Welcome to Mercy Fellowship where we are Saved by Jesus Work, Changed by Jesus’ Grace, and Living on Jesus’s Mission. Happy Resurrection Sunday! Christ has risen! This past week and this Sunday in particular is unique and set apart, looking at Jesus path to the cross where He took our defeat for us on Good Friday. We remembered Good Friday is Good because Jesus in on the cross in our place. This morning we celebrate His victorious resurrection on Easter. Jesus is the savior-king, Christ, Messiah of God’s people. He is the king crucified for His people; He is the Savior risen for His people. This isn’t only significant for Christians but we believe it is for everyone. Why do you believe what you believe? Where do you look to for Hope, Identity, and purpose? All of us believe in something. All of us come with our own bias, experiences, and perspectives each limited to what we can perceive and process, none of us are truly neutral or faithless. “Our moral values, our belief about human nature, our beliefs about whether the material universe was its own cause or was created by God

Good Morning Welcome to Mercy Fellowship where we are Saved by Jesus Work, Changed by Jesus’ Grace, and Living on Jesus’s Mission. In an unsettling season where deconstruction reigns we are given a gift in the church calendar of Holy Week to resettle. This week we join with Christians around the world celebrating Palm Sunday. This is week of contemplation, remembering AND resting in what has been accomplished. We need hope, empathy, and leadership. Not distant, but hope that shows up! God knows we need hope. Hope gives us endurance today that tomorrow will be better. We can have hope today and trust God for our future because we can look back and see in Jesus, Hope Arrived. To set the scene, Jesus has been performing miracles, He’s been preaching and teaching in the region around Jericho and now He’s turning towards Jerusalem on His way to Passover. A time God’s people were gathering in a Holy City to remember the God who took them out of slavery in Egypt where death passed over them because of a symbolic sacrifice in their place. God’s people coming to their city in their promised land to celebrate God’s salvation, but it doesn’t feel quite right. Jerusalem (and Israel), at this time, isn’t independent and is not thriving. It’s under oppression from Rome. It’s a bit of a ghetto where a subculture of Judaism and temple worship is permitted but has been be a bit perverted. The people’s government is corrupt and self-serving Everyone knows the real power is in Rome. Change is desired, satisfaction in lacking, and different parties have competing views on what freedom and flourishing look like. As the city begins to fill up with visitors, Jew and gentle pilgrims, the Roman military presence is also increased bring the intensity level to a near boil. This is not paradise, this is not peace. Disorder, discrimination, and discord are reigning. This city needs a savior, and He’s coming.

Let’s talk about shame, suffering, and separation. We know shame. We know suffering. We know separation. These are part of the consequences of living in our imperfect world, but we don’t like talking about them. We would rather pretend they don’t impact us or they are only things others endure. The fact remains each have implication for how we see ourselves and others and affect how we relate to God. Shame- I know what I’ve done (or has been done to me). We realize we are not perfect. When we fail in anyway, we experience guilt (and maybe we are guilty). Others have harmed or abused us impacting our self-worth staining our psyche. We wear a scarlet letter This is shame. I am concerned it now defines me. Suffering- I know what I’ve dealt with (or am dealing with). There is pain and difficulty in the world often because of circumstances often beyond our control. Yet at times it can even be consequences of our own choices or results of our responsibilities. Craving flourishing, we face failure. I am concerned it will defeat me. Separation- I know who is distant (and maybe I even know why). People you were close with or thought were friends turn out to be foes. We try to move on, but grief needs to be processed. We carry brokenness into new relationships with bitterness from the past and fear of the future. I am concerned it disconnects me. These categories all need to be included in our concept and understanding of the impact of what the Bible calls “Sin”. Individually, Sin is missing the mark, it’s breaking God’s law, and how we are bent out of shape in this world. Corporately, it is the systems, structures, and societal norms of injustice oppression opposed to God’s rule and true human flourishing. In Creation, sin manifest itself in world hostile to enduing eternal life including disease and destruction. For most of our lives we have thought about sin in the court room context of “guilt/innocence” and that is not wrong. It is that, AND the Bible was written in and to a cultural context of “honor/shame”. When we endure shame, suffering, separation in can manifest itself dishonor. We cannot bear the dishonor of sin we’ve caused, or endured from, others. We need a salvation outside our ourselves effective to cover our shame, clean our souls, and change our relationships if we are Enduring Dishonor.

