Lila Hunt went looking for something missing in her relationship with God, and found positive influence in the pentecostal tradition. And so as an anabaptist, she considers herself a hybrid. Pentecost in Acts occurred during Shavuot — or Pentecost in Greek. It commemorated the giving of the Torah by God at Mt. Sinai. The risen Jesus had instructed the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they were given heavenly power — so they wait. In Acts 2, they pray, fast, and interpret all they had experienced. On Shavuot, God’s Spirit comes with signs and wonders resembling the signs and wonders that came with the giving of the Torah. But rather than giving the law, the Holy Spirit was giving Herself.

What is Ascension Sunday? Resurrection part 2? “Why are you staring toward heaven?” two white-robed men ask. And for us as well, our focus is here. This king, this proclaimer of good news to the poor, this enemy of the state, this executed criminal, has been enthroned — and stands at the center of all that is. The Jesus community remains in hiding — but it is also marked by their eating together, a symbol of covenant. In this time Jesus teaches and commissions them as ambassadors, and pilgrims, and witnesses. This is life and living in our bodies the truth of justice and peace in Jesus — in the face of powers and principalities. We mark with our bodies in life the politics of heaven on earth.

Bert Newton unpacks John 10:1-16, and asks, "How do we become shepherds in a society where often our official shepherds are much like the hired hands that Jesus describes?" What do shepherds do? They organize sheep. And in organizing, we are all both shepherds and sheep. Together, organized and using our diversity of gifts and talents, we can move mountains. We are not alone in our struggle to establish God’s justice, we not only have each other, we have other faith communities and community groups and organizations that we can organize with to move mountains.

This week Frank led us in reflecting on how we can be a community of action, by considering how we might find ways to move together as a body. Key to this common, community action is not the need to be individuals who do everything, but in recognizing our unique gifts and how we can contribute to a common movement. Along the way, Frank tells us a few stories of walking together in little things with big consequences.

In this week’s sermon, Melissa Hofstetter reminds us of the power of connection, for those of us especially that may feel out of touch in this moment. As she considers Jesus’s offer to Thomas to touch his side, we are invited to consider the importance of touch, in Scripture and in our lives. As we focus on the wound, we consider the intimacy of woundedness and the importance of our ability to connect to one another in our woundedness and mutual reliance.

Our Easter reflection focuses on a Jesus who comes and dismantles the stories of oppression, colonization, and death that we have been formed into and invites us into eternal life in the present. Where the powers of the earth are not Lord; where death is not the last word; but Jesus is Lord, who comes in life and forgiveness.

Rob leads us through Jesus’s journey down the “Stairwell of Love.” Beginning with Philippians 2:1-11, Rob shows us how Jesus begins a descent out of love and obedience. This loving journey down this stairwell is mirrored in the days of Jesus’s crucifixion. Jesus moves from the top of the staircase, likeness with God, divinity, and moves through humanity, betrayal, arrest, denial, dissertation, and eventually crucifixion and into the grave.

The people of Israel waited hundreds of years for the promise of a new reality, where, as Jeremiah prophesied, God would restore the people and write his Law on their hearts. Jesus, himself, tells us that the times have changed, that God’s salvation is at hand, that we are in a new time and a new reality. Though this can be difficult to imagine, we are called into a promise and living hope; God is with us and working through us. As we join in Jesus’ posture of humility and sacrifice, we also join in the hope and confidence that the world is being made new.

This Week, we consider the strange comparison made in John 3 between Jesus and the story about Moses lifting up a Bronze serpent in the wilderness. Using a reflection from Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama, we reflect on how the central image of Christianity, the cross, is not a "bridge" but an encounter and a conflict.

This week sermon, Jason leads us in considering signs, the signs that we reflect and display as we live in the way of the crucified. After considering the signs and significations of artist Retna, Jason contemplates Jesus’s clearing of the temple in John 2. Making the comparison to the false worship found in Jesus’s time with the false worship of Christian nationalism, power, and violence seen on display at the “temple of democracy,” Jason contends that rather than “abandoning the sign of the cross,” we must learn “to cleave closer its true content.” The post Sign Language appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.