​In Mark’s portrayal of Jesus coming into Jerusalem, there is so much excitement, so much anticipation about Who Jesus is and what he is going to do. There is an invitation to become a part of the palm-parade and follow Jesus through the streets. But as we begin Holy Week, there is also an invitation to go deeper, to become one with God.

As followers of Christ, we move into Holy Week as persons summoned by God: to go to an upper room, to a garden, a trial, and, ultimately, a cross. Amidst all of noise, we come face to face with denial, betrayal, dishonesty, and death and Christ’s own voice: that is, if we truly listen, we begin to realize that it is not just about Peter or Judas; it is about us! About me! It is about our own discipleship and walk with Jesus. It is about asking the hard questions: what do I hear Jesus saying? What do I see Jesus doing? How am I denying Jesus, or betraying what he is about? Is there something in me that needs to die in order to live more faithfully, more fully?

We ask these questions to understand our own response to Jesus’ call to discipleship. We, like the first disciples, can become confused and distracted. We can miss the mark. 

As we journey toward the cross and out the other side, what do we need to hear? What are we listening for this week? What silences or cries or praises might we need to hear again?

There’s nothing like it. The smell of lodge-pole pine, western sage and prairie grass.  Together they are like an intoxicating mountain cologne.  Then there is the sound of the Aspen trees clapping their hand-like leaves in the breeze.  The sight of the fine black dust swirling at your feet. The air is so crisp it almost stings to breathe it in and feel cleansing at the same time.  The sky is so big and wide it's like you're walking across the canvas itself.  The silence is so loud it almost hurts your ears to hear it.  It is one of my most favorite places to be in the world.  It is there I remember how to listen with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind.  It is there I remember how easy it is to listen when there is nothing to distract me from what is being said.

Shhhh, ahhhh....listen.

Then there is reality!  
On the phone: Hello - no son, I haven’t seen your chrome book charger….
        The last time I saw your favorite sweatshirt, it was on your floor…
        Next Thursday?  I don’t know, I barely know what we are doing today…
No, I don’t need a free estimate to replace the vinyl siding on my brick house. 
At the door:     Hey there, do you have just a minute, I’ll be short.
Yes mam, it is about dinner time, but we were just in the area offering free window inspections.
Hello Pastor, hey this won’t take long I just need to tell you something.
In traffic:    Did they really just honk at me?
Please, we ALL need to hear your music while waiting in the drive-thru lane!
At home:    STOP YELLING AND COME IN HERE TO TALK TO ME.
        Turn down that noise you call music.
        I don’t care who started it, who left it out, or who’s turn it is…
The noise of life.
The noise of living.
The noise of being.  

How can we hear any one thing when it seems everything and everyone is making some kind of noise around us?  How can we listen along the path of life and faith when it seems there are way more and way louder distractions and disruptions in our world than ever before.  How can we hear the voice / voices we need to hear when we can’t even hear our own? 

We have walked through a lot of noise this past year and four months - locally, nationally, and internationally.  As families, as classmates, friends, and colleagues.   Personally - in our relationships, at work, and through change or disappointment. As organizations, school districts, and businesses.  We did not ask for all the noise and disruption.  We did not expect the interruptions we have endured.  We did not anticipate just how loud some voices, issues, causes, groups, or organizations would become and how silent or silenced others became.  It has been a journey on multiple levels, including what some would call a spiritual pilgrimage - a walk that takes us deeper into the heart of God by way of struggle, pain, loss, discomfort, and tension.  

Learning to listen is tough yet is is critical for our faith walk.  We can learn a great deal when we listen and listen well.  When we listen to understand and not judge.  When we listen as an act of mercy and not criticism.  When we listen for truth and not just what we want to hear.  Listening takes practice - a lifetime some would say.  It takes patience - to listen to their story, their need, their side and just our own.  It takes presence - you have to show up ready and willing to listen.   

In John 12, Jesus enters Jerusalem and begins final days on earth.  John records a fascinating and powerful account of Jesus speaking to the Jewish believers and a few interested Greeks.  Like so many before and after them, they heard his words but did not listen.  They listened but did not hear - could not hear, because they were listening for the wrong reasons, wrong motives.  They listened and heard what they wanted to hear, not what Jesus was truly saying.  They made it fit their narrative, not God’s.  

Church, we will never understand Jesus nor the attitude of the Jews, or even those first believers until we understand how Jesus turned their ideas upside down, replacing a dream of conquest with a vision of mercy on the Cross; a dream of vengeance, paybacks, and a we’re better than them kind of community, with a vision of sacrifice, pay it forward and no one is better than any kind of community..  Some say the tragedy is that they refused to try to listen - refused to try to hear what Jesus was really saying.  Maybe they did refuse, but if they did then so do we. 