What drives you? What makes you get out of bed in the AM? Why are you here today? What are some forces, fears, or influences that you recognize drive your thoughts and behaviors? Much of what drives us is under the surface and in the culture, we are in so we are consciously aware of our key motivators. Yet there are a few categories most of our motivations are derived from all leading back to or stemming from ourselves. We live for ourselves impacting our internal motivation and our external engagement. These can manifest themselves in a few key internal/external categories I believe are helpful for our understanding and applying our text today: Self-Improvement

How long can we last? How long do you want to go? If someone said you could have 90 years guaranteed would you take it? What would you hope to accomplish and what about after? Deep in our souls we know we are made for eternity, yet our current physical bodies are anything but capable of enduring forever. But we don’t like to think about this inevitably. This past year we have a heighted awareness of human fragility as we see death totals daily rise and with it our discomfort as we respond with concern or callousness. None of us are truly comfortable death, nor should we be, but we struggle to engage with the tension we feel around life and death. We know our lives are finite yet none of us are ready to be finished. We need a clear frame work to process the truth of aging, the transition of death, the reality of the afterlife, all while remaining grounded in the time place and season we are in with purpose, perseverance, and hope. We believe today matters, but we earnestly desire something more and better tomorrow as we Endure for Eternity.

What is actually built to last? What is valuable? What we see about ourselves and experience in the world does not always seem enduring, strong, or valuable. At a certain point, as we age, we begin to see greater decay not greater glory. As we experience difficulty, we seem weaker not stronger. As we experience loss, we can lose vision of what is valuable. When we rely on that which can wear out we are left disappointed and despondent. To be prepared for eternity we need a true power worthy to endure. We need to rely on who and what is eternal if we are going to be built to last not just trough difficulty but onward to glory.

I want to start with the concept “We don’t lose heart.” Before we get into this passage deeper, I want to check in and ask, how are you doing today? Are you feeling discouraged? The last 12 months have been an incredible challenge. It’s ok, if you are feeling discouraged. That’s normal. This word “lose heart” has also been translated “faint”. To me it brought up the imagery of being so discourage you don’t want to get out of bed in the morning. It’s just not worth it. We think through this pandemic… almost 1/2 million in the US alone have died. Businesses have failed, jobs have ended, bank accounts dried up, churches have closed down… or split and to add insult to injury people have gotten cancer. Politics are a mess. It’s easy to be discouraged when the world around us is crumbling… this can sometimes lead us to a deeper more profound place of losing your trust in God. Is God really good? Is he really for me? Is he really out there? Does he care?

Where are you stuck? How do you find yourself relying on things that have outlasted their usefulness? Why do we do this? We can be easily satisfied with what we have or do if we think it “works” for us. We love “new” because we assume it’s better than what was. Because we are not easily satisfied, we cannot stand “old” so we’re always looking for something we think might be better that what is now. When something new comes along that is intrinsically better in comparison we rightly want to upgrade. Yet, at times, we settle for the comfort of what we know, even if it is inferior to what is now available. We need courage to embrace the glory of what God has for us today and forsake what has become obsolete. We need our eyes and hearts opened and directed to see where courage can be found. When have courage unveiled, we are empowered with the fresh boldness and enduring freedom to embody the real positive transformation we need.

How do you smell? Few things are more able to change our experience in a room, a home, even a community like an aroma. Nearly nothing can contain an aroma from spreading beyond its original source to impact the environment around it. Our lives, actions, and attitudes contribute to the aroma of all we are involved with. So what aroma is your life putting off? None of us wants to stink, we all want to smell good. How can we enjoy the sweat smell of victory and put of the stench of defeat? Today we are going to look at how we endure when defeat seems more real than victory, when we consume ideas and put-on identities which make us weaker rather than provide us with power, and when we realize we are not ever going to be enough.

How are you isolated? Why are you isolated? In the Northwest we’re not known as the most welcoming or warm people. In this now nearly year, we have become even more isolated than we were previously. It is incredibly difficult for us to form new relationships or even maintain ones we’ve enjoyed or find life giving when basic means of connection have been removed. Add in the societal challenges, political and cultural battle where division is the norm and our engagement primarily online and we see others as profiles to debate rather than people to be in relationship with and we individually and collectively become more isolated and independent rather than reliant, connected, and interdependent. We are not meant to be alone. Isolation reduces our ability to endure and robs us of joyful connection with others. When have you experienced significant growth in your life that didn’t also included others in some way? We are made for community, yet when we are with other imperfect people there is always the opportunity to both experience harm from others and for us to actually harm others. So we think the most courageous thing to do is go it alone. I’ll just run my race alone or I’ll just hunker down with my family. When we make our circles smaller, we are limiting the ability for community to help shape us and we are limiting our ability to impact others positively. We may be more effective in the short term, but we won’t endure for the long haul. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.