5th Sunday in Lent - Pastor Susan Smith
Jesus has come from the home of his friend Lazarus and his sisters where he raised Lazarus from the dead and now is in Jerusalem for Passover - for the last time. The crowds who are following him have grown and in this passage we hear of Greeks who have come to Jesus’ disciple Philip saying, “Sir we wish to see Jesus.” The gospel doesn’t tell us why they wish to see Jesus. Are they curious about his message or parables? Are they hoping to see Jesus perform a miracle? Maybe they want to become followers of his.
On the face of it this is such a simple request – “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” - but it cuts to the heart of the question we need to ask ourselves: when we look at Jesus, who/what do we see? Because the gospel of John is the last gospel written, this was probably a question asked by those in the early church.
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Eyes on Salvation
We were blessed at our Christmas pageant this past December to have a live baby to play Jesus. Carly Jacobs played Mary and she held Lee Porter who was not quite 3 weeks old at the time. His mother, Morgan, was careful to bring him in just before the scene and whisked him away immediately afterward because he was too young to be in a crowd.
It was a very sweet scene. I’m sure everyone watching could see that Carly loves babies. It was either that or she’s just a great actress. Most people couldn’t see Morgan and Kody gazing at their son in the wings, or his grandparents Melody, who has been running our pageant for decades, and Pat seeing their first grandchild playing Jesus. That and 60-something kids created an explosion of love – BOOM! – to convey the joy of Christmas.
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Meeting God
Where might we encounter God? Anywhere, of course. Yet, we are also drawn to encounter him in specific places. We have very deep roots on that point.
From the Exodus forward, the people of Israel got used to God being with them in a particular spot, even if when God was moving with them. It began with a pillar of cloud and fire as they were leaving Egypt. It included the top of Mount Sinai wreathed in cloud with thunder and lightning, or in a cloud of fire. God then gave them very detailed instructions on building the Tabernacle, a tent for meeting God that could move with them as they wandered in the desert wilderness. Wherever they went, the people would know that God was right there.
Eventually, after the conquest of the Promise Land, after the time of the Judges, after King Saul and after King David, God gave Solomon very detailed instructions for the first Temple at Jerusalem. That Temple lasted over 400 years, until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in about 586 AD. Then, 70 years later, that’s 2-3 generations later, Cyrus of Persia overthrew Babylon and helped Israel rebuild it, and there it has stood all the way up to this moment.
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