Pentecost 2026 – Witnesses
Rev. Doug Floyd
Genesis 11:1-9, Psalm 104:24–35, Acts 2:1-11, John 14:8-17

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)

The disciples are waiting and praying and seeking the Lord. They gather with the women, with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. As Christopher pointed out last week, the miracle is that they have not scattered. At His crucifixion and death, the disciples scattered, but now they wait. Christ called them to wait, and they obey.

Jesus told them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”” (Luke 24:46–49, ESV)

They are staying, waiting, watching, praying. The day of Pentecost arrives and suddenly a mighty rushing wind fills the house. Tongues of fire come down upon them. They are all filled with the Holy Spirit.

This morning, let’s briefly pause over this verse from last week: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)

The Spirit will make them (and us) witnesses, and they (and we) will eventually bear witness to the ends of the earth.

In Acts 1, we hear Jesus say, “You will be my witnesses.” You will bear witness what you have seen and heard of Jesus Christ. You have seen and heard and even touched. Now you must speak. Thus, the Spirit comes upon them in tongues of fire. Tongues set on fire by the Spirit of the Living God.

The disciples and the people of God often struggle to bear witness. Think about life in general. Humans love to speak what they barely know. I have often been guilty of saying more than I know and even being ready to argue about it. Usually days later, I tell Kelly well it looks like you were right after all.

Whether online or in person, we can communicate with such confidence though in reality we speak in fragments. It is difficult to admit we are always learning up until the day we die.

In 1970, Bob Dylan sang “My Back Pages.” He sings,

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now[1]

The prophet must face his limitations. In this song, Dylan confesses that he realizes life is more complex than he understood. I love this last line,

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

My own life has often been the journey of humility. Of recognizing, I know less than I once thought I knew. If we follow the lives of these Apostles, we come to see that even as they are empowered to be witness, the Spirit is making the true witnesses over time.

Zeal for the Lord consumed Paul even as he sought to consume the early church in a fire of judgment. Then the Lord confronts him. He is broken. That same driven Pharisee comes face to face with his own lack. In Philippians 3, Paul confesses his ongoing pursuit to know the truth, that is to know Christ.

“though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:4–11, ESV)

Even as Paul writes, he is still in pursuit of Christ. He has not mastered a set of ideas, a series of doctrinal formulations, a confession of faith. He is pursuing the person of Jesus Christ. In this pursuit, he recognizes his own weakness. This fiery preacher of the Gospel who has set the empire ablaze with the truth of Jesus Christ, confesses, “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (1 Corinthians 15:9, ESV)

He has grown weaker over time. It’s not that he doubts the message and person of Jesus Christ, it that he acknowledges he is a weak vessel. He needs God’s Spirit to keep leading him to Jesus, to keep speaking through him to reveal Jesus. He needs the grace of God to bear witness to the risen Lord.

While we seek to learn of Jesus and study our faith and even the history of our church, we also recognize our absolute dependence on the Spirit of God to make us true witnesses of Jesus Christ. In that sense, life is a continual turning to Christ, a continual cry for mercy, a continual pattern of humbling myself under the mighty hand of God and before the people of God.

We learn from each other. My heart must always be open to criticism or correction or wisdom for I used to be so much older then but I’m younger than that now. I realize I need you. We all need each other as we all pursue Christ together.

It might help to consider a single human life to understand how we are becoming true witnesses. A baby is born. It cannot speak. The babe can breathe, cry. The Greek word for breath or wind is Pnuema, spirit. The Spirit of God is likened to wind or breath. A babe cannot articulate words, but it can breathe. In that simple state she is still bearing witness to the miracle of life, the gift of God. As the child grows, she learns to repeat words and even speak sentences. She is gradually become an articulation of God’s grace in word and deed.

As she grows up in a faith community, she sings song of faith, to physically acts out faith in bowing, in communion, in embracing, in praying, in blessing others. The witness of God is taking shape in and through her over time. By the Spirit of God, she is becoming a witness of Jesus Christ.

By God’s grace her words and deeds are uniting in the love of Christ. Eventually, she will grow old and frail. I sat with a dear friend this week who ended up dying yesterday. He spent his life speaking about Christ to people all over the world. On Thursday, he could barely speak. He had quit eating. Like a babe, he would wake, breathe, sleep.

In these last moments of life, he was bearing witness to Christ. The Spirit of God is work in and through Him to reveal God’s grace and truth. On Saturday he fell asleep one last time and his breath left, expired. He followed the Spirit of God into the bosom of Christ and rests in God’s love where one day, he will rise in Christ as a true and perfect witness.

