The Table UMC

Pentecost Sunday commemorates the Pentecost event in the book of Acts, when people from all across the world speaking many languages could suddenly understand one another through the movement of the Holy Spirit. Symbols are fire and wind.

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Being awake to God, learning to be comfortable in our own skin, leaning into our pain, being open to the journey, and embracing restfulness are some of the ways we’ve explored what it might look like for us to become more fully alive. Notice that what we have explored has been less about attaining something and instead more about becoming aware that the means are already ours. As author Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, “All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need.”

The creation story from the first chapter of Genesis makes one thing perfectly clear, the goodness of God is woven into the very fabric of creation. All that exists, shares in God’s own holiness. In that sense, we can think of being, as blessing.

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Barbara Brown Taylor says, “In a world of too much information about almost everything, bodily practices can provide great relief. … In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.” We continue this week with our Easter season theme, “Come Alive!”, offering an invitation for us to come more fully alive.

In the first version (yes, there are two) of the fourth commandment (Ex. 28:8-11), we read that God made the Sabbath holy (not just good), so we shall rest as God rested on the seventh day. In this second version of the fourth commandment (Dt. 5:12-15), we read that the Sabbath is a day of remembering that God liberated God’s people from slavery with a mighty hand and outstretched arm.

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In our scripture reading for this Sunday, we find Abram setting out on a journey, heading into an unknown land. This is just one of many journeys we find throughout scripture – journeys taken by many prominent figures of our faith.

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The book of Job is not an easy read. And it is deeply connected with Easter. Job’s story is essentially a passion narrative in wisdom form. Job suffers unjustly, is abandoned by friends, and cries out to a seemingly absent God — mirroring Good Friday. Job refuses false comfort or tidy theology. He brings his raw anguish directly to God rather than suppressing it. His cries mirror Jesus’ from the cross — “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22). Easter doesn’t erase that lament; it answers it. The resurrection similarly doesn’t explain the cross theologically so much as it transforms it. God’s presence is the answer. There is restoration on Easter morning — not because everything is explained, but because God shows up.

Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us that “pain originates in the body. It happens in the flesh, while suffering happens in the mind. It is difficult to bear or even be near either one without entertaining grave questions about divine justice”. Despite our search for good news, pain and suffering is all around us. How do you bring that to God?

She also affirms that “life can be as full of meaning as it is of hurt. The two have never cancelled each other out”, even if some religions promise to put pain and suffering away. How do we, as a community, pay attention to pain and suffering? What do we do about it?

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John’s gospel begins by telling us that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:14) Reflecting on the gospel of John, preaching professor Karoline Lewis writes: “This is a full sensory Gospel. Sometimes it’s tasting (John 6), sometimes it’s smelling (John 11), sometimes it’s hearing (John 10), sometimes it’s touching (John 13:23), and sometimes it is seeing. This is what it means to be human and to experience relationships as human beings. A full, intimate, meaningful relationship will encompass the entirety of who we are and what it means to be human. God wants nothing less than this kind of relationship with us.”

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Jacob is desperately seeking to get far away from a family situation that has imploded. Seized by a mixture of guilt, shame, and fear he runs off trying to put as much distance between him and his family as possible. He lays down to sleep in the midst of a rocky wilderness feeling as desolate and lonely as his surroundings. While he sleeps, he dreams of a ladder stretching from heaven to earth and recognizes the abiding presence of God with him, in a time and place that he did not expect it. Barbara Brown Taylor writes about this moment, “Having woken up to God, Jacob would never be able to go to sleep again, at least not to the divine presence that had promised to be with him whether he could see it or not.”

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Lent was originally a season for new converts to learn and prepare for their baptism on Easter. During that time, they would study what was central to Christianity. As we enter this new series, we study what is central to Jesus’ life and ministry: radical welcome, love for neighbor, care for the vulnerable, nourishment for the hungry, nonviolence in the face of injustice. At the heart of Jesus’ teachings, we find liberation, love, mercy, and grace—all of which are meant to be very good news for us all.

Jesus’ words are easily distorted and sanitized in our modern world. Following Jesus leads to a richer, more expansive life, but it’s not necessarily comfortable. Jesus’ ministry can be described as “radical” which comes from the Latin word “radicalis,” meaning “root” or “ground.” Therefore, the good news should bring us back to our roots. Emulating Jesus and embodying his teachings should ground us in who God created us to be. Can we be “good news” people in a world too often burdened by bad news?

This Lent, let us remember that the good news really is good news. It is joyful—like fine wine saved for celebration. It grows like a mustard seed and smells like perfume poured from an alabaster jar. It tastes like bread passed endlessly through a hungry crowd. It sounds like laughter and feels like mercy. The good news is alive in the world. (Sanctified Art Resources)

Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

Lent was originally a season for new converts to learn and prepare for their baptism on Easter. During that time, they would study what was central to Christianity. As we enter this new series, we study what is central to Jesus’ life and ministry: radical welcome, love for neighbor, care for the vulnerable, nourishment for the hungry, nonviolence in the face of injustice. At the heart of Jesus’ teachings, we find liberation, love, mercy, and grace—all of which are meant to be very good news for us all.

Jesus’ words are easily distorted and sanitized in our modern world. Following Jesus leads to a richer, more expansive life, but it’s not necessarily comfortable. Jesus’ ministry can be described as “radical” which comes from the Latin word “radicalis,” meaning “root” or “ground.” Therefore, the good news should bring us back to our roots. Emulating Jesus and embodying his teachings should ground us in who God created us to be. Can we be “good news” people in a world too often burdened by bad news?

This Lent, let us remember that the good news really is good news. It is joyful—like fine wine saved for celebration. It grows like a mustard seed and smells like perfume poured from an alabaster jar. It tastes like bread passed endlessly through a hungry crowd. It sounds like laughter and feels like mercy. The good news is alive in the world. (Sanctified Art Resources)

Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

This Sunday we will observe Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the final week of Jesus’ life, a span of time that Christian tradition has come to refer to as Holy Week. While the week culminates in the events of Good Friday and Easter, the movement through the entire week tells us of significant interactions with followers as well as definitive confrontations with adversaries, each of which brings greater clarity about how Jesus understood his mission, to incarnate the kingdom of God.

Our scripture reading for this week is from Mark’s version of the Gospel. It is interesting to note that Mark is the only Gospel writer that makes the effort to record the events of Holy Week on a day to day basis, signifying a certain level of care to how the story of the week is shared. Ultimately, it is a story of resistance and subversion as Jesus seeks to challenge the “domination system” that Rome, and all empires, employ. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan write, “There is nothing unusual about this form of society. Monarchical and aristocratic rule by a wealthy few was the most common form of social system in the ancient world. And one could make a good case that in somewhat different form it remains with us today.” Jesus actions on Palm Sunday represent a direct challenge to the legitimacy and normalization of such systems. As Jesus entered the city from the east, Pontius Pilate would have been entering the city from the west, leading a parade glorifying all the imperial power of Rome.

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