Sermon preached on Sunday April 2, 2026 before the sacrament of Baptism.

            Today we continue our considerations on the book of 1 Peter. And as we think about 1 Peter, we have a great joy to place before these words about sheep and our shepherd: the sacrament of Baptism—which is the place and moment where our union with Christ is celebrated and honored.  

            As I think about the sacrament, and I know that you will have your own stories about the actual physical experience baptism, or the witnessing of it in your life, I am often reminded of something I read in the book Travelling Mercies. 

            In that book you could read this: 

            “Christianity is about water: ‘Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.’ [Those words are] about baptism. . . It’s about falling into something elemental and wet. Most of what we do in [our] worldly life is geared toward staying dry, looking good, not going under. But in baptism, in lakes and rivers, tanks and fonts, you agree to do something that’s a little sloppy because at the same time it’s holy. . . [and extravagant]. 

It’s about surrender, giving in to all those things we can’t control; it a willingness to let go of balance and decorum and get drenched. . . It’s tender partly because it harkens back to infancy, to your mother [or father] washing you face with love and lots of water, tending to you, making you clean all over again. 

And in the Christian experience of baptism. . . the hope, the belief, is that a new day is upon you now. A day when you are emboldened to take God at His word about cleanness and protection.”[1] And ultimately union. 

            And in those words, we hear echoes, of the shepherd who cares for us—his sheep. 

Move 1- the gate

            Our first reading started with the familiar words of John 10. 

After Easter we always read John 10 in worship. This is the chapter where Jesus identifies himself in three ways: as the gate, the gatekeeper, and the shepherd. All three images are important; all three are worthy of our meditation and reflection. They each define an important characteristic of who Jesus is for us and how Jesus chooses to reveal himself to the Church. 

John 10 occurs immediately after the story of the man born blind whose eyesight was returned because Jesus spits and makes mud for him. John 10 is a further reflection on ‘seeing’ for if the people in chapter 9 knew who was with them before, think of what might have occurred. Now in chapter 10, the Church is challenged to see Jesus, experience Jesus differently. Can we see him in these three images. 

            The image that I want to focus on as we prepare for the sacrament of baptism relates directly with the 1 Peter passage: Jesus as the gate. Jesus as the one who brings us in. The one who brings us in while we affirm the struggles of our day which are real and concrete and challenging individually and corporately. Jesus the one who understands the uniqueness of each challenge and none of them are too big. He opens the way for us the Father.  

            The sheep pen is a place of safety. A place of rest. It is the place where the Great Shepherd knows our name and we are affirmed for who we are and our value to God is highlighted. While others will attempt to gain access through a different way, Jesus welcomes us in through the main entrance.  

            Yet ordinarily gates can be seen as something that separates things. 

How many of you have a gate, or grew up with a gate, on your property? Those gates kept things in or kept them out. The gates and the pen kept animals from running (or walking off). They also keep people from doing the same. 

Gates often define boundaries. This is where my possession or my property begins and where yours end. 

And in a more negative sense—this is where the welcome starts and where it stops. And I know that you have felt the welcome, and lack of welcome, from a gate.  

            While there is a temptation to see “Jesus as the gate” as a form of us/them distinction, this is not what Jesus is saying in this text. Rather when Jesus speaks about himself as the gate of the sheep pen, the place of rest, healing, and safety, the Messiah tells us that He is bringing us, he is ushering us into a place of communion with God the Father. Jesus the shepherd, the gate to continue the metaphor, brings us into a communal relationship and place with Himself and with God, His Father. 

            This gate, this Savior, welcomes us into a new place together, and extravagant new place with God. The safety of the sheep pen that Jesus will elaborate upon in the remainder of John 10. It the place, the welcomed place, where the blind man in chapter 9, is now living. 

Move 2- Sheep

            As the Gate of the sheep pen, Jesus welcomes us for we are first, and most importantly, and always, His beloved Sheep. This is the most important aspect of our two texts as they come together and as we pivot into 1 Peter. 

            In a community where competing voice promise to be the ‘gate’ for us culturally at every turn. The One true voice reminds us how cherished we are in God’s eyes. This is in contrast to how cherished we are not too many things in our culture.

The One true voice, the one that loves His sheep, reminds us, that when we are bruised, and beaten, and feel harmed out in our world, Jesus as the Gate of the Sheep Pen, calls us to listen and remember that our God, as 1 Peter reminds us, is the Guardian of our Souls (verse 25). 

            For just as 1 Peter says, as God’s sheep, we will struggle a great deal, both justly and unjustly. 1 Peter tells us that we are unified to One who knows our name and loves us deeply. He is the one who willing suffered for us; the one whose struggle is referred to in verse 24 of our second reading. 

            As sheep we will go astray and we do go astray. Yet by the words of the one who calls us, the one who seeks us, the one who welcomes us into God’s presence, we find union with God available—a union that nothing outside of God can offer. For outside of Christ all other things will pass away and fall short. 

Conclusion

            And this is why I began with those words from Travelling Mercies today. For in baptism, we are reminded of the holiness of God. The extravagance of God willingly choosing union with us when we would not make the same choice. In baptism we are offered the hope and assurance that Jesus will call each, sheep, by name and usher us into that safe place of union with our Heavenly Father. 

            So as Chase and his family come forward soon, and as you pay witness to this sacrament yourselves, I hope you will bring to mind a time when you felt the Lord call you by name and brought you out of a place of suffering and into the place of healing. 

 

 

DM

---

[1] Anne Lamott, Travelling Mercies: 

Let's Walk--1 Peter 1:17-23. Sermon preached on April 19, 2026

            What tethers us to each other? And more than just tethering us to each other, which is important, we need something that will link us to God. Something that holds us to God when we struggle; when the vocalization of our faith feels like it is not enough to confront the challenges of the day.

            Perhaps you might find these two readings offer a way to answer these questions. 

