From Where Does our Help Come Genesis 32:22-31, Psalm 121, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Luke 18:1-8

Where Does Our Help Come From I have a habit that really annoys Heather, actually probably a couple… But the one that I am thinking about this morning is probably less of a habit and more of a mannerism, I have a tendency to ask a question but before anybody else answers it, I answer it myself. I do this enough that every time it happens it is pointed out to me. I can’t think of an example off the top of my head but often includes locating something. Much like the psalmist who wrote today’s psalm. I’m not sure that he is afflicted with what Heather has affectionately called refrigerator blindness but he is in a desperate need to locate something. And often times asking the question is part of finding the answer as we see in the first two verses of today’s psalm. I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. You see often times people look inward for help and never find it. Sometimes we look to other just as flawed people for help and walk away let down and betrayed. Sometimes we look to imperfect and finite things for help and end up as empty as before, the latest fix just leaves as craving the next fix. But today’s psalmist found the help he needed by looking to the Lord. After asking the question the psalmist goes on to describe the nature of this help. There seems to three key words in his description of God’s help, keeping, watching, and preserving. These things all speak to me about God’s unfailing and everlasting presence in our lives. Those other places we go for help will run dry and run out. But God’s help, his protection, his comfort, and his blessings begin at conception and are eternal. Jacob also realized that ultimately he needed to depend on God. His whole life he schemed and worked for what he wanted, even if it belonged to others. He planned on how to steal his brother Esau’s birthright out from under him, he went 7 years working to earn the right to marry the love of his life. And in so doing he became a well-off influential man. But he knew something was missing. Today we meet him as he prepares to attempt reconciliation with his brother, his past misdeeds weighed on him and this was a difficult task. He needed strength and assurance from the well that doesn’t run dry. That is what leads us to today’s encounter with this holy angelic stranger. The encounter is what he needed but it wasn’t too pleasant. It is often described as a wrestling match and Jacob walked away with a limp. Asking for help isn’t always easy, and sometimes receiving help is downright hard. Sometimes help is good and necessary but not comfortable, it may call for a drastic change of perspective or lifestyle. Sometimes improvement of our circumstances or conditions call for pain and struggle, sometimes looking to the hills for help after looking elsewhere for so long comes with a brightness that can hurt our eyes. I am reminded of the quote from the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” You see the help that today’s psalmist talks about isn’t about being comfortable or even happy, we can find other things to make us happy or comfortable. God’s help however is about drawing us closer to Him, seeing the world in the way He wants us too, choosing right over wrong and good over evil more often than not, and it is about not letting guilt cripple us when we don’t. Those of you who are parents may understand this kind of help better than others. Sometimes the most helpful thing we can do for our children is say no and make them do homework or errands, those things we would never choose to do on our own yet will work to make us better people. Creating boundaries is a necessary job of any parent, especially our Father in heaven. Yes, this morning Jacob walked away with a limp. But what a blessed limp it was. For with that limp Jacob walked right into the open arms of his estranged brother. With that limp he walked right into a new identity, Jacob receives a new name, Israel, one who has wrestled with God, an identity that will be claimed by a whole nation of God’s people. People who know as our psalmist reminds us the undying and unsleeping hand and care of their Lord and God. That is another thing I really liked in the psalm. The author makes the connection between God being the keeper of Israel and your keeper. Your relationship with God isn’t some private matter exists because of some decision you made in a vacuum. We can look to the hills for our help because God has made us part of His family through the nurture of the church. We have spent some time over the last couple weeks in 2nd Timothy. And we learned that he became a disciple of Christ through the raising of his mother and grandmother, this is how faith happens from being part of a family. This morning we get to welcome Tyler into that family. Like Jacob he will receive a new name, beloved son of God. His parents and Godparents will make a promise to raise him up as best they can to know his help is in the Lord. This entire community will make a promise to prayerfully support this family as they answer that call. For have great news to share, as stewards of the Gospel we are called to constantly remind those people around us that we are sons and daughters of a God who doesn’t sleep or slumber, a God whose caring watch and empowering hands are never far off, no matter how far we may think we stray from Him. This is the God we turn to for help day and night as the parable reminds us. This God does not weary of our prayers and His blessings don’t run out.

