​We need to remember that Jesus following Easter does not come back to Caesar or to Herod, or to Pilate. He comes back to his followers. He is trying to get to them: to bless them, to give them peace, to send them on their mission, to breathe on them the Holy Spirit! 

That’s Easter! Jesus is always finding ways of getting through to us as his followers, just as he is always finding ways of breaking through our locked hearts and minds. In fact, the stronger the lock, the bigger the intrusion! 

Let me try to put it the way John puts in our passage: Jesus won’t be locked out from his own people – the church.  

And yet, I don’t think we as the church try to lock Jesus out intentionally. No, I suspect that in our attempts to secure ourselves from the world, we don’t consider how we are leaving out Jesus too. We don’t think about how we might not be welcoming him as a stranger or as a guest. Indeed, we don’t think about how we might be locking him out when we avoid devotion time, or serving him, or giving, or praying; and we also don’t think about how we might be locking him out when we keep our faith to ourselves and not share it with others. But we do.
          
Again, our passage in John's Gospel is not about how the world keeps out Jesus; it’s about how the church doesn’t always receive Jesus as its Lord and God (John 20:28). It is about how the church can erect (and has often erected) walls that keep others from experiencing the full peace of the risen Christ and receiving God’s grace (Eph. 2:11-20). We can so easily forget that the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile has been abolished in Christ (2:15-16), or that “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:28). We can forget that we who were far off as Gentiles now have access to the mercy of the God of Abraham because of the peace of Christ (Eph. 2:18). We are guests in the house of Israel because of the grace of God after all.

Therefore, try as we might to hide behind barriers or erect walls, Jesus has ways of entering anyway, all because he demolished them on the cross; he has put an end to the wall of hostility between us (Eph. 2:14). And not just by breaking that down, but by then coming out on the other side to seek, to find, to reconcile. 

To receive Christ as Lord and God means that there are no more walls. 

How may we receive the Spirit in our lives and so live without fear or behind walls? How we serve in a mission that shows no partiality but only the peace of Christ?

​Pastor Andy Kinsey

Edevotion:  He is Not Here
A reflection on Luke 24:1-12 by Pastor Jenothy Irvine

Easter and Christmas are both my favorite and my not-so-favorite days to preach.  They’re my favorite because I get to retell the most beautiful, drama-filled, life-changing story of all time.  They’re my not-so-favorite because of the pressure pastors often feel to present the most beautiful, drama-filled, life-changing story of all time.  

When it comes right down to it, however, there is only one thing to say for Christmas and one thing to say for Easter.  For Christmas, the good news is: “he’s here!” For Easter, the good news from the tomb is, “he’s not here!” Books-ends to the greatest story ever told.  You can’t have one without the other. 

With everything happening in our own country and around the world, the season of Lent felt longer this year.  Ash Wednesday feels like forever ago…like a long hard winter. The war in Ukraine is just one of many countries torn apart and battered by war.  When we hear about and witness things like the poverty in our own country that so many refuse to see, protests and demonstrations across our country and around the world, we need Easter now more than ever.  The spike in crimes against first responders, minorities, and the marginalized.  Political tensions.  Increased social and economical division and fracturing.  We need Easter now more than ever. 

When we walk through challenging situations, face difficult circumstances, and wade through deep waters of personal trauma, local disputes, institutional change, cultural differences, governmental instability, life transitions, mounting frustrations, or global uncertainty we come to know what it was Jesus was up against and what he and his followers were living through.  We come to know and perhaps understand why the followers of Jesus were so shook up, confused, scared, stunned, and left asking why.  

They saw his miracles.  They heard him teach and preach about a new kind of kingdom, a new way to live in community, a new kind of rule.  They witnessed how he handled the religious leaders, how he stood up for those with no voice, those left for dead, and those ignored by the system.  They received firsthand, his acts of service and sacrifice.  How could he be dead?  What did they miss or not understand? They, like us, were left with more questions than answers.  They, like us, lived in the midst of cultural divisions, political fracturing, and systemic agendas.  They, like us, were trying to navigate life and find a way through challenges, turmoil, and the unexpected. 

