He Is Risen, Indeed

   Happy Easter to you! We celebrate Easter because God has taken care of all of life and given us a new lease on life. Who wouldn't want one of those?

   He Is Risen, Indeed! Now we have a fresh start, especially with our relationship to God. All the failing to pay attention, our starts and stops of believing, our hit or miss relationship to our Creator is forgiven, our barriers to faith and prayer, and our failure at living the God life, are all forgiven as Jesus was dying for us. We now have a new beginning, fresh as the spring air after the rain.The Resurrection demonstrates forgiveness for the broken relationship, and a promise that there is life after death. That life after death can solve a lot of worry enabling us to have the courage to live a life like we should.

   The best gift of all is the invitation to come near to God. We know that God is loving and welcoming, because the Resurrection lets us see God as God really is. Jesus said, he who has seen me, has seen God. So our spiritual life gets a real boost in authenticity. We have confidence that the picture of God is now pretty clear, making it much easier for us to relate to God. Our prayer life can improve, because we aren't just asking God for help when we need it, but can share both the joys and thanks as well as the cries and the needing help prayers.

   Let Easter be a time for a renewed faith participation. Get more involved in forming your Spirit. Prayer, Worship, Meditation, developing close relationships with others who are growing in their faith, connecting with God in Holy Communion, in service to others, in acts of charity and financial support of the church so it can tell more and more people about the fresh start that comes with Easter.

   People Need the Lord for a variety of reasons. The need can be almost anything that isn't what it could be. God has designed the Kingdom of God, the church, to be a place where people gather. The fellowship of other pilgrims is awesome. In that community of faith, there are going to be people who have struggled or suffered as you have, and can give you the help you need to recover. They will share their experiences and growth, so you won't have to repeat every mistake. They will share with you the joy of faithfulness, so you can get to that level of abundant life sooner rather than later. The blessings of traveling with others is that it's always safer and much more fun.

   So happy Easter! I pray that it will be a new step of faith and walk with God with the joy and blessings of forgiveness and support for that life with the Spirit of God helping you each step of the way.

Pastor Jeff

Holy Week 2

   Welcome to Holy Week part two.How do you feel when people accuse you falsely of doing or not doing what they thought you should do? Jesus is confronted with being accused of wrongdoing, only they couldn't agree on what his problem was. But suddenly, Jesus is enduring the same things we go through when we are misunderstood or accused. This whole story of Holy Week, is a reminder that in Jesus we have God with us, Emmanuel. And that when we need to cry out in prayer, we have someone who has been through whatever it is that we might suffer and he can give us comfort in that.


   He remains silent through most of this. He doesn't get into a shouting match or try to out maneuver them. Most of our modern day leaders seem to make the mistake sometime of saying something they shouldn't and getting into big trouble for the utterance. Maybe they thought it wasn't being recorded? Maybe they thought no one would be offended by a little joke? Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen and their rants come to mind about now. We could use a lesson in self control and in silence from Jesus about now.


   The other issue that this trial brings up for me is that we misunderstand what God is trying to do for us. Jesus didn't meet the expectations that some of the people had for a Messiah. He didn't run the Romans out of town and re-establish the kingdom of Israel. He didn't stay away from offensive people, but actually welcomed some not-so-nice types, into his inner circle. He was accused of eating with sinners, as if there are some who aren't? He didn't seem like the mean old God of judgment and condemnation that good people want God to do to others. Jesus was a loving creature, who was showing us the essence of God, and asking us to accept that God can do what God wants, on God's terms without our getting too bent out of shape. That is hard for me to do. I try really hard to do all the right things so that I will be found to be good enough. But since I'm not really good enough, I'm sure glad we have grace because we would deserve far worse for what we have actually thought and done.


   Easter is coming, it's a sign that we are back in with God as we should be, when we accept God's love took care of the judgment we owe, on Jesus on the cross. His resurrection means all is forgiven, come on home.


Blessings on your pilgrimage


Pastor Jeff

Holy Week

   I'm getting ready for Holy Week. It is full of events that are so dramatic spiritually, it's hard to appreciate all the components. It reminds me of the opening episode of Friday Night Lights. Julie Taylor, the coach's daughter goes off to college and the family struggles with the departure. How did she get to be this old already....

   Holy Week has the arrival of Jesus to Jerusalem for Passover. He is welcomed with a parade. The King has come, but he rides on a donkey, so he can fulfill a prophecy about peaceful King not warrior King. But many don't get it. He cleanses the Temple because buyers and sellers have taken up a prayer and visitors welcome section, preventing others from witnessing the power of God at work. That starts his downward spiral with the Sanhedrin, they are now definitely out to get him, at any cost.

   Days later he is washing feet and telling his disciples about the true meaning of the new Passover. We will be saved from the slavery to sin, slavery to missing the target. We will get a whole new life, a chance to come back from the dead spiritually, emotionally, relationally, etc. They argued about who would be in charge after he is gone. The bread of escape from Egypt becomes the bread of escape from total separation from God for ever. The cup remembering the blood on the door sills of their houses in Egypt, a sign to be Passed-over, is now a cup of a covenant with God to passover our sins and set us free for all eternity. Wow!

   He goes to pray in the garden, one final chance to decide not to go through with this horrific death. But he chooses and models full cooperation with God's plans. A point we should not miss, but it get's swept away with all the other events of that weekend and we might miss it.

