Holy Trinity Ankeny

Pastor Kurt Nordby, our consultant for the Open Arms Capital Campaign from The James Company, is our preacher. Listen to the concrete ways that Jesus' love is poured into the community of faith and what we can do with this love. Being an open arms congregation is about love poured out. Find out how you are involved in this love.

We all hope for a better world; a less violent world; a world with fewer tears and less grief. Those hopes can often seem remote and impossible. This was true for the women who found the tomb of Jesus empty. But then they remembered the promises and the promise-maker. Then they saw that death did not have the final word, God did. That word was resurrection. In the midst of all our suffering and pain, God gets the last word. That is the hope of Easter for every day.

As Jesus enters Jerusalem, his disciples sing his praises. Some, perhaps from fear or disagreement, call for them to be quiet and shut up about this Messiah. The crucifixion is an attempt to silence Jesus, but he keeps saying things to provoke right to the end. The world still seeks to silence the word of grace, mercy, forgiveness and love that is revealed in the cross. The question for us is will we be silent or, as living stones, continue to speak, sing and serve the crucified one?

The Sin of Entitlement

When we think of entitlement, my mind goes directly to government programs like Social Security, Unemployment Compensation and others. Those are programs that help so many people. But if I look past these superficial examples of entitlement and dig a little deeper, I find that entitlement is something that affects my entire life. And it isn’t pretty. Listen to learn more about the human struggle of feeling entitled.

When Mary empties a year’s wages on Jesus' feet to anoint him for death, it seems to some a disgraceful act of over-the-top generosity. Mary, however, learned generosity from Jesus Christ, who had a knack for abundance that overflowed into the life of the world. Following his lead may in fact lead to some acts of “disgraceful” generosity because we are overwhelmed with the abundance of his grace.

Busy, Busy, Busy. It seems like we are always busy spending our time on everything but what Jesus calls the most important thing – sitting at his feet and listening to him. Hear my confession and recall the story of busy Martha and her sister Mary.

The story of the Prodigal Son may be familiar to you, in fact you may believe that you have heard this story so many times that it has been squeezed dry of meaning.  You are invited to listen as we reexamine this story from a different perspective; from the perspective of hunger.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, author and survivor of the Nazi death camps Elie Wiesel has said, “The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference.” If he is right, then perhaps one of the greatest sins against the God of love is apathy. 

Some who were gathered told Jesus of the untimely death of many through two tragic incidents that caused people to wonder why.  Why the suffering and untimely death of so many?  Jesus shares some important information about suffering, but even more importantly he shares how to live life to its fullest, since we never know how many days we have.  Listen to a story of a fig tree, a man and a gardener, and hear about our amazing God.

This is a reflection offered for Lenten Midweek services at Holy Trinity on February 24, 2016. The texts considered were: Romans 14:7-13 & Matthew 7:1-5