Fairhaven UMC – Page 18 – United Methodist Church

Mothers Day Service 2025

May 14, 2025

Mothers Day Service 2025

0:00

/819.864

Summary

In this week’s service at Fairhaven United Methodist Church, James Campana led a heartfelt and reflective Mother’s Day sermon that celebrated the strength, sacrifice, and enduring influence of mothers and grandmothers. Opening with a lighthearted anecdote from a third-grade classroom, Campana quickly turned to the deeper significance of the day, honoring not only the joyful side of motherhood but also the pain and complexity many women experience. He acknowledged those who may feel sorrow or loss on Mother’s Day—those who have lost children, longed to become mothers, or struggled with difficult relationships. With compassion, he reminded the congregation that while mothers are not perfect, their love, intuition, and dedication are irreplaceable gifts from God.

The message wove together humor, scripture, and real-life reflection, drawing on biblical examples like the wisdom of Solomon and the strength of mothers in scripture to underscore the sacred nature of motherhood. Campana emphasized that motherhood is a lifelong calling filled with both visible and unseen sacrifices, often carried out without complaint. He praised mothers who quietly shape lives through everyday acts of love and selflessness, reminding listeners that God grants wisdom and strength in every season of motherhood. In closing, he encouraged mothers to embrace their journey, however imperfect, knowing they are upheld by God’s grace. The service ended with gratitude and reverence for mothers past and present, wrapped in a warm and uplifting spirit of faith and love.

Transcript

One day a third grade science teacher was teaching his class about magnets. The next day he wanted to test if the students remembered his lesson. He asked, My name begins with an M, has six letters, and I pick up things. What am I? The answer, My mother, was the reply.

Can’t you just feel it? It’s Mother’s Day. Today’s message is a little bit different because we are not only here to worship the Lord, we are also here to honor mothers and grandmothers and all the great mothers in our lives. It’s a day for greetings and expressions of love. It’s also a day for remembering.

True motherhood is a lifelong task. It’s a calling, a privilege, and a true pleasure most of the time. But motherhood is not easy. By the time a child reaches 18 years of age, a mother has juggled some extra 18,000 hours, that’s 750 days, of child-generated work.

One mom once said, The joy of motherhood is what a woman experiences when all her children are finally in bed. Ah, Mother’s Day. It’s sweet. It’s happy.

It’s beautiful. And it’s complicated. Some women are delighted to celebrate the day and come to church on Mother’s Day. But some women are hurting so deeply that they dread the day or even skip church.

How do you shower love on moms but show love and compassion to the wounded? Many women would have loved to become a mother, but for some reason they could not. Some people do not have the best mom in the world, while others may have lost their mom through death. Some mothers have lost children, where others carry the weight of wayward children. It’s understandable why this day is very difficult.

For them, Mother’s Day is a constant ocean of emotions. Today, we especially think of and pray for these fragile and wounded women, but thank God for putting these ladies in our lives. No matter the situation, no matter the circumstances, and no matter the struggles, moms are the bold and beautiful women who usually are the glue that holds a family together. There is a great saying from Napoleon that says, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, Men are what their mothers make them. And the scriptures are rich on great portraits of motherhood. There was of course the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Then there was the mother or stepmother of Moses, who cares so much for her son that she broke the law in order to teach him the faith of his people.

Proverbs 31 reminds us the story of King Lemuel’s mother, who gave advice to her son about godly living and how to pick a good wife and mother. And of course, there’s the powerful story of a mother’s love, where a mother was willing to give up her child to another woman rather than let any harm come to him. Back when Solomon rose to the throne, he sought God and God allowed him to request whatever he desired. Solomon humbly recognized his inability to rule well and nobly asked for the wisdom he would need to govern God’s people righteously.

Solomon could have asked for anything, such as riches and a long life or victory over his enemies, but he didn’t. The scriptures tell us, God granted Solomon his request. And incidentally, God also gave Solomon all those other things as well. But little does Solomon realize that this gift of divine wisdom would soon be put to the test.

There were these two mothers, rumored to be prostitutes by trade, who lived in the same house. Each gave birth to a son within days of each other. And during the night, one mother laid on her newborn child, smothering it, and it died. She took the dead child and replaced her roommate’s living child, hoping she wouldn’t notice.

Soon before daylight, the second mother rose to nurse the child. And as it got lighter, she got a good look at the child and realized it wasn’t hers. Even though this woman’s child was only a few days old, she knew it wasn’t her child. Back in Solomon’s day, there was no DNA testing.

So before long, the two women were presenting their case before Solomon. Their conflicting claims created the dilemma, and Solomon was faced with the task of discerning who the true mother was. The two mothers argued back and forth, but in a moment of brilliant wisdom, Solomon proposed a solution to determine the real mother of the child. Solomon said, Both of you say this live baby is yours.

Someone bring me a sword. A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, Cut the baby in half. That way, each of you will have a part of him. Please don’t kill my son, the rural baby’s mother screamed.

Your majesty, I love him very much. Give him to her. Just don’t kill him. The other woman, in a cruel, selfish, and heartless act, shouted, Go ahead, cut him in half.

Then neither of us will have the baby. Solomon, perceiving the real mother’s love and selflessness, intervened decisively. He declared that the living child should be given to the woman who pleaded for the child’s life, recognizing her as the true mother. The people witnessed Solomon’s divine wisdom and were in awe of his ability to discern the truth in such a challenging situation.

Solomon couldn’t be fooled. And in the end, you can’t fool mother either. One of the things this short story shows is how mothers know their offsprings. Another lesson that we learn, in spite of how wonderful moms are, mothers are not perfect human beings.

Nobody’s perfect. Nobody has the perfect mother. Nobody is the perfect mother. As much as we hate to admit, the perfect mother has never been born, never invented, never existed.

Hopefully this should relieve some of you mothers here this morning who think you don’t or didn’t meet your own expectations of motherhood. You’re not expected to be perfect. You will make mistakes. My mother wasn’t perfect, but God chose her for me, and I thank God for that.

But try to fool mom, you can’t. They know when you’re lying. They know when you’re trying to hide something from them, when you’re sick, when you’re afraid or worried. Mothers just know.

They have the sixth sense, eyes in the back of their head, a special gift from God. Most of the times we don’t realize the sacrifices that mom makes because they don’t tell us. A good mother sacrifices for her children. You buy them the best things that you can afford, even if it means going without things yourself.

You take them to practices and school events and social events, even if it means taking up most of your time that you could be spending on yourself. You encouraged them to participate in sports, in band, and in a dozen other activities, even if it means more work for you. Life before children was mostly carefree, simple, and easygoing. Well, once blessed with a child, you not only have your problems, but you gain your children’s problems and sometimes even your husband’s problems.