We are all following in His steps. The Spirit is bearing witness in and through us now and will one day take us into the fullness of love.

Back to the disciples. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)

Listen to the second half of the verse: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The disciples will bear witness to Jesus in Jerusalem, but it doesn’t stop there. They continue to all Judea and then Samaria and finally to the ends of the earth. Philip is on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza when he meets an Ethiopian eunuch. He answers the eunuch’s questions and baptizes him. Then suddenly he is passing through Azotus on the way to Caesarea. These are Hellenist cities that contain Jews and other populations. Paul and Barnabas eventually travel throughout the empire preaching to Jews and Gentiles. We see the Spirit calling His saints beyond Jerusalem toward the ends of the earth.

As we think about this witness of Christ going to the ends of the earth, let’s return to the day of Pentecost. Peter is preaching the Gospel. We read in Acts 2:6, “And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.” (Acts 2:6, ESV) Then we read a list of the various people visiting from different regions. They are not hearing the word in Hebrew but in their own language: “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—..hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”” (Acts 2:9–11, ESV)

The Spirit is working through Peter to address people in their own languages. This fits with our first reading where we encounter the story of the tower of Babel. People are speaking one language. They’re building a tower. But the Lord frustrates their plans by separating their languages, then they disperse all over the face of the earth. This week I read a reflection on Pentecost by Christine Sine.[2] She references Welsh theologian Dewi Hughes. He suggests that the confusing of languages in the Babel story reinforces God’s intent to spread people across the ends of the earth, speaking different languages.

The Pentecost story reinforces this idea of keeping distinct cultures and languages. There is a beauty in the particularity of different cultures and people groups. At the same time, there is a beauty in the particularity of each person. We are united in Christ not in external factors of language and dress.

As we worship together and share life while remaining particular people with unique perspectives on the world. We learn from one another. Over the years, I’ve had a series of experiences that reflected my own misunderstanding of how the Spirit moves. When I was young, I dreamed of people falling and crying out to God when I preached like the Great Awakening. That never happened.

One night I dreamed I was trying to share with a guy, but he kept arguing with me. In the dream, I shrunk down small enough to enter his brain and change his thoughts so he would agree with me. Instantly, I woke up realizing I wanted power to control him, and that’s not the way of the Spirit. His lovingkindness leads us to repentance not power, not control.

The difficulty is that people will not always agree with us. The goal is not to associate only with people who agree with us. Nor is it to find a rock-solid argument that no one can deny. We humbly speak and humbly listen.

We simply live out our witness in word and deed, recognizing that we are frail and sometimes mistaken. We trust that the Spirit will translate our fumbling attempts to share Christ into a true word that another person can hear. Then we entrust them to God. Sometimes the most angry people are at the very edge of faith. We simply don’t know. We love. We bear witness, and we trust God’s goodness.

On this glorious day of Pentecost, I am thankful that the Spirit of God has been poured out upon each of us. He is opening our eyes and ears to Christ. He is strengthening us to worship. And he is raising us up as witness to our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

[1] “My Back Pages” on < https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/my-back-pages/>

[2] Christine Sine, “Meditation Monday – Pentecost Has Come.” < https://godspacelight.com/meditation-monday-pentecost-has-come/>

Ascension Sunday 2026
Dr. Christopher Graham
Acts 1:1-14, Psalm 47, 1 Peter 5, John 17:1-11

“At Easter, beloved brethren, it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy; our present rejoicing is on account of his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity, we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvellous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men’s sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.
Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They were able to fix their minds on Christ’s divinity as he sat at the right hand of his Father, since what was presented to their bodily eyes no longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the realisation that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth, nor had he abandoned his disciples when he ascended into heaven.

St. Leo the Great, Sermon 74, “On the Ascension II.” 

——–

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.”

A few weeks ago, we considered the fact that by God’s electing and calling Word, we are composed and re-composed in spite of the voices that seek to distort us and de-compose us. Even some of our own voices. And you may remember that Peter himself heard and struggled with that when he heard Jesus say, “Follow Me,” but Peter’s own voices caused him to doubt as he looked over and saw the beloved disciple.

Of course, that interaction follows the interaction in which three times, Jesus asks “Simon, of John, do you love Me?” with Peter saying “Yes,” to which Jesus commands: Feed my Sheep. It is, of course, a rhetorically poignant interaction because it is juxtaposed to Peter’s three denials and ultimate abandonment of Jesus. We would assume that Peter had this in mind at some point in the interaction or perhaps in reflection. I have also assumed that Peter has another episode in his time with Jesus in mind during or reflecting on this thrice-repeated command “Feed my Sheep.”