Thanksgiving as a Spiritual Discipline

Thanksgiving as a Spiritual Discipline 2nd Kings 5:1-15, Psalm 111, 2nd timothy 2:8-15, Lk 17:11-19 One of the things I have thought about as a father that I rarely if ever thought about before Toby came into the world is how there are things that need to be taught that we wished would come natural. One of the obvious ones being gratefulness, beginning with the simple act of saying thank you. Being thankful for gifts we are given and the good that is done for us is something we would all like to think just happened in our upbringing, but like the young people in our midst we needed it to be taught and modeled to us. And unfortunately some adults may never get it, it can be hard to say thank you. Today’s readings make this human tendency to struggle with thanksgiving clear. In our Old Testament lesson, Naming has an opportunity to rid his body of Leprosy. Although he comes around by the end of the narrative and confesses how wonderful our God is. His initial response is one of angst, “what I need to wash in that river to receive a miraculous healing? Who does God think he is” It takes the words of a lowly servant to remind God how small of a price it was to pay for such a life-changing miracle. How many times do we fail to recognize God’s blessings because they don’t happen the way we expect or wish. You may recall these lyrics penned by Garth Brooks. Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers Just over 3 years ago I was packing my bags for a new call in PA. It was a thriving congregation with a solidly biblical and confessional foundation. I was excited, I prayed to God that he would allow this to be the place I minister for a long time and that Heather and I raise Toby. Obviously that was a prayer that God didn’t answer, and I’m glad he didn’t. About 2 years into the call at GR I was approached by a pastor nearing retirement. He had received permission from both his congregation and his bishop to talk to me about being his successor when he retired. There were inklings that finances at CHULC would not allow them to continue to support two ordained pastors and I had also began to realize that I craved more leadership than an associate pastor position allowed. Discernment started and my prayer changed, I was going to Maryland. And then it happened, it was obvious that my timeline and this congregation’s timeline weren’t going to line up and God was calling me to another place, an unknown place, this was not my plan. I told God that I wasn’t happy with him. Instead of being thankful that he set me down a path to prepare me for what was going on at Christ Hamilton, for I can’t imagine how the financial conversation would have gone if I hadn’t already opened myself up for call, instead I was indignant that I wasn’t going to Maryland. I know how Namaan felt, and like Namaan I was called to a river and my life has been blessed ever since. I am Glad that God knows what He is doing but there will be times in our lives that we forget that He knows what he is doing. In those times thankfulness is hard. Brothers and sisters God knows so much better than you or me what God’s business is… and that in itself is a blessing. In today’s gospel lesson we meet 10 more lepers, they leave there encounter with Jesus transformed in a radical miraculous way, yet only one comes back to say thank you to the messiah who gave him his life back. We don’t know anything about the other 9 so any guess on why they failed to say thanks for this amazing gift is just that, a guess. I think that perhaps they knew that in their life as lepers they missed out on so much that they were in a hurry to catch up. In their rush they forgot to stop to give God thanks. I know that has happened to me, in such a hurry to the next big thing I fail to stop and even offer a small thank you to God. That is where Psalm 111 comes in. This kind of thankful prayer needs to be a part of our repertoire. Not for God’s sake, God won’t stop being God because of our faithlessness and failed disciple moments. Brothers and sisters God doesn’t need us we need God. And God continuously offers what we need, forgiveness eternal life, a community that loves and supports us. The list goes on and on. As is always the case the psalms offers us a prayer that we can pray because we often won’t pray thanksgiving without it. Sometimes God and his deeds are taking for granted by those who have grown up hearing these stories and singing these same hymns. Both Namaan and the one thankful leper from the gospel lesson were outsiders and foreigners. New recipients of God’s grace. Perhaps in our prayer lives we need to lift up God’s activity so it is constantly in front of us and doesn’t become just the backdrop of our lives which we no longer notice. St. Ignatius, writing less than a century before Martin Luther, in his spiritual exercises had a special kind of prayer for the people under his charge. It was called the examen, it consisted of two questions that were to be reflected upon. I have seen various translations or revisions to make the questions more modern but the main questions are “In what ways has God been especially present for you today?” and “How has the Devil attacked you today?” Both those questions in different ways lead to thankfulness. The first question leads to thankfulness because as we list the ways that God has blessed us we can’t help but be thankful. The second question makes us thankful because it reminds us we are His and the enemy cannot touch us no matter how hard he tries. You see the psalmist and Ignatius both knew that this kind of prayer needs to be rehearsed. We force ourselves to be thankful until thanksgiving become second nature. Before we know it we will be able to see God working on even the toughest days and those blessings and miracles in our lives will point us and others to the God who has given his very life for us. My challenge to you this week is to spend even more time in prayer than usual. And be even more specific about the things you are thankful for than you are about your wants and needs. Please pray with me.

