Church guide

Easter Brunch Afterwards

Today's Good Friday Cross Walk and Tenebrae were very meaningful. We journeyed to the cross and will rise with Jesus on Easter morning.

Today is Maundy Thursday, they day when Jesus gave his disciples a gift and a command (Maundy=Mandate). He washes their feet in love and gives them a meal to remember him. He also commands them to wash other's feet and to reenact this meal every time they meet.

Holy Week Service Times. Join us as we journey to the cross and to the empty tomb

Join us today at 10:30am worship

Thursday, April 11 Philippians 2:5–11 God’s voice spoke the world into existence, sustains it, and continues to speak to us. God gives us the very Word of God, whose name is Jesus. There is power in that name, but not the power human culture expects. We will see that power on Maundy Thursday, as Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, hosts the Last Supper, and speaks new-covenant words. Through the name of Jesus, God’s glory takes the forms of love, service, and humility. Given how God’s power works, we may wonder at how much Jesus’ name comes up in casual speech: in everyday cursing or in excitement about something good. Why does this name seem so powerful, even for those who don’t believe? Indeed, there is something special about the name of Jesus—a name in which we can pray at any moment. Listening to the still, small voice of God inside, we can respond with “the name that is above every name”: Jesus. God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—I confess the name of Jesus, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

Monday, April 8 Luke 19:28–40 Nothing can stop the voice of Jesus, or stop those who hear his voice. Palm Sunday begins joyfully with a multitude following and praising Jesus, but the week will end with Jesus on the cross, surrounded by only a core of faithful women and men. The shouts of praise will be replaced by wails of lament as Jesus speaks his last words on the cross. But this is not the end. For as Jesus foretells, though his followers become silent, like Peter disavowing him in his final hours, the stones cry out as an earthquake rattles the land at Jesus’ death. Even this is not the end, for Jesus will rise from the grave and forever change reality. His followers will go on to praise God and spread the gospel of salvation throughout the world. The stones will indeed cry out and speak boldly throughout history. Today, we are those living stones, the temple of the Lord’s dwelling, who shout out in response to Christ, our risen Lord. What are we saying? To whom are we speaking the message? Oh, holy God—Creator, Christ, Holy Spirit—guide my speech and guide my listening, so that I may hear you and speak of you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Friday, April 5 John 12:1–8 We’ve reflected this week on “not [remembering] the former things” but looking for the “new thing” God is doing (Isaiah 43:18–19). Occasionally, however, reflecting on God’s goodness in the past is the best way to bolster our trust in God as we go forward. Though Mary’s anointing of Jesus was extravagant—300 denarii equaled a year’s wages for a laborer—we are keenly aware that only recently, Jesus had revived her dead brother. Can we say with any certainty how we might have treated Jesus at such a celebration dinner? In my final sermon on internship, I told the congregation I’d come to love that I trusted God for my future because God had been so good to me through them. When we glance backward and recognize God’s presence amid our ups and downs, we come to count on God for the future too. Surely this was part of Mary’s experience. God of goodness, remind us of how you’ve kept and cared for us in the past, that we might trust you wholeheartedly now and in the future. Amen.

Thursday, April 4 John 12:1–8 A woman from my first-call parish stated vehemently during a council meeting that she understood where Judas was coming from in this episode. Ever thrifty, she believed we should pare back our spending on worship-related items and use the money for our food pantry ministry. On one hand, her concerns—and Judas’—were sensible, indeed right in line with God’s word through prophets like Amos: “I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. ... Take away from me the noise of your songs. ... But let justice roll down like waters ...” (5:21–24). While John, writing well after Judas betrayed Jesus, paints Judas in a negative light, I’m confident the woman in my first congregation had every good intention as we looked ahead to the next year’s budget. But then there is Mary, anointing Jesus’ feet and filling the house with the fragrance of her worship. And Jesus praises her forethought regarding his upcoming passion and burial. I don’t mind admitting that this story still leaves me a bit puzzled. God, thank you that I don’t have to understand your Word perfectly in order to trust in you. Show me how best to practice both worship and social justice. Amen.

