Effective Evangelism--Acts 17:22-31. Sermon preached on May 10, 2026

            Someone once wrote that almost all religion begins with a simple encounter; with something that feels ‘holy’ or ‘transcendent.’[1] This statement is all the clearer and truer when it is applied to our encounter with the Lord. For a simple encounter, say around a bush that does not burn, or a tomb that once held a body that is no longer present, becomes ‘holy’ and ‘transcendent’ because of the revelation that accompanies it. The encounter becomes ‘holy’ because we can hear our name whispered in that moment of revelation. 

            The Apostle Paul had one of those encounters himself on the Road to Damascus and his encounter changed the entire arch of his life and his work for the Lord. While he started his journey on one mission, the revelation of God changed his story and his direction. 

            The arch of his story moved from accusatory, and it became evangelistic. When we encounter the Lord, our stories also shift from one perspective towards another. Today we will consider this how this change takes place. 

            Our text from Acts 17 is divided into two halves. The first half is Paul’s observation and conversation with the people. The second is Paul’s reflection on how they are living. But in both sections of the text, the revelation of God is at work, and it informs how the Apostle engages with God’s people.

Move 1- Idols

            Notice that as Paul stands before the people, the first thing that he does involves a very important choice. 

In chapter 17, Paul was sent, alone, to Athens. While Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. In this day, Athens contained a significant Jewish population, as verse 16 tells us, and previously Paul has reasoned and debated with them—too little… if any end. So as our text begins, Paul is doing the work of the gospel alone. And he notices something. . . 

Well, we all have, and we all elevate them, whether we like it or not, Idols. The Athenians had them as well. The Hebrews in the city, those folks that Paul has argued and reasoned with in the previous section, they knew it and they dealt with this also.

These idols are everywhere. 

They are in our pockets right now. In purses. In our homes. And I am not just talking about cellphones or some other form of technology that distracts you from the Lord. That’s the easy example or target that everyone accepts. Idols are everywhere.

On the streets of Athens, a cultural center of a polytheistic society, even if God’s church was present to some degree, these idols held a prominent place. In this city a person could find anything that they wanted to worship. The pantheon of gods was present and waiting for supplicants to come and offer worship… and so was this extra altar. The altar to the unknown god. 

The idols of Athens were everywhere. 

Back here in our day, we too have idols.

            We watch them on TV, and we elevate them regularly rooting as hard as we can for their success in different arenas of performance. Music. Sports. Politics. Cinema. Artwork. 

Thomas Merton taught the church that we should avoid an idol that many people forget, self-idolatry… placing ourselves above others. Idols can be bluntly-present before us and they can be sly, sneaky little things. Like the streets of Athens with its altars calling passers-by to come and worship here and there, in our day we have just as many opportunities to worship things other than the one true God who is ‘holy’ and ‘transcendent.’

For as back as Exodus, God has told his people to avoid idols, to get rid of them, and yet, since that very day as Moses taught the people, since we were told that our God is a jealous God, humanity has struggled with the elevation of idols into a place where God alone should occupy in our hearts and lives. 

We are not that different from the people of Athens—in practice. 

            Knowing this, as the Apostle Paul walked around the city of Athens, and gathered in front of the Areopagus, he has a choice to make. Much like we do when the people of our community, and the families in our neighborhoods, demonstrate that their religious encounters are not always centered on God, we can judge, we can criticize, or we can try the response and make the choice that Paul did that day in Athens. 

            This does not mean that Paul was comfortable witnessing the people worship gods besides the one, true, Holy, God that you and I love and commit our lives to each day. Rather Paul hearing from the Lord in his heart, he did something different. He saw something different with his spiritual eyes. 

            He saw a people who were looking for their shepherd; people searching for the ‘holy,’ ‘transcendent,’ God that we love, and he labelled their practice in the second half of our text. But he could only do this because he himself made a decision on his own.  

Move 2- the decision

            While we do not know exactly how long Paul was in this city or how long he walked through it before Luke wrote these words down for us, we do understand his posture. 

He deliberately and penetratingly gazed at the things that he saw in the city. This was a practice of spiritual discernment that Paul was engaging in, and while we might be tempted to insert some level or sense of judgement by the Apostle for things that he saw, Paul’s word choice, does not support this conclusion. 

            Paul was engaged in a deep cultural exegesis or examination of what he was seeing. Likely having to stop, or at the very least slow down, before these altars, Paul looked upon them slowly, deliberately, with attentive observation while suspending the judgement that we so often see and practice. 

At every stop on his journey in Athens, before every altar, Paul had to make a choice to do this. And in the same moment, Paul would have to suspect his feelings of judgement that would be creeping into his mind that would have been easy to offer up about a people who do not worship our God. 

One archeologist found that there were more objects of idolatrous worship in this city than there were people living in Athens. Yet Paul did not condemn these people. But he also did not praise them for their choice. 

