Holy Trinity Ankeny

We continue our series on Prophet Margins. Hear the story of Naboth and his garden. Learn about the cost of wanting more and more, and God’s response to this desire. Be reminded of the contentment that comes when we focus on all we receive from God.

In the readings for this day, God is busy feeding people in a famine from jars of meal and oil that never give out. God is busy bringing life to the dead through Elijah and Jesus. The miracles are amazing. But miracles can distract us from the message. Miracles tell us about God. They reveal answers to questions we ask about God’s will and ways. Does God love all people or just Christians? Who goes to heaven? Who goes to hell? The miracles today give us a glimpse into the God who will not be bound by our rules and boundaries.

You are invited to ponder as the Psalmist did when writing Psalm 8, the grandeur of God.  We may feel small and insignificant in comparison to the vastness of all creation, yet God has made us a little lower than God.  God has given us a vocation making clear his trust in us.  Listen and ponder the abundant love and grandeur of the God who claims us.

The story of Pentecost begins long before Pentecost. In the beginning, the divine love of the Trinity gathered together out of chaos all the fragments of creation – quarks and strings; light and energy; bits and pieces of nothing – and made it into something; made it into life itself. The story of humanity is one long string of ways in which we divide, categorize, separate and fragment what God put together. On Pentecost, the power of the Spirit swept into motion erasing the boundaries of language and then every subsequent dividing line to put things back together and erase our fear. ALL who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (reconciled, forgiven, reunited and put back together). And that means ALL. No more fragments. No more fear.

A slave girl turns out to be free while her slave owners are really bound. Prisoners end up free while the jailer is the one needing freedom. The stories in Acts 16 redefine freedom and salvation. We live in the land of the free, but few of us are really free if we are honest. Liberty and the “pursuit of happiness” inevitably bind us to things and debt. The question is: Are we free to love, serve, give to, or forgive others as we are led by Jesus? If not, we are not truly free.

Jesus promises that the God, through the power of the Spirit,

What makes the Christian faith community distinct from any other

“My sheep hear my voice…they follow me.”  Do we believe first and then follow, or is it the other way around?  Hear what following Jesus looks like in Christian daily life and in the life of Christian community. Know that Jesus brings you life.

Easter Sunday is long past by now and even the disciples seem to want to just get back to “normal” – whatever that means. But Jesus has a way of chasing us down and bringing redemption, reconciliation, rehabilitation and renewal – all signs of the resurrection. Just ask Simon Peter, the three time denier, and Saul, the religious terrorist. Resurrection happens when love for Jesus leads to following him into the new life he calls us to live.