St. Michael and all Angels

St. Michael and all Angels Daniel 10:10-14, 12:1-3, Psalm 103, Revelation 12:7-12, Luke 10:17-20 In my life as a churchgoer and now an ordained pastor in Christ’s church I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have heard angels discussed in a sermon. If I were to discount the few times I was at General Retreat for a weekday service commemorating St. Michael on this date and the Christmas sermons where angels are given their usual place at Christ’s birth the number quite possibly reaches zero. Why do you think that is? Why have these messengers and warriors of God that get extensive airtime throughout both the Old and New Testaments become so silent if not downright non-existent in our proclamation and faith practice? Perhaps it is because the deeper the church sinks and modernity, or even post modernity the more hesitant it is to linger on those parts of its legacy which carry a sense of the supernatural; you know those things that might put us at odds with a world that likes only what it can see and measure empirically. As things like miracles and angels are discarded by the modern Christian church we have ended up forfeiting a lot of what we have to offer the world. For what sets us apart from social service agencies, community groups, and political action groups is our worship of the God who created the world and our claims that this God loves the world so much that he came to it in the incarnation of Jesus the Christ His Son, that in His, birth, life, death, and resurrection he has defeated death and earned for all who trust in Him eternal life, and that this same God continues to care an make his will and his presence known on earth in the lives of all who call on his name, even through supernatural means. You see brothers and sisters, the efficacy of our faith and proclamation hinges on the truth that there is more to this life then what we can see or feel; that there is an unseeable and unknowable world. And that is a good thing because we see a lot of pain and suffering and often what we think we know is proven wrong. Brothers and sisters, Miracles and angels remain a part of how God interacts with this world. And I think this world is so hungry for that message. The irony that as the academy and the church become less likely to talk about the unseeable and unknowable pop culture has become a place where things like angels and demons thrive. And not just angels and demons but things like faeries, vampires, and werewolves. It seems like the seat that the church has vacated has been filled by movie producers and novelists and that is dangerous for the stories they tell are rarely about a compassionate God who loves unconditionally and they are never ever true. But the story that the church has to share is very true; angels still walk in our midst, defending us from Satan’s wiles, and ministering to us as God’s heavenly host. Throughout scripture we see angels ministering to God’s faithful in a variety of ways. They are healers, heralds of good news, protectors, and even warriors. Today we remember by name the mightiest of all warrior angels. Michael, in Daniel he is called a great prince. He is one of the might archangels who continues to fight by God’s side for our very souls. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians that our true enemies are never flesh and blood, but are what he calls principalities and powers, that unseen world we don’t talk enough about. And in ministry I have seen the effects of this battle in the lives of people I have ministered to, Heather and I have felt this battle being waged in our own lives as we face the trials of ministry, being so far from friends and family, and the struggles that come with trying to be faithful servants of God. And the hard part is the closer we get to God the harder His enemies fight. I have told people that seminary is the devil’s playground. I have never seen so many people in such close proximity struggle with things like divorce, depression, and doubt just to name a few. All these people trying profoundly to become the servants that God is calling them to be. I often wished that we were encouraged to talk about in terms of spiritual warfare. Perhaps we would have been more equipped, more willing to claim the victory that has been promised us. Because brothers and sisters, spiritual warfare is real. And the outcome has been decided and eternity has been won. Yes the closer you get to God the harder God’s enemies fight. But also the closer you get to God the more confident you become that being in God’s hands is the best place to be. And being the recipients of Angelic protection is truly a gift and a blessing. Today we rejoice that as Christians we can know the unknowable and catch glimpses of the unseeable. That we don’t have to turn to Hollywood to feed our hunger for things bigger and greater than ourselves. And we thank God for his everlasting and supernatural involvements in our lives. Please pray with me Gracious God continue to send your angels, that they may protect us in our comings and in our goings, that they may defend us from what threatens our faith in you, and as we breath our last that they may escort us to our eternal home. In Jesus’ name.