   He is ganged up on and arrested, Peter jumps in for the moment and slices off the ear of the servant of the high priest, Malchus. Jesus does what comes naturally for him, comforting the hurt, healing the sick, and puts the ear back on and heals him. We miss that in the commotion too.

   I'll share more later, but that should give us a chance to pause and reflect on the incredible love God has for us to work at fixing the gap between us and our Creator. Stop and think and give thanks for all those steps Jesus takes to heal and strengthen you for life's journey and pilgrimage

   Blessings on your Holy Week

Pastor Jeff  (PJ)

Palm Sunday coming

Good morning, on this April Showers kind of a day. Our Dog Abby, a Cairn Terrier, like Toto in the Wizard of Oz, needed to go out. She always lunges out the front door to chase birds, or cars or whatever, almost ripping the arm attached to her leash, out of my socket. But today, she lunges out onto the stoop and gets hit with a hard rain and before I can adjust, she is heading back inside. She doesn't like being rained on too much. We have somethings in common after all... That kind of reminds me of almost every camp out I went on as a Scout growing up in Silver Spring. The weekend I need to be able to build a fire from scratch for my First Class rank, it rained for a week prior to the camp out. Everything was soaked. I had to try fire building some other time.

   In talking about Raising the dead, we often feel rained on too, even soaked sometimes, and it's hard to move forward spiritually when you are under such a deluge. We feel like we are dead, what's the use against so much pouring down upon us. But it's in that moment that God can do great work. We have to go through the dead part to get to witness and experience the overwhelming power of the Resurrection from the dead. The rain as nasty and windy as it can be sometimes, cleanses the air, waters the ground and provides what we need to drink and to raise crops for food, and bless us with beautiful flowers. It's in the rain that rebirth comes from.

   With Palm Sunday coming up this week, we look at what Jesus did. He willingly faced the rain, the rejection, the refusal to see God in him, in order to get to the Resurrection. His tragedy became our triumph. God restored us to a fully connected to "God life", because Jesus did what he had to do, to remove the junk that got in our way, the sin we so avidly pursue. Now I see the word sin, and I think of what it originally meant, Missing the Target! I know I miss the target of what God wants for me, too often, for my comfort. But the forgiveness Jesus offered on the cross, punctuated with the forgiveness we experience in the Resurrection allows me to aim at the target and do better in another day.

   Palm Sunday is Jesus coming into town to bring us back to God, what a glorious event. It's too bad it has to rain on his parade. But God intended it for good, that's why we call it Good Friday. So I invite you to go to church and celebrate this coming into town by Jesus and remember it's for our own good!

   Blessings on all of you where ever you are in your pilgrimage. I chose the lantern for the blog to let us know God has a light out for us to follow on our journey. Thanks for stopping by for a moment.  You can share your thoughts with us by adding a comment here.

Pastor Jeff

Raise the Dead

Good Morning.  I heard another pastor tell a story on Bishop Peter Weaver, a United Methodist Bishop in the Philadelphia area at the time, share a story about a recent trip on an airplane. He was seated next to a gentleman with several books about business. After the usual, how are you, nice weather, I hope this flight gets us there on time, the topic turned to what do you do? When it was Bishop Weaver's turn, he said, "I raise the dead!" He was partially joking, but also reflecting on his work as a pastor. The seatmate, stopped talking to him for a long time. Curiosity got the better of him eventually, so they continued the conversation.

   I thought that summarized what I hope that I do in my ministry. "Raise the Dead!" It's all about Jesus and what he would do. Raising the dead can mean a lot of things. I hope they reflect what I am trying to do. Do you have places in your life, spiritually, emotionally, relationally, where you feel like it's dead? I think we ought to work on that. I hope that by teaching about Jesus, in Bible Studies, sermons, articles, blogs, programs and ministries of the church, we can help people come back to life. Be transformed, revived, renewed, by the Spirit of God within. I'm working on a sermon series for this summer just about that. I'm looking carefully now, more so than just doing the same old stuff, to see if I can somehow, raise the dead!

   This is Sunday morning, we worship God on Sundays, because it's a way to remind us that many, many years ago, Jesus was raised from the dead! He met his disciple after that Resurrection, and gave us the job of going into all the world, to do the same. If you need raising, come along. If you have been raised and want to help others come alive. Come along.

Blessings,  Pastor Jeff

Welcome to WWPJB

Hello, thanks for checking in. I'm going to post once or twice  a week, probably Tuesday and Friday, with a look back at last week's sermon and worship experience and a look toward the next week. You are invited to respond with questions or discussion about last week, and you are invited to help me explore what goes into the sermon next Sunday.

Last week I invited you to consider a step of faith in your spiritual journey. I hope we each grow closer and more involved with Jesus, not just as our Savior and Friend, but as Lord and Master. We take on more of the agenda that God gives to us and less of our agenda that the world, our families, our plans and dreams have given us. This is a life time journey or pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is for a spiritual purpose and I hope we see we are on a pilgrimage, more than just a journey to see what's out there.

My blog WWPJB is What Would Pastor Jeff Blog, is going to share my ideas and answer your questions or share in a dialogue with you about that.

This Sunday our Choir will present it's cantata. Next week we are going to look at why Jesus came to Jerusalem to die. Welcome to the pilgrimage.

PJ