Out of the Frying Pan

• Palm / Passion Sunday

with Mark 11 and Philippians 2

www.FirstChurchBville.com   @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

This worship service was broadcast on Facebook Live 3/25/18

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCWV/

• I often write down current events when considering a message. I don’t often have a sermon title, but at the end of the Rehab series, and looking towards Good Friday, “out of the frying pan and into the fire” came to mind. Rehab and looking within and embracing the wilderness as God’s way of making all things new… Last week was Promise. I will be with you I will forgive. Sounds great. And this week? Buckle up, this is the climax of the salvation story.

There will be no dawn without darkness first. No relief without suffering first.
No resurrection without death first. And Jesus leads the way.

• Lifted up by crowds today as celebrity and king, the tide of public opinion turns in the days to come, and come Friday we have crowds shouting for the public execution of Jesus.

We also have Paul’s ancient hymn of praise about Jesus, who emptied himself, humbled himself, endured the pain shame suffering of the cross, did so willingly voluntarily why?

Relationship. So that we could live. WHAT IF So that we could know that whatever suffering the world can come up with, God does not abandon us in it but joins us in it embraces us in it in order to bring us to wholeness.

Paul writes in Romans there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Not the shame pain or suffering of addiction, drugs, alcohol, sex, what have you. Jesus says I’m with you, I want to bring you through this.

• Yesterday Bishop with Way Forward report, story of Jacob’s ladder, again, I will be with  you, I will protect you, I will bless you. Jacob fleeing for his life, not looking for God, and God comes in and chooses relationship. And our bishops will put before the church some options to consider along with the trust that God will not abandon even though we can’t see the future that God will lead & we will seek to bring others into relationship with God.

• Yesterday millions of young people around US and world spoke up in aftermath of 2/14 school shooting in Parkland Florida saying Enough and March for our lives. Tough road ahead no matter how you slice it. And we who value relationship will encourage.

• Yesterday funeral of Coach Ernie S. died 59, gave of his life for over 30 years in relationship.

• Jesus lived so that we could live. Jesus died so that we could be reconciled and continue in relationship with God and each other. Let us trust in him and follow, and seek to be in relationship with others.

• Hymn 397 I Need Thee Every Hour

Philippians 2:5-11 (HCSB)

5 Make your own attitude  that of Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be used for His own advantage.

7 Instead He emptied Himself
by assuming the form of a slave,
taking on the likeness of men.

And when He had come as a man
in His external form,
8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.

9 For this reason God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
of those who are in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. ò

Mark 11:1-11 (HCSB)

11 When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His disciples 2 and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.’”

4 So they went and found a young donkey outside in the street, tied by a door. They untied it, 5 and some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the donkey?” 6 They answered them just as Jesus had said, so they let them go. 7 Then they brought the donkey to Jesus and threw their robes on it, and He sat on it.

8 Many people spread their robes on the road, and others cut leafy branches from tress and spread them on the road as well. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed kept shouting:

Hosanna! He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One!
10 The coming kingdom of our father David is blessed!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple complex. After looking around at everything, since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve. ò

Lent5: Rehab: Promise

• Fifth Sunday of Lent

with Jeremiah 31:31-34

www.FirstChurchBville.com    @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

This sermon was broadcast on Facebook Live 3/18/18 https://www.facebook.com/FUMCWV/

#rehab #promise #umcgbod #lent

• 40 day season of spiritual preparation before the Easter celebration.

This season we’re following the lectionary and the denomination’s suggestion for a sermon series called REHAB. Why REHAB? As a part of our spiritual preparation before the Easter celebration. We’ve talked about the need to follow Jesus into the wilderness of rehab, open to the possibility that in the prayer, fasting, self-denial of the desert, and even in the face of pain, discomfort, and suffering, God can be working in us, God may in fact need the focus of the desert for us to be positioned for healing.

• One thing we may always have to deal with is the present vs the projected future, losing sight of the long term goal. In recovery I can get bogged down in the craving of the moment, or I can trust in the promise of hope, even if I can’t see it just yet.

[story from A Prayer For Owen Meany when Owen and John are playing basketball at dusk. Owen asks if John can see the statue at the other end of the lot, even though it’s dark. John says he knows it’s there even if he can’t see it. Owen says that’s how it is with God. I know he’s there even if I can’t see him.]

• Story of Jeremiah. 120 years after fall of northern kingdom. Real time things are looking bad. Jeremiah clings to hope of God’s promise “I will be with you.” Jeremiah even purchases land, demonstrating solidarity and planting hope.

• Jack Lengyl responds to Red Dawson’s cry that the Young Thundering Herd is disgracing the 75 that died. Not today not tomorrow, this season or next, but one day winning will matter, and then we’ll honor them.

