The sheep and the shepherd. It’s a romantic notion. But today’s sheep ranchers have a Bluetooth headset in the ear, a smart phone attached to a belt, a Venti Mocha perched desktop alongside a GPS receiver. The shepherd sits remote from the flock in a warm ranch house, a crook exchanged for a mouse, perhaps playing a game of solitaire while still on the clock. As Jesus calls to his sheep, we may hear the voice but do we listen?

Before the “Great Resignation” of the Covid era, there was the holy resignation of apostles like Peter, who walked away from the life they knew to follow Jesus. A call to discipleship usually means walking away from something.

Mary Magdalene crosses the finish line as the very first apostle, carrying the message that she has seen the risen Jesus. Men and women are equally recognized by Jesus, and equally sent off to be his people in the world. Easter is an invitation to men and women to run together, to be modern day apostles meaning to be sent to share the Good News: Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia and Amen!

We conclude the sermon series on the Lord's Prayer as we say, "For Thine is Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever. Amen. 

1 Peter 5:8-9 As we continue the sermon series on the Lord's Prayer we come to this petition. Here we invite God to lead us, committing ourselves to following God's way. It's helpful to add a comma after "LeadUs," so that we focus our attention on God's leadership and not on the idea that God might lead us into temptation. 

Forgiveness is a spiritual need of ours--both our need for forgiveness of sins we have committed and our need to forgive others for wrongs they have done against us. Forgiveness relieves us of a burden we no longer need to carry, freeing us to serve God more fully and live a richer life.

Praying for our daily bread calls our attention to the many people in our world who dont have enough to eat, for whom the need is literal bread or food. It asks us to offer ourselves as an answer to others' prayers by providing for their needs. But it also includes spiritual needs, the need for meaning and purpose and connection to God. When we strive to help meet the needs of others, our own deep spiritual needs are met. 

In this part of the sermon series the focus is on the idea of God's kingdom and whether we will live by our own will and our own way or follow the way of Jesus and commit ourselves to God's will and God's kingdom. The key question is My Will or Thine?

We pray the Lord's Prayer all the time but do we really know it? Do we really pray it?

Through this Lenten sermon series Pastor Craig will be using the book The Lord's Prayer by Adam Hamilton to dive deep into the prayer we use all the time to help us know it and pray it better. 

On Ash Wednesday we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Often friends and family have disappointed us that we will say to them "Seriously?" God does that with us when we dont act as one of his children or as Christ has called us to. According to scritoutre we deserve death but that is not how God works. Through this time of Lent we are called to repent, turn back, sacrifice and learn to live in the light of Christ again.