On Fruit and Wages

• Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

with Romans 6:12-23

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• Today is transition Sunday in The United Methodist Church, with some congregations experiencing their new pastor for the first time, and some pastors sleeping in retired! This marks the beginning of my 16th year of fulltime ministry in The UMC… 15 years of preaching the good news.

• Did you hear the good news?
Verse 14: Sin will have no power over you. You are under grace.

Doesn’t always feel like that, does it?
Often feels contrary, doesn’t it?
Often feels like sin has power over you, feels like a constant struggle, right, to manage sin?

Perhaps you know the cycle. Promise. Feel good. Face temptation. Win! Alright! Time passes. Face temptation. Grit teeth. Whew just made it. Won this time. Time passes. Face temptation. Sweat. Fail. Beat self up. Promise again.

Eventually leads from guilt (I did the thing I said I wouldn’t do) to shame (because I’m a bad person).

Also this whole cycle reinforces the lie
that righteousness depends on you.

• We are not in the sin management business, we don’t have to be in the sin management business
because God is in the redemption business,
God is in the grace business,
and we are under grace
and sin will have no power over you.

Recall last week the sin has already been accounted for, has already been defeated perfectly, not like the candy coat of an M&M but through and through.

• Imagine your life without sin. Right now.
What’s it feel like? What is different? Feel freer?

Sin has no future because God has already defeated it.
Sin has no future. Don’t live in the past!

• There’s a lovely image in verses 21 and 22 that sadly often gets lost in translation. What consequences did you get from doing things that you are now ashamed of? The outcome – the FRUIT – of those things is death.

What is fruit? Growth. Natural outcome of nurtured plant.
Who is God and what does God want? Gardener and harvest.

The result, the outcome, the fruit of fleshiness (see verses 12-13) and “sin management” is death.

And the good news is that not only does Jesus defeat sin and death, but Jesus reframes everything for us. The wages of sin is death.

Fruit and wages are different. They’re both outcomes, but one is the result of growth and nurture and one is earned and deserved.

And when we are in Christ and Christ is in us,
sin has no power over us, we are already redeemed,
and the outcome, the result, the fruit is righteousness sanctification and eternal life.

True freedom. And it is the gift of God.

• God’s gifts are for our growth and for good fruitful harvest.

• into Communion liturgy in bulletin

Words of Assurance

Isa 55:6-7 ⁶ Seek the Lord when he can still be found;
    call him while he is yet near.
⁷ Let the wicked abandon their ways
    and the sinful their schemes.
Let them return to the Lord so that he may have mercy on them,
    to our God, because he is generous with forgiveness.

Mt 11:28-30 Jesus said, ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. ³⁰ My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”

Ps 103:8-12 ⁸ The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
    very patient, and full of faithful love.
⁹ God won’t always play the judge;
    he won’t be angry forever.
¹⁰ He doesn’t deal with us according to our sin
    or repay us according to our wrongdoing,
¹¹     because as high as heaven is above the earth,
    that’s how large God’s faithful love is for those who honor him.
¹² As far as east is from west—
    that’s how far God has removed our sin from us.

Micah 7:19 He will once again have compassion on us;
        he will tread down our iniquities.
You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Benediction Galatians 5:13

“You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love.”

Romans 6:12-23 (CEB)

¹² So then, don’t let sin rule your body, so that you do what it wants. ¹³ Don’t offer parts of your body to sin, to be used as weapons to do wrong. Instead, present yourselves to God as people who have been brought back to life from the dead, and offer all the parts of your body to God to be used as weapons to do right. ¹⁴ Sin will have no power over you, because you aren’t under Law but under grace.

¹⁵ So what? Should we sin because we aren’t under Law but under grace? Absolutely not! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, that you are slaves of the one whom you obey? That’s true whether you serve as slaves of sin, which leads to death, or as slaves of the kind of obedience that leads to righteousness.¹⁷ But thank God that although you used to be slaves of sin, you gave wholehearted obedience to the teaching that was handed down to you, which provides a pattern. ¹⁸ Now that you have been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ (I’m speaking with ordinary metaphors because of your limitations.) Once, you offered the parts of your body to be used as slaves to impurity and to lawless behavior that leads to still more lawless behavior. Now, you should present the parts of your body as slaves to righteousness, which makes your lives holy. ²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What consequences did you get from doing things that you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves to God, you have the consequence of a holy life, and the outcome is eternal life. ²³ The wages that sin pays are death, but God’s gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ò

On Chocolate Chip Cookies, Grace, and Righteousness

• Second Sunday in Kingdomtide

with Romans 6:1-11

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• Last week (June 17) marked the 114^th bday of Ruth Graves Wakefield, inventor of the chocolate chip cookie. Did you know it was a mistake?