I wonder if that was the inspiration behind what has been called one of the greatest Easter sermons ever preached.  It was 1976 and the Rev. S.M. Lockridge spoke at a church in Detroit, MI.  Lockridge captured the power and essence of Easter by expressing the corruption and brutality of what led to Easter morning.  He brilliantly put to verse the people involved in those last hours of Jesus’ life, the actions carried out, and the implications of how it appeared things would go.  Lockridge creates a scene of emotional and physical darkness and connects the human experience of betrayal, anger, fear, defeat, and pain to the divine providence of God; to the promise and hope found in Jesus. 

Lockridge wrote:
“It’s Friday. Jesus is praying. Peter’s a sleeping. Judas is betraying. But Sunday’s comin’.  It’s Friday. Pilate’s struggling. The council is conspiring. The crowd is vilifying. They don’t even know that Sunday’s comin’.  It’s Friday. The disciples are running like sheep without a shepherd. Mary’s crying. Peter is denying. But they don’t know That Sunday’s a comin’.  It’s Friday. The Romans beat my Jesus. They robe him in scarlet. They crown him with thorns. But they don’t know that Sunday’s comin’.  It’s Friday.  See Jesus walking to Calvary. His blood dripping. His body stumbling. And his spirit’s burdened. But you see, it’s only Friday. Sunday’s comin’.  It’s Friday. The world’s winning. People are sinning. And evil’s grinning.  It’s Friday. The soldiers nail my Savior’s hands to the cross. They nail my Savior’s feet to the cross. And then they raise him up Next to criminals.  It’s Friday. But let me tell you something Sunday’s comin’.
It’s Friday. The disciples are questioning. What has happened to their King.  And the Pharisees are celebrating that their scheming has been achieved. But they don’t know it’s only Friday.  Sunday’s comin’.  It’s Friday. He’s hanging on the cross.  Feeling forsaken by his Father.  Left alone and dying. Can nobody save him?  Ooooh…Its Friday. But Sunday’s comin’.  It’s Friday. The earth trembles. The sky grows dark. My King yields his spirit. It’s Friday.  Hope is lost. Death has won. Sin has conquered and Satan’s just a laughin’.  It’s Friday. Jesus is buried. A soldier stands guard. And a rock is rolled into place.  But it’s Friday. It is only Friday. Sunday is a comin’!”

The power of this day called Easter is found in the profound reliance life and death have on one another. Joy and sorrow.  Victory and defeat.  Hope and despair.  We know the good because we endure the bad.  We know the relief because we carry the burden.  The fact that we know what it means to struggle; we know how it feels to lose love, face tragedy, endure pain, confront injustice, walk-in uncertainty, and live in systems of shame, division, and fear and because of that, the beauty of this day is made that much more rich, vivid, and full of color; because of that, the good news of this day is that much more valued, needed, and life-giving.  Without one there is not the other. 

I’m no S.M. Lockridge.  But I put before you people of God:
Sunday is here!
It was still quiet and dawn was just below the horizon
The air cold and quiet.  Questions lingered heavy on the women’s chests.  Do they not know Sunday is here?  They rush to the tomb. Tear-stained faces, spice-filled hands. Hearts pounding - minds racing.  Do they know Sunday is here? Uncertain, they approach.  Perplexed and afraid. Scattered and scared.  Belief waning, hope fading.
Don’t they know Sunday is here?  Their eyes adjust, morning light and shadow climb stone walls.  Holding their breath they look - they wonder.  Is Sunday here?  What did they see?  What was found?  Nothing.  Nothing.  Nothing!  Sunday is here!  What does it mean?  Where did they take him?  Confusion and belief hold hands. The angel proclaims He is not here!  He is risen!  It was Friday, but Sunday is here! Run Mary, run.
Tell the others.  Be the first to make it known.  Trust - Believe - Hold on. Sunday is here.
Sunday is here.

We have our Fridays too.  The pain, fear, struggle, confusion, defeat, and grief.
We have our Fridays - times of doubt, conflict, challenge, dissension, and uncertainty.  We have our Fridays - deadlines linger, bills come due, hardships happen, illness takes over, tragedy strikes, frustrations mount, and differences surface. 
Oh yes, we have our Fridays people of God, but Sunday is here! 

Hope remains.   
He is risen!
Amen

Pastor Jenothy Irvine

What did that stone over the tomb represent to Jesus? 