            Following the resurrection of Jesus, the two unnamed men heading away of Jerusalem have experienced a lot. We can infer that they were familiar with the events of Jesus’ death. His suffering. Perhaps they even heard some of the first reports of the empty tomb. 

And after listening to these first reports of Jesus’ resurrection and seeing so much in the eyes of the disciples, one thing was clear: it was time to go. That should surprise us. And in their haste, I wonder if we find something that we could identify with in our walks as Christians. Now neither Cleopas, nor his travelling companion, express it directly, but something is off. 

            Today I want to consider with you what might be going on in their hearts. 

Move 1- exiles

            In both Luke’s famous “Walk to Emmaus,” and in 1 Peter 1, we have concept presented us that is similar. 

            But before we get to Emmaus, let’s focus in 1 Peter 1:17. . . and specifically the last half of that verse. It says, “live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.” Now at first glance these words fit nicely into the lives of 1 Peter’s audience. 

            As I said last week, 1 Peter was written to the church of Asia Minor; to people who defined themselves as living under persecution and oppression regardless of how these terms are defined. Be it physical or spiritual, 1 Peter makes no distinction. He knows his hearers struggle—just as you might as we listen and think about these words following the Easter miracle. 

            So, let’s first look at verse 17 in more detail. 

            “Reverent fear.” Before I define the term with you, I wonder when was the last time that you could say that you felt some sense of reverent fear? 

Peter starts this clause with this one Greek word. It is a word whose context determines its application. For the context determines whether this fear which we are feeling, even if we do not speak about it, honors God or if fear, our anxiety, cripples the faith of the person experiencing it. One commentator I read even wondered if the faithful members of the church would benefit from an alternative translation of the word as: holy awe. So, we could start this section by saying, “Christian, live in holy awe.”

            But the second, and final, half of the verse is where the meat of this passage is found. This is also where our intersection point with Luke, and Cleopas and his friend, begins as well. This is where we read the word Exiles. 

            Now every Hebrew, and every church member, might find their mind drawn back through the history of the church when they hear the word exile. 

The word exile causes our minds drift around to stories that speak about the exiled state that we have been taught. We think of Egyptian slaves struggling to make bricks and living as nomads in the desert. Perhaps you also remember the Hebrew people living far from him in Babylon and fearing the invasion of Assyria before that. We hear the prophets of the Lord talking about an unfaithful people living outside of the Holy Lan because of the sins of their ancestors. And those words from God’s prophets call us to change our ways before we too become exiles. 

In the New Testament, post-resurrection world, this term reaches back in the mind and memory also. It reminds God’s people that they have always lived in a state of transit. These people have always dwelt away from their home—regardless of how home could be defined in any specific moment. 

But… exile is far more than a matter of geography.

            This word that Peter writes occurs only in 2 places in the New Testament. 

            The first is in Acts 13:17. In that text, Paul and Barnabas are preaching in the Gentile world and as they preach, they remind the Church that detours can also be stages in the salvation history of God’s people. These stages forge a new identify and new dependence upon God for His children. If God’s children are not going to be tied to one geographic place, then they must trust in the relationship that they have with God. For although we could be tempted to think that we are exiled from God, our relationship to God, and with God, says that this is not so. 

            The second occurrence, of course, is here. And as Peter uses the term for exiles, he uses it to encourage the church to live in holy, reverent, fear of God (back to that first idea). He tells them (us) to be Holy as Jesus is Holy and because of what Jesus does on Easter. 

            This work then brings a question to my mind, and I wonder if it does to yours? 

Move 2- The walk to Emmaus.

            If exile is more than about geography, and if we are to live holy lives in response to what we deal with each day, then why did these two men retreat those seven miles toward Emmaus? Why did they not stay with the disciples and the remainder of followers of Jesus who had the testimony of the empty tomb, Mary’s tears on Easter morning? 

            More poignantly why did they leave?  

These two followers of Jesus must truly have felt like they were exiles… and again an exiled state is more than a state of living away from one place or longing to return to another. It is not about geography. 

Why not stay together when you need each other the most?

This feeling would be part of the struggle that Thomas felt last week also. He was not there when Jesus appeared behind that locked door the first time and so he missed something and I believe that presented to him with the choice to consider himself an exile. 

            I believe that these two sojourners on the Road to Emmaus were worried and they were anxious about the future following Jesus’ death. Like you, I know my world history, and I know of the brutality of the Roman Empire. Yes, the Roman authority, and with the Hebrew High Priest’s blessing in hand, executed Jesus, but where is the faith that the Resurrection which Jesus foretold, would be enough for these two people? Where is the faith in the gospel that Jesus taught?

When you are anxious, when the tension in your life rises, our first response is often to accept, our exiled state rather than confess and remain close to where Jesus is revealed to us. 

Too often our response when things get hard as the Body of Christ, and our faith is being stretched is to start walking towards our own Emmaus and accept that things, as good as they were before, they are done. That chapter is over and there is nothing more to see or to learn.

Move 3- Jesus comes alongside.

            This is the point where Jesus arrives in Luke 24. Perhaps he was there all the time, as he was with Mary in the garden on that first morning as she wept. Luke does not give us this detail and so we are left to wonder and consider. 

            But whatever the case may be, these two individuals have an encounter with Jesus on this road in their exiled state. It is an encounter that Jesus initiates himself. He chooses to reveal himself. He chooses to walk with them and not away from them.

            And while we often rush to the revelation of Jesus around the communion table after supper where their hearts are strangely burning because Jesus taught them the scriptures of the Old Testament on the road and helped re-learn something foundational that they would carry with them from that point onward. 

Notice some of those little details, as I mentioned on Easter. For those details help to bring color and shape to what Jesus does and wants from each of us.