Those words are found earlier in John when Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters the flock. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me (John 10:11–14)

Do you feel the gravity of Jesus’s call on Peter? Jesus, the one who said “I AM the Good Shepherd,” then calls Peter, the one who said three times when asked if he was associated with Jesus “I am NOT.” Jesus asked that Peter to be the Shepherd of his sheep! 

But something clicks with Peter. He and the other disciples must get it.  How do we know? Because as we read in Acts, he does something he didn’t do in the face of Jesus first departure. He and the other disciples don’t scatter like sheep when the shepherd is struck. For as spectacular as the actual ascension is in our reading from Acts, it is also remarkable that after that event, “they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.”

And these disciples, Peter among them, who were scattered and distraught over three days, now wait for ten days. And so, the sheep become a Shepherd. What a remarkable turn!

As we read in our preparatory reading from Leo the Great: “Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before.”

And as if that is not enough, Peter then reminds us throughout his letter that the ones called by God and set apart by God then do the work of the Shepherd themselves. Though they are scattered, as he describes the recipients in the opening of the letter, they are called and set apart as the singular people of God. In the next chapter he says it more directly:

For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.  (2:25)

 And the readers—the original ones and those ever since—haven’t even seen Jesus. Of course, this shouldn’t surprise us, Jesus in his prayer recorded in John, of which we heard some this morning, prays:

Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. ²⁰ “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one.  (John 17:18–22)

We heard many of these points echoed in our reading from 1 Peter 5 this morning:

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: ² Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them . . . ³ not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. ⁴ And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

And so, we are reminded again that we have been called into communion with God in the protection of the Chief Shepherd.  This Chief Shepherd, who is, today, exalted at the right hand of the Father. The earliest and most common images in Christianity are of the shepherd carrying a sheep. The good news is not only that Christ, the Shepherd was slain as a lamb for us as his sheep. That Christ is once again alive and serves as our shepherd even now. The one who Peter says in our passage we can cast our cares upon. So we can pray as we did this morning:

“send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.”

And because this Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out his Spirit, as we will celebrate next week, we  can now serve as his  under-shepherd. As those who are , as Peter calls is, a royal priesthood who represents him to the world.

Easter 6 – Suffering
Dr. Christopher Graham
1 Peter 4

Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

As we have read Peter’s letter, we have focused on the household of God as one of Wisdom, a household in which we are composed and tuned by the Word. A household which, because of this Wisdom and Word, is set in contrast to the culture that seeks to distort that Word. In all of this, we have managed to skirt the issue that stands clearly in Peter’s mind in writing the letter: suffering. In his opening salutation, he says: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” And he speaks of suffering throughout the letter before turning fully to it in chapter 4, which he ends with the words I read for us just a moment ago: “Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”

Because of its ubiquity in our world, there are many, many treatments of suffering that offer insight. There are, of course, many Scriptural passages that we could draw from this morning to consider suffering. This morning, though, we are not concerned with giving a comprehensive or definitive statement on suffering. This morning, we want to hear what Peter has to say about how the Gospel intersects with suffering. To do this, I am going to offer three paths that are tempting to take on this issue and then consider how Peter’s teaching provides insight into the truth about it.

So, first, there is a temptation to believe that those who are in the house of Wisdom and the Word are immune from suffering. There have been large swaths of those throughout the history of the Church who have made the claim that the Christian life is incompatible with suffering. In the earliest days, there was the pernicious belief that feeling of any sort, but especially suffering, was antithetical to the nature of the divine. Therefore, not only was suffering impossible for those who followed Christ, but Christ himself couldn’t have suffered as the divine Son of God. In our day, there are, of course, those who claim that suffering is somehow antithetical to the new life that Christ and the Spirit have ushered in and that health, wealth, and prosperity are the signs of the Christian life. For as easy as it is to target these groups, it is equally easy to forget that there are some close to us, even perhaps some of us in this room, who put a chasm between the Christian life and suffering.

I was reminded of this just a few weeks ago as a debate played out on the news. It began when one Church leader in a denomination very similar to ours sounded a warning that we may be facing days in the United States when Christians will face persecution and even martyrdom. While his statement is sobering and worth critiquing, it was not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the reaction of another Church leader, a pastor, in that same denomination who said “I didn’t sign up to be a martyr. . . .”I have a family a congregation who rely on me. If I was gone tomorrow what would happen to them?”

As Peter makes clear, however, suffering remains a reality even for those who have been called by God as his people. In fact,  he says in our passage today, “do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you; ¹³ but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed. ¹⁴ If you are insulted ^[k]for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, and of God, rests upon you.” (4:12-14).