To answer that question, we won’t want to forget the story of Jesus’ friend Lazarus who was in the ground for four days.
We also won’t want to forget Martha’s response to Jesus for Jesus being late on the scene and Jesus’ answer to Martha about what had just happened, when he says: “Do you want to see the glory of God, or don’t you?” 

It is a question Jesus is still asking today, a question that unravels our grief from the past and dismantles our compromises in the present. It is a question that Easter places before us as a new future: Do we want to see the glory of God, or don’t we?

What stones need to roll away? What needs to shift from our past? Is there sadness back there? Missed opportunities? Bitterness? Are there hurts we can’t forget and blessings we can’t remember? Easter that is the moment when the stone from our past begins to roll. Watch it roll! 

But what about the present? In what ways have we tried to tame the Lord or keep others at arm’s length, even fail in serving Christ? How are we walking away from commitment? Indeed, how have your dreams turned into more busyness and programmed your life in such a way that there is no more space to imagine life anymore? When was the last time you felt peace?  

We all have a stone in our life. Hence the question: “Do you want to see the glory of God, or don’t you?” See how God can move that stone, the one weighing you down; take a moment to imagine your life without it. In fact, see how that stone occupies your attention all the time, or keeps creeping into your mind, placing limitations on your energies and resources. Maybe there is something that God is holding before you and you don’t want to face it. If so, know that the stone is rolling. Easter means that the stone has been rolled away. Ask yourself, “Do I want to see the glory of God, or don’t I?”

​For it is Easter! Feel the joy of all your grief and folly and feel the wonder of Christ’s resurrection. Know that the stones of sin and control, of sadness, of death – have been pushed aside. Know that there is more to the story, and it’s not finished. No, it’s just beginning.  After all, it is Easter – the day of rolling stones! 

Pastor Andy Kinsey

In Holy Week, Jesus exposes it all: our sinfulness, or the ways we try to keep it all under wraps. It is why “control” is not a good way to comprehend Holy Week, as Jesus shatters the alliance between Imperial Rome and Jerusalem religious power. There are no safe harbors for playing it safe or holding back during this sacred season. Indeed, if you want to play it safe with your faith, or hold back, then you probably don’t want to participate in Holy Week, as the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is fraught with the uncontrollable and the unpredictable. 

Holy Week marks Jesus’ final week on earth, and in Luke’s account we need to pay attention to what he is saying and doing. We need to understand from the Parade of Palms to the cross how Jesus is taking center stage, which means we are not going to control him; as Luke says earlier in his Gospel, when Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem, when he decides at that moment he is going to go to the cross (9:51), we can’t stop him. We can only choose to follow him, or not. 

Secondly, Jesus’ entrance into the Holy City brings to the surface the expectations of the crowds, the disciples, and the religious and political rulers of the day. And though we call this the Parade of Palms, you will notice that in Luke’s version people are not waving Palm Branches; instead, they are placing their coats and cloaks on the ground as Jesus and the donkey pass over them (19:35). In Luke’s Gospel, we might want to call this a parade of coats and cloaks, as the people welcome Jesus as their king (19:38). As he receives the royal coat treatment! 

But it is enough to unnerve his critics. After all, the people are shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (19:38). That’s right, they are calling Jesus a king! There is a new ruler in town. And his opponents can see how they might be losing control. Hence their outburst to Jesus: “Tell your disciples to keep quiet! Stop all this praise. Tone down the joy” (19:39).

The Celebration of the Palms is one of the few times during the year when God expects us to shout and sing and praise the Lord! No need to lower our voices today! No, no! Let everyone say, Amen! Let that “inner Pentecostal” come out! 

Hence Jesus’ remarks to Pharisees, to the preachers of his day: “Listen, I am not going to tell these folks to be quiet. It is not going to happen. No, if these disciples are silent, the very stones would shout out” (19:40). In other words, Jesus says, “Stop thinking that you can control what is going on here because just when you think you can, God will prompt the very creation to sing.” 

How is that for a comeback? It is as if Jesus is saying, who do we think we are to keep the truth undercover? We can’t.

What are you holding back from Jesus' parade? Is there anything you would like to share but are afraid of doing so? What praises do we want to share? How might this serve as the beginning of a new journey toward God?