            The evening is growing close, and Luke says in verse 29 that they ‘urged him strongly’ to come with them. The road is not safe after dark and Jesus seems to be going on to another stop. For when we feel exiled away from Jesus, it is then most necessary that we return to the Lord and keep hold of what is transformational for us.

            Even if, like these two disciples, we are not totally sure what makes it transformational in the moment. They wanted him to stay. They wanted him to help. 

Conclusion

            And so, when you find yourself feeling exiled, just as our friends on the road did, on wherever your faith journey takes you, and remembering that this is not a matter of geography, what choices do you make to ask Jesus to remain close at hand? How might you live in a reverent fear with God and help others when they find themselves in that same place of exile? 

             

 

DM

 

Doxology--1 Peter 1. Sermon preached on March 12, 2026

            At Christmas time you are familiar with the practice of leaving up your decorations. For the 12 days immediately following Christmas, tradition tells us to keep turning on the Christmas tree. We only sing certain carols—like Joy to the World—after Christmas and not before. Just because December 24^th (and 25^th) come and go, does not mean that the season ends. But right through the New Year our houses demonstrate that the "Christmas Spirit” lives with us. 

            Sadly, this conclusion, or this practice, is often not appliable for Easter. 

On Easter Monday, the candy was mostly consumed, and the decorations were likely gone from our homes. Almost as soon as the benediction was pronounced here in worship, and the Easter meal was spread before us on the table, the season was complete. I know that I sighed as I drove back home in the rain noting that things were coming to their end for another Lenten season.

            And because the season is complete, a new challenge takes shape. It starts to step out from the shadows and into the light; a sense of now what? Because Advent and Lent are so closely tied together, both in proximity on the calendar, and theologically in the church, the sense of “Now What” is quite real.

            While the timing of post-Christmas offers us some time to think about the miracle of the Jesus’ incarnation, the lack of time after Easter does not afford us as much space to think about how we are going to take the miracle of the Empty Tomb, or your reflection on Mary’s tears, and do anything with them. 

            Today we read about Thomas and his, hesitation, to express his belief in Jesus’ resurrection. Those doubts when held up next to our text from 1 Peter, offers us a challenge. For we all face hardships, personal opportunities to doubt, to hesitate, to privately question, to stop listening to what God is doing around us. It is in the face of those moments that we can also choose to: praise God.  

Move 1- not easy

            Just because you are a follower of Jesus, and simply because of have the word of God in your lap today, or because you were in Sunday School earlier today, or even attended Bible study recently, that does not mean that you understand Jesus’ teachings. Or what Jesus did.

            Last week we read both Matthew 28 and John 20. Those texts contain the accounts of His resurrection. And while there are details that are different in both stories, the message is the same. Death could not hold the Jesus; he is resurrected for us. We know this. 

            On a more mirco level, Thomas had plenty of evidence to believe what Jesus taught. He had enough communal evidence and he also had a week’s worth of testimony from the disciples as it is written in John 20. And yet his story is famously taught and labelled in a negative tone. 

This is the man would not believe in the resurrection unless he touched the open wounds of Jesus. This is the man who would not accept the testimony of his 10 other brothers in Christ who walked beside him as Jesus taught for 3.5 years throughout Israel and Galilee. This is the same man who likely heard of Mary’s tears that first Easter morning and yet none of that moved him enough to wonder. 

            And so, my first question is: I wonder when the last time was that your faith practices mirrored Thomas’. 

You knew what you were confessing, but still the full revelation of God did not take root enough that faith grew and the hesitation (the doubts) were silenced?

            You grew in your faith as Thomas grew walking with Jesus and learning from the Messiah. Learning. Listening. Experiencing all that Jesus is and would become. You saw things that spoke loudly about God at work throughout His creation.

            And yet when your moment came to take your own step of faith, when the moment came to invite someone to join you in worship, the lesson from Jesus might not have been enough to cause praise to come forth for the true miracle of faith that took place in your life. 

            Perhaps we are more like Thomas then we would like to think. 

Move 2- 

            This is where 1 Peter comes into focus. For there are always hardships when it comes to believing what God is doing in our life, our community, our church. It is far easier to say that God is not at work around us, God is not moving in that situation, in that person’s life, that God does not want me to testify to the good things that are happening . . . and thereby I find no reason to experience the joy in the miracle of new birth—regardless of how new birth takes shape. 

And when I find no joy, no space for a miracle, no reason to testify then there is also no room to continue to praise God both individually and communally. If there is no blessing around me, no place of wonderment, then why should I seek to praise God more and more? 

            Our 1 Peter text begins and ends with the choice to praise. That’s an important way to begin reading and thinking about 1 Peter. 

This book was written to the Christians living in Asia Minor. This was not a region that was not hospitable to the Church. Of course, the early church knew of persecution and oppression; this is the Roman world. But they also knew the feeling, and the reality, of seeing their neighbors not really ‘buy in’ or accept what they/we believe as a fundamental truth claim—like the resurrection. 

Imagine that for a moment, knowing something so deeply in your heart, having a personal experience with it, and yet trying to share that experience with someone only to have them smile and politely nod their head in a placating way. All the while, in your heart you know, that person does not believe a word of what you are saying. . . for example, ‘Seriously Thomas, we saw him appear behind this very locked door after he came from the tomb. Mary heard him call her name and she saw those two angels. Didn’t you, Mary.” 

And yet there is still hesitation. 

            While Peter’s words are not shy about affirming to us that after we praise God, Peter knows that we will also suffer (verse 6). And yet 1 Peter also does not tell us how we will suffer. Defining suffering would make this whole idea of addressing the pain easier, I think. If God told us how we will suffer, we could prepare ourselves for it. We could try and steel ourselves against it or for it. Instead, it just happens.

            Again, I wonder how it would feel to stand before someone you love, someone you trust and pour out your heart to them about the gospel, and the richness of your experience with God, only to have them balk at the last step of faith as you share the truth of how Jesus transformed your life. 