There is no one definition of motherhood. It’s a combination of raw emotions, experiences, and individual hopes and dreams for their children. A good mother will always hurt when her children hurt, no matter how old they get. Being a mom is high stress.

The stress may get lighter or change with time, but it never disappears. Motherhood is a lifelong ministry. It’s a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired, you quit when the gorilla is tired.

Every mother has their own path to motherhood, but the rewards are essentially the same. In our society, a mother is considered old-fashioned to her teenagers, yet she is just mom to her youngsters and simply mommy to the little two and three-year-olds. But there is hardly a thrill in a mom’s life that can compete with their child saying to the world, She is my mother. I remember when my son was five years old and my daughter was just a baby.

I’d come home from work to the smell of motherhood, dirty diapers, wash drying, and Stephanie all clean and fresh lying asleep on the couch. I sensed it was a stressful day for my wife, but she never complained. As a young woman, I’m sure she didn’t sign up for this kind of life. In her mind, I wondered how many times she thought about that carefree, simple, and easygoing life prior to kids.

But she fed the kids when they were hungry. She laundered all their clothes. She helped them study history and math and wiped their dirty noses. She cooled their fevered brow with cloth.

She taught them how to ride a bike. She even taught them to eat foods they didn’t like. Although I’m sure that lesson really hasn’t stuck. She wore old and faded clothes so kids could wear something new.

She set an example so I would know what to say and what to do. And she often worked from dawn to dusk to make our house a home, her eyes shining with motherly love. Elaine used every opportunity to train and teach our children. The essential values needed to be a good Christian mother, a good Christian people.

But those days have passed. Now wrinkles Grace Elaine’s brow. Her hair has turned a little grayer, but she’s still mothering and grandmothering. Grandmothers and great-grandmothers are special individuals too, and we honor them today as well.

For all mothers, past and present, each of you women of God have a heavenly father who will always take time for you, always. So let’s face facts. There’s no such thing as stress-free motherhood. There’s no such thing as stress-free mother.

There’s no such thing as a perfect mother. But hear the good news. God is always there for you. And he’ll give you the wisdom you need at the right time and in the right place, just like he did for Solomon.

Don’t give up. You’re not in the struggle alone. God is always there for you. So enjoy it, cherish it, embrace motherhood, no matter where in the circle of life you are.

Motherhood is not a split decision. You win overwhelmingly by the grace of God. Happy Mother’s Day. May today and every day be a very special day for you to reflect and remember.

Amen.
Fairhaven Sermon 5-4-2025

May 10, 2025

Fairhaven Sermon 5 4 2025

0:00

/1102.104

Summary

In this week’s service, Rev. Peg Bowman explored the interconnectedness of scripture across time, drawing parallels between Psalm 30 and John 21 to highlight God’s enduring plans for His people. She began by reflecting on the joy of parenting and the idea of building homes, likening David’s preparations for Solomon’s temple to Jesus’ foundational work with the disciples after His resurrection. Bowman emphasized how these stories—separated by a millennium—reveal a consistent divine purpose: God’s commitment to creating spaces for worship and community. She detailed David’s role in planning the temple, despite his own imperfections, and contrasted this with Jesus’ post-resurrection encounter with the disciples, where He restored Peter through forgiveness and redefined the church’s mission. The sermon underscored themes of faith, humility, and God’s unchanging love, bridging ancient and modern expressions of devotion.

Rev. Bowman further unpacked the significance of Jesus’ post-resurrection meal with the disciples, framing it as a symbolic “fish fry” where healing and reconciliation took place. She highlighted Jesus’ emphasis on love as the foundation of the church, exemplified by His repeated calls to Peter to “feed my lambs,” transforming betrayal into a mission of care. The sermon concluded by tying these narratives to the promise of God’s eternal home, built not on human perfection but on divine love and trust. Bowman stressed that just as David and Jesus prepared for future generations, God’s love enables believers to live with hope, joy, and confidence in His unending care. The message closed with a reflection on how love—both received and given—forms the eternal “house” God is building for all who seek Him.

Transcript

Pray with me, please. Lord Jesus, please come and speak through me. Come and touch our minds and our hearts today with your love and your truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I was just thinking as Flo was reading that passage from Revelation, that’s the text that is used for the very, very end of Handel’s Messiah. And I could hear the song going in the background. It’s just, I’m not preaching on that one today, but I just had to mention that’s beautiful, beautiful. Anyway, before I get started today, this being the fourth day of May, I do have to say to all the Star Wars fans out there, May the fourth be with you.

Turning to our scriptures for the third week of Easter. One of the great joys of parenting is watching kids grow up and begin to make plans for their lives. As the kids grow up, they start to think about getting their own place. And it can be so much fun to help them imagine and decorate and maybe even help with the down payment on the first house.

So cool to watch them putting together a home for the next generation. Yeah. And in a way, that’s what’s happening in our scriptures for this week, particularly in the psalm and in the Gospel reading from John. In the psalm, David is helping his son Solomon make plans for God’s temple.

that will be built as a house for God’s worship and for God’s people. And in the Gospel from John, we see God and Jesus working together with the disciples to lay the foundation for our spiritual house, the beginnings of the Christian church. So each reading is a story in itself, but each one contains those wonderful plans for the future for God’s people. So let’s take a look and we’ll start with Psalm 30.

Now, first off, in terms of time when these things were written, Psalm 30 and the Gospel of John were written almost a thousand years apart, almost exactly. Psalm 30 was written in Jerusalem in the south of Israel around 970 BC. John chapter 21 takes place in Galilee in the north of Israel around the year 30 AD. And just as for kind of a little reference, a thousand years ago from today, our forefathers and foremothers lived without electricity all the time.

and without motors of any kind and without modern medicine. So things can change a lot in a thousand years. One of the great things about our faith is that it is so remarkably consistent throughout all time. People may change, people may mess up sometimes, but God knows what God is doing, and God is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The similarity and the connectedness between these two readings, separated as they are by 10 centuries, is one of the great things that gives us a real sense of permanence to our faith and to the Scriptures. So starting with Psalm 30. Psalm 30 is a psalm of thanksgiving and praise. It focuses on God’s promises of good things in the future.

And David is sharing his praise as he writes this, his thanksgiving and his joy. And David has walked with God all his life. Now that doesn’t mean that David was without sin, far from it. He was human like all the rest of us, but he had loved God all his life.

And as we know, the book of Psalms was basically the hymnal of the ancient Israel. These Psalms were meant to be sung. But like most great songs, even just reading the words can capture your thoughts and feelings that went into that song. And the note at the top of this psalm, David says that he wrote it for the dedication of the temple.