And in the previous chapter:

For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God. . . (3:17-18)

And this is where the Gospel meets suffering. That the Jesus we meet each week has suffered such that He has brought us to God. That the words of institution we hear each week remind us that we are invited each week to commune with the one who has suffered and that in doing so we meet one who, in the words of Hebrews can “sympathize with our weaknesses . . . One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. And Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.” (Hebrews 4)

This fact leads to a second potential misstep, and that is to try to identify, categorize, and define the root of the suffering, thinking that knowing the “why” will bring relief. This is the error of Job’s friends. It is one thing to acknowledge that even Peter speaks to the multiple sources of suffering.

• The clash of the way of life of those who are called by the Word and set apart by the Spirit with those who are not.
• Brokenness of the world
• Brokenness of ourselves
• Supernatural forces, as Peter points out in the next chapter “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 5:8

I have yet to find the proof text that shows that God promises to reveal the root cause of any case of suffering. Either now or in the future, even in the new heavens and new earth.

But the good news is this, that God calls us into a House of the Word and Wisdom. Where our goal is not to seek knowledge of the root cause of suffering but to place ourselves in the protection of the Word, the Good Shepherd. The Lord spoken of in our Old Testament reading this morning:

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. (Isaiah 41:17)

To seek the wisdom given by the Spirit about God’s will. As Paul prays for the Colossians that they may know God’s will by the wisdom given by the Spirit. It is a wisdom gained by God’s people. The people at St. Brendan’s know a thing or two about suffering.

The final temptation is to relent and to believe that suffering has the final word. But the words that I read at the beginning disabuse us of that.  Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

The way God will work in the future is tied to what God has done in the past through His Word and by His Spirit. In this verse, he encouraged those who suffer to entrust their souls to God as the “Creator.”  This is the God we will confess in just a few moments, who is the creator of all things, visible and invisible. The God who created all things through his Word and by his Spirit, the giver of life.

Because as Peter will say in the next chapter, “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” 5:10

As our Psalm reminded us this morning, God will vindicate. And in the words of our hymn, one little word shall fell him.  And as we confess, “He will come to judge the living and the dead. . .” we are reminded of his word of promise and we are moved to right living. Paul says to the Thessalonians “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

Easter 5 2026
Rev. Doug Floyd
1 Peter 3

Our reading in 1 Peter 3 opens with an exhortation about the false beauty of braiding your hair or wearing gold jewelry. In light of this reading, we might be preaching to primary school or middle school girls. “Don’t braid your hair!”

The Bible is filled with exhortations that may leave us scratching our heads. Don’t wear mixed fabrics! Don’t round the corners of your hair or marr the corners of your beard! I must confess that I’ve been guilty of that. While I’m at it, I must confess that I did braid my mullet back in the 1980s.

I’ve been teaching my critical thinking class about ethics, and this week we watched a video about moral behavior in Scripture. The speaker called the Bible a divine rulebook and puzzled over these strange commands. His first mistake was reading the Bible as a divine rulebook. On the other hand, he has a point about the strangeness of some commands.

How are we to read Peter’s exhortation today? First, we might back up and think about the commands in the Old Testament. If you read the narrative and commands as a whole, you begin to encounter a book of revelation, a book of wisdom, a book of worship all rooted in the fear of the Lord. While we may not always understand the context for every passage, we can trust that the texts are ultimately training a people to trust in the Lord, become a holy people, treat one another rightly, and make wise decisions.

But here’s the catch: not all decisions are between a good and a bad option. In some dilemmas, all options look bad. We opened the letter of 1 Peter by talking about the church as a house of wisdom. As we read Peter, we see that the church is the Temple made of living stones. I would suggest this living Temple is a house of wisdom. It is the gathered community of faith worshipping the Lord.

Once Christ comes, He is the Temple, and we are baptized into Him. Thus, the people in the community of faith, which we call the church, have become the body of Christ. That is the Temple of the Lord: the house of Wisdom. The people of God gather in worship, humbling ourselves before God and one another. As we face difficult circumstances and make hard decisions. We cry out to God and we consult one another for wisdom.

The people that Peter addresses are facing varying challenges, but we know that they do not feel at home anymore in their given cultures. The culture is pagan and follows practices that are forbidden to disciples of Christ. How were they supposed to live? Some people today feel like our country has become an alien culture and they pine for yesteryear. How do you live in the place where you stand?

