adoring crowds.  For those of you who can join us at Gethsemane Lutheran Church on Thursday at 7, you will see how this meal continues to reveal Jesus’ depth of emotion, his giving himself away, his love for his enemies, and his commandment to us to become servants of each other.  If Portland is too far, worship at one of our nearby congregations offering Maundy Thursday worship.  This Most Holy week, find a way to follow the path that Jesus is traveling and what you might find in it.  On Good Friday you can join Covenant Presbyterian at noon for the Stations of the Cross or come back here at 7 for the 7 last words of Jesus and the dimming of the candles. 

Jesus knows this praise is temporary and that he will disappoint his followers, but the ultimate goal of giving life to the world is his focus that he can’t be distracted from.  When we find ourselves crying out, "Hosannah!  God save us," let  us examine what we mean.  Are we asking God to make us strong, make us great, make us comfortable, make us win.  If we mean any of those things, we find God emptying us of our temptations and distractions, walking with us as we face disappointment, anger, and fear, and when we are ready with empty outstretched arms, God will be there with us, with all our siblings and all of creation to die with Jesus and rise again to share abundant new life

Lent 4, 2026

 

When I was at Holden Village I took a little class about how the eye sees color. We have cones in our eyes that detect red, green, or blue light waves that come into our eyes. In the class we learned that humans developed the green and red rods and cones first. The green was to detect green leaves, which tells us an environment is able to support life because there is plentiful water to keep plants green, there will be enough water for people to live there. We developed red receptor cones to be able to see fruits that would be delicious and I was quick to come to the conclusion that we needed red cones early on so we could see if we were bleeding. The last to develop was the blue receptors. Blue is not a color that shows up in early writings. The sky was described as white or yellow. People didn’t see blue very often. But over time these receptors have developed, helping us see some of the most beautiful colors of all.

I wonder about the receptor cells of our hearts and what we can see and what we are still developing the ability to see. In our Gospel story today we meet a man born blind that gets everyone thinking about what they see and what they don’t and how they might see more clearly. Although this man is blind, we find the people around him are perhaps even more blind, not seeing what is right in front of their faces, the Messiah, and not choosing to see or celebrate a miracle in their midst.

This story first highlights how we see people with disabilities or different abilities. For a long time in the story no one even talks to him. They talk about him and around him. Jesus doesn’t ask his name and we never find it out. When people finally do talk to him, they don’t trust what he says and they only hear what they want to hear.

We find the man to be so much more than his limitations. He isn’t just a blind man, he has power. The man has power to listen to Jesus. He has power to call upon friends or family to guide him to the pool of Siloam. The man has the power to speak for himself, even if no one chooses to listen. The man has the power to be a disciple of Jesus and he is one even before he is healed of his physical limitation.

The ones who were supposedly in power, the religious authorities also have power but they are not choosing to use it the way this man uses it. Maybe they take their power for granted. Or maybe they are immobilized or limited or blinded by their own expectations or their own fears. I’d like to think there was hope for the religious authorities, since I can sometimes be categorized as one. That a man born blind could be cured of blindness is hope for religious authorities but the fact that he was healed before they were makes me stop and wonder how I need to be healed from my own limitations. The religious authorities were probably not motivated by malice. I may be biased but I think they thought they were trying to help. What we don’t see here is the potential for there to be trouble because of this healing. The religious authorities know that if healing and liberation is taking place, it might get the attention of the Romans who are likely to bring their power to try to take away the hope of ordinary small people whose lives Jesus is changing. If the Romans think the people are starting to be hopeful and they might rise up against their power, they are probably going to make a move to take away that power and put the Judeans back in their place. So the religious authorities try to minimize or hide or discredit Jesus and his healing power. They will make their own move to have him arrested and hand him over in order to save the rest of the people from being attacked by Rome. So the religious authorities become another part of the machine of oppression of the Roman government. So I have to look at my own responses to people when they experience liberation and freedom. In what ways do I cast doubt on the liberating, healing power of Christ so as not to make waves?

The truth is that we all have limitations. Even Jesus took on limitations. I’m so glad I have access to contact lenses and eye surgery which 10 years ago saved me from a tear in my retina that had it happened at an earlier time in history even by 20 years would have left me blind in one eye. To have access to laser eye surgery is such a privilege that I have access to because of when and where I am born and that I had money and transportation and insurance and eye surgeons available. We all have limitations whether it is with our eyes or some other parts of our bodies, our age, our perception, our income and so much more.

Having limits is what it means to be human. But our limitations don’t have to define us. We are so much more than what we lack. God has not defined us by what we lack, but met our limitations with grace and love and given us so many gifts so that we can be in relationship with God and each other and this earth. Furthermore, our limitations can be good teachers. Having limitations keeps us humble, keeps us living together in community, helps us laugh at ourselves and not worship ourselves. Having limitations means needing each other and needing God. This man born blind only highlights the limitations we all have but forget about, that we take for granted.

I deal with my own limitations all the time. I also have the privilege of walking with you in your limitations. Our bodies change. Our brains change. Our families change. We grieve, we hurt, we help each other find healing, and we learn to say goodbye. So I see in you limitations that are beautiful and you are training me for the day I will retire or give up driving or say goodbye to dear ones. Facing limitations is something we practice all the time.

Sometimes we can be limited in how much good news we are willing to accept, which is a sad kind of limitation. For the religious authorities to have such low expectations of God, says a lot about where their focus is. Maybe we get jaded after seeing so much pain. I hope that we can never be too beat down to celebrate someone’s good fortune, someone’s healing, someone’s second chance, someone’s new life. Here in the Gospel a miracle is taking place which signifies the power of God for healing not only physical ailments but spiritual ones, ones of hopelessness and suspicion and questioning people’s good news. Will we let Jesus open our eyes or won’t we? Will we let Jesus open the eyes of our hearts to know his forgiveness, love, and grace and share that with others? We don’t have the end of the story. We don’t know what happens to this man. How do you start life over after something like this? And we don’t know what happens to these religious authorities. Jesus seems to be saying that nothing is impossible with God. And we don’t know what happens to all the people who weren’t healed. Did they feel grief and disappointment or did they take their place among all the limited people, including Jesus, and rise again to share the unlimited good news of God’s grace and love.

