For the week of March 23 – 3rd Sunday in Lent
Morning Prayer: Free me, Lord Jesus, from anything that obstructs my way to You. Clear away the clutter of petty grudges. Remove smudges of resentment and bitterness. Cleanse me of thoughts filled with anger, envy, or self-pity. Create space in my life for more kindness and less spitefulness, greater generosity and stronger compassion. Enlarge my heart with a spirit of gratitude this Lent, so that I recognize the simple gifts that lay in abundance all around me. In Your sacred name, I pray. Amen. (A Prayer for Lenten Simplicity – St. Therese)
Opening Hymn: #64 Holy, Holy, Holy
- Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity! - Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
- Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see,
only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy name, in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
Psalm 37:1-6 (CEB)
Don’t get upset over evildoers;
don’t be jealous of those who do wrong,
2 because they will fade fast, like grass;
they will wither like green vegetables.
3 Trust the Lord and do good;
live in the land, and farm faithfulness.
4 Enjoy the Lord,
and He will give what your heart asks.
5 Commit your way to the Lord!
Trust Him! He will act
6 and will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
your justice like high noon.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: Easter Dinner at Lightstreet United Methodist Church. Yes – there will be a Free Easter dinner for anyone who wants to come. Easter Sunday, April 20, 12 noon until the food runs out. Can you come? Can you bring someone with you?
Offering prayer: Faithful God, our guide and sustainer, as we offer these gifts, may they bear fruit for Your kingdom. In this solemn season of Lent, we remember Your call to repentance and renewal. Help us tend the soil of our hearts so that we may grow in faith and bear witness to Your grace. Use these offerings to bring hope to those in need and light to those in darkness. May we live as Your fruitful servants, trusting in Your abundant mercy. In the name of Christ who calls us to new life, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn: #357 Just As I Am Without One Plea
- Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me,
and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. - Just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. - Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. - Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; sight, riches, healing of the mind,
yea, all I need in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. - Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. - Just as I am, Thy love unknown hath broken every barrier down;
now, to be Thine, yea Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Scripture: Luke 11:37-52 (CEB)
37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to share a meal with him, so Jesus went and took His place at the table. 38 When the Pharisee saw that Jesus didn’t ritually purify His hands by washing before the meal, he was astonished.
39 The Lord said to him, “Now, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your insides are stuffed with greed and wickedness. 40 Foolish people! Didn’t the one who made the outside also make the inside? 41 Therefore, give to those in need from the core of who you are and you will be clean all over.
42 “How terrible for you Pharisees! You give a tenth of your mint, rue, and garden herbs of all kinds, while neglecting justice and love for God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.
43 “How terrible for you Pharisees! You love the most prominent seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.
44 “How terrible for you! You are like unmarked graves, and people walk on them without recognizing it.”
45 One of the legal experts responded, “Teacher, when You say these things, You are insulting us too.”
46 Jesus said, “How terrible for you legal experts too! You load people down with impossible burdens and you refuse to lift a single finger to help them.
47 “How terrible for you! You built memorials to the prophets, whom your ancestors killed. 48 In this way, you testify that you approve of your ancestors’ deeds. They killed the prophets, and you build memorials! 49 Therefore, God’s wisdom has said, ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them and they will harass and kill some of them.’ 50 As a result, this generation will be charged with the murder of all the prophets since the beginning of time. 51 This includes the murder of every prophet—from Abel to Zechariah—who was killed between the altar and the holy place. Yes, I’m telling you, this generation will be charged with it.
52 “How terrible for you legal experts! You snatched away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter yourselves, and you stood in the way of those who were entering.”
Message: Giving Up the Enemies Within Pastor Becky
We can do a lot about how we look on the outside. We see millions of dollars spent on advertising to help us look the right way. The right clothes, the best anti-aging creams, the right car or house … We follow the trends to appear hip or to at least signal that we care what others may think about us. We fool ourselves into thinking that if the packaging is right, if it looks good, then by extension the inside is good, at our core, we are good.
Yet, there is sage wisdom that tells us not to judge a book by its cover or that beauty is only skin deep. We spend a lot of time on the outside of ourselves and God cares very little about our outsides. Remember when God sent Samuel to Jesse to anoint one of his sons as the king to replace Saul? Jesse lined them all up in front of Samuel and God told Samuel, “Don’t look on his appearance or height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as a man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
The heart, the place inside us, stores our emotions, memories, and motivations. That is where God is looking, that deep place inside of us.
Our heart holds love in all its forms. It is the keeping place of romantic love for our partners, agape love for our neighbors, parental love for our children. It holds our memories. It helps us recall moments of peace and serenity, along with times of security and wellbeing. It holds our motivations to stay true to our callings as children of God. It keeps us loyal to our promises and feeds our faith.
It can also hold our anger and disappointment. It is the locked place of our trauma and hurt. It can be soft and malleable or hard as stone.
And our inner self, this heart of ours, is of the utmost concern to Jesus. Hear what Jesus has to say about our inner self:
Luke 6:45 A good person produces good from the good treasury of the inner self, while an evil person produces evil from the evil treasury of the inner self. The inner self overflows with words that are spoken.