RGW wanted to make chocolate cookies but she ran out of cocoa powder so she smashed a chocolate bar into tiny chunks and added those to the dough, thinking they’d become homogenous like cocoa powder.

Delicious mistake as the chocolate chunks remained distinct.
She eventually sold her recipe to Toll House.

• Throughout and distinct are some useful images for thinking about sin and righteousness. We tend to think of sins as distinct. Chocolate chips. Something distinct we can see, point out, confess, repent for, have removed.
Sinfulness is more like cocoa powder: not easily separable but throughout, uniform.

• YET we also intuitively know that sinfulness is throughout (like cocoa powder) because we feel like surely God can’t remove OUR sinfulness… not really, not completely. 

We think more of God’s forgiveness like the candy coat of an M&M. Perfectly covered… but we’re still sinful inside.

Jesus refers to this as whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27),
looks nice on the outside but there’s death inside.

 • There IS death inside

...or at least, there WAS.

Paul tells us in Romans 6 that through baptism we have been fully united with Christ, and that the sinfulness that was formerly through and through within us DIED WITH CHRIST on the cross and it’s DEAD AND GONE now.

Our sin is not candycoated but completely removed through and through (picture a uniform sugar cookie. Or maybe white chocolate if you want the chocolate image).

We have been perfectly redeemed, and Paul’s prayer is that we would understand how perfectly redeemed Christ has made us. (I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Eph 3:18-19)

• I worked at Subway when I was in college. One summer my town was an overnight host for RAGBRAI, a bike-ride across Iowa. Thousands of people invade little towns in Iowa for 24 hours at a time. It can be a great economic boon.

Our Subway did not just prepare for high volume, but went out to the crowds with sandwiches in hand. Our Subway did not just wait for people to come in, but it went out to meet the people.

As redeemed Christians, we can tend the light of God by inviting people to come into our sanctuary for worship…

...or we can BEAR the light of God by going out to meet the people.

• Be bearers not just tenders, and live for God with your life (Rom 6:10).

 • Hymn 121 There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy

Romans 6:1-11 (CEB)    6 So what are we going to say? Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply? ² Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it? ³ Or don’t you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore, we were buried together with him through baptism into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life. ⁵ If we were united together in a death like his, we will also be united together in a resurrection like his. ⁶ This is what we know: the person that we used to be was crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled by sin. That way we wouldn’t be slaves to sin anymore, ⁷ because a person who has died has been freed from sin’s power. ⁸ But if we died with Christ, we have faith that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and he will never die again. Death no longer has power over him. ¹⁰ He died to sin once and for all with his death, but he lives for God with his life. ¹¹ In the same way, you also should consider yourselves dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus. ò

Getting In Alignment

• Second Sunday in Kingdomtide

with Romans 5:1-8

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• I had “dad jokes” on the church sign for Father’s Day, but when I knew that Bville was hosting a soccer tournament I changed the message to welcome soccer families. Part of witness.

(tells a few "dad jokes")

But my family’s favorite joke… There was a fellow in the UK, standing by the side of the road, hoping for a ride. He had a sign around his neck that said “London.” This guy only had one leg, and he had no arms, and he had a third eye smack in the middle of his forehead. Well, a driver pulled over, opened the door [and you gotta say this part out loud] and said “ay, ay, ay, you look (h)armless, (h)op in!”

One time my mom told the joke and she forgot the punchline and said “Hey, you don’t look dangerous, get in!”

• Romans 5 begins with “Therefore…” First four chapters Paul’s been setting the scene, laying the foundation: 

Jesus is perfectly sufficient for salvation. 

There is nothing we must or even can add
to what Jesus has done for us. 

God is interested in relationship
and it’s all possible because of Jesus.

• Therefore since we have been made righteous…
     1, this is a thing that has already happened, a door that has been opened and is now open.
     2, righteous. In line with intent, perfectly. [visual illustration of righteousness: two items not lined up with each other – that’s sin, that’s us out of line. Jesus, however, is perfectly aligned with the goal, the intent – Jesus is righteous – and Jesus lines us up properly, brings us into righteousness.]