Wednesday, April 3 Philippians 3:4b–14 In high school and college, I didn’t like the apostle Paul. I heard his words in arrogant tones: “If anyone else has reason to be confident ... , I have more.” But a seminary professor helped me read more perceptively. Paul isn’t boasting of his own achievements; he’s saying that no matter how successful he was by human standards, it’s all garbage (actually, he uses a less polite word) compared to the value of life in Christ. He determines to leave the past behind and move forward in the new life to which God has called him. I wonder, too, if Paul had to learn to lay aside the guilt of past sins—above all, his zeal in persecuting Christ’s church. Who hasn’t had difficulty letting go of guilt and trusting God’s and others’ forgiveness—and maybe even our own? “Forgetting what lies behind ... , I press on toward the goal ... of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” What if we let Paul’s words be ours too? Christ Jesus, please help me leave in the past anything for which I might boast, and guilt for sins you have already forgiven. I want to press forward to know you and the power of your resurrection more deeply every day. Amen.

Tuesday, April 2 Psalm 126 Picture the people described in verse 6 of this psalm—their shoulders bent in despair, faces wet with tears, feet dragging with exhaustion. Yet forward they go, lugging not just worry and discouragement but bags of seed to plant! This is what it looks like to persevere in hope—even flimsy hope—instead of standing still or turning back in despair. This is like the apocryphal saying of Luther: “If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would plant a tree.” Because what if the world doesn’t end? What if circumstances change—Saul the persecutor is converted to Paul the evangelist, against all odds the judge rules in your favor, the predicted storm doesn’t materialize, the cancer goes into remission, new leaders step up? Then, if by God’s power we’ve trudged forward, sowing seeds of hope even amid despair, we’ll have sheaves to carry home, “our mouth ... filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.” God of hope, encourage us to move forward, planting your love in the world even amid tears of despair. Help us trust that you

Monday, April 1 Isaiah 43:16–21 A quip traversing the internet recently says, “Don’t look back; you’re not going that way.” God seems to say something similar to the Israelites in today’s reading: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing.” Why do we often gaze into life’s rearview mirror, instead of out the windshield? Why is it hard to stop dwelling on past events—good or bad—to free ourselves for the new gifts God has for us in the present? What’s worse, despite the familiar adage, hindsight is not always 20/20. Consider the recently liberated Hebrews pining for the food of Egypt, apparently forgetting they had bought it with their slave labor. “I’m about to do a new thing,” says the Lord. “Do you not perceive it?” Not if we’re looking backward instead of forward, we won’t. God, you have redeemed the sins and struggles of my past. Help me let go of them in order to focus on the new things you are doing in my life. Amen.

Sunday, March 24 Hymn: “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (ELW 332) I was baptized as an adult, and it felt like drinking from living waters. In a very real way, it is. Baptism proclaims the radical truth at the heart of the gospel—that God’s grace is a free gift, imparted to us not because of anything we’ve done or left undone, but because that is who God is. Baptism proclaims the radical truth that in baptism our sins are forgiven and we are claimed as God’s own. Baptism proclaims the radical truth that God has claimed us and will not abandon us, for God keeps God’s promises and will never ever let us go. If we have been baptized, we have received the living water of Jesus’ love. We have entered into his death and been raised to new life in him. If we haven’t been baptized, the font always stands ready to revive our souls. Come and drink. Gracious God, remind us of your faithfulness to the promises you made to us in baptism. Quench our thirst. Raise us to new life. Amen.

Saturday, March 30 Hymn: “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (ELW 332) Verse 2 of this hymn holds a beautiful reference to John 4, where Jesus encounters a woman drawing water from a well a good distance from the nearest town. He says to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (verses 13–14). Not only does the woman ask Jesus for a drink; she also returns to her city, proclaiming the good news she has just heard! She is one of the first evangelists in all of Scripture, transformed solely by knowing Christ. She wanders into forgiveness and is forever changed. The first-person voice of this hymn lets us put ourselves into the woman’s shoes today: Our thirst is quenched, our souls revived, and now, we live in Christ. God, thank you for baptizing me, reviving my soul, and sustaining me with the water of eternal life. Help me share this good news today, to give life to others that speaks to the life I know in you. Amen.