Sermon from September 8th Counting the Cost

Count the Cost Luke 14:25-33 A few short weeks ago I got out of preaching one of the toughest passages in Luke’s gospel. The week of the Outdoor Worship Service I was able to preach on creation instead of Jesus saying that his coming will bring division. At text study that week I was able to take a sigh of relief as we discussed Jesus’ harsh words. This week it came back and the opportunity for me to preach on Jesus’ harsh words and for us to reflect on them is before us. And brothers and sisters I promise as your pastor to never ignore Jesus’ hard words as it is often his hardest words that we need to hear the most. And today’s Gospel lesson is a tough one. In one fell swoop Jesus tells us we must hate our families and get rid of our possessions. If the crowd was large at the beginning of today’s reading, I’m sure it thinned out by the end. We are told a couple times in the Bible that we must sell or renounce all our possessions. These are more about our tendency to turn things into idols then they are about a call to sell things for the sake of the poor and hungry. It is about ridding us of all things that keep us from fully embracing our new identities as sons and daughters of God. And there is always the reality that all we have is first and foremost God’s so even if we don’t get rid of all our possessions we do surrender our “ownership” of it. I am sure we can all think of something in our lives that we have placed more trust or value in then we have God and as hard as these words from Jesus are we can understand them and they are far from the hardest words Jesus spoke today. Now this bit about hating our families is hard. And it flies in the face of all the times Jesus talks about loving others. In our warm fuzzy world of political correctness and tolerance we hear the word hate and we are likely to shut down, turn inward, and refuse to hear what the speaker has to say, even if that speaker is God in the flesh. So I challenge you to stay alert, return your gaze on our Lord and savior and listen to him. I think that today he speaks of hatred because we are all called to Love God so much that our love and desire for anything or anybody else pales in comparison, even our love for mother and father, brother, and sister husband, and wife. My best friend Lewis and I were talking about this the other day; we both have many siblings and talk together a lot about the complexities that a big family can create. It was in this context that this week Gospel lesson came up. Lewis shared with me an awesome story and granted me permission to share with you all today. You see Jackie and Lewis have struggled to get to church on time. Over the last year or so Lewis has been entering a new phase in his faith life and this tendency to be late for church was really weighing heavy on his heart. One Sunday morning recently he and their 12 year old son were ready and Jackie was not. Lewis decided to drive himself and Michael to church and let Jackie take the second car. Lewis was feeling guilty and when Jackie arrived he apologized. Apparently Jackie’s response was to tell him he had nothing to apologize for and that she never wants him to put her before Jesus. In that story Jackie and Lewis both answer the call to love family less than they love God. You see Jackie’s affirmation that Lewis made the right choice by placing his relationship with Jesus before his relationship with herself was also putting Jesus first in her own life. This real life story may help us put Jesus’ difficult words in the proper light. Brothers and sisters, as strange as it seems the most loving things you can do for your families is love God more than you love them. For right relationship with God being made possible in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ makes possible right relationship to others. A distorted, worldly view of priorities only creates distorted and worldly relationships. And the incarnation of Jesus Christ does indeed shatter any human definitions and boundaries we may place around this concept of family. He creates faith families like ours and brings people together who need to be together, like he did in the lives of Kalyb, Kary, Keltyn, David, and Brenda, I am so thankful that they were all open to the new and radical things that God was up to. And I am honored to celebrate those things with you all today. I firmly believe that they were a result of you guys putting God first in your life. Whether or not Jesus is talking about letting go of possessions or loving family a little less they are both ultimately about attachment. You see when there are things that we place too much importance in or things in which we find our identity instead of finding our identity in our relationship with God we need to do some work. This is what Jesus means when counting the cost, and the cost can be steep. Has my relationship with God caused me to hate my atheist brother and sisters? No but it caused some added distance and moments of discomfort. CS Lewis did not receive a full professorship until 30 years after he joined the faculty at Oxford because the damage his conversion did to his reputation. And there are still places in the world today where the cost of discipleship can be persecution, imprisonment, or even death. So in perspective our costs may seem very payable. For our young people it may be the pains of standing up for what is right when they see another being bullied, even by their friends. The cost for some may be let a sure promotion fly by because their faith discouraged them from cutting corners that may have helped them on the climb to the top, or waiting until next year to take that dream vacation because we aren’t ready to cut the tithing line item and the family budget. As we discern what our cost of discipleship is, it is always helpful to remember that God counted his own cost. He paid for our eternal life with the life of his only Son our Lord. And I can’t think of anything or anyone I would rather call Lord than Jesus Christ, whatever the cost. So the question shouldn’t be can we afford to follow Christ. As we see the affects of sin and struggle in our lives and in the lives around us perhaps the real question is can we afford not to.