• …through his faithfulness…
     3, the door has been opened, we have been properly aligned
         because Jesus did it first. And Jesus did it perfectly.

• …and the result is peace with God.

• Verse 3, we take pride in our problems…

A few weeks ago I asked about blessing, and asked for thumbs up / down about various situations. “So-and-so blessed with addiction” got a thumbs down.

But I’ll tell you as one who has personally glimpsed the power of alcohol addiction I count it a blessing because my experience drove me to rely on God & took me where I could not take myself. The door has been opened and I am in closer alignment with God’s intent, and had I not faced my own shortcomings I would not know that peace.

• And this is the gift of God.

• Recall the hitchhiker joke… the man is not on the road, is not in alignment, and lacks the ability to get the peace, get the result of alignment and a vehicle.
The driver gives the gift, has the power, is interested in relationship.

God sees us in our helpless state and says Hop in.

• Aside, that’s sort of like the book The Pursuing God (still time to join us)

• The goal and purpose of our church
is to encourage others in the journey,
to position ourselves and others
to receive the blessings of God.

•  Hymn 338 Where He Leads Me I Will Follow

Romans 5:1-8 (CEB)

5 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. ³ But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, ⁴ endurance produces character, and character produces hope. ⁵ This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶ While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. ⁷ It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. ⁸ But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. ò

Bloom Where You're PLanted

• Seventh Sunday of Easter / Ascension Sunday

with Acts chapter 8

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• How many of you are second or third or fourth generation where you live?
What would it take for you to leave your home?
It’d have to be serious.
What would your attitude be if you left?

Today’s Acts reading precipitated by the stoning of Stephen and the rise of Saul the zealous persecutor, armed with authority to arrest and imprison (or worse) Jewish Christians.
People left their ancestral homes.

And Luke (author) uses the word diaspiro (1289), a word for scattering, sowing, planting (as opposed to much more common diaskorzo (1287), wasteful scattering a la the prodigal son squandering his inheritance)

Can you imagine blooming where you’re planted?

• Christians are scattered, planted throughout the Mediterranean, including Samaria. Yes, that Samaria, of Good Samaritan fame. Jews and Samaritans got along like Hatfields and McCoys. Like Jonah and the Ninevites.

To be ousted from your ancestral home and to go to the people your clan has despised. It’d have to be serious.

• Philip goes to Samaria and preaches Christ, and like Jonah and the Ninevites, the people respond overwhelmingly favorably. Philip blooms where he’s planted and bears fruit immediately, strong ripe beautiful fruit immediately.

• The apostles in Jerusalem catch wind of God is doing in Samaria through Philip, and Peter and John are sent to strengthen the witness. Again, folks are praying earnestly for what we might call their enemies, and they go not for their own purposes but to witness about Christ and to bear the Holy Spirit to them, which they bear by prayer and by presence, the laying on of hands.

And their witness is fruitful as well. They preach to many Samaritan villages, who hear and receive the Word.

• It must’ve been serious for folks to leave their ancestral homes and face folks traditionally avoided. But they do so because they have the Holy Spirit and because they recognize it is not theirs to keep but they are compelled to share, not merely in prayer but in presence.

The Word they share is life in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

As the bishop shared last week, life in Christ which knows no bounds, indeed is boundary breaking, empowered by the Holy Spirit a la Star Trek, to boldly go where no one has gone before, to offer connection to the living God.

• That’s what you have. That’s what we have.
A God worth proclaiming,
a God worth risking for, a God worth living for.

• We are called to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
To share the love of God with people in a hurting world.

What will we let stop us?

• Hymn 539 O Spirit of the Living God

Acts 8:1-25  (CEB)

At that time, the church in Jerusalem began to be subjected to vicious harassment. Everyone except the apostles was scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.² Some pious men buried Stephen and deeply grieved over him. ³ Saul began to wreak havoc against the church. Entering one house after another, he would drag off both men and women and throw them into prison.

⁴ Those who had been scattered moved on, preaching the good news along the way. ⁵ Philip went down to a city in Samaria and began to preach Christ to them. ⁶ The crowds were united by what they heard Philip say and the signs they saw him perform, and they gave him their undivided attention. ⁷ With loud shrieks, unclean spirits came out of many people, and many who were paralyzed or crippled were healed. ⁸ There was great rejoicing in that city.