Lent 3, 2026

 

In my freshman year of high school in Ms. Good’s English class we read Huckleberry Finn. It was the first book I ever read where we studied the symbolism in the story and we learned that the river was a character in the story. The river represents freedom from constraint. Whenever Huck is on land, he’s being pressed to be obedient, sit in school and do his lessons or sit in church in starchy clothes. When Jim is on land, he is someone’s property as a slave. When Huck and Jim are on the river, they are learning how to be free.

In today’s Gospel, the water is a character. Just like on the Mississippi there are different kinds of water. The Mississippi can be slow and muddy or fast and clean. It goes by towns with pollution and people and it goes by wooded areas and quiet places and it makes a difference to people on the water and on the land. For our story today we have well water and we have flowing water.

Wells are places in the Hebrew Scripture where people meet and begin romantic relationships. Abraham’s servant meets his master’s future daughter-in-law at a well Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, meets his wife Rachel at a well, at noon. Even Moses meets his wife at a well. These are all men who have come to foreign lands, stop for a drink, and meet someone. They go into town and are welcomed by the townspeople and eventually they are married. So we have a well as a device, a meeting place, a clue that something will grow out of a meeting between foreigners. So you can imagine when the disciples saw Jesus from afar talking to a woman at the well, the two alone together they might have hurried their steps or they might have dawdled to give them more time to get to know each other, but surely their minds must have been on whether this was going to grow into something more.

Jesus and the woman start talking about water. Now we’re starting to see that this story is echoing the previous story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes by night, this woman and Jesus meet at noon. Nicodemus is a man. At the well, Jesus meets a woman. Nicodemus seems pretty dense, trying to reason out what Jesus is saying. This woman is really getting it, catching on to Jesus’ reference to the Messiah and naming it out loud. There are differences that accentuate one another. But Jesus is the same. He is talking about water and the Spirit. And really this story is highlighting what Jesus just said to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world.” This is what it looks like when God loves the world. God’s son goes to Samaria and talks to a foreign woman and makes friends in her city, sharing the good news with them for several days.

Jesus and the woman start talking about water. There is well water—water that is good for drawing up and taking home to cook with. Jesus needs this water. He is thirsty. But he promises her living water which is another word for flowing water. Flowing water is considered more healthy because as it flows the impurities can be washed away whereas if a well is poisoned then there isn’t much that can be done. Jesus promises living water so that the woman will never be thirsty. This will meet her needs and she won’t have to waste time coming to this well. She is starting to understand that Jesus is talking about a spiritual need. Her people were the ones left behind when Israel went into exile. The people left behind assimilated and intermarried and they worshipped on the mountain because the temple had been destroyed. When the exiles returned, they rejected the Samaritans because they thought they had the more pure way of worshiping and the codified scriptures that they had to write down while they were away so they would be sure not to forget God’s stories.

The interpretation of this story that I am especially enjoying this week is that this woman represents Samaria itself. Samaria had 5 occupiers over the years as this woman has had 5 husbands. Jesus goes out to show what it means to love the world, and Jesus the bridegroom meets Samaria at the well and they are having a courtship. Her family and town welcome him and they will soon be married, unified, in a committed relationship. This is what it looks like when God loves the world.

It means recognizing the needs that we have for each other. Jesus is the first to express a need. He is thirsty. It’s hot and he needs a drink. We can’t help but be reminded of Jesus on the cross when he says, “I thirst.” Jesus is expressing this need twice in the book of John. The woman also feels safe to express her need. She has a need or a want to quit coming to this well. She has a need to understand—she asks curious questions of Jesus, needing deep conversation. She’s a theologian and a thinker. She needs to know and she wants to discuss. And she has a need for Messiah, for hope of change in her life in her world. She and Jesus together are expressing a common need and that is for the arbitrary divisions that people make to be destroyed.

If these two didn’t have any needs, they would have never had this conversation. But they are human and they need water, they need spiritual fulfillment, they need relationship, they need each other. This is what it means to love the world, to need each other. God needs us, needs to be in relationship and we need to be in relationship with God and each other. The problem is we are so independent that we don’t want to admit our needs. We don’t want seem needy or desperate. But God doesn’t mind sounding desperate. God is desperate to save us and is not holding back, even his own son, the lifegiving water, the Holy Spirit, any of it.

So it means accepting that we have needs and expressing them and it means accepting love and help from others. These two were receptive to the gifts and help that each other were offering. They were open to relationship and they found themselves satisfied. Jesus found a place where he was received and could share the good news. The woman found the Messiah and her community was transformed.

In the desert, Moses strikes a rock with his staff and water gushes forth for the Israelites wandering in the desert about to die of thirst. The very most dry and resistant of places. So God strikes our hard hearts and our thickest armor trying to give us what we most need. May we be receptive, may we admit our needs for God and each other, may we form relationships that transform us and satisfy our deepest longings.

Transfiguration 2026

 

When I was in high school the song, “God is watching us” by Bette Midler was popular. It was on the radio and when the touring band from PLU came through, they sang it for our youth lock in. The lyrics say, “God is watching us from a distance.” But although there might be some truths in that song, I thought that song had it all wrong. The parts it got right are that God doesn’t see friends and enemies but people and the things we argue and fight about are ridiculous. The part I couldn’t believe is that God is at all distant.

Jesus goes up the mountain top, to be like Moses. People thought the mountains were closer to God, so they located God there and found that climbing mountains brought God and humans together. On Mt. Sinai, Moses went up and had a conversation with God, was transfigured with a glowing face, and received the 10 Commandments. Jesus goes up on the Mountain top at the transfiguration, hears God’s voice like a bookend to God’s voice at his baptism, turning him from teaching and healing to head toward the cross.