This passage of scripture is one of the few in the New Testament where we are told that there was an actual, audible voice from heaven.  Some who heard, thought it was a loud noise - thunder, distant rumbling, or perhaps a loud, nearby storm rolling in, or even the growing crowds and commotion of the festival.  Others knew that Jesus had just prayed so they thought what they heard was an angel answering him.  With our vantage point to the story, and with John’s account, we know it wasn’t thunder, the roaring crowd, or an angel.  It was God. 

Even with our vantage point, I can’t help but ask,  how often do we miss the voice of God because we are not listening with our whole heart, soul, strength, and mind?  How many times do we miss what God is doing because we don’t want to hear it, don’t want to see it because it doesn’t fit our narrative for God?  

People of God, our entire life on earth is a long walk in the same direction and that direction is toward the God who created us.  Toward the others of this world.  Toward the folks walking through the same mess as we are.  Toward our truest self.  We cannot walk that pilgrim path successfully without listening to and for God; without deciphering all the noise around us. 

As we walk the last leg of this Lenten journey, I want to encourage, invite, and challenge you to commit yourself to listening.  Give ear (and heart and mind) to Jesus and remember, he likes to turn things upside down.  You might be surprised what you hear...and what you don’t. You might be surprised at what he is saying and what he is not.  AMEN.

Pastor Jenothy Irvine

He knew everything about her - the kind of woman she was, the relationships she had, how people talked about her, and the word on the street regarding her character.   He was the only one who felt her pain and need; the only one who stopped in his tracks to help. 

He knew the father’s heart was broken. He knew also, that the older brother was angry and resentful.  He didn’t have the answers to their why questions, yet he was  the only one who heard the cry of the lost son?

Mercy - the compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.
    
A woman, married 5 different times and ostracized by her community.
A business man who cheated his clients.
A man who turned his back on God.
A homeless person who lives wherever a bed or a meal can be found; ignored by others.
An educated religious man who  questions his faith. 
A prostitute seeking second chances.
A sick woman who no one could help.
A rich man.
A lost soul.

These stories are our stories.  Recorded in the bible, they echo throughout humanity.  Stories of brokenness, anger, pride, disappointment, shame, fear, and failure.  Stories of longing, grief, heartbreak, tears, doubt, uncertainty, and defeat.  And in every single case, mercy was the gift given and the beginning of healing and wholeness. 

Mercy - the compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.

Listening to the stories of those around us - giving time and space for the telling and the sharing; allowing the brokenness to surface, the fear or anger to be expressed, the apology or pain to be spoken.  Mercy is more than a shallow “it’s o.k.” “whatever, don’t do it again” kind of thing.   Rather, it rises from a depth of soul that recognizes the value of being heard and being seen.  It is a compassion for and a forgiveness of another person's struggle and shortcoming because it recognizes their own.  

The single greatest act of mercy is recorded in John chapter three.  There we read, “...God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

Do you ever wonder if the people in Jesus’ day had a clue?  Right before this section of scripture, is where Nicodemus, an educated religious leader and prominent man in the community cannot seem to figure out that Jesus is talking in metaphor and symbolism when he said a person must be born again.  Nicodemus can’t figure out how a grown person can enter the womb and come out again.  It’s almost comical.  He was so focussed on getting it right, he missed the point altogether.  The point that one must be born of the Spirit. 

But then I think about us - those who follow Jesus today.  I look at how divided we are.  How angry we get over things.  How impatient we are with one another.  How volatile things can become.  How much we obsess over being right and making sure everyone knows it.  How blind we are to our own weaknesses. How we move from one distraction to another never fully addressing the issue.  I wonder if people will read about us one day and think, they didn’t have a clue either. 

We don’t have to look very far or very hard to see that people are imperfect beings.  It doesn’t take much to realize the evidence of just how cruel, violent, and hateful people can be.  You don’t have to be very old or have much experience on this earth to realize how unfair, unjust, and unkind this world is.  

It is easy to see that when any one person allows anger, power, arrogance, bitterness, jealousy, or pain to come between them and the presence and purpose of God, between them and the teachings of Jesus, between them and another human being, there, darkness rules, sin prevails, and evil wins.  

We don’t deserve God’s grace for we all fall short.  BUT lets be clear, church, let’s be clear - that is not the end of the story!  That is not the end of the story!  For according to our text today, mercy gets the last word if we listen! Mercy gets to be the author of how our story ends, if we but hand her the pen.  

In other words, by the mercy of God we find our way out of the darkness and by offering mercy to others, we find our way to deeper, more meaningful relationships; we find our way through to forgiveness, wholeness, community, and growth. 