            That is a whole different level of suffering. A suffering of the mind and heart. A suffering of isolation, of not being believed.  

            This is the suffering Mary knew about when she wept before the tomb as well. A 1 Peter tells us that this will happen to us as we follow Jesus. 

Yet there is also good news also. 

            For as Peter does affirm in this text, joy and suffering go together. This is a lesson that seems to be missing from Thomas’ story following the Resurrection. His story seems to hint that he wants only the positive lessons of the faith without the reality that Jesus taught—namely that there are times when we struggle. There will be times when it is hard to muster our faith. And, in those moments, in the moments when faith can be hard to muster, and those around us seek more proof than we can offer, we have to lean in all the more to God and praise Him. 

Move 3- depth of faith.

            For the genuineness of our faith, verse 7, is expressed, as we show our true depth of relationship with the Lord honestly before others. For, as verse 4 states, we have an inheritance that is undefiled, protected by God. That inheritance is based upon our relationship and our faith with the resurrected Lord. Jesus is right there by our side not condemning us for our hesitation, as Thomas doubted and hesitated. But Jesus is still there as reminder of the solidarity that our relationship always offers. 

            This is an interesting detail because of Thomas’ doubt Jesus could have remained a bit distanced from him. But instead, the Lord seems to stay closers and offers Thomas the exact proof that Thomas wants. And yet at the end even Thomas finds his way back to praise God amidst a mindset that seems to doubt. He confesses in words of praise: “My Lord and my God.” 

            Thomas, as we know, will take the gospel further geographically than any of the other disciples making it as far as present-day India. Strong faith would be needed to walk that far teaching and preaching about the Savior who did not reject him when he doubted and hesitated. And we can believe as well that Thomas would find people along his missional path who doubted and hesitated, just as easily as he would find people of suffered. So Thomas’ life-lesson of praising God would be helpful for them. 

            Like Thomas we show that we do know something about suffering and the true reality of it while also affirming the necessity of joy of praise in these moments. For in Christ, and with Christ, both concepts are reality. 

Conclusion 

            And so, as Lent has come to its conclusion, and we move into the season of Eastertide, and the next phase of our faith journey begins, we are confronted with both the suffering of each day… and the opportunity to praise God. 

            When doubts and hesitations come, and I know that come for each of us, I wonder how might God be asking you to find your way to praise him? 

 

DM

Why are you crying, Mary--John 20:11-18. Sermon preached on Easter morning 2026

            There are times that a story becomes so familiar, so well-known, that we stop thinking about, or meditation upon, what read. I do not mean that we question the story or the validity of it, but instead, I wonder when was the last time that you sat and truly pondered the Resurrection of Jesus and considered truly how transformational it is? When was the last time that you actually noticed the details of what took place? 

            Today before we come to the Table of the Lord together, we are going to do just that with one of the more important details of our story. 

            The detail in question is relevant to the entire story, and it is found in verse 11. Let me read it again for you, “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.” 

            I wonder what you think about Mary’s tears. . . What do they mean to you? 

Move 1- Part 1

            Well to think about Mary’s tears we first must notice the beginning of the story, the part that I read first earlier in our serve. Verse 1-10. 

In that part of the story, Mary has arrived at the garden tomb of Jesus, and according to John, she is alone. It is dark. While the other gospels associate her with travelling companions, only John the beloved has Mary Magdalene arriving here by herself. That detail paints an important picture that beings to foreshadow and shape Mary’s tear. 

            Not only is dark outside, but I bet the darkness outside provided very little light inside the Tomb should Mary have stopped down to look inside Jesus’ final human resting place. 

And that is one of those details that I suggested already that gets overlooked. In verse 1-10 there is no indication that Mary has looked into the Tomb yet. Upon seeing the stone rolled away, Mary immediately turns and runs. She seeks out the disciples and finds Peter and the remaining followers of Jesus. Upon finding them, it is that moment where Mary confesses that, “They have taken the Lord out of the Tomb” but how did she come to this conclusion? 

            And please do not tell me this is inferred. Details in God’s word matter for they always matter in the Bible. 

If God marked out the exact dimensions of Noah’s Ark, the dimensions of Tabernacle that Moses was to build, the Great Temple that Solomon build, the Great Ark of the Covenant, and how many times the people are to walk around Jericho, then I suspect that a tiny detail about where the body of the crucified and Risen Lord would be an important detail to hold onto. 

            But back to the story, the great race begins back to the Tomb. The end of the race is where the two disciples discover in verses 6 and 7 that the Tomb is empty because Peter and John looked. They leave without another word. Apparently, they have nothing to say. 

            The word I would offer for their response on Easter morning is: perplexed. Maybe awe-struck. I wonder if you would have a different word for how Peter and John respond. 

            But this message, and the overall story, is not about them. Remember it’s about Mary and her tears… Mary finally arrives on scene. 

Move 2- Part 2

            She is crying in verse 11. And as she weeps, she bends down and see what no one else notices. Again, I remind you that details in God’s word matter. 

She sees angels, a pair of these heavenly messengers. More than just seeing them, these two heavenly messengers, speak to her. They ask her a question.  

            Yet she is still crying. The Bible does not say, “immediately Mary ceases crying and begins to rejoice.’ Instead, she doubles down on her query. “They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they have put him.”

In that moment, I wonder if we are finally catching a glimpse of why Mary cries. For she remembers in great, vivid, passionate, detail all of it. I believe that they crash down upon her. The horror of his arrest in the garden as he is betrayed by a kiss. 

His beating. His ridiculous crown. His cross being carried first by himself and then by another. His blood. His anguish. All of it. 

She recalls, I suspect the rushed work of preparing his body for the ground for the sabbath was hurrying this important work—after all that is why she came that morning to finish what she started. She remembers, the sadness of placing him there and perhaps having to say good-bye to the One who she knew deep down is the Son of God and yet why is this happening. 