In Jesus God has done the opposite of see us from a distance. People thought God was distant, on the Mountain, in the temple, coming only through the priest, available if you had the right sacrifices. God in Jesus bridges that distance. He bridges the distance between heaven and earth, God and humankind, God’s experience and self-understanding and human experience and self-understanding, between glory and ordinary life, between the hills and valleys and all the separations between people. Make straight the way of the Lord, every valley shall lifted up and every mountain shall be brought low, because if MThere is a perceived separation, that is damaging and artificial. It is not part of how God sees the creation and not part of God’s plan for all creation, that all creation would be drawn to God.

The disciples like this separation. They see Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus and they want more. This is what it looked like in old times, we like the familiarity, feeling special and separate. It’s not that mountains don’t have their place. Jesus often goes up on a mountain to pray and get a break. Mountains are places to stop and refresh, to celebrate.

In the book Canoeing the Mountains, there is a reference when you’re in the midst of ministry and God is calling you to something unknown or something bigger than you, it can be important to stop and look from a couple of perspectives. It’s important to see the view from the balcony and from the dance floor. When you go up in a balcony, you can see all kinds of things you couldn’t see before. You can see the flow of the people on the dance floor, where the pinch points are, who is active and who is sitting on the sidelines. The balcony is a good place to make an evaluation. But you can’t stay in the balcony. You get down on the dance floor and you see the perspective from the messy middle, where the rubber hits the road, what is working and what could be better from there.

Think of our stained glass window we just repaired. Because people were going up to the tower to make repairs, they saw something else that could be improved and that was bowing glass. We all started to notice a window we had taken for granted and started to notice the play of the light and other things about this church. But the property committee couldn’t stay up there. That would be ridiculous. They came down. We raised money down here. We cast a vision of what could be. We responded to each other and unified around a project. We entered some difficult days when the glass studio burned, but we were patient. Our timeline stretched. Finally the day come when we entrusted a window worth quite a lot to those who could revive it and Steve and Grant went to work repairing the surrounding wood. The light was different while it was away from us and now it glitters and shines.

In the balcony, on the mountain, from a distance, we find inspiration. We give thanks for those who have gone before. We keep our eye out for what is bowing and about to buckle in the people we meet. We are looking for signs of stress. We’re looking to build each other up. We don’t stay up in the balcony, or on the mountain, because the mountains are brought low to make a way in the wilderness and prepare the way of the LORD. Jesus came be a person, to feel what we feel, even the stress, even to the point of breaking. So we too don’t shy away from going out into the world to notice those who are struggling and connect with them. We don’t fix them but we find ourselves becoming allies in solidarity. Jesus heart is with the people who are hurting and that's where we are called to go.

In the transfiguration, Jesus shows how powerful he is. He has the connections to the purpose and power of Moses and Elijah. Peter wants to use that power to protect Jesus from the crowds waiting at the foot of the mountain. Jesus just ignores Peter and heads back down into the thick of it.

Church can be like the mountaintop for a lot of us where we hear God pronounce Jesus the beloved Son, where we feel connected with the great people of faith that have gone before, where our cup is filled and we behold the glory of God. But we can’t stay here. We get to go out to the dance floor and work alongside Jesus in all the marginalized. We get to bear Jesus' heart to a hurting world.

We might say like Peter says, “It is good Lord to be here.” Here is another tool in our toolbox, along with looking from the balcony and dance floor. To evaluate, to see what's working and what could be better. That’s evaluation. We go up to the mountain so we see things other people don’t see, and what we see illumined is of value going forward. It can help us find the way instead of going in circles all the time. In your meetings I invite you to use the tool of evaluation, what is going well, what could be improved. Keep it positive. We can always get better. What better ways can we serve God and serve our neighbor? What is Jesus heart longing for? How can we bring the Kingdom of God with us for the hungry and hurting ones.

Today we join Jesus on the mountaintop. Ash Wednesday we will turn with him toward the cross. Yet we know we are not alone. It’s a difficult journey and even Jesus asks that this cup may be taken from him, yet we go because Jesus goes to all our places of suffering and pain. There is no distance between us.

February 7, 2026

 

If I were to ask you to share one blessing that happened to you today, what would you say? You might tell me you were blessed to have a phone call from one of your children or you were blessed be in relatively good health or you’re blessed to have a roof over your head. You wouldn’t say you were blessed to stub your toe or get in an argument with your neighbor. Yet, in The Beatitudes, Jesus seems to be saying that there is blessing even in difficulties and pain. Blessing is different than we think it is.

Jesus has just been asking these newly called Disciples what they are looking for and now he is shaping what they are looking for and how they see the world in his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is training them to pay attention to the unexpected. He wants them to look for blessing in unexpected places. We call it a blessing when things are going well. But things won’t always go well and where do we turn then, how do we see our lives then? Do we blame someone? Do we blame ourselves and think it is because that’s what we deserve? Jesus says in times of pain and trouble, look for blessing.

These instructions form Jesus are not just about how we see our own experiences, but how we see others who are going through difficulties. Jesus is saying to build relationships with those in pain and trouble. See value in those who suffer. People who are struggling may find themselves more receptive to the Good News the Disciples bring and they may know the Good News better than the disciples even do, have an even stronger faith because they have been relying on God and not their own wealth or comfort.

Blessing is different than we think it is. Blessing is plentiful. Maybe we think that blessing is limited and there isn’t enough to go around. Maybe we think blessing is for the few, the rich, the healthy, the young. But Jesus in this sermon is indicating there is a lot of blessing if we know where to look for it, there is a lot of good, a lot of favor, a lot of joy to be found even when circumstances are difficult. There are blessings abundant for everyone. This is a sign of God’s grace that blessing comes to even those who don’t deserve it. Then all of us who are undeserving get to decide what to do with abundant, unexpected blessing.