Focus on Above and Beyond Ecclesiastes 1:1-14, 2:18-23 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 Peace and Grace to you all from our risen Lord and Savior, As I prepared to preach on our readings this week a certain quote from one of my favorite contemporary spiritual writers kept popping in my head. This Trappist monk actually spent the last two and a half decades of his life at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Bardstown Kentucky no more than 120 miles from here. Thomas Merton who spent much of his faith journey peeling away layers of complexity wrote that, We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness. Think about that for a while, try to recall a moment in the past week or so where our hamster wheel tendencies were very real to you. What does it look like in your day to day life? Why do we do the things we do? I think that is the question that confronts us with our readings for today. What motivates us? Or to put it in words that might sound familiar in our politically charged world; what is our agenda? Because brothers and sisters, all of today’s readings remind us that the only agenda that really matters is God’s. St. Augustine once prayed Grant that we might seek never, never to bend the straight to the crooked. That is, your will to ours. But help us to bend the crooked to the straight. That is, our will to yours. Part of the disciple’s struggle is to learn to distinguish our will from God’s will, and then to begin to desire God’s will in place of our own. That is when the Holy Spirit will begin to transform our wills. And this transformation is a process, it doesn’t happen overnight and this process won’t be finished for anyone on this side of eternity, our faith isn’t perfected until we find ourselves fully in God’s glory. Solomon, Paul, and Jesus as he told today’s parable all knew that this process is hard. No matter how much effort we put into being a faithful disciple, no matter how many reminders we have that God sits on the throne, we still keep finding ourselves evaluating ourselves and others with a rubric given to us by the world, we keep compiling accomplishments, and titles that we think the world may value, we find more things to do to pad our resumes, and it seems that people begin to create those resumes at younger and younger ages. If we were to be honest with ourselves we are not all that different than the rich man in Jesus’ parable today. Brothers and sisters God’s agenda is what we should be spending our life pursuing, for God alone knows what tomorrow is going to bring and even our best-laid plans are bound to fall apart. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Colossians that our life is hidden; we don’t know what lies ahead. There are a few things we do know; we know that load of groceries we just put in our refrigerators will be gone by the end of the week, we know that paycheck we just deposited was probably mostly gone before we deposited it, we know our health we work so hard to maintain (some of us more than others, Sorry Heather I’m working on it) is fleeting and we know even our best and closest friends will let us down, promises will go unkept and the sting of hurtful words will linger. How do we know these things? Because we know all too well the affects of sin in our lives. As Solomon reminds us in the reading from Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities all is vanities. But we know a few other things too. We know that each and every one of us was created in God’s image. As we live out our lives in a world where things perish and fail we know that we were made for so much more. And we know that in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ we are claimed as daughters and sons of God. Remember my quote this morning; it’s before you on the screens or the bulletin. We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness. Who you are as God’s own beloved child, bought back from sin, death, and the devil by Jesus on the cross of Calvary, will always be so much more valuable than anything you can ever own or do. And anything you can ever do or have will never make who you are as God’s child less valuable. Whose agenda is looking better now? You see in the end we don’t have to be like the rich man hoarding treasures in some barn; because God has already given us treasures beyond our greatest imagination. Those treasures begin with the assurance of his presence and the promise of eternal life. But there is even more than that, I am sure a quick look at your life can reveal those treasures to you. He has blessed me with a loving wife and healthy son, an amazing new community to call home, and supportive friends who no matter how many times we let each other down will be there for me when I need them the most. We are about to sing my favorite hymn. It was the hymn of the day for my ordination so it is really amazing that it is the hymn of the day my first Sunday as your Pastor, as we sing it I want you to listen to the words and I encourage you to make those words your prayer for the rest of the week. Because when we seek first God and His kingdom everything else just falls into place. Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.

Our Place in the Passion of Christ a Good Friday Message for the Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Network