I wonder church, how would life be different if we listened for mercy?  How would relationships change if we used our listening as an act of mercy?  Could it be that when we do, we open ourselves up to the healing, peace, and hope that we all long for?  Could it be that listening is the answer to so many of our questions, barriers, divisions, harsh judgements, and intolerance? 

Could it be church, that God is teaching us to listen for and offer up mercy to those around us; those we disagree with, hold a grudge toward, or perhaps those who have hurt our feelings, or have different ideas but the same God as we do?  

God gave us the ultimate gift of compassion and forgiveness in the life of Jesus.  Jesus gave us the model, the formula, the strategy for how to live our lives.  The question is, are you listening?  Are we listening? 

We are just over half way through this journey we call Lent.  A journey into the wild places of the heart.  A journey of self reflection across the landscape or our lives, asking the hard questions, seeking the difficult answers, and trusting the truth that comes through the other side.   This week we continue to ask: Are you listening church?  Are you listening people of God?  Are you listening?

With all that I am, I pray it is  so.   AMEN

Pastor Jenothy Irvine

Sometimes there are differences in how the writers of the Gospels share the Message: In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, for example, Jesus goes into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, and then dismounts at the Temple and turns everything upside down at the end of his ministry. In John’s Gospel, Jesus enters Jerusalem to upset the “money changers” and chase out the animals at the beginning; only later in Chapter 12 does he ride into Jerusalem, and even there it is not clear that he goes to the Temple again (12:11-19). 
The point is not to get distracted by these differences but to understand why Jesus is with a whip driving out the sheep and the cattle at the beginning of his ministry.
In short, it is about sending a message regarding who he is. It is a sign that on the Passover, Jesus is going to lay down his life as a sacrifice and take it up again. He is going to die and rise again, and through his body draw all people unto himself (John 12:32). 
In doing this in the Temple, Jesus is also confronting what had become an unjust system. In fact, the whole focus of worship in the Temple had been lost. Remember that the Temple is where the people would go to draw near to God, to atone for their sin. It was the place where heaven and earth met. Following the Babylonia Exile, the people rebuilt the Temple and found faithful ways to worship God. The problem was that the Temple had become an end in itself. It was supposed to be a means, but people treated it as the end: people began to worship the building rather than the Builder – God!
Put differently: the Temple was ripe for destruction. The Temple had become more concerned about self-preservation than God’s glorification, and in Jesus’ eyes, this kind of idolatry will always lead to death (which is what will happen, of course, in 70 AD when the Romans burn the Temple to ground).
Maybe this is the wakeup call Jesus is sending early on: as God’s Word in the flesh (John 1:1, John 1:14), as God’s only begotten Son (John 3:16), as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) – Jesus is the One in Whom heaven and earth meet. He is the One in whom God’s Spirit dwells, just as in the Temple. In other words, we can’t simply reduce our worship of God to a place or a building. We worship God in spirit and in truth, and we come to God through Jesus’s own body, by his death and resurrection, which is our Temple (John 4:24).
How may we worship God in spirit and in truth wherever we are? How may we listen to what Jesus is saying about his life?

Pastor Andy Kinsey

If we think we can follow Jesus without God’s help, we might want to revisit Peter’s response in Mark 8:31-38, because if Peter thought he could follow Jesus without God’s help, or without God revealing to him who Jesus was, he was sadly mistaken.

Indeed, it is often difficult to understand what people expect when they commit to following Jesus, but one thing is for sure: if we truly listen to what Jesus says about what he is going to do, we can expect that there is going to be a cross to bear at some point (Mk. 8:35). It seems straightforward, and yet, at least in this passage, it isn’t, for what Peter has in mind about following the Messiah is not quite the same as what Jesus has in mind.

In fact, following Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah at Caesarea Philippi (Mk. 8:29), Jesus attempts to clarify what Peter’s confession will entail: that the Son of Man must undergo suffering and be rejected…be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk. 8:31).

To be sure, such a picture for the Messiah is not on Peter’s radar. It is not the image in Peter’s head, which is not exactly wrong by the way! There is in Israel the tradition that when the Messiah would come, he would liberate the people and do so as a military leader, or as one of God’s anointed. The claim was that when the Messiah would come, suffering would cease and so would oppression, in this case, Roman rule.

And yet, here, Jesus appears to be saying the opposite. Jesus seems to be saying that when the Messiah comes, he is going to suffer and die, and that anyone who stands in the way might as well take the side of Satan (Mk. 8:33). Jesus is saying one thing, but Peter does not want to hear it. 

And that’s the problem: the problem is that what Jesus is teaching gets to the heart of what the Christian faith is about: change this point and we change the faith. 
​
How may we listen to what Jesus is teaching us? What changes will we need to make in our lives if we receive his message? What new life awaits us?

​Pastor Andy Kinsey