Maybe this is why we do so much blessing in church. Church is a training ground for the Kingdom life. We are training ourselves to bless and receive blessing. We bless God in the hymn of praise. “Blessing and honor and glory and might be to God and the lamb forever, Amen.” Even us lowly humans have a blessing to offer to God.

We bless each other in the sharing of the peace. We practice going to people we might not ordinarily expect blessing from, people we may have disagreed with, people we might have hurt or been hurt by, we go and share the peace. If we wanted to share and experience further blessing, we could challenge ourselves to invite that person for a conversation and try to come to more understanding between you than can be found in a moment of shaking a hand or giving a fist bump. We bless each other in the sharing of the peace.

We bless the meal as we share it and Jesus blesses us with his presence, his body and blood. Talk about an unexpected place to find blessing! In Jesus suffering, he comes to us with his own flesh and blood poured out for us, to give us new life and make us into his body.

Finally God blesses us in the sending blessing. “God bless you and keep you, God’s face shine on with grace and mercy, God look upon you with favor and give you peace.” This is what we call the Aaronic blessing, a blessing given by Moses’ brother Aaron in ancient times, a priestly blessing that Aaron learned from God when he and Moses were setting up the tabernacle to contain the ark of the covenant. It’s a blessing we share often at church, but I also often share it in people’s last days, when we know their earthly life is drawing to a close. Blessing is God’s intent for everyone. When God first called Abraham, God said that Abraham was called to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Blessing has been God’s intention from the beginning, to bring people together in relationship and look for the best in each other, connections and depth and humility and honesty that comes by having lived through difficult things.

Blessing is for sharing. In church God blesses us and we bless God and then we are called out into the world to bless the poor, hungry, and grieving, all those in any need. Then we find ourselves blessed by unexpected people that we are going out to serve. God makes a relationship with us and we go and make a relationship with others forming the body of Christ. We become conduits, with blessings and relationships flowing freely between us. That’s the nature of blessing. When we receive blessings, realize how close God is and how much joy there is in this world even in our suffering and grieving and pain, we share it with other people. They too are conduits, sharing blessing with us, teaching us about perseverance, sharing joy even in adversity.

Blessing is for sharing. Remember the story of the unforgiving servant in the Gospel of Matthew. The servant is called to repay a debt to his master and he can’t pay it so his master forgives the debt. But the servant sees another who owes him a much smaller amount and when this person can’t repay the debt he had him arrested. When his master sees that although the servant was forgiven, he didn’t pass that forgiveness on to others, he is enraged and heaps on disastrous consequences. Jesus is adamant that blessings are to be shared and that God does not give them to us for us to keep all for ourselves. God never hoards blessings, but is always generous in handing them out. As followers of Jesus, we also get to let the blessings flow.

There is a quote attributed to Martin Luther, “God divided the hand into fingers so money would slip through.” We can receive blessings, but we aren’t meant to keep them for ourselves. Whether it is money or blessing, or love or food or land or possessions, we aren’t meant to keep them but to share them.

The wisdom of the Beatitudes may seem like foolishness. To see value in something difficult and scary, to move toward grief, toward hunger, toward persecution and ridicule is the opposite of what we might be inclined to do. However, God saw the value in moving toward us and we are grateful. In Jesus, God moved toward poverty, toward discomfort, toward grieving and pain. And in Jesus God moved toward blessing, the sharing of true, lasting, life-giving relationship. The cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, who trust in the temporary, but to us being saved it is new life and good news.

So we go forth in God’s blessing, doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. The trust we confess with our voices, we live out, standing up for all who are oppressed, standing up to powers that separate and destroy, demanding that our leaders see and hear the people with little power in our midst. We see the value in our neighbor who is suffering. We put ourselves in the role of peacemaker, choosing the way of nonviolent resistance.

Let us count our blessings, so many gifts from God, and then count them again in case our hardships might also contain blessings, and let those blessings flow to others so that life can flourish and good news be shared, relationships built that will never be destroyed.

Epiphany 2, 2026

 

Jesus took one look at Simon and said to him, “You shall no longer be called Simon but your name from this time forth will be Rocky.” Cephas, Peter, Petrified, Rocky. And Simon Peter said to Jesus, “But I just got a stack of new business cards! Now I have to have them reprinted with my new name!”

In this year of reading Matthew's Gospel, we get some key readings from the Gospel of John which is really a very different Gospel. Today we're getting John's introduction to Jesus. John is the odd one in the 4 Gospels. Matthew makes the connection between Jesus and Moses. Luke often often tells stories from a man's perspective and then a matching story from a woman's perspective. Mark is the action-packed Gospel going immediate from one action scene to another. And then there's John. He's telling a cosmic story that begins in the beginning, like the Genesis beginning where God and the Word or Logos or Jesus create the heavens and the earth, a story in which God is drawing all creation to God's self, a story of connections and meaning and poetry. So here we are in John's introduction to Jesus.  These are Jesus' first words in this Gospel.

We're getting the hand off of power between John the Baptist and Jesus. John reports that he saw the Spirit descend and remain on Jesus. John has been a charismatic leader. He is a prophet whose actions have prompted people to ask if he is the Messiah. He has drawn a following and has gathered disciples. And he's baptized most of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. Everyone has gone out to see him and many have found his message compelling: Repent, prepare the way, get ready! When John points to Jesus and says this is the guy you've been looking for, it really means a lot. It is a big deal that John would redirect the accolades and attention given to him and use it to point out Jesus. John is not tempted by fame or attention. He gives credit to Jesus and uses his own power and influence to name the Messiah, the anointed one that he is recognizing. This is John the Baptist's 5 star review, his 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, this is his letter of recommendation of Jesus as the one to follow and listen to. Because John isn't keeping the praise heaped on him for himself, he doesn't lose track of who he is. He is focused on his power as a prophet to speak the truth. He will soon be telling Herod the truth that Herod is doing wrong and that will lead to the consequence of John's death. John is an uncompromising guy and that raises his credibility that he pointed to Jesus as the Messiah.