​Pastor Andy Kinsey

Humanity is very talented in making a mess of things.  We seem to have a knack for making things harder or more complicated than necessary, and a skillset that thrives on comparison and competition.   Like a well-oiled machine, we feel better and work more efficiently when we keep things, ideas, and people divided according to any number of attributes: money, influence, skin color, power, talent, education level, gender, mental health.  We feel our strongest when we keep God, others, and ourselves in a box on a shelf, or fractured along various lines of tradition, progress, politics, economics, and  theology.  That is the “kingdom system” we have created and that we operate out of day in and day out.  

How is that working out for us?  How well has that served us - all of us, in the past?  What kind of system will that leave for future generations?  It does not take much convincing to realize our current system is not what God intended it to be. That is not to say humanity does not have its moments of doing better, of putting others first, and of helping one another.  In general however, here and around the world, we operate from and exist in a system of honor, shame, competition, greed, power, division, and fear. That is not the kind of kingdom we were created for. 

That is why everything Jesus did was a message, lesson, or example of the Kingdom of God - the kind of community God intended for us to be then and now.  Through the telling of parables, Jesus drew upon the people, places, and practices that the disciples were familiar with, and revealed to them a new way to understand the concept of community - a new way to be God’s community.  Using objects, events, and scenarios common to them Jesus gave them a new way to understand who their neighbor was, to see and experience what true hospitality looked like, how servanthood would turn hierarchy upside down, and how authority, sacrifice, and eternal life were all connected in Christ.  From the first day Jesus called them to “come and follow,” the disciples had one object from: believe in who he was and live out his ways.   If they could fully embrace and carry out that objective they would be living examples of the Kingdom of God and those around them would see the kind of community God intended all along. 

The parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids appears in a section of scripture known as the “judgment discourse,” (NIB) which right away makes some readers uncomfortable and others defensive.  Yet, all that means is that it is found in a section in which Jesus criticized the religious leaders, challenged the rules and ways of thinking that limited God’s love, presence, and forgiveness to an elite few, and warned people, primarily those in the church, to stop playing games with their faith and instead always be ready to encounter Jesus - always be ready to encounter God’s work now and in the future. 

When we approach this parable with western eyes it may seem based in unusual practices, perhaps even unrealistic or completely made up.  However, it doesn’t take much looking to find that around the world, even today, there are cultures in which this wedding scenario could play itself out.  The language would not have been foriegn to the hearers of the day and in other places of scripture, Jesus does describe himself as the bridegroom coming for his bride, the church.  

Far too many times in the western church and in some Christian circles today, followers of Jesus do not know how to keep oil in their spiritual lamps and pay attention to the Spirit of God. A church cannot sustain itself on potlucks and picnics or on Christmas and Easter alone.  Believers cannot persevere on special services or seasonal activities alone.  We must be fueled throughout the year, every day, every week, every month.  All the planning, preparation, organizing, rehearsing, and energy put into one special moment does not a church make.  A momentary mountain top moment, heightened emotion, a powerful prayer, stirring music, or a single profound insight, a lifetime supply of faith does not provide.  Without follow up, preparedness, discipleship, growth, and intentionality, the oil runs out and while we are scrambling to find more, or focussing only on the end goal and not the process, or running from one thing to the next to the next in search of answers, we miss it.  We need to keep our lamps and the lamps of others full - so that we do not miss those moments when Jesus passes by.  Those moments when God’s divinity brushes up against our humanity and we find a way through that we hadn't seen before, or we come to understand another way of doing and being or we see the kind of community Jesus intended us to be. 

Matthew chapters twenty-two through twenty-five, where the story of the bridesmaids is found, show Jesus’ followers the flaws in the kingdom of humanity verses the kingdom of God, the price he was willing to pay to make it right again, and how it was up to them, his followers, to prepare, watch, and be willing to go the long haul.  

The Kingdom of God is both now and not yet.  It is both judgment and grace, struggle and peace, tradition and progress, physical and spiritual, brokenness and healing, and being lost and being found.  

Throughout this season of Lent, we have been given the opportunity to see God in plain sight and realize that things like dust, bread, the cross, coins, shoes, and oil can bring us closer to comprehending the Kingdom of God.  May we strive to live out the lessons we have learned. 

Amen

Pastor Jenothy Irvine