Peace and Grace to you from our Crucified Lord Jesus the Christ, Brothers and sisters, I actually struggled a bit with what greeting I should begin this sermon. My usual peace and grace initially seemed a little out of place at a Good Friday service. Perhaps out of place in our entire Holy Week observance and rituals. For me anyway this whole week is so emotionally intense that the usual greeting may seem a little glib, a denial of the heart wrenching that goes on in the lives of the faithful this week. You see the reason this week is such an emotional roller coaster is because the church’s practices this week attempt not just to remember the events of Jesus’ last days, but we try to place ourselves in the midst of the Lord’s passion. It’s the kind of remembering that transcends an intellectual memory and incorporates our whole self, mind, heart, senses and body. Our week began with the blessing and waving of palms. With those palms we cheered on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and again on Sunday morning we will place ourselves at the empty tomb cheering on his even more triumphal victory over death. Bu a lot happens between Sundays. We place ourselves around the Passover meal Jesus shares with his disciples, receiving the meal and being given the commandment to love one another, a commandment we struggle to keep for the rest of our lives. We place ourselves in the garden with the disciples failing to answer Jesus’ simple request to stay awake and keep watch. With Peter we find ourselves rebuking Jesus’ claim that we will deny him while knowing very well that a day doesn’t go by without making choices that deny Jesus is Lord of our lives. And then we place ourselves at the cross. With our sins we take our turn cracking the whip and driving those nails. With the rest of the mob we convince Pontius Pilate to release among us a fellow sinner Barabbas and to crucify the Son of God. We join many of the same Israelites who were waving palms yelling Hosannas a few short days ago in cheering on the death of our king. In a few short minutes we will be singing my favorite hymn. When we sing “were you there when they crucified my Lord”, I want you to remember you were there and they didn’t do anything it was us, we need to own our place at the cross. It’s not a proud place to be but it is where we belong because as Dr. Martin Luther wrote, You should believe, and never doubt, that you are in fact the one who killed Christ. Your sins did this to Him. When you look at the nails being driven through His hands, firmly believe that it is your work. Do you see His crown of thorns? Those thorns are your wicked thoughts. Brothers and sisters today isn’t Good Friday because of our place in Salvation history. It is Good Friday because although it was our sins that nailed him to the cross it was his love for us that kept him there. Those same sins that Jesus took to the cross have been forgiven and our debt paid. As good as this week is to remember that we are sinners through and through. It is also a good week to remember it was for sinners such as us that Christ won salvation.

Our Place in the Passion of Christ A sermon preached at the PVEN Ecumenical Good Friday Service

Peace and Grace to you from our Crucified Lord Jesus the Christ, Brothers and sisters, I actually struggled a bit with what greeting I should begin this sermon. My usual peace and grace initially seemed a little out of place at a Good Friday service. Perhaps out of place in our entire Holy Week observance and rituals. For me anyway this whole week is so emotionally intense that the usual greeting may seem a little glib, a denial of the heart wrenching that goes on in the lives of the faithful this week. You see the reason this week is such an emotional roller coaster is because the church’s practices this week attempt not just to remember the events of Jesus’ last days, but we try to place ourselves in the midst of the Lord’s passion. It’s the kind of remembering that transcends an intellectual memory and incorporates our whole self, mind, heart, senses and body. Our week began with the blessing and waving of palms. With those palms we cheered on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and again on Sunday morning we will place ourselves at the empty tomb cheering on his even more triumphal victory over death. Bu a lot happens between Sundays. We place ourselves around the Passover meal Jesus shares with his disciples, receiving the meal and being given the commandment to love one another, a commandment we struggle to keep for the rest of our lives. We place ourselves in the garden with the disciples failing to answer Jesus’ simple request to stay awake and keep watch. With Peter we find ourselves rebuking Jesus’ claim that we will deny him while knowing very well that a day doesn’t go by without making choices that deny Jesus is Lord of our lives. And then we place ourselves at the cross. With our sins we take our turn cracking the whip and driving those nails. With the rest of the mob we convince Pontius Pilate to release among us a fellow sinner Barabbas and to crucify the Son of God. We join many of the same Israelites who were waving palms yelling Hosannas a few short days ago in cheering on the death of our king. In a few short minutes we will be singing my favorite hymn. When we sing “were you there when they crucified my Lord”, I want you to remember you were there and they didn’t do anything it was us, we need to own our place at the cross. It’s not a proud place to be but it is where we belong because as Dr. Martin Luther wrote, You should believe, and never doubt, that you are in fact the one who killed Christ. Your sins did this to Him. When you look at the nails being driven through His hands, firmly believe that it is your work. Do you see His crown of thorns? Those thorns are your wicked thoughts. Brothers and sisters today isn’t Good Friday because of our place in Salvation history. It is Good Friday because although it was our sins that nailed him to the cross it was his love for us that kept him there. Those same sins that Jesus took to the cross have been forgiven and our debt paid. As good as this week is to remember that we are sinners through and through. It is also a good week to remember it was for sinners such as us that Christ won salvation.