John the Baptist is naming Jesus' particular kind of power. He is telling us what to expect from Jesus. “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The next day he says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” What does it mean to have your Savior be a lamb? He isn't just a sheep, he's a lamb. A lamb would have meant a lot to the Israelites. They put lamb's blood on their doorways at the Passover and a lamb was eaten in celebrations of Passover, remembering God delivering them from slavery in Egypt. A lamb was a helpless animal, but also a precious animal, providing wool and meat and liberation.

This lamb image is so different from the team mascots and animals we most revere today. We might prefer to follow a wolf or a wildcat. In John's time, Christians and Jews were in conflict. There was pressure from the Roman Empire. Life was not peaceful or easy. People lived under oppression. Into this mix comes Jesus, the Lamb of God. He's gentle. He doesn't take up arms. He's peaceful. He doesn't defend himself. He doesn't even defend his disciples and followers. He advocates resistance, defiance, but it's peaceful resistance, loving resistance. It is resistance in community—this story is all about community: relationships rather than individuals.

There is power in relationships.  Relationships bind us together, join our stories, give us encouragement and purpose.  The relationships in this story include the relationship between the Lamb of God and the world, namely that he takes away the sin of the world.  Here is another element of Jesus' peacefulness, he takes away sin.  Many times we heap sins on people, blame them, shame them, require them to face consequences, revel in their humiliation.  But the Lamb of God comes to take away the sin of the world--to remove it.  As it says in John 3:17 God did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved through him. Jesus practices and advocates resisting the powers of violence with the power of forgiveness in relationships.

There is the relationship between John the baptist and Jesus.  John says explicitly that Jesus is greater than him, and is part of the greater story.  He was before him, as in there in the creation, the Logos or word moving over the waters.  John knows him because he was revealed by God in the dove which descended and remained at Jesus' baptism.  There is power in recognizing and sharing leadership in the community of God's followers.

There is power in the relationship between John and his disciples and Jesus receiving the transfer of John's disciples to him. John's credibility and power is transferred to Jesus. Jesus takes up this relationship by asking them what they are looking for, what are their expectations.  This is a question that shapes the rest of the Gospel.  A lot of times what we are looking for shapes what we see and find.  Throughout the Gospel we find the disciples looking for a Messiah that is a military victor, someone very different from a lamb.  We, too, have expectations of what a relationship with Jesus means.  Some people think it means they will be rewarded with wealth or good health or good family relationships or ease in life.  People tell me they come to church to be comforted, to feel the warmth of God's love and grace.  The book of John is not a very comforting book--instead it challenges us.  It challenges Nicodemus who comes looking for affirmation and is given direction by Jesus to be born again, have a whole changed.  It challenges the rich young man who comes with the idea that he has followed all the commandments, so he should be comforted and affirmed, but he is told to sell everything and follow Jesus, that he lacks one thing.  John's Gospel invites us to look at our expectations, to pay attention to what we are looking for.  If all we want is comfort, then Jesus probably isn't the one we're seeking.

The disciples are starting to build a relationship with Jesus.  They ask, "Where are you staying?"  The word for staying is the same word for the dove remaining on him.  The word remain shows up several times in this reading, which is always something to pay attention to.  There is an intention to remain, to stay, to abide, and build this relationship.  This the same kind of staying power that God is having with humankind in the person of Jesus.  He is abiding.  Later in the book of John, Jesus will give a farewell address about abiding, how he and God abide with each other, and how the Holy Spirit abides with the Disciples after Jesus ascends to the Father.  Abiding and remaining indicate a long-term relationship, a commitment to work together.

Then Jesus invites them to come and see.  Jesus doesn't make any promises about what the disciples will experience.  He lets the experience unfold instead of trying to anticipate everything they will encounter.  Jesus wants them to be open to all the experience of following him and abiding will bring.  An attitude of openness, of curiosity is helpful for Jesus' disciples, which we are.

Then there is the relationship between the brothers Andrew and Simon, the power of sharing the good news.  Andrew doesn't keep Jesus all for himself, but he tells his brother, who ends up becoming Jesus' right-hand man.  The good news of Jesus is too good to keep to ourselves.  How can our lives be ones of invitation, of sharing Jesus with others, of building community and relationship.  In knowing Jesus, Simon gets a new name, a new identity, a new birth.  So new things are possible with all of us in abiding, remaining relationship with Jesus and each other.

We live in troubled times.  People's anxiety is rising week by week. Stress is high.  Some people are turning on each other.  Some people seem stuck about what to do.  But many people are building relationships, getting to know their neighbors, showing up at city hall to speak the truth to the Gresham city counselors. Santa Cruz congregation has asked us at Trinity to meet with officials in Gresham to get a state of emergency declared in Gresham as the city in Oregon with the most per capita ICE arrests.  Families are being separated and hard-working law-abiding members of our community have been taken to Tacoma. I hope you'll pray for me, I have a clergy meeting with the Gresham mayor on Thursday.  Some of our community members have asked to join our disaster preparedness pods to know their neighbors and be able to respond in times of need--because we are already in a time of need, a time of emergency for many.  In these times we are called to follow the lamb, Jesus who faced the violent powers of empire that tried to control him, that tried to take away the hope of the people.  We are called to follow the lamb and respond not with violence but with relationship and solidarity.  We are called to tell the truth even when it is unpopular and to resist power that attacks countries, states, and people who are defenseless.  We are called to come and see, and to remain with Jesus the lamb and our fellow disciples receiving a new identity and new purpose in the power of relationship and love.

Epiphany 1, 2026

 7 years ago when my husband was applying for a job in Seattle, and I was anticipating leaving a church I served for 14 years, I started swimming as a way to stay healthy, both physically and emotionally. It seemed there was a pretty big chance he would get the job and I needed to calm my anxiety about the uncertainty of the future. So I started going to the pool. The pool is a quiet place that I can be alone with my thoughts. It is a calming place when I am anxious. It is a place of centering, a place of keeping myself in shape, and of prayer. Although the pandemic closed the pools for a time, I have returned there. I swim about 4 days a week for about 45 minutes. It comes to about ¾ of a mile. I often organize my thoughts for sermons there and feel buoyed up on many levels.