But the temple hadn’t been built yet. And the book of Chronicles gives us the back story. King David had wanted to build a great house of worship for the Lord, but God said no. God said David was a man of blood.

In other words, he had caused many human deaths, which was true. Scripture doesn’t say exactly which deaths God was referring to, but it’s not. Was he talking about David’s military conquests? Possibly. I mean, Scripture is generally against violence, but it’s not 100% anti-war.

Or was God talking about David killing Goliath? I tend to think that one’s not it, because in that particular battle, David was defending and protecting the armies of Israel. But, Or was God talking about Bathsheba and her husband Uriah who David had killed? I think that’s probably part of it. But the bottom line was in one way or another, David had arranged for hundreds of people to depart this earth and move on to the next life. He was a man of blood.

On the other hand, God also knows how very much David loves God. There are places in Scripture where David is called a man after God’s own heart, a man whose will and whose life were dedicated to God. God’s relationship with David shows how very forgiving God can be. and how very much God wanted David and wants all of us as well to be in relationship with God.

So at the end of the conversation, God promises David in the Old Testament that his son Solomon will be the one to build a temple for God’s great name and for the people to worship in. And David is overjoyed at this message. So before David died, he appointed Solomon as his successor because he had many sons and David made all the preparations necessary for this great project. This temple, this house of God would be the crowning achievement of Solomon’s life.

And so like any loving parent, David starts to make provisions for this great house. He orders timbers and cut stones from the nations around them. He collects up gold and silver for the plates and the cups and the candlesticks in the temple. And he collects up embroidered fabrics and perfumes.

He has technical designs drawn up. And I’m sure that as all these plans went forward, he was telling Solomon about every detail, sharing this with his son, and telling Solomon what he would need to do to complete the project. And David thought of everything, even the music for the grand opening. David wrote a song for the congregation to sing on that great day, and Psalm 30 is it.

How cool is that? I find it interesting that this song of praise, Psalm 30, is not like other songs of praise that we typically hear for heroes or for great leaders or for great events. The song does praise God, but not for giving victory to Israel’s army or for solving all of Israel’s problems. The psalm does say that God has not allowed enemies to rejoice over them in victory, but mostly the song praises God for getting God’s people out of the way of their enemies, for healing, for rescuing God’s people out of Sheol, which is not hell, by the way. Sheol was thought back then to be a place where the soul went when the person died, sort of like a holding area until the judgment day.

The song thanks God for resurrection and also for God’s help. And David sings, weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning. And how many times and places have we heard those words? And how many times have we prayed them? So here in this great public celebration, this first worship service in the newly built temple, the song that David wrote for this event is remarkably personal. It’s remarkable.

David is not focused on Israel being God’s nation, but rather encourages each person present, each worshiper, each one of the thousands in the temple, to sing about how God has been there for him or for her personally. and also to sing about confidence for the future, confidence not in the worshiper but in God. This is what a godly nation looks like in worship: personal, humble, thankful, and confident, not in ourselves but in God’s goodness and God’s care. So that’s the future that David was building towards.

And then as we turn to our reading from the Gospel of John, a thousand years later, we’re still dealing with the same God. Just at this point in time, God is present in the flesh, as well as in the Spirit, because Jesus is there. After Jesus’ resurrection, and after the disciples met with the risen Jesus during the week of Easter, the disciples seemed kind of uncertain as to what to do next. Jesus had told them to meet him in Galilee, that’s back in the book of Matthew he said that, but exactly where and when is not clearly defined.

Jesus just says, Meet me in Galilee. So in the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us that over 500 disciples saw Jesus in Galilee after the resurrection. But that meeting hasn’t happened yet. It seems at first just the inner circle was told to go to Galilee and wait ahead of Jesus.

So some of the disciples got there before the others, and with nothing else to do, they fell back on their habit of fishing. They went out fishing, but the fish weren’t biting that night. And in the morning, Jesus made himself known by doing again what he had done before, letting them know where to let the nets down to catch the fish. It’s interesting that this fishing advice is what told the disciples it was Jesus.

There are a number of times after the resurrection that the disciples don’t recognize Jesus by sight. And why this happens is not clear. Scripture doesn’t address the question, and theologians actually don’t talk about it much. So after doing some research, I think the best answer I was able to find was not from a theologian, but from a scientist who said that a body that passes from life into death, into life again, would go through a number of chemical changes, processes that we don’t usually see because we don’t usually see dead people, and these processes would change a person’s cell structure in some way.

And of course this is guesswork, but to me it makes sense. A resurrected body would probably not look the same as the body did before someone died. At any rate, from now on, Jesus will be recognized not by how he looks, but by who he is. In which case the Apostle Paul was right when he said that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, as opposed to by seeing.

E Meanwhile, the disciples were pulling the net with all the fish on shore. While Peter has once again jumped out of the boat and is swimming to Jesus, Jesus already has a fire going on the shore and is already grilling some fish. Now, where these fish came from, we don’t know. They added some more from the net, but there were some already frying.

So, at any rate, there’s a fish fry in the works, and as the disciples gather, they share the joy once again of eating with Jesus, having fish, they had some bread on the side, and their joy is even greater because the fellowship has been restored, and those terrible events in Jerusalem are now behind them, and they’re once more together with Jesus. See, Jesus has plans and the Father has plans. God the Father has plans. This is not just a reunion.

God is going to build a house. And God’s son Jesus is going to be like Solomon, the one for whom the house is being designed. And just like the parts of the temple came together in ancient Israel, the parts of the church now come together to be the bride of Christ. And God the Father, like any loving parent, is preparing a place for Jesus and his bride.

That’s us in a forever home. But there’s still a lot of details that need to be pulled together. And the first is to heal the pain of the betrayals that happened the night that Jesus was arrested. All the disciples had run away that night, except for Peter, who followed at a distance and then swore three times that he’d never met Jesus.

Jesus. So when breakfast is over, Jesus goes about setting things right, and he starts with Peter. And Jesus asks Peter, do you love me? And Peter says, yes, Lord, you know I love you. And Jesus says, feed my lambs.

Now, Jesus is taking something that might have ended the church before it started and turns it into the very foundation of the church, forgiveness and a caring outreach for others. And Jesus asks again, same answer, same assignment, feed my lambs. And I notice at this point what Jesus does not say. He does not tell Peter, go kill the Romans, or go take down the Sadducees, or go kick all the non-Jews out of Israel.

Feed my lambs, he says, both with food and with spiritual food. And this is what Peter is called to do as the foundation of the church is being laid. Oh. And then Jesus asks a third time, do you love me? And his words cut to Peter’s heart.