Those words? They reveal the condition of our hearts. Jesus said, “But what comes out of the mouth begins in the heart, and that’s what makes someone unclean. Out of the heart, you see come evil plots, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy.” (Matthew 15:18-19)
We need to be attentive to what is on the inside, especially the things we hoard in our hearts that pollute our minds and cause us to sin against God by harming one another and ourselves.
As Jesus talks to the Pharisees, He calls out their robbery and wickedness. He goes back and forth with them as to how they are seen on the outside. Yet, their motivations are corrupt. All they are doing is to be seen. Nothing they were doing was advancing justice or aiding those suffering.
They were all afflicted by some enemy within themselves, and so are we. There are so many things we could list or examine that contaminate our hearts. The list is long, but here are a few: pride, greed, hatred, jealousy, hostility, laziness, and lust. Honestly I know and you know we are all hoping I am not going to cover the one we have trouble with. This morning would be so much more pleasant, much easier, if I didn’t expose our sins, our dark spots. Yet, if we are to be transformed people, living into the new life offered to us as believers in Jesus Christ, we have to shed our dark spots.
Envy is one of those dark spots. You may be thinking, wait! You listed jealousy, aren’t they the same thing? No. Envy is when we lack something that another possesses and we want it. Jacob was envious of Esau’s position as first born. His envy motivated his betrayal of both Esau and Isaac in securing Esau’s birthright. Envy over being Jacob’s most favorite son led Joseph’s brothers to sell him off into slavery. They only succeed in removing Joseph’s presence, but never replaced him in Jacob’s heart. Both Esau and Joseph had something their brothers desired.
Jealousy is when something we already have is threatened by another person. Rachel already had all of Jacob’s affection, yet she continued to mistreat Leah and try to best her. There was never any real threat of losing Jacob’s affection, yet Rachel constantly defended her position.
Envy tends to appear with people who are our equals. I’m not going to get upset to hear about the best doctor in town, or the best teacher, plumber, or electrician. I need to know who these folks are because I may need their expertise. But to hear of a better preacher/pastor? That hits home, then the comparisons begin. What makes their preaching better than mine, their pastoral ministry better? Maybe it isn’t that it is better, just different. Exorcising envy from our lives will put us on the clearer track toward transformation. We stop comparing ourselves with others and focus on bettering the one person we can change and that is us.
The temptation to say it’s not me, but them is another enemy within us that needs to go. Blame-shifting causes us to not be accountable for our wrongs. It’s always someone else’s fault. Now there are times when it really isn’t our fault. Somebody else acted in a way that caused us harm or harm to another, but we do need to take responsibility for what we do; accidentally and on purpose.
Blame-shifting is as old as time. We don’t need to go too far into the beginning of Genesis to see the first example. Adam blames Eve for the forbidden fruit and goes a step further and tells God, it’s God’s fault for giving him this woman. Eve blames the serpent.
Moses blames the stiff necked Israelites for the disastrous hike through the desert. God if only You wouldn’t have given me these people, I would not have gotten angry. And the Israelites blame Moses and accuse him of bringing them out to the desert to die. Nobody is owning their part in the 40 years of wandering. And the greatest blow, Pontius Pilate blames the crowd. Blame-shifting gets people killed.
We all do it to some degree. It becomes an ever progressing chain of misery visited on the folks least deserving. Boss yells at manager, manager yells as administrative assistant, who in turns yells at his/her co-worker. Then the co-worker heads to the grocery store and yells at the cashier, cashier goes home and yells at their spouse, who in turn yells at their toddler. If only the boss had taken accountability in the first place, there would be no crying child.
And we have heard all the excuses: I couldn't help it- She told me to- The devil made me do it- I didn’t know any better. Yet we do know better. God gave us power and freedom to choose and the encouragement and support to admit when we are wrong. Making amends for past wrongs is part of our transformational journey.
Another enemy we can fall victim to is self-pity. I am not talking about temporarily feeling sorry for ourselves. That short-lived dip in mood and outlook like when we don’t necessarily get what we wanted or disappointment. I’m talking about the self-pity that drives us to despair, that runs counter to the hope we have in Jesus. The self-pity that blinds us to the blessings we do have. Self-pity destroys our ability to love and be loved. It can exhaust us and others around us. It takes a toll on all aspects of our lives and actively denies God’s love for us.
Again, none of this is easy. None of this can happen overnight. Transformation takes time, yet we are called to start, choosing and living into the moment of meeting the Jesus of the resurrection. Giving up envy, blame-shifting, and self-pity is hard work, yet we are called to it, to take on the likeness of Jesus. Transformation is the fruit, the identifying marker, of a follower of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Closing Hymn: #382 Have Thine Own Way, Lord
- Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will,
while I am waiting, yielded and still. - Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Savior today!
Wash me just now, Lord, wash me just now, as in Thy presence humbly I bow. - Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray! Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine! - Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway. Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