Water is powerful. We are made mostly of water. We depend on the flowing of water to give us life. Several of you experienced flooded basements last month. Water can be traumatizing, especially when you just get it cleaned up and it comes gushing in again. My home congregation when I was growing up had a baptismal font that spilled over into a pool and there was a pump that kept it flowing. One year when several members had basement flooding we had to turn off the pump because the sound of trickling water was making them anxious.

Water is responsible for so much good. Here in Oregon we are so blessed by water to keep this half of our state green, to provide water for livestock, to provide recreation and refreshment. We are blessed with an abundance of water from the Columbia River to Johnson Creek, to blue lake. How exciting that God chooses something plentiful and available to bless, that God comes to us through something every day and common

Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized by John. Water is powerful. The Jordan River marked the place where the Israelites entered into the land after wandering for 40 years in the wilderness. They started at a body of water, the Red Sea, which was a powerful barrier keeping them trapped until God made a way through the waters. Then after all that wilderness wandering there is another body of water to cross to end the journey, the Jordan River. So Jesus comes here to this powerful place: A place of barrier, of boundary, of crossing, of ending one phase and entering another.

At the River Jordan, Jesus encounters a barrier—John not being worthy to baptize him. We are always putting up barriers. Sometimes it holds us back from our own power. Sometimes it is about others. We put up barriers saying that some are in our group and some are out. Let’s examine this barrier in the story of Cornelius and his family. There was a barrier about what people could eat and what people couldn’t, a law. Maybe it was to keep people safe and healthy. Maybe it was about prejudice and fear. It was a barrier that worked for a while, but Peter had a vision that broke down that barrier and he was told that things he had been forbidden to eat, were actually permitted, and people he was told to keep separate from he was to embrace into God’s family.

We’re planning to vote on a welcome statement at our annual meeting at the end of the month that has the potential to break down a barrier. It is one the church and church people put up trying to be faithful to God’s teaching and to the way we have been raised. It’s a barrier meant to protect people and guide people. And yet through study of scripture many of us are saying we see this barrier being more hurtful than helpful, maybe more constructed by humans than by God. At Trinity, we’re considering a welcome that includes people of all different sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions because we feel led by God’s love and grace to do so.

Trinity Lutheran Church, I want you to take special notice here in this story of the presence of the Trinity. We have Jesus at the Jordan, the Son. We have the voice of God over the waters. We have the Holy Spirit descending like a dove. Let’s notice this moment is all about the power of God the Trinity through the waters. Jesus seeks out water to illustrate his entrance into ministry as the Israelites used this place as an entrance to the new life God was leading them to. Jesus in the flesh, made of water, coming to the waters for cleansing, naming, and anointing as the Son of God, the Messiah at the waters. The voice of God over the waters as at Creation making something new, order out of chaos, in blessing Jesus the word made flesh. The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, like the dove that Noah sent out after the flood to signal when it was safe to walk on solid ground again, a sign of the healing of creation, of wholeness of restoration and starting again. It is all about the power of water to set apart, cleanse, remove barriers, or mark a new beginning.

This moment is all about the breaking down of barriers. The barrier between Jesus and John is breaking down. God always works through imperfect people to accomplish God’s purposes and John is one of those people. The barrier between humankind and God is being broken down. Here is Jesus, God in the flesh. That’s the word “incarnate” we’ve been hearing a lot in the Christmas story and hymns. Carne is flesh, so God is in the flesh. The barrier between the wilderness and the gathering of the people, the activity of the people is being broken down. Even the concept of the Trinity shows that although we have one God, God is relational within God’s self-breaking down barriers, but also God is relational with us and with water, with all creation. Baptism is a breaking down of barriers, washing away the sin that divides us, breaking down the separation of unworthiness and bringing us into God’s family. Baptism breaks down the barriers between people—there is no insiders and outsiders. When God welcomes you into the family of God, no one can take that away from you. A barrier has been taken down between us, and now you are my brother or sister, you are my responsibility and we belong to each other.

We’re invited this day to come to the waters of baptism and renew that relationship, be cleansed again, and sent out to do ministry. We are invited to encounter the power of water. Water can carve through stone, it finds its way through to nourish the plants and animals. Water evaporates and floats through the sky only to be pushed up to condense to rain and bless the land. Water comes down as snow and waits to melt on the mountains, giving us water all through the summer until the cycle starts again. Water respects no boundaries, it breaks them down and comes to us despite any unworthiness.

In our baptism we are called and driven by the Holy Spirit to experience a changed life. We make and renew commitments as a community to proclaim Christ through word and deed, to care for others and the world God made, and to work for Justice and peace. So we emerge from the waters with a blessing, a reminder of who we are as God’s children, a reminder that we belong to this great story of liberation and new life, a reminder that we are part of the body of Christ, the community working together, and a motivation, a drive to do God’s Kingdom work of releasing the prisoners, feeding the hungry, standing up for justice and peace, and loving the world. God does God’s work through us, the body of Christ, marked and anointed and claimed and reminded.

Lately, when I go to the pool I have started to mark my baptism. I always wet my hair before I put on my swim cap. That’s when I am giving thanks to God for my baptism. Thanks be to God for the morning. Thanks be to God for the waters. Thanks be to God for quiet places to float and weigh all the troubles of this world. Thanks be to God for cleansing us. Thanks be to God for breaking down our barriers. Thanks be to God for new life in the desert. Thanks be to God for Jesus who came to show us God’s love. Thanks be to God for the voice that claims us and blesses us. Thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit that drives us—out in the wilderness and back again, toward each other, on new paths of justice and hope. I invite you to find your renewal of baptism ritual. Maybe it’s when you step into the shower or wash your face in the morning, or maybe when you step out in the rain or wash the dishes. Maybe it is when you bathe your child or your ailing parent. Notice the water, notice the blessing, notice the hope and let it move you toward a more just and peaceful world.