In 1 Peter 2, slaves were encouraged to respect their masters. In fact, all the people were exhorted to be subject to the rulers and even honor the emperors. Just as a reminder, many of these emperors were perverse men guilty of all sorts of crimes. They would make our political landscape look like child’s play. How could the people be subject to these men and even honor them?

Before I answer these questions, let me jump down to the end of chapter 3 when Peter mentions that Jesus went down to the spirits in prison and preached to them and then went up to the right hand of the Father. How are we to make sense of this strange passage? Some have suggested this points to the harrowing of hell when Jesus rescues people trapped in the dragon’s lair: that is Sheol or Hades, the place of the dead. Peter is drawing from all sorts of imagery, and it may be difficult to parse all this out.

He is talking about Jesus’ death. Though His body was dead, His Spirit was alive. Many in the church have often suggested that this and other passages refers to Jesus bringing the saints of the past up from Sheol and with him up into heaven. It has also been pictured as a time when Jesus tells the dark powers and principalities that their rule of evil is over. There are more difficulties in the passage, but we will pause there for now.

Peter mentions the ark of Noah and baptism. These images carry nuances of death and resurrection. When the world was destroyed by flood, Noah and his family descended into the dead of the flood but then are raised to new life and new creation. We follow Christ in the way of the cross. Jesus suffered and was rejected by men and died on a cross. In his death, He defeats the power of death and prepares the way for us and those faithful saints in the Old Testament to follow into heaven at the right seat of the Father, far above all powers and principalities. This is not simply a future event, this is the reality of our baptism.  We rehearse our suffering, death and burial in the watery grace even as we rehearse our resurrection in Christ and our entrance into new life and new creation. We may not normally grasp the reality of our glorious estate, but New Testament writers reiterate this truth again and again.

With this in mind, the communities Peter addresses and even our community learn that we are safe in the love of God no matter what our culture looks like. He is working through us to bring His redeeming grace to this world. We are not subject to the rule of evil in this world. While we honor rulers and we obey the laws, we are citizens of heaven dwelling on earth. As sojourners, we live quiet and honorable lives with those around us and the authorities over us. Our new estate changes our behavior.

1 Peter 3 begins, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,” (1 Peter 3:1, ESV).

Peter is continuing an argument from 1 Peter 2, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:18–21, ESV)

Servants submit to Masters following the model of Christ. Even as Christ suffered and died, he made a way to restore us and all humanity to God. As respectful and obedient servants, the people of God bear witness to Christ. If they suffer for doing right, they are following Christ and bearing witness to His saving grace. Their life and action may prepare the way for their Master and others to come to faith.

Peter says, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,” (1 Peter 3:1, ESV). Paul makes a similar argument in 1 Corinthians 7. “To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.” (1 Corinthians 7:12–15, ESV).

1 Peter 3:1 is exhorting wives of unbelievers that they may win their husbands to faith through their conduct. This is not an invitation to be abused but simply to live with the unbeliever in hopes that the believer might be an instrument of salvation. This applies beyond the home. We live in the world this way. We may have unbelieving supervisors or unbelieving leaders in government, but we honor them and try to live good and quiet lives that we might somehow be an instrument of their salvation.

Now let’s go back to the braided hair and gold jewelry. It appears that braided hair and gold jewelry are images of beauty in that culture. The culture has defined female beauty in a certain way. It also defines male success and power in a certain way. But we do not submit to those cultural powers. How many girls and women have felt ugly because they did not look like what the culture tells them is beautiful?

Dove used to have a commercial where artists interview women about their looks and draw their picture. Many of the women broke down in tears when they saw their pictures because they could not see their own beauty. They failed to meet cultural standards. Culture as a whole shames women who don’t fit into a standard that fits a very small percentage of women. In Scripture, the standard of beauty is Jesus Christ, his life poured out in love. Men and women are both called to this inner beauty of the heart. If one woman braids her hair and another woman does not, it is not a big deal. But all of them seek “our adorning to be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” (1 Peter 3:4, ESV)

Therefore, the wisdom of Christ is to make women dress in this way or that, and it’s not to tell men to cut their hair above their ears, but rather it is to “have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:8–9, ESV). Or as Peter says in chapter 2, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:16–17, ESV).

Men and women should not seek their self-value in the size of their paycheck but in the goodness of God in Christ. Some people will make more money, and some will make less. True value comes in living as an image of God’s love in our community and our world.

Paul makes a similar appeal in Romans 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1–2, ESV).

This is not a command to avoid movies, music, gambling, and alcohol. Once again, it is an encouragement not to let cultural values constrain you. Paul continues his thought in Romans 12 by saying,  “by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:2–5, ESV)

Your life and your gifts are given by God to serve one another. The rest of Romans 12 details the way we serve one another.