He says, you know all things, Lord, you know I love you. Feed my lambs. And then Jesus tells Peter that Peter will suffer for God’s word, he will one day find that he’s no longer a free man, he will be bound and made a prisoner and will be martyred for the faith. And Peter raises no objections.

And Jesus says, Follow me. because Jesus has already been there. Jesus has already passed through death. He and he is now alive to tell the tale.

And this is the hope, and this is the new home that is being built, a life that cannot be taken away. So what does this say for all of us? God has gone ahead of us just like David did with Solomon, preparing the temple, preparing the future, and Jesus has gone before us, giving his life so that we can live, and then preparing a place for us, a forever home, that we can’t even begin to imagine right now. And the reason for all of this is love. God’s love for us, Jesus’ love in giving his life for us, and our love for God, following as we are able in the footsteps of David and Peter.

The greatest thing we can do in this life and in the next is to receive God’s love and to love God back. Love is the material out of which our forever home is built, the home that God is building for us and for all who love God. As David says, Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Amen.
Fairhaven Sermon 4-27-2025

April 30, 2025

Fairhaven Sermon 4 27 2025

0:00

/1191.528

Summary

In this week’s service, Rev. Dylan Parson explored the nature of belief, drawing on the biblical account of Thomas’s doubt and eventual recognition of Jesus’s resurrection. Parson shared a personal journey of seeking certainty and understanding through apologetics, initially driven by a desire to logically prove faith. He then challenged the congregation to consider that true belief isn’s necessarily about empirical proof or intellectual understanding, referencing the example of Ravi Zacharias and highlighting the limitations of a purely rational approach to faith.

Parson emphasized that, according to John’s Gospel, belief is a verb—an ongoing relationship and way of living—rather than a noun to be acquired. He encouraged the congregation to embrace a faith that exists “despite all reasonable doubt,” committing to a life of discipleship even when certainty is elusive, trusting that through service and relationship with others, a deeper understanding of Jesus will unfold. Ultimately, he urged the congregation to “preach faith until you have it,” and to live as believers even when faith feels uncertain.

Transcript

So I have been a pretty big reader since I was a small child and actually I probably read way less now than I did when I was in like middle school, which is probably a combination of two things I think. First is just being burned out from eight or seven years of higher education where you like read hundreds of pages every night. I got kind of sick of that. And like the rest of you, social media has fried my attention span.

So there’s that. But reading has always kind of been the way that I understand and process things. So if I hear about something new or interesting, I wanna do some reading on it to get a fuller picture. I want to really intellectualize it, to understand it inside and out.

I wanna explore what other people have said about it so I can internalize it for myself. And I do this about things it makes sense for, you know, like theology, history, science things, but also for things that it kind of doesn’t, I guess. And something that comes to mind for me on that is running. This was a while back, but whenever I took up cross country in high school.

I read a number of books about training technique, how to run, one of which I distinctly remember. I can see the cover of it. It was called Run: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel. And the basic thesis of that book is that your body knows how long and how hard you can run on any given day, and that you train best by listening to what your body is telling you.

Unfortunately, my body has not told me to run in like 10 years, but it will. It was a good book. But the irony is that it was telling me to trust my own experience of running when what I really wanted was for the book to tell me specifically what to do to get as fast as I could be. And the entire point of the book is that following some program to the letter is just not going to work for you if you want to reach your full potential because you’re an individual, you’re unique, you need different things.

But that’s my tendency. I want to grasp everything in my brain crystal clear. Just tell me how it is. So about that same time in my life, I was becoming a Christian.

So this would have been early high school. And I’d been in church a couple years. I really loved it. I wanted to understand the faith for myself.

And I wanted it the same way. I wanted it to be cut and dry in a way that I could hold on to, in a way that I could unimpeachably explain it to someone else. Here’s what I believe. Here’s the reason that it is true.

True. So I gravitated towards an area of theology called apologetics. If you’re not familiar with that, apologetics, it comes from the Greek word to speak in defense, not like apologize. It’s different.

It’s basically a type of evangelism that seeks to prove that. the existence of God, and then more specifically prove the God of Christianity, prove Jesus Christ by appealing to science, to logic, philosophy, math, and so on. And there are some very sophisticated arguments. Some of the great thinkers in history, the physicist Blaise Pascal was a big apologist.

C.S. Lewis, the writer of Narnia, was an apologist. The Apostle Paul is kind of doing that throughout a lot of his letters.

He’s seeking to explain Jesus to the Gentiles and convince them to follow him by using images, principles from the Greeks’ religion and philosophy. It’s like using other languages to explain and prove Jesus. So about at the same time in my life, what I really found myself drawn to was apologetics. And the figure I was drawn to was Ravi Zacharias.

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with that person. But he was an Indian-born pastor and apologist who, until his death a few years back, was one of the most influential in the world. Right? He had a radio show every week that I’d listen to at work. I read a couple of his books.

And I really found this way of relating to faith useful, logical. It helped me digest it. It helped me understand it in the same way I might process information from history or for science, nice and cut and dry. And he was obviously brilliant.

So by the time I applied to college, I remember writing in my application, I always planned to study religion. that my prime interest in that field was apologetics, understanding the faith and explaining it to other people. And I wanted to be able to preach and teach convincingly like Robbie Zacharias, long before I knew I wanted to be a pastor. So he died in 2020.

I’d largely switched gears by then. I relate to Jesus now in a way that’s different, not logical, not analytical so much anymore. But just a few months after he died in 2020, accusations started pouring out that he’d engaged in all kinds of sexual misconduct, abuse, coercion against, I think, like 200 women in multiple countries. His own ministry hired investigators to look into these reports.

His own ministry concluded that they were true. And so I was left with this question. How could it be That a man who helped teach me and millions of people how to believe in Jesus in our minds didn’t really seem to know Jesus at all and indeed behaved like the devil in his private life. Our gospel text this morning describing Jesus’ appearance to the disciple that we unfairly name Doubting Thomas helps us understand, I think, because it makes us confront what it actually means to believe in Jesus.

So think about that just for a second for yourself. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? If you believe in Jesus, what does that look like for you? How does that belief function? What does that mean? Is believing to decide in your mind that something is just empirically true, that it’s verifiable by the evidence that you’ve been given? So in my apologetics era, I think I’d have said, yeah, basically that’s what it is. I had faith. I believed because the information I’d received about Jesus seemed to be factually correct.

But the thing is, that’s a pretty new idea of what belief is. That’s not really how belief is talked about in the Bible. Believing in that sense is an Enlightenment-era concept that’s only really existed for like 500 years now. Because in scripture, particularly in John’s gospel, belief is not a noun, something that you acquire with enough evidence, like you believe in the theory of gravity or something like that.

