#easter 7

We’re back on the Mount of Olives. A lot has happened here in Jesus life, including the pivotal moment of his betrayal and arrest. This time he’s leaving. Walking (or floating, whatever) out of his disciples lives and leaving them behind to figure out the next part. I don’t have any clear thoughts on the whole thing, but this leaving seems essential for Christianity becoming what it is. For good…

Welcome:

Worship:

Jesus’ Mystical Prayer

“ . . . that they may be one, even as we are one,” Jesus prayed. This verse comes near the end of the longest prayer of Jesus in any of the gospels, the so-called “Farewell Prayer.” I wonder if you can remember a time when you were saying good-bye and you were leaving final instructions to your kids or the house sitter – and you wanted to really make sure they under-stood about the plant watering…

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Blessed is the man    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners,    nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord,    and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree    planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,    and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so,    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

But by the end... I am in love with this sermon. Maybe I am preaching to myself, but maybe that's what I need. And as long as there is someone in the congregation that needs to hear this message (and I know there are several at least who do), then I have done my job.