She cries, I think because she is having her own experience of what it feels like to be alone without the presence of Jesus in her life—a small example of what God the Father must feel like to not have His Son with him on those 3 days when Jesus descended to the dead as the creed so clearly states. 

            She cries because of all the unmet expectations that she was dealing with—this was not supposed to happen. And in that feeling, you and I know something I bet about those feelings and those tears. 

            In those tears she remembers it all. The disciples running away. The cruelty of priests, the guards, the crowds shouting, Pilate, everyone who said they loved him not loving him any longer. 

            Mary’s tears remind me that at the end of Holy Week, as we sing before the Table of the Lord, that God has cried with me, with you, and with her. Mary’s tears say so much, if we are willing to notice. 

Move 3- The gardener.

            But as Mary cries, and remembers through those tears, as the angels I think listen to her, she is not alone in that garden. For someone is also there. For one last time this morning let me say that details matter in God’s word. Someone else was in that garden the whole time. 

But in the haste to run faster, further, prove ourselves, do our tasks, be better that the person next to us, no one on that first Easter morning noticed him—not even John who wrote the story down for us. 

            But Mary, who stands there and cries. . . she does. For in the midst of her tears someone asks the only question that matters when our hearts break. “Woman, why are you crying?” 

            It is an honest question. 

            We do not know if Mary would actually be able to carry Jesus’ body some place but bless her for wanting to act. Bless her for wanting to preserve some sense of dignity for the Savoir who she misses and loves so deeply. And in that moment, the Gardner, Jesus, calls her name and without marginalizing what makes weep, he brings healing to her simply by calling her name. 

Conclusion

            Church family why do you cry today? 

            Sometimes the answer is because you are in pain and that is far. 

Sometimes the answer is because you feel joy because it is Easter. 

Either way, the good news is that someone is in the garden for you who will let you cry, He will let you be honest, and He wants you to remember that He has been there the entire time. 

            The times when your actions did not measure up to the faith you professed and the times when you cried out to Him because you loved him so deeply that the only prayer you could offer was one of tears. Words failed in that moment, but God never has. 

 

Dm

Palm Sunday Sermon. Isaiah 50:4-9a & Matthew 21:1-11. Preached on March 29, 2026

Today is Palm Sunday; the day of the triumphal entry, and there is a paradox present as Jesus comes into Jerusalem and we read these two texts and consider them together. It cannot be denied—nor should it be denied.

As we have already read, and remembered, Jesus rides into the Holy City for the final time in His earthly life. You and I know this story. We know that the rocks would cry out if the disciples were silent—and we can see Jesus’ reassuring smile as he says these words to his detractors. 

You and I also know that Jesus rides right through the middle of life for us—through the crowds, through those who will plot to betray him, right through those who confess him as Lord and Savior. 

Move 1- The servant song introduced

But today, let’s first cast our mind back some 600 years earlier; back to time when Isaiah wrote chapter 40-55, back to when the exiles heard these words and hope grew in them. Isaiah 50 is the second of the three Servant Songs, and we believe that it references Jesus. And while the Savior’s name, or His station, is not referenced directly, that conclusion is not hard to see. 

There are two themes in this passage that we read together, and those themes were also with us throughout Lent. They are: listening for God and listening to God. As I said, those two themes were also with us, whether we saw it or not, throughout our Lenten journey and they culminate together as Jesus enters the City this week. 

            As you finish observing a Holy Lent, I wonder how God is asking you to continue listening for His voice and listening to that voice? For as Jesus rode into the Holy City as Matthew talked about, he was both listening for God and listening to God as well. 

For although Lent ends this week, the work of Lent, the work of being the Church and testifying to what Jesus does for us, is not done—in fact it is never done. So again, what is your response, or how do you plan to live this out in your life? 

Move 1- Listening for God

            Let’s start with listening for God and see how that takes shape in our texts… Picking up Isaiah’s words in verse 4, God is blessing his servant with wisdom first as a gift. For the servant of the Lord is trusted with the instruction that will benefit others. The instruction that God has given His servant comes directly from God: an inspired tongue and “that I am know how to teach.” 

            This is very similar to what Jesus has done throughout his earthly time teaching the gospel. 

            We see this idea continued in the phrase ‘morning by morning he wakes me. . . to listen.’ For Jesus did not teach us the gospel one time and leave it there. But he repeatedly went back and gave us, and his followers, what we needed to learn and know so that we could teach others. 

            God’s servant being taught directly by the revelation of God, and further God’s servant is being taught because He listened. There is a relational investment taking place here between God and His servant and from the servant to the people who are the recipients of the care. In our text, the weary receive the care from the Servant which also defines how Jesus cared for the people of his day and how we are called to care for the people of our day. 

Now going back into our history here at Bethesda, I know that Lent was six weeks long but notice which of our stories and texts that we read together indicate the need to listen for God—and no, this not a blanket “everyone moment.”

            From our time together in Lent, we might hear echoes of this in Samuel’s story in this act of listening for God: waiting as the sons of Jesse pass before him in order to hear and then learn from God how the Lord will move among His people. This required patience on the part of Samuel as he had to slow down and listen to what God was doing not only in his life but in the life of God’ world.

            Also in Lent did Jesus not spend 40 days listening for God’s movement, I wonder, as he was in the desert 40 days dealing with his own temptations? I wonder if those temptations happened all 40 days or were they coming at a certain time? Jesus waiting and trusting in His Father to care for Him. 

             Today the disciples needed to listen for God as they took steps to go get the colt, repeat back what Jesus wished for them to state, which you and I know is the Word of the Lord. 

            And finally listening for God’s Word and will leads our Lord to his cross later this week. 

            There are so many instances that at the time might not seem significant to us but as we look back through time and have faith, we see that God was asking each of us to listen for how God moved around us and asked us to practice our faith. 