Believe is a verb. You don’t have it. You live it. And so for John and for Thomas, to believe is to be in an ongoing relationship with Jesus.

In the New Testament, to believe is to live your life as if something is true, and that is to live your life as if Christ is risen indeed. So in the days after Jesus’ crucifixion, the disciples were obviously not interested in doing that. They just witnessed him arrested, tried, condemned, tortured, killed. They knew that he’d been placed in a grave to rot.

They’d rolled a rock in the front of the cave entrance like this final punctuation mark declaring the end of his life, of their hope. And there was nothing left to believe in, as far as they were concerned. Why would they live their lives as his disciples when there was nobody to follow? And things changed pretty rapidly after those three days. Mary Magdalene sees him.

We read that on Easter Sunday. She speaks to him at the tomb. And Jesus sends her back to announce to the disciples that he is alive and is coming to them. And she tells them, I have seen the Lord.

but we can assume, I think, that the disciples don’t really buy it because that’s where we pick up in our reading from John today. And after Mary’s given her report, they’re still in hiding, right? She said Jesus is alive. He’s coming. He’s around.

But they’re still hiding in this locked room, so they don’t really seem to believe it very much. Mary’s word apparently isn’t good enough, and they’re still afraid. and Thomas is perhaps even more devastated than the rest of the remaining 11 disciples, and he has simply run away. He’s not with them anymore.

John’s gospel doesn’t tell us where Thomas is. But by Sunday evening, despite this locked door, they have fortified themselves in the upper room. Jesus miraculously shows up and stands among these 10 disciples and says, Peace be with you. And I think that’s beautiful.

Jesus’ first words to his handpicked disciples after literally going to hell and back are, Peace be with you. Peace must really be something that he wants for them and for us if it’s his first priority when he’s resurrected from the grave. And then after that, after he’s done that, he shows them his pierced hands, his side, scarred but transformed in his resurrected body, and they are filled with joy, John says. Now they believe.

Jesus breathes on them with the Holy Spirit. He gives them the authority to forgive sins, and they are back in business. They believe again. Not in their heads, mind you.

but in that they are once more living their lives as his followers in the world that tried and failed to take his life. We know that they believe because they go out despite the risks. But Thomas is absent, right? Thomas misses Jesus’ visit. And not only is he absent, when the other disciples find him, he completely rejects the possibility that Jesus could be alive.

Unless I see nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand in his side, Thomas says, I will not believe. I will not believe. He’s not getting disappointed again. He wants empirical, unassailable proof, which to me it seems he sure isn’t going to come.

Whenever he’s saying he’s not going to believe unless these things happen is kind of a when pigs fly sort of thing, right? But, And so a few days later, when Thomas has rejoined the group, Jesus returns to them again, again despite these locked doors. And again, those same words, peace be with you. And he has a message for Thomas specifically. Put your finger here.

Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe.

And he has, out of love for Thomas, met him on his own terms. Okay. You know, you said you wouldn’t believe unless you could see and feel the wounds from my crucifixion. Well, here they are.

And Thomas does indeed get that proof that many of us would like. Wouldn’t that be nice, right? But the remarkable thing is that he doesn’t seem to take it. John doesn’t tell us that Thomas actually insists when Jesus comes to touch the nail marks to put his hand in his side the opportunity arises, Thomas doesn’t do it instead it’s when he meets Jesus when he hears Jesus’ voice calling out to him his response is to be overwhelmed with faith my Lord and my God, he says He sounds a lot like what we heard Mary Magdalene say last week Whenever she said, And Jesus now comes to each of his followers in the way that they need him. Not the way they think that they need him, but the way that they need him So that they can call him mine, my teacher, my Lord, my God.

Amen. But he tells John, he tells all the disciples down the line, which now includes us, that the real gift, the real blessing is for those who do not see and yet believe. Belief in Jesus is just so much deeper, so much harder to pin down than this beyond all reasonable doubt standard of proof that we might find in a courtroom. There’s going to be doubt.

Doubt. Instead, the belief that we’re invited to in the resurrected Jesus is belief despite all reasonable doubt. It’s belief without proof, let alone the kind of proof that we can lay down to somebody else to prove Jesus to them. I’m not sure many people in history have actually ever been convinced by logic, by reason, to believe in Jesus.

it’s believing without that proof and then committing our lives to him anyway. More than anywhere else, we meet Jesus as we do his work in the world. We meet him as he appears before us in the face of other people, the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed specifically. Pope Francis was very insistent on that.

and we see him as we seek him out, as he speaks to our hearts, it’s that voice that mattered so much more to Mary Magdalene and to Thomas than being able to physically touch Jesus in front of us. Just as he tells Thomas the proof kind of belief is great if you can get it, where you believe Jesus is Lord the same way you believe your sibling or spouse or some celebrity is real and touchable. But if you’re a person like Thomas who struggles with faith in the resurrected Christ, you should know that that kind of belief that never has an ounce of doubt exists. is completely unnecessary to life as a disciple.

That’s not the kind of belief we’re asked to have in Christ. If you’ve ever been worried that you don’t have enough faith in Jesus, you have enough faith by wanting to have faith. Relationship with him is the kind of belief that matters. Not seeing, yet believing anyway matters.

believing in your heart. It’s the willingness to walk, to sacrifice, to serve as if he’s alive, regardless as to whether you feel yourself feeling as if he’s as physically real as me standing here. You are not expected to believe in Jesus with that same kind of belief that you believe in the Pythagorean theorem, if you remember it. Or that Columbus crossed the ocean in 1492.

Because that’s not the kind of belief that transforms. You can know, you can believe in your head and not be transformed, not be changed, not you live your life any differently. Ravi Zacharias showed me that pretty clearly after my teenage years. And I would suggest to you that there are plenty of people who believe in Jesus in their minds, that he’s a historic figure, that they are sure lived and died and rose again, and that doesn’t make the tiniest bit of difference in their lives.

We know that this is true. Some 67% of Americans at the last poll identify as Christian, which simply means they believe in Jesus, right? Do you think that 67% of the people in this country are followers of Christ, believing in him in such a way that they stake their whole lives on him, that they seek to live in mercy and justice and righteousness and love, that he is their Lord, that he is their Savior, their everything as they seek to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. 67% of America. Do you even think that 67% of churchgoers believe in Jesus in that way? And yet, that’s what it’s all about.