This spirit of humbling ourselves and pouring out our lives begins in the family and the church, but it spreads outward into our jobs, our networks, our community, and even our world. I believe this is the argument Peter is making. We are redeemed in Christ. We are loved by God. As His beloved children, we serve one another and the world as a holy priesthood in humility of spirit and tenderness of heart. Our lives became a witness to the principalities and powers that Christ is victorious and His love will ultimately conquer sin and death.

Amen.

Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday
Rev. Doug Floyd
1 Peter 2

Peter writes a letter of encouragement to the communities of faith dispersed across the empire. The surrounding culture does not understand these communities gathered in and the name of Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. The world around them simply cannot understand their devotion to Christ. Some believers will be mocked, some will lose social status, some may lose jobs, and eventually, some will suffer and even die at the hands of unbelievers.

We don’t live in the same era as these early Christians. And yet, our culture often misunderstands the call of Christ and even a belief in God. When Peter encourages these early communities, he encourages us.

We’ve talked about how the gathered believers are like a house of wisdom where we learn to live our faith in worship and through one another. We gather around Christ, and He speaks, “Peace!” This is a real and tangible gift of peace from the throne of God. As Christopher reminded us last week, we rehearse this word of Christ with one another as we declare, “Peace to You.”

In chapter 2, Peter reminds us of Christ’s presence and our participation in that very presence. We see an image of Christ feeding us with His very life, with Christ as a living stone, and of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Each of these images offers implications for our response to the presence of the living Christ among us.

In 1 Peter 2:1, we read, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—” (1 Peter 2:2, ESV). This passage connects with the final words of chapter one, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:24–25, ESV)

Christ is the Living Word, the enlivening Spirit who teaches us, cares for us, nourishes us, and provides for all our needs. Peter explicitly says that we are like newborn infants. Here is a metaphor we may not usually think of: we may not think of ourselves as newborn infants. An infant cannot do much. It can drink whatever the parent provides. It can cry out in hunger. It reveals total rest or trust in the parent’s provision.

An infant cannot look around at other infants and wonder if they are receiving more or better attention. Peter says, “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:1–3, ESV)

In these little communities of faith, the people are not in competition for the blessing of the Lord. Instead, they all come hungry, weak, and dependent on God’s provision. He meets them and us in our weakness, our fears, our struggles. We sing His praise, we hear His Word, we call upon Him to meet our needs, we gather around His table and feed upon His life poured out for us. When we are away from the communities of faith in our lives, we rehearse His faithful in Scripture, prayer, confession, and worship. He alone can feed us with the everlasting life that will strengthen us and help us to grow up into Him.

Next, Peter calls Jesus the Living Stone, and us living stones. He says, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4–5, ESV)

We’ve talked about how the gathered community is a house of wisdom. This house that is made up of living stones is the dwelling place of God, the Temple. No longer built in physical stone, the Temple is a living Temple of Jesus Christ and His people. Ephesians emphasizes this same image. In chapter two Paul writes,

“And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:17–22, ESV)

The Jews and Gentiles are built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, with Christ being the chief cornerstone. Instead of thinking of a cornerstone at the base of a structure, think of the chief as the stone at the top of the arch that holds both sides together. He is holding together Jews and Gentiles as one people, as living stones, as a Temple that is growing up into the Lord.

Peter uses a similar image in chapter 2. Christ is the Living Stone and we are living stones. We are all growing up into Christ. Thus, we might say that the true house of wisdom is a Living Temple where God dwells with His people. Together, we serve Him as priests of the Lord. We are a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices before God. Together we stand before God and lift one voice in worship and in prayer for our families, our community, our world. Then together we are fed by our Lord. He gives us Himself, His life, His Spirit, and He sends us out as priests to a world in need. To love and care for people, to pray for those in need, to bless people, and to bear witness to His goodness and grace.

In the final words of this chapter, Peter speaks of Jesus as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Before we consider this, listen to what Peter says first.

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:13–24, ESV)

We live in a world of just and unjust rulers: from dictators to presidents to governors to local leaders to managers and supervisors to law enforcement. At many levels of our lives, someone may exert authority. Some rulers will serve the Lord to punish evildoers and praise the righteous. At other times, rulers may exhibit ungodly behaviors and even cruel and unjust actions. Peter exhorts the people follow the pattern of Christ who defeated the ultimate power of evil. Jesus demonstrated a resistance to rulers by obeying His Father in heaven. He humbled himself even unto death.

