MMC: Temptation and Lent

Good Morning Bethlehem!

I hope the flooding in basements and side streets are minor for you today, though I have already heard otherwise from a few people.  

Announcements

• Ash Wednesday service is this Wednesday, March 9 at 7:30pm.  All are invited to come to worship as we start our Lenten journey and receive ashes to remember that we are human
• Council is meeting after worship this coming Sunday, March 13
• There will be a representative from Calumet at Bethlehem on Sunday to talk about Calumet.  He will also be presenting some information about the camp to the council meeting.   

Book of Faith Puzzler

Last week's question was "How many years did it take Solomon to build the temple?"  According to 1 Kings 6:38 "[Solomon] was seven years in building the it."  Congratulations to Tiina for winning this week's puzzler.  

This week's question is:  "On what mountain did the transfiguration occur?  A) Mount Hebron B) Mount Tabor C) Mount Sinai D) The Bible doesn't say.  If you know the answer, email me by noon on Wednesday to be entered into this week's drawing.  

Yesterday's Sermon

You can read it here if you wish.  How have you seen God in the majestic, the lowly and the mundane?  Keep emailing and brining in your pictures of how you see God.  

This Sunday's Worship

Serving this coming Sunday is: worship assistant- Ellen G, reader - Bob M-C, communion assistant - Anna H, Usher - Matt M, coffee hour host - The Hawley family.  If you would like to serve as an usher, set up & clean up the altar or to provide meals for those in need, please let me know.  

Also a reminder that Saturday is Daylight Savings time, so Spring Forward an hour on Saturday night!

Now onto the texts:

Before looking at the text for Sunday, I did want to discuss the gospel for Ash Wednesday which is Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.  Jesus tells us to participate in spiritual devotion in secret, to not show off what you are giving, how much you are praying, or how dedicated you fast.  Lent is a time when many Christians either give something up (from food to Facebook) or take something on (volunteering, praying or scripture reading as a few examples).  To start a new spiritual practice during Lent can be quiet rewarding as you realize either how much of your life is focused on what you gave up or how much your life is enriched by what you take on.  I encourage you to start a new spiritual disciple during Lent if you so feel called and see how your life is changed by it. 

Now onto Sunday.  The first lesson is Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, the story of Adam and Eve eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  The idea of this being the fall of humanity did not develop until a few hundred years after Christ, and still today in Jewish interpretation on this reading it is a more positive account, because we as humans have both our good and evil selves in tension and conflict.  How are your good and evil selves in tension with each other?  Are you glad that you can see the difference between good and evil or would you rather live naively and not know the difference?  

The second lesson is Romans 5:12-19.    You might need to read through this a few times slowly as Paul logic is not always plain.  I think the Celebrate summarizes this text nicely "Through Adam's disobedience, humanity came under bondage to sin and death, from which we cannot free ourselves.  In Christ's obedient death, God graciously showers on us the free gift of liberation and life."  Another idea would be to reread the text submitting "debt" for "trespass".  How does being confronted by the idea that Jesus died for our sins makes you react?  Have you been told this so many times you are now numb to it?  Or is it something that is still shocking each time you hear it?

The gospel is Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days after his baptism, where he is tempted by the devil.   Three times the devil tempts Jesus to prove himself as God's son, yet God just declared Jesus as the Son of God at Jesus' baptism.  With the temptation of Eve when she gave in and Jesus' temptation when he does not, which do you hope to follow when you are tempted by sin?  Which are you more likely to follow?  What does it mean for us when we are not able to resist temptation?  

Hope you all have a great week and see you Wednesday!

Pastor Becca

Who Was the One Transformed?

You know it is really hard to write a sermon when the week before I received so many wonderful comments about the previous sermon.  In fact in all honesty I don't think I really got across the point that I wanted to make with this sermon, I'm not even sure I can clearly state that point, but basically Jesus was transfigured for our sake.  The transfiguration occurred so that the disciple and us today would know that Jesus is the messiah in everything that we do, not just this great majestic moments.  


As you might have figured out thus far, yesterday was Transfiguration Sunday and the gospel text was Matthew 17:1-9.  


Enjoy the sermon, even if it is not my best. 

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before Lent, when the church commemorated Jesus leading his disciples up the mountain and his is transfigured before them.  And as they head back down the mountain, Jesus and his disciples journey towards Jerusalem, towards the cross, and towards Jesus’ death and graciously also his resurrection. 

But really it is not Jesus who was transformed up on that mountain, it was Peter, James and John.  Jesus is not transfigured for his own sake.  Moses and Elijah did not come and hand out with Jesus so that they could discuss the best strategy for Jesus to take in order to upset as many Jewish and Roman leaders as he can.  Jesus’ face did not shine like the sun and his clothes become dazzling white so that Jesus could point to himself and say “This is pretty cool huh?  I must be the Son of God.”