Thursday, March 28 Luke 15:1–3, 11b–32 Though beautiful, this parable is also frustrating, perhaps because we tend to read ourselves into it as the older brother. We think of times when the effort we put into something didn’t match the reward we received, when our work went unacknowledged, when we wanted to be happy for somebody else, but just couldn’t. Today, let’s read ourselves into this passage as the younger brother. Think of a time when you had a good idea that didn’t pan out, when you lived beyond your means, when you realized you needed help and mustered the strength to grovel a little for it. But this story won’t leave us there, dwelling on our sin and guilt; it isn’t about those things. It’s about wandering into forgiveness. If we imagine ourselves as the younger brother, we also imagine the people who will greet us and celebrate us with reckless abandon when we return from our seasons away. God, thank you for staying with me no matter where I stray, what I do, or when I come back home. Help me to keep returning to those people in my life who take after your example and love me unconditionally. Amen.

Tuesday, March 26 Psalm 32 This psalm harkens back to the Exodus story, recalling contrasts: sin and forgiveness, torment and joy, the wicked and the faithful, suffering and deliverance. The sharp images in these verses— the poet’s groaning, the shrinking or wasting away of the human body, the temperament of livestock, the flooding and receding of waters, the heat of summer—evoke a sense of Israel wandering in the wilderness. The suggestion is that Israel’s wandering is never static, but is a constant mystery, an active struggle. Every day in the desert brings the Israelites into the unknown and forces them to acknowledge how exposed and vulnerable they are. We certainly experience moments of feeling exposed—seasons of vulnerability. So let us take inspiration from the poet’s response and be honest about that. Let us call out to God, asking for our sins to be covered, for iniquity and deceit to leave us, and for a faithful path to be laid before us. God, thank you for the essence of who you are—refuge, righteousness, liberation, steadfast love. Help me break my silence today, ask for your forgiveness, and shout for joy, rejoicing in you! Amen.

Monday, March 25 Joshua 5:9–12 Much is happening in and around these few verses. The Israelites are at the end of their 40 years of wilderness wandering. God dries up the Jordan River so they can cross and floods it again after they arrive on the other side. Now God commands that 12 stones be taken from the Jordan and erected as a monument to tell generations to come of Israel’s journey and God’s power. Joshua sets up those stones at Gilgal, the Israelites’ first encampment in the promised land. “Gilgal” is a play on the Hebrew verb that translates roughly as “roll.” As the Israelites roll the 12 stones into formation, God rolls away the shame of their past. Their immediate observance of Passover is the most tangible way they can remember. Just as God was with the Israelites during their disobedience and the ensuing decades of roaming, God is with them in their flourishing. The Israelites literally wander into forgiveness. God, thank you for all of the rolling that you do—in the desert, on new frontiers, and everywhere in between. Help me remember your love and forgiveness today, like you helped Joshua and the Israelites remember at Gilgal. Amen.

Sunday, March 24 Hymn: “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (ELW 332) I was baptized as an adult, and it felt like drinking from living waters. In a very real way, it is. Baptism proclaims the radical truth at the heart of the gospel—that God’s grace is a free gift, imparted to us not because of anything we’ve done or left undone, but because that is who God is. Baptism proclaims the radical truth that in baptism our sins are forgiven and we are claimed as God’s own. Baptism proclaims the radical truth that God has claimed us and will not abandon us, for God keeps God’s promises and will never ever let us go. If we have been baptized, we have received the living water of Jesus’ love. We have entered into his death and been raised to new life in him. If we haven’t been baptized, the font always stands ready to revive our souls. Come and drink. Gracious God, remind us of your faithfulness to the promises you made to us in baptism. Quench our thirst. Raise us to new life. Amen.

Saturday, March 23 Hymn: “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (ELW 332) I grew up in a loving, devout Mormon home, which gave me gifts of community, hard work, and commitment. But one significant Mormon teaching is that we are saved by obedience; this made me hyper-aware of my flaws. From childhood, I felt sure I would never be acceptable to God. I carried this anxiety through college until one day I heard a Christian theologian say, “I’m a Christian because I know enough of my deficiencies to be devastated. I don’t think I could live without forgiveness and the love of God.” I’d never heard anyone express their reliance on God’s grace so directly. I turned to Christ to see if he could forgive and love me, too. To my delight, he could—and the experience turned my despair into joy. Luther said: “Christ our Lord, to whom we must flee, and of whom we must ask all, is an inexhaustible well of grace.” From this well I thirstily drink again and again. Lord Jesus, remind us that you freely give living water. Teach us to drink in your grace. Amen.