Instead, he just observed. He watched. And he learned. While he could have judged them, much like we might, Paul did not. 

As he learned about their worship of something that is not ‘holy’ or ‘transcendent,’ the Spirit of the Lord gave him a message that he could teach to the people of Athens. That message comes in the second half of the text today and it is illustrated in verses 26-27.

Move 3- groping toward God. 

            The high point of the seeking of the people of Athens, and even if they do not know they are seeking directly for God, comes in verse 27, where we read: 

“So that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him.”

            That’s a strange word isn’t it…grope for him. To understand the word, let’s go back into the history of Easter and see where else famously the word occurred. And we find another more poignant example with our dear, hesitant, friend from Luke 24, Thomas. 

            In that verse, Jesus is speaking his disciples, and specifically he addresses Thomas. He says to Thomas, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see.”[2] The word ‘touch me’ is the same as ‘grope for him.’ It is one of the three places in God’s word where it is used, and it means to deliberately handle or to reach out to God. Not casually. Not accidently. But to, by our choice, reach out to God. 

            And this is what Paul says the Athenians are attempting to do by the building of this altar to an unknown God. Reaching out to God. Even if they do not know they are doing this at the time, they, like Thomas in Luke following the resurrection, Paul wonders if these people in Athen are reaching out, by the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

            This is a strong word of evangelism to a people who might just be feeling the nudge of the Holy Spirit on their lives and in their hearts. Perhaps God’s seed of faith had been planted in them from a message that they heard from a different preacher. Perhaps the rumors of Paul’s teaching or the very gospel had spread to these people before Paul stepped foot in Athens. We will not know. 

            And perhaps the altar to an unknown god is just a ‘hedging of the bets’ by a people who will worship any god that a person can create. 

            But you cannot tell me that in your life, the Holy Spirit has not broken into a place where the miracle was thought to be long dead and buried and in a simple moment of encounter, God broke in. In a simple word from God, an evangelistic word, God showed up and transformation occurred.

            None of this would have been possible if Paul was closed off from being with the people and watching them, without judgment, to see where God could be at work. If he was so fixed on judging them and criticizing them and labelling them as only idolaters and could not see that God was attempting to break into their lives, then Paul could not preach a message of hope to a people who needed to find and receive that hope.  

Conclusion 

            So, I wonder, could God be asking each of us to pay attention, loving attention, the people who he places before us? 

            We might see their practices, their choice, and like the Athenians we could see only idolatry and sin. It is possible to look out and see that at every turn. But it is also possible to see God moving and working all around us. But only by taking time, dwelling with people, will we also find the room to evangelize and share how God is at work. For the evidence is there. Will we share it? 

 

DM

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[1] https://danutm.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/richard-rohr-idolatry-is-the-only-sin/  accessed on May 5, 2026. 

 

[2] Luke 24:39 ESV. 

 

Homecoming 2026--John 14:1-14. Messaged preached on May 3, 2026

            This text is a rich text; a familiar text. Often, we encounter this John 14 as we gather to celebrate the life of a saint who has entered the Church Triumphant taking comfort in the words of our Savior much like the disciples took comfort that night. 

Generally, John 14 is part of Jesus’ final discourses, and his words were meant to reassure and teach his followers as they wonder about their future. In the previous chapter Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him three times. In the previous chapter, Jesus washes the disciple’s feet as an act of service—a very confusing set of events I could imagine for them to hear and to witness. 

So, while John 14 seems very direct or straightforward at first glance, as with much of God’s Word, if we are willing to plumb its depth and sit with it, we learn God values our relationship with Jesus and we learn how we can grow that relationship. 

            For even on a night as tough on Jesus as this was, our Savior is doing something powerful for us. I wonder what our response to that work might be and how on Homecoming Sunday, we can take that work and share it others in our larger community? 

Move 1- home

            John 14 begins with the familiar words that Jesus is returning to His Father’s house. Obviously, at the Last Supper Jesus is not saying that He is preparing to return to a physical space, like any of our physical homes. As Acts tells us, we know that God does not dwell in homes of wood or stone—places made by human hands. 

            Instead, Jesus, on his final earthly night prior to His betrayal, prepares to go. . . home. Jesus prepares to go to the place where Our Heavenly Father dwells. The concept of Jesus going home is not a small detail in John 14 and together on Homecoming Sunday we need to hold onto this and be prepared and willing to share it with others. 

            From as far back in the story of humanity as Noah household being saved from the Great Flood, the same word has been used for home signifying that God is ever-present and offering the eternal fellowship that is best labelled by us as home. Today Jesus wants to remind us about the value and importance of remembering our home that he prepares… but perhaps in a different meaning than what we could be familiar with when we read John 14.

            Now I know that not everyone here in this worship place, or those watching in their homes, will say that Home is always safe, blessed, and/or welcoming. And that is true. While we know stories, and people, who will say that their home, or the home down the street of a friend or family member, was far from a safe, or idyllic location, where love and fellowship was offered, in Christ, here in John 14 as Jesus is before His followers having just washed their feet, in this home that God offers, and Jesus teaches, home is something far more wonderful. 