That’s what belief is in the body of Christ. The ability and the willingness to say, my Lord and my God, from the depths of your heart, without ever having put your finger in his nail holes or a hand in his side, And I wonder if a lot of people who struggle with faith, who struggle with belief in Jesus, do so because they’ve been seeking a standard of evidence and apologetic that they don’t really need. Because remember, Thomas didn’t really need what he thought he needed. He just needed to hear from Christ.

this is never, ever, ever going to be something that you understand inside and out. That you can hold in your hand and analyze and grasp. That’s not what Jesus is like. John Wesley had in his 30s what you might call a dark night of the soul.

He wasn’t sure about his call. He wasn’t sure about his faith. And a Moravian preacher and kind of a mentor of his, Peter Bowler was his name, famously told him, preach faith until you have it. And then you will preach faith because you have it.

And that’s the challenge, I think, a beautiful one for those of us who are not lucky enough to meet Jesus at the mouth of the tomb. For those of us who have never gotten to touch his resurrected flesh in the upper room. Live the life of a believer, of a disciple, until you are one. Decide to trust Jesus until you really do.

And then you will live the life of a believer, of a disciple, because you believe. And you’ll trust him because you found that he’s trustworthy. And for many of us, that’s not going to be a one-time thing. We’re going to find ourselves recommitting to belief repeatedly over the years and relying on our siblings in Christ to believe for us when we can’t.

But it is worth it. These disciples have decided in Scripture. and that face-to-face meeting that Thomas and Mary Magdalene got is coming for us to, each and every one of us, we will see him. We will touch his transformed body that has transformed our souls.

We will one day be able to look at him in the eye and say, My Lord and my God. Thanks be to God in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
Fairhaven Easter Sunday 2025

April 23, 2025

Fairhaven Easter Sunday 2025

0:00

/859.368

Summary

In this week’s service, Rev. Peg Bowman celebrated the joyous occasion of Easter, emphasizing the significance of Jesus’ resurrection and its profound implications for believers. She explored the variations in the Gospel accounts, highlighting John’s perspective and the youthful enthusiasm reflected in his narrative. Bowman underscored the power of Jesus’ resurrection, contrasting it with the inevitability of death and emphasizing that it offers a pathway to eternal life, a concept beautifully illustrated through Paul’s teachings about faith, hope, and love.

Rev. Bowman further elaborated on the transformative nature of Jesus’ resurrection, explaining how it defeats death and paves the way for a future where love triumphs over all. She connected the event to the promise of a restored world, free from greed, prejudice, and violence, where even the need for prophecy and teaching will cease. Ultimately, she challenged the congregation to embrace the message of Easter and to share the “good news” as Mary Magdalene did, echoing the psalmist’s call to rejoice and recount the deeds of the Lord.

Transcript

Alleluia! The Lord is risen! Amen! It is Easter at last. All the events and experiences of this past week, Palm Sunday and that procession into Jerusalem, and then the Passover supper on Thursday night, and the crucifixion on Good Friday…

and that awful silence on Holy Saturday yesterday all lead together to the joy of this morning. And today brings, as the song says, a light of the clear blue morning. Today we celebrate resurrection and new life. And I think it’s so appropriate that Jesus’ resurrection comes at the same time of year as spring when the world is coming back to life, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere.

Amen. At the same time, I have to acknowledge this past year has not been an easy one for many of us here today. So we come also to remember Jesus’ resurrection, to remember that Jesus walked out of the grave alive. I think it’s also good to remember what this means for each one of us.

And what this means is in the words of the Psalm that we heard a few moments ago, we can now say with Jesus, I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. And while it is true, as it says in the movie, The Green Mile, that we all owe a death, in Jesus’ resurrection, death does not have to have the final word. By walking out of the grave alive, Jesus has destroyed our final enemy. Death itself is dead.

And if that’s not something to celebrate, I don’t know what is. The psalmist says, let us rejoice and be glad. And all four of the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell us about Jesus’ resurrection. Each writer offers a slightly different version of the story, and today we heard John’s version of the events of Easter.

The apostle John was sometimes called the disciple that Jesus loved. Not because Jesus didn’t love all his disciples, but John is believed to have been the youngest of the disciples, possibly only 19 or 20 years old, almost like a kid brother to Jesus. John is full of the enthusiasm of youth, and we can hear that youthful enthusiasm as we read his story this morning. In John’s version of Easter morning, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early in the morning by herself.

In the other Gospels, Mary has one or two of her friends with her, and the fact that there are variations on the Easter story does not mean that the events are in question. John in particular was in a hurry that morning. Did you catch that bit about he bragged about running to the tomb faster than Peter did? Right? It’s entirely possible that he just sped right past a few women, didn’t even see them on his way to the tomb. Besides, any time we get two or three people telling the same story, there are going to be some variations.

So in John’s telling of the story, Mary goes to the tomb early in the morning, finds that the stone covering the mouth of the tomb has been rolled away, and Jesus’ body is gone. Right. and rolling that stone would not have been easy. It has been estimated that the stone on that tomb weighed between three and four thousand pounds.

Plus it had been sealed with Roman seals and was supposed to have been guarded. Mary assumes, as we probably would have also, that something has gone terribly wrong. So she runs to the disciples and tells them the stone has been moved. And Peter and John hear Mary’s words when she says, they’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they’ve laid him.

So the two men take off running, and John gets to the tomb first. And just like Mary, he finds the stone rolled away, and he finds Jesus’ body gone. Amen. And John also looks inside the tomb and he sees some linen wrappings lying there, burial cloths.

Now to get a mental picture of this, unlike graves that we have today, graves back then were not holes in the ground. They were not dirty and they were not small. Tombs in those days, at least the tombs of the wealthy, which this was, would have been at least the size of a studio apartment. Right? They were cut into rock, and they had a door that you could actually walk into without bending over, and you could walk around inside the tomb.

In fact, the tomb might actually have had two or three rooms cut into it, and there would have been stone shelves at various heights where bodies could be laid, and there would be enough shelves in the tomb for the entire extended family. And in this case, the tomb that Jesus was laid in was a brand new tomb that had been cut for the family of Joseph of Arimathea, and Jesus was the first person to be placed in it. So he would have been laid out on one of these stone slabs and would have been wrapped up in burial cloths with some spices in them. But when John and Peter look in and look at the slab where Jesus’ body should have been lying, they saw burial cloths lying there, but no body.

And they saw the cloth that would have been around Jesus’ head had been rolled up neatly and set aside. Who does this, right? John and Peter saw these things, but they didn’t understand. And the ancient scriptures had said that the Messiah would die and rise again, but the disciples somehow didn’t make the connection. Maybe they thought the prophecies were sort of spiritual talk, not real life events.