Christmas Eve 2025

 My little great-nephew Owen is three years old. A baby brother arrived this summer. When Owen met him in the hospital he said, “We’re not taking THAT home with us!” Owen feels the same as many older brothers and sisters, and yet he has thankfully adjusted well to this new person who will surely be a key person in his life from now on.

Now matter how expected or planned or longed-for a birth is, it is disruptive. There’s no doubt about it, a baby changes everything. A baby is messy, a baby is noisy, a baby is vulnerable, a baby is needy. A baby is who shows up for us at Christmas.

This Advent leading up to Christmas we heard the scripture about God coming like a thief in the night, catching us off guard, and breaking into our lives. We found this to be a mixed message, because a thief is bad news, but God is good news. We considered the possibility that God comes to us like a thief because we have our house locked up tight against life-changing good news, against disruption, against challenge. So God comes as a thief to steal away our self-absorption, our tight grip of control over our lives. God comes as a thief, a little baby thief.

I think my great-nephew had a sense that his little brother was a thief. He would be a thief of his parents’ time and energy, a thief of his toys, competition for resources. But he would also be a thief of his loneliness, of his isolation, of his self-centeredness. Not all thieving is bad, it depends on what you steal. Jesus, too steals our isolation, our self-centeredness, our self-righteousness, he steals our despair.

Jesus came to us a little baby to steal our hearts, to sneak in. He came to us innocent and needing help. He came to us vulnerable and small. So we opened the door. But he didn’t just come to be cute and snuggly. A baby doesn’t stay the same. The minute you think you have this little person figured out, they change and need something else. They are constantly growing and changing. They grow up and they have a different view of the world and their own way of approaching things.

We all change and grow up. I remember how heart-breaking it was when my nieces entered their teenage years because they started to see the cruelty of this world and how it could be different. It’s heart-breaking to be so aware of the world’s pain. So it is with our children and so it is with Jesus. He grew up with his own vision, his own view of how the world oppresses people, how war maims and destroys and how our taxes go to purchase weapons to shape this world into one friendly toward the rich.

Many of us have now grown weary and apathetic, inundated with images and news stories from around the world that keep us feeling helpless. We are aware of injustice everywhere, so much evil in our midst and even that we participate in: workers not paid fair wages, a health care system that regularly bankrupts families, a housing market developed only to make money not keep people safe and warm and dry, poison in our food, clothing, and soil. These are days when we really feel like locking up the doors against all the pain and struggle and hunker down to cling to what we know and what makes us comfortable.

That’s why Jesus comes to us as a baby. We let our guard down for a baby. And with a baby we see beyond the pain and fear of these times and we see possibility. When Jesus comes as a baby, he brings hope and possibility with him. Into this chaotic world, hope is born. Here is someone whose life is not yet all laid out, who has gifts to develop, joys to experience. Here is someone who will take us back to our own innocence, our own delight, our own hope for what could be. With Jesus, it is this and more. It isn’t what could be, it is what will be, what God promises, what God is powerfully enacting. Jesus not only breaks in like a thief, but he breaks through all our barriers to give us gifts. Jesus gives us gift of community, others who carry the light of hope and do the hard work together to bring it into reality—feeding the hungry, welcoming those who have been rejected, sharing with others, and living the Pentecost story as we worship in multiple languages. Jesus gives us the gift of new life—life is not easy following Jesus to the cross and losing everything: family, possessions, social status. And yet even death does not have the last word because love never ends and Jesus’ resurrection promise is for us all. We may not see the fullness of the Kingdom of God in this life, yet we work toward a more just world, for moments of love coming through, for connection. Jesus gives us the gift of forgiveness—to be able to try again when we get off course, to be human and make mistakes and not have that define us. Jesus gives us the gift of love—as we welcome this child, he welcomes us and adopts us into his family. Now we are part of something, have obligations to each other, have the benefits of belonging. We have love from God overflowing through all the changes in our world, a revealing light, warmth and hope, a vision that is worth working toward, and a family to work together with that keeps it interesting.

Jesus is born in Bethlehem. We know his life will be full of pain and difficulty. We know he will face challenges from every direction and even that he will die a painful death. Yet we know that his dream and vision continues to be worth fighting for, worth working for. We hold that spark of hope in these troubled times and we vow to find the joy like a small child, to name the injustice like a teenager, and to find our house broken into this season with hope and determination to make life better for another person, to forgive, to share, to speak the truth, and to act until God’s dream is fully realized.

Advent 4, 2025

 

The birth of Jesus took place in a human way.  A human woman became pregnant, an embryo growing in her womb.  She was tired.  She was hungry.  And like so many before her and since, she was pondering.  Some artists and theologians have speculated that Jesus avoided all the humanity of childbirth, but that seems ridiculous to me.  He was fully human, and so I am sure he emerged with a cone head, looking like a little old man, messy, red and wailing.  It’s not a very dignified entrance, but then his death wasn’t either, and neither was much of his life.  He didn’t avoid being human and he didn’t ask us to either.

The birth of Jesus took place in human history.  His father Joseph had dreams like the Joseph with the coat of many colors.  Like that Joseph, too, his father would take him to Egypt.  And like Moses, Jesus would set his people free.  Isaiah once gave this same message about a young woman conceiving and bearing a son to King Ahaz, and also telling him not to fear, and the child that was born was king Hezekiah who was one of the few good Israelite kings.  This story is full of references to God’s actions in times long past, and the way God is faithful in fulfilling God’s promises.