⁹ Before Philip’s arrival, a certain man named Simon had practiced sorcery in that city and baffled the people of Samaria. He claimed to be a great person. ¹⁰ Everyone, from the least to the greatest, gave him their undivided attention and referred to him as “the power of God called Great.” ¹¹ He had their attention because he had baffled them with sorcery for a long time. ¹² After they came to believe Philip, who preached the good news about God’s kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. ¹³ Even Simon himself came to believe and was baptized. Afterward, he became one of Philip’s supporters. As he saw firsthand the signs and great miracles that were happening, he was astonished. ò

¹⁴ When word reached the apostles in Jerusalem that Samaria had accepted God’s word, they commissioned Peter and John to go to Samaria. ¹⁵ Peter and John went down to Samaria where they prayed that the new believers would receive the Holy Spirit. (¹⁶ This was because the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) ¹⁷ So Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ When Simon perceived that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money.¹⁹ He said, “Give me this authority too so that anyone on whom I lay my hands will receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰ Peter responded, “May your money be condemned to hell along with you because you believed you could buy God’s gift with money! ²¹ You can have no part or share in God’s word because your heart isn’t right with God. ²² Repent, therefore, change your heart and life! Turn from your wickedness! Plead with the Lord in the hope that your wicked intent can be forgiven, ²³ for I see that your bitterness has poisoned you and evil has you in chains.”

²⁴ Simon replied, “All of you, please, plead to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said will happen to me!” ²⁵ After the apostles had testified and proclaimed the Lord’s word, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the good news to many Samaritan villages along the way. ò

There's Only Two Times to Praise God...

• Fourth Sunday of Easter

Communion Sunday

with Psalm 103

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• Attention folks with school-aged kids, be sure to check out camping at Asbury Woods this summer, the 2nd & 3rd week of July. Info in newsletter, scholarships are available.

A favorite experience of mine as a camp volunteer, leading Bible study by a creek. We were acting out scripture passage, and one boy volunteered to be the Holy Spirit, although the HS was not part of the passage. Okay. And he wandered around, every now and then whispering “bless!” and ‘sprinkling’ random people with blessing. It was great.

• In today’s reading of Psalm 103, nine times the word Bless. Also eight “all”, for totality, completeness. God does not do things half-way.

What is bless in Psalm 103?

Hebrew word ba-rak, 68 times in the Psalms, close second 62 in Genesis, plus another 200 throughout the rest of the OT.

To bow, kneel, bend the knee. Honor, revere, praise.
Humble self, lift up [other].

In English, adore, consecrate, sanctify.
To make or pronounce holy.
Set apart [as special]. Bestow good upon. Exalt.

• Blessing has to do with positioning yourself
with respect to the one being blessed.
To bless is to see someone, recognize them, honor them.

• WHY “bless the Lord”? The Psalmist can’t stop singing about why.
The Lord is the one who forgives (completely) heals (completely) saves (completely). The Lord lifts up, fills, renews. And that’s just three verses.

Psalmist continues to reveal character traits and actions of God

And a person would be right to say Yeah But what about God who does not save? What about wrathful God of OT? What about God who completely punishes for sin?

We learn of an inconsistent and disproportionate God who punishes a little (and that justly) and who blesses beyond compare, completely, generation to generation, forever and ever.

• How to bless the Lord? Remember positioning.

A young married man confided to his father after the wedding,
“I don’t know, Dad, I don’t know that it feels any different now that we’re married. I don’t *feel* married.”
And the wise father replied, “Son, it doesn’t matter whether you *feel* married or not… you better *act* married. You live as a married man. You do things with and for your wife, you honor her and think of her first and set her above all others (except God).”

• Bless God frequently nay constantly. When you feel like it and when you don’t.

With all of yourself. In word and in action. With humility (again, lift the other up).

• Expect to see God and you probably will.
Show up when God shows up. (which is when?) Be mindful and thankful.

Children’s Message

What is ‘blessing’, how do we use ‘bless’?

We were blessed with a baby.

So and so was blessed with addiction.

I was blessed with a loving family.

So and so was blessed with economic insecurity and divorced parents.

Jesus challenged the meaning of blessing, do you remember what he said?