We follow the Lord. He is our true sovereign. We seek to honor earthly rulers while obeying the Lord. We honor other people, our fellow believers, our supervisors, our leaders. We don’t want to suffer for doing evil, but if we suffer for righteous behavior, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. We must not assume that our ideas about how to govern are better than what we currently experience.

Douglas Harinck writes, “All existing social orders, even those regimes established on the constructs of emancipation and human rights, are always only systems of relative justice and injustice.”[1] We may seek for justice in this world, but we acknowledge that only the Lord can ultimately bring true justice, true shalom.

As priests in the world, we model the life of the kingdom of God. We seek to speak and act in ways that honor the Lord and others. All the while, we realize that Jesus, our Good Shepherd, promises to lead us, guide us, and protect us. Jesus is leading us forward. Think of our Psalm today.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; *
therefore I can lack nothing.

I can rest completely in His provision. He alone is faithful and trustworthy.

2 He shall feed me in green pastures *
and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.
3 He shall refresh my soul *
and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for his Name’s sake.

He will meet my needs. I entrust every need to him. Needs for physical strength, food, health. As well as needs for peace and joy and even pleasure. But times will come when I face dark clouds and the future may be unclear.  

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; *
for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.

The saints of God have found comfort in this promise across the ages. Many people face actual death with the trust of God’s provision in their hearts. Whether we live or die, He is present. He will not forget us. He will not forsake us.

5 You shall prepare a table before me, in the presence of those who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.

The Lord can and will comfort us even during great trials. And strangely, we can know deep joy and great sorrow at the same time. They are often intertwined in life’s journey. So we trust our good and gracious Lord.

6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

God’s presence and promises go before us and behind us, above us and below us. All around us. We rest in Him now and in the age to come.

With this in mind, let us hunger and thirst for God’s Living Word like newborn infants. Let us live in this world as priests of God, worshipping Him, interceding before Him, feeding on Him, bringing His redeeming grace to our world. Finally, let us go forth as sheep following the Good Shepherd who is faithful to the end and beyond.

I thought of the U2 song, Grace, while writing these words. Here are a few lines,

Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name

……

She carries a pearl
In perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings

Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

The Lord is good and worthy of all praise. Amen.

[1] Douglas Harink, 1 & 2 Peter, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009), 81.

Easter 3
Dr. Christopher Graham
Isaiah 43:1-12, 1 Peter 1:13-25, Luke 24:13-35

A House of Wisdom . . . A House of the Word

“Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. . . .  And this is the word which was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:22-23)

In introducing our time in 1 Peter, Fr Doug told us last week: “Together, we are becoming the house of the Lord. That’s what Peter is telling us in his letter. Wisdom’s perfect house. We are becoming that house of wisdom.” Wisdom involves applying a knowledge gained from experience to life. This includes recognizing the power of our words and then using those words well. This is certainly the reason that Scripture provides so many proverbs about watching our words.

But in our passage this morning, Peter is not speaking of our wise use of words in the house. Instead, he speaks of the Word that causes this house to be a house of Wisdom. This morning, we are reminded that our acts—even our speech acts—in this house of wisdom are an extension of God’s action because who we are and what we do is rooted in who God is and what He does by his Word. This Word composes our identity and then tunes us to live in harmony.

Our passage this morning begins “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all behavior.” In the next chapter, he will say that God “has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God” (2:9) By his word, he composes his people.  

As our OT reading reminded us, it was this same Word that composed his people Israel.

“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

This Word defines, even creates our reality because that is what the Word does as the active agent of God’s will.  It is this creative Word active in Genesis 1, “And God said. . . “ It is this creative Word that the Psalmist extols: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made.” It is this Word that was in the beginning, John tells us, that takes on flesh. That same Word calls us, defines us, composes us.

The struggle, of course, is to hear just this Word over all the other words that form a twisted and broken cacophony. Some of these words are just static, noise that keeps us from hearing. Some of seek to de-compose us. Some of these words come from those in our world. For many of us, though, these are own voices that we say to ourselves with words that run counter to the Word.