But whatever they were thinking, Peter and John looked at the empty grave, looked at each other, and went home. But Mary couldn’t find it in herself to leave. She wanted to know where the Lord she loved had gone, what happened to his body, and what could she do to set things right. And while she was weeping and looked into the tomb, she saw two angels.

And the angels asked her, Why are you weeping? And they didn’t mean that as a criticism. They were in that culture asking a why question was a gentle way of suggesting that a person might have gotten the wrong end of the stick. But Mary’s reply, she says, They’ve taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve laid him. And then she turns to leave.

And in turning, Mary practically bumps into someone else, someone she didn’t see because of her tears. And this person asks the same question, ‘Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ It’s Jesus. But she can’t see him through her tears, and she says, ‘Sir, if you’ve taken him away, tell me where you’ve laid him, and I will take him.’ And of course, there is no way that Mary could have carried Jesus’ body by herself, but her insistence on making the effort shows the depth of her grief and her love.

And then Jesus calls her name, Mary. And in that instant, she knows. And isn’t that how we all know him, when he calls our name? She answers, Rabboni, my teacher. And she must have given him a hug because the next thing Jesus says is, Don’t hold on to me.

I have not yet ascended. But go tell my brothers, I’m ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. And Mary went and found the other disciples and told them everything. And in doing this, Mary became the first ever evangelist, the first ever missionary, the first ever teacher of the faith.

And of course, there’s much more to the Easter story. There are other scenes like when Jesus visited all the disciples or when Jesus joined some disciples on the road to Emmaus or when Jesus talked to Doubting Thomas. There’s more to the Easter story. But this is where our gospel reading leaves us for today.

Today. So before I wrap up, I’d like to spend a little bit of time with the words we heard from the Apostle Paul, because Paul brings these events out of the past and into our present, out of the history and into its meaning. Paul says that the events of Easter Sunday, and more specifically Jesus’ resurrection, our absolutely bedrock foundation to our faith, essential for our forever future. Paul says, if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied, Why? Because Jesus teaches us to give up what we cannot gain, to give up what we cannot keep, to gain what we cannot lose.

We cannot keep this life or anything in it. And if we give up what we can’t keep for the sake of Jesus, we gain eternal life. But if there is no eternity, then we’re wasting our time. We might as well eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die.

But Paul says Jesus has been raised from the dead, and Paul was eyewitness to this, not to the resurrection, but Paul actually met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. And Paul calls Jesus the first fruits of the dead. Amen. He says that Jesus’ resurrection is the first of many, many more to come.

And Paul tells us how and why. He says, Because death came into the world through a human being, that is, through the first human being, resurrection from the dead also came into the world through a human being, through Jesus, the Messiah. Amen. Paul says Jesus rises first and then all who belong to Jesus.

And then Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, having overcome every power on this planet, every nation, every kingdom, every ruler, every leader, Jesus then hands over the entire planet with all of its people to God the Father. And Paul says the final enemy, the final power to be destroyed is death itself. So our faith in Jesus is not just for today and not just for this life and not just for this world. If this life is all we have and if this planet is all there is, then we’re wasting our time talking about God and about heaven.

But Jesus’ resurrection is proof that this life is not all there is, and this world is not all there is. And imagine what it will be like when Jesus takes over from every power and every ruler on earth Here’s what will happen, among other things: Wealth and money will lose their meaning. I mean, after all, the Bible says that the streets of heaven are paved with gold, and who goes around collecting gold and asphalt, right? Power will lose its meaning, because every crown will be laying at Jesus’ feet. And those of us who teach or preach, we’re going to be out of a job, because everything will be known and all knowledge will be complete.

As Paul says in his great chapter on love, As for prophecies, they will come to an end. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part and we prophesy only in part, but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.

The good news of Easter is that love wins. Jesus. With Jesus and in Jesus and by the power of Jesus’ name, all evil will die. All wrongdoing, all greed, all prejudice, all lies, all violence will be ended.

And the horrible effects of these things on people and on the planet will be completely healed. Paul says, Faith, hope, and love, these are the three things that last. They’re the only things we take with us, and they’re the only things worth investing in for those of us whose eyes are looking for God’s eternity. We belong to Jesus, and Jesus belongs to God.

We are not alone. And when we stand on faith, we do not stand alone or in our own power. As the psalmist says, I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. Amen.

The psalmist also says, This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Jesus said to Mary on that first Easter morning, Go and tell what you have seen. And Mary did that.

And now it’s our turn. Amen.
Fairhaven Sermon 4-13-2025

April 16, 2025

Fairhaven Sermon 4 13 2025

0:00

/726.696

Summary

In this week’s service, Pastor Rev. Dylan Parsons delved into themes from Palm Sunday, drawing parallels between Advent and Lent. He noted how both seasons are characterized by penitence and preparation, with a focus on scriptural prophecies of Christ’s coming. Highlighting the similarities in song lyrics during these periods—such as “Glory to God in heaven” at Bethlehem transforming into “Peace in heaven” when Jesus enters Jerusalem—the sermon emphasized the importance of understanding who Jesus truly is and what His kingship means.

Rev. Parsons highlighted that while the crowd sang about peace and a warrior king, they misunderstood the nature of Christ’s mission. He pointed out how Fred Kahn’s hymn writer perspective underscored the critical need for true peace on earth rather than just “peace in heaven.” The pastor emphasized Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem due to their misunderstanding, and argued that as His followers, our focus should be on living a life governed by justice, mercy, and righteousness. This leads not only to immediate victory but also to eternal transformation.

The sermon concluded with the psalmist’s call for righteous gates (Psalm 118) and the realization that true service to Christ involves more than just proclaiming His kingship; it requires walking in His footsteps through trials and sacrifices, ultimately leading to a transformed life.

Transcript

So occasionally, and this seems to happen, especially during church council meetings or if I’m doing the announcements at one of the other churches, I will misspeak and mix up Lent with Advent. So please don’t listen carefully for it because I do it all the time, probably like 50% of the time. And when you live according to the church year, which by necessity I basically do, I’m always looking towards Advent or Lent, whatever’s coming next, these seasons start to feel familiar in some ways, and these two particularly feel similar. They’re both usually purple, right? The color both of penitence and royalty.

Both are about a month of preparation for the big day, right? both lean heavily on scripture that’s prophesying what God is about to do for people who don’t really get it. And in both Advent and Lent, there’s this sense of quiet, of anticipation, of spiritual preparation, and one that really resonates with me. I like that. And this Palm Sunday, I really find myself focusing on those parallels.

Maybe because it’s been cold and gray like a Pittsburgh December, it just feels like we’re in Advent again. But for the first time ever, Palm Sunday feels to me like another moment in the year where we blanket the sanctuary with greenery, which we’ll do later. Christmas Eve. It’s not just the greenery.

