One of the headlines on the front page of Monday’s newspaper read, “Holy Week opens with hope”. The article painted a positive picture of Palm Sunday worship at two local congregations, one Roman Catholic and the other Presbyterian. Pastors and parishioners were quoted. The messages preached and heard were those of hope, perseverance and good news.The odd thing was that the name of Jesus did not appear once in the article. Do not be too quick to blame the pastors. I know from experience that newspapers rarely quote what I think they should and often do not get it quite right. Perhaps the author of the article thought Sunday was more about the palm leaves and unemployment rates than it was about Jesus. She knows we need a message of hope in these troubled times. Does she know that the source of our hope is Jesus?
Two weeks ago I preached a sermon at First Lutheran Church in Lee. In it I said, “I am waiting to sense resurrection in the life of the church.” I went on to say, “As you know, there is a lot of anxiety in the life of our ELCA right now, most of it as a result of last August’s Churchwide Assembly. One thing we must do, “we” meaning every living soul in the ELCA, is to keep focused on the mission our crucified Savior gave us. If we derail our work of bringing people to Christ so that we can spend more time arguing, then I think we will be held accountable. Discuss? Yes. Study? Absolutely. Disagree? That’s fine. Waste time? No, we have none to waste.”
Last evening, in Maundy Thursday worship, as we considered the mandate to love, Pastor Kathy Whitney urged her congregation, when faced with the question, “what do we do now?” to “just love them.” I pray that love and civility will return to congregations that have been torn by strife. Today, Good Friday, I am pondering the death of Christ. Jesus died for the life of the church. His church. Our church. The one holy catholic church.
Let us stay focused on Jesus. Repent and be forgiven. Love your neighbor. Prepare for resurrection.
Comments are welcome. Go to http://niselca.blogspot.com/. Velazquez's "Christ on the Cross" was taken from www.freechristimages.org. --JC
I think satan loves it when people are distracted by things and issues of this world. We can get distracted so easily! We are drawn into arguments and conflicts to protect our egos and to make sure everyone knows our opinion.
ReplyDeleteDistraction in any arena is not good: athletes have to be focused on their goals, doctors focused on their patients, students on their lessons. Distraction away from our Lord and Savior is especially harmful. It is a powerful tool of satan. I agree, let's not waste time. Let's get focused on the cross and our wonderful Savior who hung there for us.
Debbie Gortowski - Our Saviors