Move 2- Listening to God

            But there is a second aspect to this: listening to God. It is all fine and well to listen to the voice of God and claim that, but we have to take the next step. We have to respond. 

            This is the moment, and the place, where we obey. This is the second half of our text where the servant of Isaiah 50 ‘set his face like flint’ and will not be moved. He is obedient because the depth of his relationship with God gives him something to hold onto that is far greater than words can put together. There is almost a quiet dignity that is happening here. 

            For although you and I know how this week will end, the Servant of the Lord still abides where God sent him. He listens to God and follows.

            This is where Jesus climbs onto that colt, rides obediently into the city as the gospel tells us, and gives us the words that we know so well. He listens to His Father’s words.  

The one who could re-direct the course of human history with a snap of his fingers, or a thought in his mind, he does not. And He will not. He chooses to ride into the Holy City, chooses to face the very same people who will condemn him and shout for his blood soon, and he rides right into their midst, and He stays there without hesitation or doubt or worry.

This is the message of Holy Week for us.

            And here is where we find ourselves back in the valley of dry bones with Ezekiel listening to God tell us to prophesy from last week. To speak life into places that we think are hopeless and lifeless, but as we listen to God and share what God has placed upon our hearts, miracles happen. 

            This is the place, as we listen to God, where we take the step of faith as Abram did with Sarai by his side and we leave Haran and go to the place that God will show him/us. Finishing the journey that God began with our whole family. Trusting that if God began the journey with us, God will see us through to the end for we have faith and trust the vision. For will not leave us and we listen to that voice, feel that presence and we go. 

            Knowing that if God sent us into the desert to be tempted then he will send his angels to give us food when we need it. 

Move 3- 

            

For no matter how badly each of us want to listen for God and listen to God, one thing remains absolutely constant. It was constant with our characters in the stories that we read in Lent, and it is constant in your lives of faith now. 

            As I said earlier, seldom do we see that through line, the path forward in the moment and so in that place we must exercise faith all the more. We know what we are looking for, and at the end we see the path the entire time behind us, but in the moment, there is often so ambiguity, some confusion, some hesitation about following along. 

And that makes following the will of God and listening God’s plan even more challenging for us. 

            From Abram and Sarai leaving home, to Samuel sneaking off to anoint to a new king, to Ezekiel having to prophesy to life into a place of hopelessness and death, and even all the back to the beginning of Lent where Jesus was tempted in a way that was unique to Him, listening to God and listening for God is not as easy as it sounds. Everyone says that they want to do it, everyone confess that they can do, but when the moment comes, it takes an amount of bold faith to accomplish this work. 

            And that is why their stories are recorded for us—as a lesson that we can follow and take heart in. 

Conclusion

            And we will take heart that even as we read this joyful story of our savior riding into the Holy City this last time, and we foreshadowed the suffering servant, we see the need for our faith yet again. 

            For like the heroes of our faith, here we will listen for God and we will listen to God.

 

Dm

The Valley of Dry Bones--Ezekiel 37:1-14. Sermon preached on March 22, 2026

            “Can these bones live?” This is the famous question Ezekiel is confronted with by God as chapter 37 begins. “Mortal, can these bones live?” I wonder how many times have you heard this passage read before and been asked to ponder that same question yourself?

            In a place where you only see death, and all the signs of lifelessness, hopelessness, can life return? The valley is not always an easy place to dwell; I know no one who enjoys the valley that Ezekiel speaks about. And the times when I have, or the times that I am dwelling there, they are hard for me and for those that I care about. The Valley of Dry Bones poses questions not easy to answer. 

Yet Ezekiel 37 is also a story of resurrection. 

            The only answer to God’s question is the answer that the prophet gives back to Yahweh in verse 3, “O Lord God, only you know.” For only God can bring life into a place that we see as life-less, hope-less, resurrection-less. Only God can do this. 

            It is the God of Israel, the God of Creation whose Spirit created all that we see, the God who made a nation from a childless couple from Haran, and freed their descendants from the living death of slavery in Egypt, the God who raised up judges, and slowed down his servant making him wait last week until it was time for His will to be accomplished… “Only you know God if life can come into these bones.” 

            I love this passage because it reminds me that when we are tempted to lose hope, when we want to give up and see only death before our eyes, when temples are destroyed and God’s people cannot see a way forward any longer in the world in which we live and are called to serve and we feel hopelessness creeping up around us, life comes again by the very breath, the Ruah, of God. 

            So, what does God ask of His servants, His people, His church when they re-discover this passage? 

The Lord does not ask them to ‘work’ the miracle for we cannot do that. Truthfully, we have never been able to bring life out of a place of death. Ezekiel does very little in the Valley of Dry Bones. Rather, the Lord asks each of us to prophesy. To use our own voice, to share own story, our own history, our own words, to speak… just as he did to Ezekiel in the story from chapter 37 today in that place where death seems like the only viable option.

“Child of God, can the bones that you see before you, can this place, or this moment that seems hopeless, be a place of life again?”

Move 1- The hand of God

            Before we can even speak, or respond to the call of God, before the words are formed on our lips, God is at work carrying His servant to the place where they need to witness the Spirit’s movement/action. Preparation happening before we know we needed it to happen. 

God always takes us to the very place where we need to be, but the vessel of that movement is important today first.

Notice how the passage is introduced by Ezekiel. “The hand of the Lord was upon me,” the prophet says. This is not simply a rhetorical tool that begins a vision. 

            And while we might like to think that the prophet’s word choice is deeper than it is, this literally means the part of the body from the wrist to the fingertips. . . But of Yahweh. God’s literal hand is there—is here. That is the first miracle when we are called to prophesy and speak in this moment. God’s hand.