All these things happened so that Peter, James and John would realize that Jesus is truly the Messiah, that he truly is the Son of God.  Peter had just confessed Jesus to be the Messiah and then renounced Jesus after Jesus foretold of his coming death.  So now Jesus is transfigured before them so that they would understand what it means to be the Messiah.  Jesus’ true identity was revealed to them so that they, Peter, James and John, will understand a little more what Jesus has to do.  God comes to them in this majestic display so that during Jesus’ crucifixion when it will seem like God has left them entirely, Peter, James and John will remember that God is still with them.  Jesus brought them up the mountain so that even when Peter, James and John were in the deepest valley, they would know that God is still with them.   

All these things happened in a way that smacked Peter, James and John upside the head so they realize what it was that they were confessing. It was God’s way of saying “This really is the Messiah, my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.  Listen to him.” 

But what about us?  Yes many of us can say that at some point in our lives we have had mountain top experiences.  Times that were so awesome, so incredible, that we just wanted to stay there.  Everything in life just seemed to fit together, there was no conflict, no worries, no cares.  Times when we have felt surrounded by love, when we have felt God’s presence and we didn’t want to return to real life.

But I doubt any of our mountain top experiences compare to Peter, James and John going up a mountain with Jesus and watching as his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.  None of our experiences compare to Moses and Elijah suddenly standing before us or a voice coming from a cloud telling us that Jesus truly is the Son of God. 

And yet God still comes to us.  In many ways God comes to us to show love, grace, and abundance.  We expect God to be at these high places, these mountain top experiences and God is.  But God is not just up there, both physically, a top mountain, and metaphorically, at the high points of life.  God is also down here.  God is here on earth, revealing God’s self to us in many different ways. 

God is in the majestic.  Many of us are easily able to see God in the extraordinary.  We see God in new lives being born.  We see God when someone who was once homeless is now able to give back to her community by volunteering at the shelter she once stayed in.  We see God in room filled with hundreds of people singing praises to God.  We see God in the extremes of nature, especially things like a perfect summer day with a slight cooling breeze, a forest filled with brilliant fall leaves, the snow lightly falling on a moon lit night, the vibrant flowers that peak out of the ground  in just a few weeks and a breathtaking sunrise or sunset. 

These are moments that we don’t experience everyday or every week and yet they are moments that we see God.  We see God in these things, these unordinary things, because they are moments when God lightly smacks us upside the head and we realize what it was that we confessing. It was God’s way of saying “I am the creator of heaven and earth.” 

God is also in the trying moments.  Many of us have seen God in the midst of despair, though sometimes it is not until we look back that we see that God was there with us.  We see God in the face and words of a friend who comforted us during the death of a loved one.  We see God in the new vocation, the new calling, which we have discovered after being laid off or failing out of school.  We see God the food brought to our home during an illness.  We see God when we are able to forgive someone after they have caused us hardship.

These too are moments that we thankfully do not experience everyday or every week.  And yet we see God in them.  We see God in these things, these unordinary things, because they are moments when God lightly smacks us upside the head and we realize what it is that we confess. It was God’s way of saying “I am the Holy Spirit who shepherds the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, and the forgiveness of sins.”

And yet God is also in the ordinary.  God is in the mundane.  God is in the plain moments of our lives.  God is with us when we get up in the morning, work out, take a shower, drive to work, work, go grocery shopping, do the laundry, cook a meal, clean the house, do the dishes, watch television and God is still with us when we get ready for bed.  God is constantly with us, on the mountain tops of life and in the valleys and God is with us in on the plains, the ordinary moments of life.  God in with us in our very being, in our breathing, in our abilities to do God’s work in this world, even if that work is just three loads of laundry. 

These are moments when God is not smacking us upside the head so that we might realize what it is that we confess to.  Because if God is constantly smacking us upside the head we will get used to it, and the extraordinary will become the ordinary.  But God is still there in them, leading us, guiding us, walking with us along the way.  Sometimes Jesus may lead us up the mountain, sometimes Jesus may help guide us out of the valley, but most of the time Jesus is walking beside us, in the ordinary, in the normal. God’s love is among us even in the most ordinary of times

The Little Things are Exciting

My God's Abundant Love moment of the day yesterday came in the form of an email.  Without getting into too many details right now, I got an email about the possibility of doing a baptism in the near future.  While that is exciting alone, what is even more exciting is that it would be for kids who are old enough to talk and know what is going on (elementary school age).

In the year and half since I have been ordained I have been blessed to have done 7 baptisms (Kailey, Kristian, Liam, Owen, Wyatt, Leo and Addy), the oldest of which was about 11 months old at the time.  Just thinking of being able to talk about and explain baptism to kids and experience it through their eyes makes me want to burst with God's Love.