This concept of Home is also sharable. For Home in Christ is the place that as we press in to be with Jesus and feel the love and presence of the Lord washing over us. This is where I hear the words of 1 Peter focus into my heart and comfort me. In 1 Peter we read that in Christ we have a firm foundation; something strong like stone (as Peter tells us). This home is a thing that cannot be shaken or broken by the things of this world that seem to shake so much and are not worth our attention or passions. 

            As the disciples in John 14 are struggling with the tension of Jesus preparing to leave them, and telling them will deny him and they worry about their future, they must remember that He goes home to do vital work on their behalf that will provide for them in their future—here in this place first and then in heaven later.

            For you see, when any tragedy comes, or the whisper of suffering is heard (and that happens so often), and it does not matter how intense the tragedy is to the person or persons, what we want most clearly is the safety and the stability of going home. This is why churches will fill around national times of mourning and tragedy. People come home; they go home. For so many people identify church as their Home—even if they do not always know that they are doing this.

            Home is the safe place that Jesus prepares for us… again both here and with God later. On Homecoming, this is the important to remember as we think about gathering together. But there is more in this famous passage.  

Move 2- rooms

            In that home, that place of safety, Jesus preparing something for us that is sacred and special—not general or casual. 

The word that Jesus uses here is: rooms (in verse 2). Jesus is the only person in the New Testament to use that word, and He only uses it twice, and it is only in this chapter. The concentration of the word should help to focus our attention on this moment and on what Jesus is preparing for us. So whatever Jesus is doing for these disciples, and everyone who finds John 14 later as they need to think about Home, we need to hold onto the value of it.

            And this place that Jesus prepares, these rooms, they are anchored in a personal relationship with the One who is preparing them in God’s home for us. 

            Rather than just offering lip service to what God is doing, or to what Jesus is saying in John 14, these ideas of home and the preparation that Jesus is making for us, invite us to press in, go deeper into our relationship with Jesus. The spaces that Jesus prepares for us should cause each of you to wonder: what exactly is Jesus preparing for me? What might that ‘room’ look like?

            And before you make that jump with me and think I am about to define the physical criteria of heaven, let me just say now… I am not. While heaven is described in other places in the New Testament, Jesus does not take the time to do so because I do not think that is the only thing he is speaking about.   

this is where we move deeper into the Good News on Homecoming. Perhaps the good news, maybe the ‘better news’ that we are finding here in John 14, relates to the space where Jesus dwells with us each day. And where does God dwell with you? 

Perhaps Jesus is also stating that the room that he prepares is in each of the disciples, past, present, and future, who find their way to the Lord and accept him. When we do accept him what does Jesus say? He says that he will make his Home with them/with us. 

            For this space, this home, and this relationship, these rooms are all holy because Jesus himself is present in that place doing the work and calling each of us to come together and bring others as well. 

            On the last night of Jesus’ earthly life, the Savior sits with his closest friends and reminds them that although he is going away from them physically, he will always dwell with them—an assertion that you know in your heart to be true because when pain and suffering has come into your life, and in the life of this church, have you not felt the Lord draw himself up close to you? 

            Perhaps he was preparing that space all the time for this exact moment? Perhaps that is what it means to have Jesus at home in your life? Perhaps that is a deeper part of the miracle of John 14 for each of us, that union with Christ is possible in ways that we do not always realize for Jesus is preparing something special for each of us and in us. 

            Will we do the work of sharing that with others after we come home to the Lord? 

Move 3- deeper

            Tersea of Avila when thinking about this text compared that relationship with Jesus, the home we have in Christ, to a great castle that is right before each of us. But rather than walk right up to it, rather than explore its depths and wondering about the construction of the entire structure she says that we would prefer to wander around the outer courtyards and gardens. Would we be satisfied with just a small piece when God offers us so much more? Tersea professes that most in the church would affirm that they do not press in. Should be join her in the posture? 

            Jesus has prepared great things for you and for me in this work that he does on the cross and on daily on the pages of God’s Word. Yet many of us choose to spend so much time on the margins of that relationship not living into the fullness of what is possible and offered. 

We are offered a great home, a wonderfully prepared home that God dwells in, rooms that God asks us to take the time to nurture and grow. Should we not press in through acts like prayer and the meditation upon God’s Word to learn how wonderful the home that is made ready for us is? 

            Should we not look around and wonder about how much Jesus has done for each of us?

Conclusion

            This text is more than just what we often read as we remember the life of those cherished to us. It is an invitation to faithfully come home to the Lord. I wonder today if you will join me in coming home to Christ and choose to deepen you faith through acts of worship, prayer, scripture reading, and let the Lord Jesus work on those rooms that he prepares for you? 

 

 

DM

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

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[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