Trinity Fremont

Jesus has made his triumphant return to Jerusalem.  Now what?  Well, he begins teaching again, except this time, he has quite an audience.  Jerusalem is filled with visitors for the upcoming Passover Feast.  It’s an annual celebration.  But since Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, things have ramped up.  People are paying close attention to what Jesus is saying, more than ever.  Some are listening to Him because they are hoping that indeed He is the promised Messiah.  Many are listening to Him for evidence He should be arrested and put to death.  

Then he says this: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” His death and burial and ultimately, His own resurrection are all being foretold.  They all are necessary for glorification to occur.  A glorification we too will experience when Jesus raises us from the dead. 

Jesus is not only a good guide, he is the GREATEST Guide.  He guides us from the darkness of sin into light.  He guides us through His Word.  He guides us because He loves us, a love that led Him all the way to the cross where He suffered, bled and died for us.  

But our guide is alive.  He is not dead.  He rose to continue guiding us and saving us until He returns to overcome the darkness once and for all.  

After around 2,000 years, after the Fall in the Garden of Eden, there is a turn of grace by God by His calling of Abram.  God’s grace is not only given TO Abram it is given THROUGH Abram.  Through Abram and his offspring, ALL nations/people will be blessed.  And they were and we are.  

But we tend to get caught up in celebrating OUR being blessed without sharing God’s grace.  There is plenty of grace to go around.  It is our nature to turn in on ourselves, celebrate what we have, and not want to or forget to share it.  

God’s grace is NOT JUST FOR YOU.  It’s for ALL PEOPLE.  He repeatedly returns to us in grace, and He repeatedly turns us in grace toward others.

How’s that going for you?  Turning in grace toward others?  How is God turning you in grace toward others in YOUR life?   

How might God work through you to be a blessing to others in little or even big ways?  Possibly there are things in your life you would like to turn AWAY from?  How’s that going for you?  What are things you would like to turn towards in your life?  

Turning towards God’s grace and sharing it with others is God’s desire for you. 

Genesis 12:1–9

What do we do with the guilt of sin?  Many times we don’t own it.  We tend to “pass the buck.”  We tend to rationalize “it’s not MY fault.”  It’s human nature.  It’s exactly what Adam and Eve did in the garden that fateful day when they gave into temptation.  What do you do when YOU give into temptation?  Do you take accountability or do you pass the buck?

Unfortunately, because of our sinful condition, of which David reminds us in Psalm 51, we  were even conceived in, we not only pass the buck, but we just keep on sinning in our thoughts, in our words and in our deeds.  So now what?

Well, Jesus takes all of those sins.  He takes them to the cross.  He says, “The buck stops here.  Right here at the cross.”  And it does… and He did, take them to the cross with Him so that we might be forgiven and redeemed.  He WANTS you to be with Him.  It’s why He did what He did.  

Our response?  Repentance, just like King David. 

In this week’s Kingdom Parables series, Jesus gives us a last day picture of His kingdom through the Parable of the Wedding Feast. This is not a moral lesson about proving we belong. It’s a kingdom story about what the King does for His people. The King not only invites. He provides what is needed to belong. We’ll see how Jesus makes us worthy by clothing us in His righteousness through His Word and Sacraments. And we’ll end with the promise of the feast that never ends, when death is swallowed up forever and tears are wiped away.

In this week’s Kingdom Parables series, we hear Jesus’ parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price. These are not moral lessons about proving our devotion. They are Kingdom stories about what the King does for His people. We’ll see how the King, Jesus, gives up everything for sinners, calls us by name, and makes us His own. Because of Him, we’re freed from trying to earn our value, and we’re able to see others as priceless treasures too.

In this parable, God’s extravagance is shown: His extravagant love, His extravagant forgiveness and His extravagant mercy.  God is the master who forgives the extravagant debt owed him by his servant.  But the servant’s selfish, sinful nature is shown when he doesn’t forgive or have mercy on a fellow servant who owes him a small portion of what he had owed his master.  His heart has not been changed.  He has NOT been transformed.  Good fruit is not part of the process.

So here WE are.  God has also forgiven OUR debt to him, the debt of being born into sin.  We can NOT pay it on our own - not even close.  But God’s love for us is so extravagant that He sent His own Son to pay the debt of sin FOR us.  

And our response?  Of course that is the question of the day.  What IS our response?

This weekend in worship we continue our parable series with Jesus’ short, surprising pictures of the Kingdom of God. The mustard seed and the leaven look small and ordinary. Yet Jesus shows that His reign grows in ways we can’t always see and in ways that become unmistakable over time. The Kingdom does not depend on our strength or our scale. It depends on the King who is at work.