This Palm Sunday, FBC's chancel choir presented movements from Dan Forrest's Requiem for the Living. This was a very special, fully orchestrated worship service that was a powerful experience that we are excited to share!

This Palm Sunday, our choir presented movements from Dan Forrest's Requiem for the Living. Hear Pastor Barrett's introduction to this musical masterpiece.

Mary and Martha are absolutely beside themselves when Lazarus dies, and Jesus doesn’t show to save him even though he heard the news four days earlier. This story is one for the ages, and it’s one we need to sit with in order to climb out of the pain and shame we feel.

Sometimes people get it wrong. This is true for the community who assumed the woman caught in adultery needed to die. Granted, she did break the law, but Jesus throws their sin right back in their face when he drops the line, “The who’ve committed no sin may cast the first stone.” We shouldn’t be so quick to judge others when we are just as sinful.

A social scientific reading of a woman at the well shows us that she is terribly oppressed. Her life is nothing of what she thought it could be. She’s broken, bitter, tired, harassed, and a shadow of who she thought she could be. She mirrors for us what life looks like when we are at our worst: Alone and avoiding all human contact. But that’s exactly when Jesus shows up. Reflecting on this dichotomy is important for all of us even today.

The story of Nicodemus has so many layers. The fact that he approaches Jesus in the middle of the night has to mean something. The fact that he questions Jesus about matters that he should know the answer due to his position as a Pharisee matters. But more than anything, the fact that there is no resolution to this story means the most to me. Nicodemus is experiencing a dark night of the soul. He confesses his doubts and meets Jesus, but we never know what happens next. This sermon will address what happens when our story doubts.

Immediately after Jesus’ baptism, Jesus is taken to the Wilderness and tested by Satan three times. These temptations, according to Henri Nouwen, act as archetypes for the same temptations the world places on us today. Like Jesus, we are tempted to prove our worth by the world around us. If we can perform better, we can be better. Jesus knew this to be a lie. Unfortunately, this is a message we’re still trying to grasp today.

Readers get the behind-the-scenes tour of Jesus’ life in Mark 9. He takes his closest friends with him up on a mountain, and we get to go too. While up there, Jesus transfigures into his divine state, offering us a glimpse of what heaven looks like on earth. This single act offers us much in terms of faith, but sadly the disciples fail to understand its relevance. We can’t make the same mistake.

What good is our offering if it’s tainted? This is Jesus’ message for those of us who worship pretending we are reconciled with our enemies or our families. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to be people of salt and light, which means we have to understand the importance of reconciliation and take seriously Jesus’ pronunciation, “Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”

One could argue the Kingdom of Heaven is the primary objective in Matthew’s Gospel. All the characters, the narrators, even Jesus’ teachings, they all deal with the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven. In Matthew 5, Jesus has strong words on what it means for us to “enter” into that kingdom, and it has a lot to do with how we understand and follow the law. Here these words from one of our Associate Pastors, Rev. Dr. Jim Everette.