It’s not just the purple pyramids. What sticks out to me is the song, the proclamation that the crowd is bringing today. It sounds like Christmas. You remember the angels appearing to the shepherds in Bethlehem’s fields, right? Luke chapter 2, what we always hear on Christmas Eve.

Nearby, shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. The Lord’s angels stood before them. The Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angels said, Don’t be afraid.

Look, I bring good news to you, wondrous, joyful news for all people. Your Savior is born today in David’s city. He is the Lord. This is a sign for you.

You will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger. And suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, glory to God in heaven and on earth peace among those he favors. That song there, that last line, glory to God in heaven, peace among those whom he favors.

That’s where we get the words to angels we have heard on high. And in this song that the angels are singing, this heavenly host lights up the night sky, telling the shepherds of the coming of Jesus into the world and what that will mean for them, for us, for all creation. The disciples, the followers of Jesus, proclaim something very similar 30 years later as Jesus approaches the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And this is how it goes in our reading today.

As Jesus approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of all the mighty things they had seen. And they said..

. blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heavens. So two really interesting things are going on just in this brief passage. First, we know that line of the crowd song as well.

The first line, blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord. We say that during the communion liturgy, except we say it as it was actually written in Zechariah. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. There’s no king in the prophet’s words.

Because the people have slightly but very significantly changed what was originally prophesied. And that second line has undergone a similar sort of transformation. Notice the difference. So the heavenly host at Bethlehem sang, glory to heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors.

In Jerusalem, what the people are singing is peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens, which is similar to. But again, a distorted version of what was originally proclaimed. Because the people are experiencing and succumbing to this temptation that we ourselves face constantly. They’re subtly changing Jesus into something they want him to be, while also obscuring what he wants us to be.

They’re making him someone who will do something for them that doesn’t really affect what they have to do. And this can be dangerous. The hymn writer, pastor, and missionary Fred Kahn, he’s got a few hymns in our hymnal, he points this out particularly as it relates to that phrase, peace in heaven. That’s what the crowd in Jerusalem is proclaiming as Jesus comes, peace in heaven.

Fred Kahn grew up in the Netherlands under Nazi occupation. He knew quite well the risk that comes with reshaping Jesus into something that he’s not, no matter how subtly, into something we might prefer that he be. So as for peace, consider that it’s a whole lot easier, a whole lot more straightforward for us if Jesus Christ means peace in heaven. because that’s none of our business, really.

Peace in heaven, heaven’s far away. Heaven’s got nothing to do with us right now, but peace on earth is what the heavenly host proclaimed at Jesus’ birth. And peace on earth is our business. that requires something of us.

It’s a lot harder because it’s in our control a little bit more day to day. So seeking peace, real peace, not just the absence of conflict, but peace, that’s hard work. And yet the people sing peace in heaven as Jesus descends from the Mount of Olives into the holy city. because they don’t really want peace on earth, after all.

That’s not what these people are looking for. That’s not what we’re looking for most of the time. At the moment, they’re longing for Jesus as he comes into Jerusalem to take his rightful place as a king over his people. They want him to throw out the Romans, their Herodian collaborators.

They want him to be this warrior king like his ancestor David. And so they say, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. They’re not looking for peace, at least not in the short term. They’re looking for reversal.

They’re looking for revenge. And that’s understandable. They’ve been oppressed. They’ve been occupied.

They have been exploited for generations now. And they think that this is a moment of revolution, that Jesus’ entry into the city on the back of a colt marks the first spark that will lead to this final revolution, this final confrontation, victory for Israel. Our reading this morning stopped before it. But Jesus knows all of this, and it really grieves him.

The next two verses really reveal his pain over their misunderstanding of what he’s there for. As Jesus came to the city, he observed it, and he wept over it. He said, if only you knew on this day of all days the things that lead to peace, but now they’re hidden from your eyes. Jesus knows very well that peace is not on the immediate horizon.

We know that as Holy Week is before us, that those longing to see him on David’s throne are in for a big disappointment in the next coming days. But perhaps Jesus’ triumphal entry, as we often call Palm Sunday, happened 33 years before in the stable at Bethlehem as he entered into creation, God in human flesh. That’s when he became king. His first triumph over the world, over death and sin, over Satan, was in his taking on of weakness and the frailty of a baby boy.

And there, in that moment, the angels announced his triumph, rightly, the way the people do imperfectly at Jerusalem’s gates. And I don’t mean this to be harsh on Jesus’ crowd of followers. We make Palm Sunday a celebratory day for a good reason. They’re absolutely right to celebrate, to call out in joy.

They lay down their cloaks, their palms on the road before him. And we shouldn’t fault them at all for that because they know, they’re completely correct that Jesus is their king. their mistake is just in understanding what kind of king he is and what that means for them, what that means for us. Christ as our king does not mean peace in heaven.

It’s not abstract. It’s not something far away that’s distant from our daily living. If Christ is our king, it means peace on earth. It means that we, in our lives, are responsible for living with Jesus as our king.

In a reign of peace, of justice, of mercy, his law governs us right now. Not peace in heaven. Peace on earth. And that’s a great victory.

That’s what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. The triumph of God over darkness and evil. We’re his subjects now. His kingdom is over all creation right now.

And that’s why Jesus says, if the disciples weren’t cheering for him, even the stones would cry out. All the world has received their king. But the coming of Jesus comes with obligations. First, that those who rule without seeking peace and righteousness are not kings at all, not at all legitimate, the same way Jesus is talking about Caesar, about Herod.

And all of those of us who would be followers of Jesus must be committed not only to calling him king, but to serving him as the kind of king that he is, offering our lives in justice and mercy and righteousness while seeking peace. And so the psalmist this morning sings out in Psalm 118, open the gates of righteousness for me so that I can come in and give thanks to the Lord. The people that are lined up from the road on the Mount of Olives were ready to march into the capital city behind this new king, but not necessarily into the gates of righteousness. They’re ready to go into the gates of Jerusalem, but not necessarily the gates of righteousness behind their Savior.

The gates of righteousness are those we enter whenever we follow behind him as our Lord, walking in his footsteps, living in his way. These gates are wide open. We’re welcomed into these gates today. And this really is a day of great celebration.

But the gates of righteousness don’t necessarily open to a road that leads straight to the palace and the royal throne, but to cleansing the temple, facing down the authorities, this mockery of a trial, and then finally the cross. But still the road that the gates of righteousness opens to will lead us to this true king and as well as to a transformed life worth living. One that will never end. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.