Blessed are the poor, the hungry. Blessed are those who weep now.
Blessed are the persecuted.

What’s up with that?

Those are drawn closer to God.

And it’s easy if you have lots of good things to be distracted by those good things and forget about God. (You grownups, consider Steinbeck’s story The Pearl.)

What Have You Seen?

• Resurrection Sunday
with John 20:1-18

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Today’s scripture includes eyewitness reports of the empty tomb.
What have you seen? Empty linens that were full on Friday.
Peter & the other disciple go home.

• Mary Magdalene is in 2 scenes. What did she see? First she tells Peter & other disciple that the tomb is open, then shortly afterwards, she interacts with Jesus.
I have seen the Lord!

• Miracles happen so that people bear witness.
“All I can do is say, Here’s how it went. Here’s what I saw. I’ve been there and am going back. Make of it what you will.” (Peace Like A River, Leif Enger)

Consider the man born blind in John 9. Don’t know how Jesus healed him, only that he did. All the blind man wanted to do was tell that Jesus healed him.

• Baseball fans? The movie Field of Dreams was released 28 years ago this week. Has anybody ever been there? What did you see? I've been there. When I meet someone else who's been there, we share a fun connection.

Imagine traveling far away. Could be couple hundred miles, could be international. Imagine you bump into someone who’s wearing WV t-shirt. Instant connection. One of us. Shared experiences draw people together.

Shared negative experiences draw people together, too. I have a bond with other people who have torn their ACLs. My wife has a bond with other people who have taken care of their spouse recovering from ACL reconstruction.

• In Jesus we have shared experience with God.

What have you seen? Over 800 drug overdose fatalities in WV in 2016. Recent news includes a motorcycle fatality on Friday, just ten miles from here. A few days ago and the US dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb on Afghanistan. Syrian refugees and even hungry people in Bville. People suffer. Creation groans.

And Jesus suffered, knew all kinds of griefs and pains. One of us.

Paul writes in 6th chapter of Romans that the shared experience we have with Jesus gives us new life. Jesus died, we die with him, and, still united with him, as he received new life, so shall we. Victory over death, no longer slaves to sin.

• What have you seen? New life now. Over the last 15 years, global malaria deaths decreased by 60%, in large part due to The UMC’s Imagine No Malaria / Nothing But Nets program the last ten years. Making a difference.
Hungry people in Bville are fed. The Greater Bville Community Outreach was formed.

I am personally a transformed man because of the power of God and community.

• What have you seen?

Look, consider, tell, praise, give thanks.

• into Communion liturgy

John 20:1-10 (NRSV)

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ² So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” ³ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹ for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ Then the disciples returned to their homes. ò

John 20:11-18 (NRSV)

¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; ¹² and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³ They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. ò

Behold the Man

• Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday
with selections from Matthew 21, 26, 27
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• Remember the one about the five blind men (who had never seen an elephant) that were asked to describe an elephant? (rope, tree trunk, tent flap, wall, snake)

• In our readings today we have several chances to “Behold the Man.” To see Jesus. What do different people see?

Crowds (Palm Sun): Jesus the hero, the exalted one, the king. Right?

Judas (Matt 26): This is not the leader I expected. This is embarrassing. Turn the other cheek? Wasteful? Foolish.

Peter, James, and John (Matt 26, in the garden): Spirit is willing flesh is weak. I am tired and distracted and confused. Much effort.

Pilate (Matt 27): Aligning myself with Jesus is political suicide, a real threat and hindrance to my career.

Jesus himself (Matt 26, in the garden): deeply grieved for what’s coming.
Willing to face what comes, for God, willing for the people.

• Last week DS Hayes on Philippians 2, Selfless Jesus, humble. Have his attitude.

Eyes of faith fixed forward together

Regardless of pain, Jesus focused on task, the ultimate yes to God.

Jesus says the ultimate yes for the Church as well.

• What do people see of Jesus in you?

Teacher, good man, son of God, savior?

• Jesus was unique in history and irreplaceable in salvation
He reconnects me with who God made me.

• Response: yes God, thank you God.

Prayer for Passion/Palm Sunday 281

• Hymn 295 In the Cross of Christ I Glory

Matthew 21:1-9 (NRSV)
21 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” ⁴ This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

⁵ “Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
    humble, and mounted on a donkey,
        and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷ they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
    Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!” ò