One Little Word

Truly This Man Was God’s Son

Lessons:
    Isaiah 50:4-9a
    Psalm 31:9-16
    Philippians 2:5-11
    St. Mark 14:1-15:47 (or St. Mark 15:1-39 [40-47])
    Processional Gospel
        St. Mark 11:1-11 (or St. John 12:12-16)

Prayer of the Day:
    Sovereign God, you have established your rule in the human heart through the servanthood of Jesus Christ. By your Spirit, keep us in the joyful procession of those who with their tongues confess Jesus as Lord and with their lives praise him as Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

^15:1 As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. ^2 Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” ^3 Then the chief priests accused him of many things. ^4 Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” ^5 But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

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The Days Are Surely Coming

Lessons:
    Jeremiah 31:31-34
    Psalm 51:1-12 or Psalm 119:9-16
    Hebrews 5:5-10
    St. John 12:20-33

Prayer of the Day:
    O God, with steadfast love you draw us to yourself, and in mercy you receive our prayers. Strengthen us to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, that through life and death we may live in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

^31:31-34 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,^ says the Lord. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

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Jeremiah 31:31-34 New Revised Version Bible (C)1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

It isn’t hard to imagine old Jeremiah, sitting amidst the rubble what used to be Jerusalem. It was almost 600 years before Jesus was born. Jeremiah was some sixty years old. He had been preaching and prophesying for forty-five years. In his day he had seen a lot of change. The northern kingdom had fallen years before he was born. He watched the southern kingdom slowly deteriorate. Finally, the Babylonians surged in, sacked Jerusalem, rampaged the countryside, and carried off many of his fellow citizens. And there he sat – with the remnant of Israel – the few of them left behind to somehow eke out a living in the shadow of a conquering nation.

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Lessons:
    Numbers 21:4-9
    Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
    Ephesians 2:1-10
    St. John 3:14-21

Prayer of the Day:
    Holy God, rich in mercy, by the humiliation of your Son you lifted up this fallen world and rescued us from the hopelessness of death. Lead us into your light, that all our deeds may reflect your love, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

^3:14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.^{ 16} “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷ Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”^

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St. John 3:14-21New Revised Version Bible (C)1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Two biblical texts. One, perhaps among the most well known of all texts: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” One of them, perhaps known by only the most serious of Bible students: this strange story about Moses and snakes and a bronze image lifted up on a stick. One referenced in one way or another at every major sporting event in the past three decades. One referenced in liturgical churches only once every three years, at the very most. Yet two biblical texts tied together this week by St. John’s Gospel, in a way that moves us to look at the cross of Jesus Christ in a new light.

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Another Side of Jesus

Lessons:
    Exodus 20:1-17
    Psalm 19
    1 Corinthians 1:18-25
    St. John 2:13-22

Prayer of the Day:
    Holy God, through your Son you have called us to live faithfully and act courageously. Keep us steadfast in your covenant of grace, and teach us the wisdom that comes only through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

^2:13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵ Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸ The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

St. John 2:13-22 New Revised Version Bible (C)1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

What is your image of Jesus? As I was growing up, there was a large, framed picture in the Sunday School room down in the church basement. It was a picture of Jesus, sitting near a stone path, with trees and a colored sky in the background. He is talking with two young children. As was the case with most pictures my church had of Jesus, he looked like a handsome, nice, young Norwegian man. Light brown hair. Blue eyes. His very countenance seemed one of peace and contentment. You could almost imagine him sitting there for hours, asking the children about their day, telling them how much he loved them, laughing at their knock-knock jokes. He was the soft and gentle preschool teacher extraordinaire. As I grew up, that was my predominant image of him.

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Lessons:
    Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
    Psalm 22:23-31
    Romans 4:13-25
    St. Mark 8:31-38

Prayer of the Day:
    O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life. Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

^8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”  ³⁴ He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶ For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷ Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸ Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

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St. Mark 8:31-38 New Revised Version Bible (C)1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Simon Peter shares a name with our congregation, so it is natural that when we hear stories like the one in this week’s Gospel lesson, we find ourselves identifying with him. It is often with a sympathetic ear that we listen to accounts of his words and actions, and this text is no exception to that rule. In the passage immediately preceding our Gospel lesson, Peter finds himself at center stage. Asked by Jesus what the crowds are saying about him, the disciples quickly offer up a summary of the speculation they are hearing on the street. “I think Jesus is John the Baptist come back to life.” “Maybe he is Elijah, returned to God’s people.” “Perhaps he is one of the prophets.” But asked by Jesus what they think of him, the disciples become strangely quiet. Nobody quite knows how to answer. Mark’s Gospel is half over; the disciples have had plenty of time to size him up; yet they seem to have nothing to say.

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