            It seems that Yahweh has taken Ezekiel hand in His own hand in this moment which is powerful. Stop and think about that… How many people do you know in the entire canon of scripture who God has taken by the hand? Not Abraham. Not David. Ezekiel. This is a big moment in the life of God’s servant. To confess this, or to make this statement was to align what will happen next—sworn testimonies of Israel’s history were made against, or by, God’s own hand. And God offers His very hand to His servant. 

            And then there is a second part of this verse to notice and to see… God brings Ezekiel to this valley by the Spirit—the Ruah. The very breath of creation is here. That wind, that breath, was present when God breathed life into the world and called order from chaos. The Ruah seems to be that which carries the prophet to this vision, this moment and began to movement that would lead him to speak about the action of God in the valley of dry bones.

            So, we have God’s hand holding Ezekiel and we have God’s breath helping to carry the prophet here into this very moment. 

            The breath carries the prophet into the vision and seems to call him towards the moment of prophesy. 

Move 2- to prophesy.

            The concept of prophesy, while occurring all over the Bible, here it is something unique to Ezekiel’s mind. 18 times in this book the prophet uses this word in this way. 

To prophesy means to active work of proclaiming the divine message. This is not simply preaching. It is never merely human utterance or human prediction. Ezekiel does not mean standing in the pulpit and talking to the church on Sunday morning in worship—but that is part of it. 

Rather ‘to prophesy’ is the Spirit-energized speaking that reveals, interprets, and applies the word of God before others. And this takes on the stories and lessons that you experience every single day—just like being carried by God into a valley that seems to teem with death and yet you encounter the living God who took you by the hand and showed you something in a place, or moment, where everyone thought death, lack, suffering was the only viable option. Yet because God placed you there, and was in union with you, the Lord helped you see something different.

            For Ezekiel prophecy implies that the speaker stands as Yahweh’s mouthpiece—to both his community and to the world at-large. 

            Prophesy calls us, as the God’s servants who hold God’s hand are carried by God’s breath, back to the covenant that God made and it calls the people to renounce idols and it warns them against God’s judgement if they choose to embrace those same idols… yet in the same breath prophesy offers hope that God is still with us no matter what we face and no matter how dark the dark night of the soul feels or becomes. He still hears our prayers and gives us the words to speak! 

            You see if these bones live as both the prophet and God affirms, as they are a representation of the whole house of Israel and the church today, and if they hear this word of prophesy proclaimed over them, then does it not make us wonder what is the next step that God calls forth into the places and moments of hopelessness that you see every day? And do not mistake this for any sense of health-and-wealth gospel. 

            That is the ultimate question of prophesy for us? Does the story of God in your life create a vision that calls each of us to deeper and more meaningful questions as we wonder about our role in the on-going work of God?

            In Ezekiel’s life the answer was, and is, a resounding: YES! 

Move 3- partnering yet again.

            For Ezekiel partnered with God in the work and God was with him always. For the work of the Lord is never done. We never finish speaking about how God is at work around us in situations and with people who we might feel are lifeless and hopeless. But when God steps in, life is possible. 

For human participating seems to activate something when we speak about God and God’s movement. 

            For no sooner does Ezekiel speak, and prophesy, then God’s Spirit moves around the valley, and the bones (which seems lifeless) come together. No sooner does Ezekiel prophesy to the breath then it returns to those bones, those warriors, who one moment ago were not alive, they come together. 

God and His servant working in harmony together just as the scriptures speak about repeatedly. Just as I believe God wants us to work with each other and with God for his glory. 

Conclusion

            Yes, it can be hard when you look out and see a valley full of dry bones to wonder if any life can come into that place. And I bet that it was hard for the prophet to see any place where life come return when he first gazed out himself. 

            But remember that God brought him into that place. God took him by the hand and set him down there. God’s Spirit did not abandon him but provided the vessel for the trip. If God did this for the prophet, then I believe that God will do the same for you and for me. 

            So, our responsibility must then be to follow the prophet’s instruction and prophesy. Tell the story. Speak about how you have come to experience life coming into places and moments in your own life where hopelessness and lifelessness were all that you saw. As you do that you continue to offer a pathway forward for resurrection to come and live in the life of the people who God sends you to. 

 

DM

Theology of Waiting--1 Samuel 16:1-13. Sermon preached on March 15, 2026

            As I said earlier in lent, during this season, we will examine the stories of our faith together. This week the story is of Samuel and David. 

            Often when we hear this particular story, we hear it from the place of God’s anointing and God’s faithfulness to the covenant that He began in Abram’s life. We talk about it through the lens of Jesus who sits on King David’s throne. We also might consider it from the perspective of God selecting the people who the world looks down upon: the weak or the forgotten. 

            Today though I wonder if we can hear the story from Samuel’s perspective—not David’s. Because I believe that we are more often living and serving as Samuel lived and served the Lord. 

Move 1- Looks good on the surface

            At first glance, our sounds good. While God asks His servant a hard question at the start, the task that Samuel sets out to do is one of called ministry. “Fill the horn with oil… go to the place that I am sending you to, Samuel (or by extension, Church). Take the appropriate tools for worship with you and lead worship in this location. Welcome the leaders of the church and invite other community members (specifically Jesse’s family) to join you.”

None of these requests from God to His servant are out of the ordinary and none of them should be seen as a hardship for Samuel. Worship in this way is nothing more than the joyful response to the call of God in Samuel’s life. 

However, our text tells us that Samuel was concerned. Travelling the 11 miles from Ramah to Bethlehem, Samuel was alone with his thoughts and with this tension. He was anxious that word would get back to Saul that he was doing this, but worship was well. . . worship. Now I will get back to what makes Samuel anxious later. But for now, the specifics of the task make everything seems normal and right. “Samuel, go and worship, as I have told you.” 

That is the call of God.