The birth of Jesus took place in a merciful way.  Joseph was a righteous man.  He wanted to do the right thing.  It seemed that Mary had not done the right thing, but that was no reason to cause her more pain than she would already be facing as a single mother.  Joseph was hurt by her apparent actions.  He was disappointed that his plans had fallen through.  He was disappointed that Mary was not who he thought she was.  Yet, Joseph was self-assured enough not to make a huge fuss.  He knew that people would say that the baby was his, or say that he was a fool that his betrothed had relations with someone else.  Still, he was preparing himself to do the right thing and be compassionate and merciful, quietly dismiss her.

God had tried so many ways to lead the people of Israel but mercy and compassion were always part of God’s nature and plans.  God had made Abraham the father of many nations.  God had led the people out of slavery in Egypt, through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and into the promised land.  Even though they broke the covenant over and over, God was merciful, and gathered them together, with mercy.  It was God’s mercy that caused God to send us Jesus, God’s son, as a baby, to look into our eyes with compassion, to touch our wounds and heal us with mercy, to listen to our complaining, and to forgive us again when we forgot, or ran away, or were selfish. 

The birth of Jesus took place in a brave way.  The angel of the Lord commanded Joseph in a dream not to be afraid.  Joseph was not to be afraid of the gossip that would go on about the child’s parents.  He was not to be afraid about whether Mary was faithful.  He was not to be afraid of the power of God in this new little person.  He was not be afraid of what he might have to do to protect the child.  He was not to be afraid to be father to the Son of God.  So he was not afraid, or at least, if he was, he didn’t act out of his fear.  The Gospel says, “He named him Jesus.”  Naming a child is what a father does to claim his child.  Whether he was afraid or not, Joseph was brave.

The birth of Jesus took place in a quiet way.  Jesus started out very small, the way we all do, not noticeable for several months, living quietly within his mother’s body.  Joseph was going to dismiss Mary quietly—there was no need to make a loud fuss.  Joseph had a quiet dream in the quiet of the night that told his quiet mind what his next step would be.  Joseph quietly married Mary and brought her safely to his home.  Jesus came quietly into the world, perhaps there was a little fuss, but there was no grand party thrown, or huge birth announcement throughout the empire, there weren’t piles of gifts, or hoards of well-wishers.  It was a quiet birth.

That Jesus’ birth took place in a human way, affirms the human in all of us.  We all feel small and vulnerable sometimes.  We all make mistakes.  We all experience discomforts and react to them.  Yet God can work through humans to bring salvation and new life.

And God the birth of Jesus took place in human history.  Human history means that forces beyond ourselves dictate large parts of our lives.  Sometimes it means that our family flees danger.  Sometimes it means that we have more to be generous with than others.  It means that there are other powers in our world, kings and presidents and governors whose policies affect us for good or ill.  And it means our stories are tied up in our family history, and the history of our nation and the condition of our world.  And it means that our stories are part of the story of God’s faithfulness to God’s people throughout history.  Just as God was faithful then, so God is to us.

That the story of Jesus took place in a merciful way, makes it all the more important that we also act with mercy.  It is one thing to be righteous.  When I hear that, I hear “self-righteous,” making myself better than another person.  But for Joseph to be righteous meant that he didn’t judge other people even when their wrong seemed very apparent.  God has been merciful with us, even when we didn’t deserve it.  Every day we have a choice whether to live the way Jesus does, and be merciful to others, showing kindness, shielding people from the cruelty of others, even facing embarrassment and shame ourselves to give someone a break.

The birth of Jesus took place in a brave way.  So many times we hear in the Scriptures, “Do not be afraid.”  This is a command, a commandment, we might say.  It seems that so many of the commandments can be summed up in “Do not be afraid.”  Have no other gods=Do not be afraid that God isn’t enough.  Do not steal=Do not be afraid that you don’t have enough.  Honor your father and mother=Do not be afraid to listen to those with more experience who have your welfare in mind.  Do not commit adultery=Do not be afraid your spouse is not enough or that you are not enough for your spouse.  Do not covet=Do not be afraid that you don’t have enough cattle, spouses, houses, etc.  We are invited to act out of love rather than fear.

There is a lot we could be afraid of if we let ourselves go there, and certainly Joseph had his fair share of things to be afraid of.  But not acting out of fear is to trust God, to know we aren’t alone.  It is knowing that there are others in the community to step in and surround us with the care we need.  It is believing the best about the other person.  It is wanting the best for the other person.  It is willingness to suffer for the sake of another.  It is knowing that sometimes our quiet righteousness is offensive to others and we will face consequences for doing what we know is right. When I hear the story of Jesus’ birth, I want to put fear in its proper place and not let it rule my life.

The birth of Jesus took place in a quiet way.  Can we keep quiet when we feel insulted and keep from shaming other people and making them feel bad?  How can we listen more deeply to our dreams for the voice of God?  How can we quiet ourselves more often in our loud, busy world, and listen for God’s guidance?  How can we quiet the competing messages about what is powerful and worth our time and energy and listen for what really matters?  Can we quietly do good works for others, not taking any praise or attention or recognition, but giving all the glory to God?  Can we humble ourselves before our king and be content with what we have?

This Advent season ends the way it began, “Keep awake!” “Awake from sleep!”  Something is happening that is worth waking up to, God with us.  The last couple of weeks of pregnancy can feel very long.  The mother is feeling uncomfortable.  She can hardly get any sleep.  Everyone is waiting for the phone call.  The baby is doing calisthenics and karate chops.  The suitcase is packed by the door for when the moment comes that this baby will be born.

You are on baby watch!  Look for the signs that he is about to be born.  Someone who is poor bringing food to donate to the Food pantry.  Someone who is alone is invited to join in a holiday celebration.  Someone who has been locked up behind prison doors is set free.  Someone who had been uncertain about where they would be living gets the keys to an apartment.  Someone who has been sick, feels good enough to get up and eat a little.  Someone who has been longing to be with God takes her last breath.  Life is stirring beneath the earth.  A fetus is kicking.  A child is nursing.  An old man and a little child walk hand in hand.  Advent is a beginning, the beginning of God’s reign breaking in.  Wake up and live God’s dream as Jesus is born in our world.