• Another thing about WeAreMarshall is community. Team 71 lost. Team 72 lost. It’d be a decade before winning season, but the wins that would come could only come if the team didn’t stop, and the winning team in 84 belonged to all of Marshall for the years prior.

• And along the way, when one of us can’t see past the struggle, the community steps in bearing the affected while bearing the hope the promise as well.
I will be with you.

• I will be with you, you are not alone. Your sin grief shame are in the past. You will smile and laugh again. You will be free from slavery.

• Song Who Am I? by Casting Crowns

Not because of who I am
But because of what you've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who you are

Live now while hoping in promise of future. 

Bear hope and bear brethren.

• May God use this time of Lent to shape us into disciples and witnesses to God’s kingdom.

• Hymn 368 My Hope is Built

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (HCSB)

³¹ Listen to the Lord’s declaration: “Look, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³² This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—says the Lord. ³³ “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days. I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. ³⁴ No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.” This is what the Lord declares. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”ò

John 12:20-28 (HCSB)

²⁰ Now some Greeks were among those who went up to worship at the festival. ²¹ So they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

²² Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³ Jesus replied to them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop. ²⁵ The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me. Where I am, there My servant also will be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

²⁷ “Now My soul is troubled,” Jesus said. “What should I say—Father, save Me from this hour? But that is why I came to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify Your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again!” ò

Lent3: Rehab: Program

• Third Sunday of Lent

with Exodus 20:1-17

www.FirstChurchBville.com    @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

This sermon was broadcast on Facebook Live 3/04/18 https://www.facebook.com/FUMCWV/ and can also be found by itself at https://youtu.be/H50mEhKBT04

#rehab #program #umcgbod #lent

• Lent is a 40 day season of spiritual preparation before the Easter celebration.

This season we’ll be following the lectionary and the denomination’s suggestion for a sermon series called REHAB. Why REHAB? As a part of our spiritual preparation before the Easter celebration. Last week talked about the need to have our thinking interrupted – have an intervention – to follow Jesus into the wilderness of rehab, open to the possibility that in the prayer, fasting, self-denial of the desert, and even in the face of pain, discomfort, and suffering, God can be working in us, God may in fact need the focus of the desert for us to be positioned for healing.

• One of my favorite words is grace. Unmerited favor. It literally means “gift”. God gives grace not because of who we are but because of who God is. God gives us the gifts of life and even the means of reconciliation when we choose away from God. God says I give you the means to avoid and triumph over that kind of living that leads to brokenness and death. I give you the building blocks of character and community living. Teach honor, respect, live within means. Guide relationship & be light to world.

• The grace we’ll talk about first today is the ten commandments 10C. Common, perhaps quaint, not earth-shattering, unless you consider they’re given by the Maker of Matter, to people, as a guide, a program how to live, in relationship to God and in relationship to each other. We read in Deuteronomy they’re given “so that it may go well with you.” Live this way and live.

Use the 10C to consider questions of today. How can I keep the Sabbath holy while harboring hidden sin? Lust, a grudge, some barrier between me and thee?

Consider the 10C to weigh whether a situation calls for laying down or picking up of arms, to stand on principle of sacredness of life or to carry same principle another step to prevent the loss of another life?

Do the homework, with prayer and fasting and self-examination.

• Early Methodist holiness club held each other accountable.
They’d ask How is it with your soul, have you any known sins…

Also Do you expect to be made perfect in this life?
And they’d answer Yes. By grace of God. Not by our own ability but by God in us.

• Consider the 10C as a format for wellness, a program for recovery.
Do this that it may go well with you.
We are invited to participate in God’s holiness/wholeness program.

• And in holy communion Jesus invites us to participate in his saving act and giving of grace.

• May God use this time of Lent to shape us into disciples and witnesses to God’s kingdom.

• Hymn 616 Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast

A Responsive Reading on Exodus 20:1-17

(adapted from Book of Worship, abridged from The Book of Common Prayer)

Leader: God spoke from the mountain and said:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
you shall have no other gods before me.”

Almighty God, write your law upon our hearts,
and help us to keep it.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol.
You shall not make wrongful use
    of the name of the Lord your God.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.”

Almighty God, write your law upon our hearts,
and help us to keep it.

 “Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness.
You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Almighty God, write your law upon our hearts,
and help us to keep it.

Silence

Sung Response 473: Lead me, Lord. Lead me in thy righteousness. Make thy way plain before my face. For it is thou, Lord, thou, Lord only, that makest me dwell in safety.

Pastor: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. Sin no more.
People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. Sin no more. Glory to God! Amen!

Pastor: The peace of Christ rule in your hearts and reign in our midst.