In this, we find a commonality with Samuel—and with all the lessons from the Old Testament that we have read so far. And this is also the first lesson for you and me. Life and ministry often look good on the surface. We can serve the Lord. We can care for our neighbors, pray and engage in others acts of ministry as God intends and calls us to, but that does not mean there is not another wound, or tension, that is behind what is around us.

            The wound, which was with Samuel for those 11 miles between Ramah to Bethlehem, that is the next thing we need to focus on because it will shape the rest of the encounters that Samuel has in our text. 

Move 2- how long?

            This reality, this wound, leads us to the depth of God’s statement in verse 1. When God calls Samuel to worship, the Lord confronts his servant rather, harshly. God begins this call with an accusation. “How long will you grieve over Saul.”

            This is a simple question that God is making—or at least it looks like it is. But the implications of the verse are anything but simple. 

            What is Samuel doing, or what does his practice of faith look like that is causing God to state this?

            First off, Samuel is mourning in the custom and tradition that is appropriate to his Hebrew upbringing and faith. That would necessitate sackcloth and ashes. As part of his practice of mourning, the Israelites might have seen, or heard about, Samuel rending his garments and wailing in public over God moving away from His first chosen king. 

Second, he is doing so in public. The grieving that Samuel was doing was a public act—perhaps even a public spectacle that Moses taught. Now as chapter 16 begins, God no longer wants His servant doing this. God expresses this in his word choice.

            In the way that God says it, in his actual word selection, there is a sense of urgency and frustration in the statement. A more contemporary translation of this verse comes from Eugene Peterson’s The Message, which captures emotion and feeling around the words that God uses here. It says, “So, how long are you going to mope over Saul?”[1] Hear the difference? 

            There is frustration here to an action that is no longer necessary. God has moved on but Samuel is stuck in the past, stuck in a practice that no longer is meaningful to God and does not represent the faith that God wants Samuel to practice and calls others to. 

            Samuel is wounded about something that God has already begun to heal, it is just Samuel that cannot see that God wants to heal and restore what is broken—and in this truth God’s Spirit is at work. 

 

Move 3- Wait. . .

            So, Samuel travels to Bethlehem. And as he gets there an interesting thing happens. 

            For when things in the church, or the general kingdom of God, do not go the way we think that they ought to go, our first inclination is to get moving. To work with God to fix this. Get out our spiritual tool and start building and repairing. 

            We can almost see Samuel huffing and puffing his way to Bethlehem. He will get there. Anoint a new king. And all will be right again. But notice the story.

            The elders of the city come to greet him, and he tells them why he’s there. That’s fine and normal. “We are gonna get back to it.” But then God tells Samuel to invite Jesse’s family to join the worship service. ‘Jesse, come to church with us.’ 

            On the surface that is not too terribly strange except that in order to come to worship and be present at the sacrifice verse 5 tells us that they need to sanctify themselves. They need to go clean themselves up—purification laws as prescribed by Leviticus 15. Okay, Samuel is still with God on this one… 

This could take from a few minutes but up to a few days. We are not told how long Samuel must wait to Jesse; we can only infer that he has to wait. And now the story of Samuel is getting good. 

            Interesting…. If you will. 

            The waiting intensifies. God is good at making us wait sometimes to test our faith perhaps or test our patience. Seven of the sons of Jesse pass by Samuel—not a fast process again. Samuel tries to discern which one God will choose and the Lord chooses none of them. None of them are chosen by God even though it appears Samuel thinks God is about to act. We can almost feel Samuel getting frustrated himself, squeezing his horn of oil in anticipation. Exasperated. Maybe even a bit desperate. “God let’s go already!”

            Which of you, when God has called you towards an action has not wondered if you can spot the destination, the result, the answer before it is revealed? [REPEAT] 

You are not alone. Samuel did. 

            He must wait. And wait. And wait. The whole story is about waiting and trusting in God’s timing to make this happen. 

            Finally, the waiting is turned up to 11. They summon David. And history knows how that turns out. But let me ask you, how close do you think David is to the worship service? Truly. . . 

            In verse 11 Jesse says that young David is, “keeping the sheep.” With a family of 8 brothers, and who knows if there are any sisters, and the necessary household to support them, and a family name known to such a degree that the elders of the town would not outwardly object to Jesse being invited by Samuel to the sacrifice that day, this family is not slouch in town. Therefore, they likely are a large family with a large flock. 

            That large flock can’t be sustained in a small yard or space. One source I read wondered if David was not at least 10 miles away. And the average speed for a person on normal terrain is between 2.5-4 miles per hour. 

            Samuel would have to wait. To literally stand there and wait for the movement of God in his life and in the life of the world—which our text says that he does. Not always an easy act. 

Move 4- like Samuel

            Our challenge today is not to be like David for we are not King David, and we are not called to be King David, instead I wonder if God is calling us to wait like Samuel. 

It is tempting, perhaps enticing or inviting, to think that we are Samuel at the end of the text. Excited as we serve the Lord faithfully and anointing the servant of the Lord—participating in the ministry of God faithfully as if there was never any doubt about what was taking place around us. Many people who read 1 Samuel 16 would enjoying considering themselves to be serving God along the same lines as Samuel. 

            But more often, I wonder if we are Samuel at the beginning of the text?

Frustrated. Sacred. Moping around about what we once knew and once experienced from God? Going through the motions of our faith that are based on the emotions of fear rather than the faith that God helped us build and create because that is what we have been taught and that feels more comfortable than trusting in God to be with us. 

            As we think about this story I wonder, can we wait with God to see what ‘more’ the Lord has for us and for those we love and care for? 

Conclusion

            As Samuel waited with the elders of the community and Jesse’s family by their side, he had no idea what could happen, but that is why and that is where faith was necessary. This story does not say that it will be easy, I doubt Samuel enjoyed any of it. But God was with him as God is also with us. 

 

Dm

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[1] The Message. 1 Samuel 16:1.