Monday, March 21, 2016

"He Is Risen! Are You With Him?"

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Don't forget!  This Friday, March 25 at 7 pm is the Good Friday Service, presented by the youth.  Please plan to be here for this reflective service.  Audio, visuals, readings, sound effects. You don't want to miss it.


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For Easter Sunday:

Luke 23:55-56, Luke 24:1-12

This scripture has the women coming to the tomb to do what women did. Anoint the dead and decaying body with funerals spices.  Only, the body is not there.  And some guys in dazzling clothes that must have looked like they belonged on a Broadway stage tell the women that "He is not here, he is risen."  Then they remind the women that Jesus told them this would happen. That he would rise again.

 When the women go to tell the men they don't believe them. They believe their story to be 'an idle tale.'  It figures.  But Peter decides to go have a look, and he, too, finds an empty tomb. He, too, is amazed.  

What transforms the people from 'cold as stone theology' to 'empty tomb theology'?  How do they take what happens to them in this moment of resurrection transformation and spread a message that makes its way all the way to 2016?  It requires belief.  Not belief in some fantasy, but belief in the message of goodness and love. Belief in the sunlight that shines on an open door that was once closed shut and entombed. Belief in a tomorrow that can outshine any dark day.  That is primarily what these earliest disciples had.  They became not only disciples, but, in the moment at the tomb, they also became believers.

We need to let the word believer become a word we embrace once again in the progressive church. To say I am a believer means you have the trust and hope that, with God's help, the peaceable kingdom can be realized.  To say I am a believe means that you trust Jesus' message of love triumphs over power.  Belief is not a pie-in-the sky concept. Belief is deep within and real and true.

Easter is about belief.  What can you say you believe?

On Sunday we will be singing Alleluias! On Sunday we will be singing He Lives! It is a big day. The day we recognize that no matter the fear and agony, the pain and heartache, the contempt... Jesus stood strong and let God's message of "love never ends" and "love will always prevail" win the day.  We don't know exactly what happened in those resurrection days... but we do know that a passion was fueled that has never gone out, that has kept the church fires burning for over 2000 years now... the message that Jesus came to bring about reaching out to your neighbor, even your enemy, with love and kindness and compassion has never ceased to be.

Comments? Email at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below by clicking on the comments link.

































































































































































































Monday, March 14, 2016

"Were you there shouting Hosanna?" (Palm/Passion Sunday)




Luke 23:10-16, 20-24

So, here we are... back where this whole thing started. At least the parts of the story of Jesus that we have been reading about during this Lenten season. Since mid-February we have been looking at Luke 22, mostly, and the various events that lead to the build up of anger against Jesus that culminates in his crucifixion. But this week we go backwards a bit to the beginning of this time in Jerusalem.

And it begins with a makeshift parade, of sorts, as  most of you well know from years of attending Palm Sunday services. The events of the gospels report things differently, but we will look at Luke 19 for this retelling this year.  Strangely, in Luke 19, there is no mention at all of palm branches being waved in this parade. It's the only gospel that doesn't mention the branches.  So, we have to at least honor that nuance a little bit.  So we will focus more in our service this week on the cloaks the crowd placed in the path than on the palm branches. Oh, I know it's traditional to have palms, and we will definitely have them in the service, but we won't do things quite like we usually do. To honor Luke's intent.

The story is familiar to most of you. Jesus tells a couple of disciples to go into the city and there they will see a colt tied up and they should untie it and prepare it for him.  So they do. The colt's owner asks what they need it for and they said "The Lord needs it."  So they take it.  And they spread their cloaks on it.

And as he moves down into the city on the colt, Jesus hears the crowd shouting "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And this crowd, too, lays down their cloaks on the road to honor the path.  They are honoring him and take great joy in seeing him among them.

But the Pharisees ask Jesus to tell the crowd to stop and he tells them that even the stones would cry out now.  Jesus is trying to get the Pharisees to see that the kingdom of God and God's message cannot be silenced by some religious rulers and their cynicism.

Two themes I'd like to address this week:
1) This message of the cloaks. What did that represent that cloaks were laid down on the path?  How does that honor Jesus and his message?  How does that show a sacrifice on the part of the people? For some reason this reminds me of that Mean Joe Green commercial for Coke from years ago when he throws the kid his jersey.
2) The words of Jesus when he says "even the stones would cry out." Does that mean that God's message is for the whole of creation? That even the natural world is waiting patiently for God's love to overcome it and overcome the religious rules that inhibit full love from forming?

Later in this passage Jesus cries for Jerusalem. He is sad that the city is under siege from the authorities who are iron-fisted and filled with anger. He says "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace?" A phrase that he cries out in lament, for the city is anything but peaceful. So much unrest and hostility.

How is this passage setting the tone for what is to come?  How does it relate to what we should or shouldn't be thinking, doing and feeling as Holy Week looms?

Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below.



Monday, March 7, 2016

"Were you there as he stood accused?"

Luke 22: 54, 63-71; Luke 23:1-5

The whole assembly, the elders and the chief legal experts, came together and accused Jesus of claiming to be a Messiah and thus usurping the authority of Caesar.  They are threatened by the teachings of Jesus and how they seem to go against the legalities of the church and state.  And when he is standoffish in his answers, responding to their questions with answers like "You say that I am, " and "That's what you say, " well, it just infuriates them even more.

This passage is interesting.  On the one hand, we have the crowd of leaders saying to Pilate that Jesus is guilty of trying to go against the leaders and stir up a following of people who will somehow try to overthrow them.  On the other hand, you have Pilate saying, "I find no legal basis for action against this man."  Pilate is saying you might be mad at him and what he is saying about religious rule and order, but he hasn't broken the law.  But the crowd of leaders insist.

The theme that comes to mind for me in this passage is 'following the crowd' versus following your principles.  Jesus and the disciples weren't following the crowd and, in this passage, at least at this point, neither is Pilate.  But the crowd keeps on insisting that things go their way. That Jesus is a threat. That he must be stopped.

What sorts of 'crowd bullying' do we give in to today?  In what sorts of circumstances do we have to stand up for what we individually believe rather than listening to the mad shouts of the crowd in our ears?  When do we stand up for the teachings of Christ as opposed to just blending in with the sea of people?

It is hard to see the crowd moving a certain way, or the leadership of an organization moving a certain way, when you feel in your heart that you can't move that way.  Many in church denominations and other organizations have felt the tug to move away from the status quo and the crowd when things don't seem to be fair.  I have talked more than one member of Niwot UMC, for example, in to hanging around for at least a while longer while the UMC tries to get its act together on LGBT issues. And it gets harder and harder for me to personally speak for the denomination all the time. I pray General Conference 2016 may change things, but I admit that sometimes I have little hope that things will become better in the near future.

In our world stage, the bullies seem to be taking center stage and harassing all of us into listening to their rhetoric, even if we don't want to hear it.  It makes you want to retreat into a corner and never come out.  But, of course, that's the fear taking over. That's what happened with Judas. And with Peter. And the others.  But not with Jesus.  He stood strong against the tide against him and thanks be to God, he let love prevail.  We should look to Jesus in times when we want to retreat. He would go away for a while alone and pray and think, but he always came back out into the crowd and kept his mission alive.  So, we need to keep our eyes focused on Jesus in this passage. On what he does.  He is the role model here.

Questions? Comments? Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below. Thanks!