Peter himself faced this struggle. He cannot hear the calling “Follow me,” without remembering his rebuffs of Jesus’s Word his denial after making the bold proclamation I will follow you anywhere.  And as he hears the call “Follow Me!” “Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following” So Peter, upon seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” ²² Jesus *said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”

This calling, this Word defined and re-defined Peter in spite of his own doubts. And this is the Word now that defines us. The Gospel is that, as Philip Cary, opining on Martin Luther says, “The word of address gets me thinking about myself as the object of God’s love and grace; for the Gospel truth is that Christ died for me, to forgive me, a sinner.  . . . To be justified by faith alone is therefore to focus my attention on the word of Christ alone, and not on anything I do about it—not on the depth of my contrition nor even on the firmness of my faith when I say, “I believe.” Word and faith require each other, but they do not have equal footing, for “faith builds and is founded on the Word of God rather than God’s Word on Faith”

This Word that composes us as his people, defines us as his children, his elect, his workmanship (poema) as Paul phrases it—this Word then keeps us in tune and in tempo. Peter says in our passage that because “you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” fervently love one another from the heart.  And because “this is the word which was preached to you. . .  rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and allslander and long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

We are surrounded by voices—whether others or our own—using words of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. Words that if they don’t decompose us at least distort us. And so, each we encounter the Word during our worship seeking for him to “Tune my heart to sing that grace.” Last week Fr. Doug’s said: “Our Christian walk is not a dour struggle through the wastelands of a sinful world. It is a joy-filled dance amidst a world at odds with Christ. Peter is encouraging us today that Christ is present and He will sustain us.”  Each week, we are sustained as we encounter the Lord in our Eucharist. Each week, we the Word of the Lord brings us back in tune from a week that has distorted us. Sometimes we are indeed returned to a joy-filled dance. Sometimes it is a lament over the perversion of justice. Sometimes, love is not a victory march, it’s a cold, and it’s a broken Hallelujah. But, as Fr. Doug said, the Word never sets us to the key of  “dour struggle.”

Our ministry of the Scriptures, the living and active Word, cannot be a lifeless exercise. As our reading from Luke 24 shows, it quickens us as it did for the two on the Emmaus Way. When they thought of their experience, the two said, “Did not our heart not burn within us?” When the second century bishop Irenaeus thinks on this passage, he says, “The man who loves God shall arrive at such excellency as even to see God, and hear His word, and from the hearing of His discourse be glorified to such an extent, that others cannot behold the glory of his countenance. . . . Thus, then, I have shown it to be, if anyone read the Scriptures.”

We hear the Word as we attend to, listen to, and incline our ear to the reading of the prophets and apostles. We hear the Word as our Pastor speaks words of comfort, words of absolution, words of assurance. We hear the word through each other. Wonderful words of Life, as our hymn called it. Through our prayers. Through our peace.

“Peace be with you,” we say. This is not a passive, declarative statement. The Spanish here is La Paz esté co Usted.” The verb there is not esta it is an imperative “esté” of estar.  ” Like when I say to my kids “Be good.”

Why? Because Jesus says to the disciples after his resurrection:

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

He tunes their hearts to Peace with his presence and his words. This is the same Word who said to the stormy waves “Be Still.” This Word who, Paul says, made peace through His blood on the cross and is, in fact, our Peace.

The Gospel is not only that the Word has accomplished this peace but that you are invited to participate in that peace. To accept his Word to you: retuned in this this house of the Wisdom, this house of the Word. This week, Peter urges us to open our ears and to hear the identity-shaping Word. “I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” “He has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God”

Easter 2
Rev. Doug Floyd
1 Peter 1:1-9, John 20:19-31

The disciples have gathered in the upper room behind a locked door. They are afraid. They ran away in fear. They denied Christ in fear. Now they grieve in fear. Yet, they grieve together.

Jesus gathered them. He called them at the start of His ministry, and they’ve become a community, a family.

God gathers His people. In ancient Israel, the sound of the trumpet gathered the people for a feast, for worship, and even for war. Before the sounding of the trumpet, God gathered His people in Egypt. He led them out of the land of slavery and to the land of promise.

Today in our Gospel reading, the disciples continue to gather, and Jesus meets them there. Hans Urs Von Balthasar writes, “At its deepest level this community’s faith in Jesus Christ was held together by the commonly celebrated Eucharist, for it is here that the believers finally comprehend that this community is not something they have constructed by themselves on a purely human level, rather that it is an institution of the Lord. Only in him and through him do they together constitute the Church, in which each individual’s faith is strengthened by the faith of all the others, like many strands twisted together to make one rope.”^[1]

Even in their doubt and fear, Jesus has gathered the disciples. He steps into their midst and says, “Peace be with you.” Even in our doubt and fear, Jesus gathers us today, speaking, “Peace be with you.” We extend His blessing of peace to one another. Our faith in Christ is strengthened by one another. In chapter two of 1 Peter, we read that we are “living stones” being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.

With this image of us as a community being built into a house of the Lord, let us think about a house. A house contains relationships. The house bears witness to these relationships through pictures, meals, conversations, and even furniture.

Think about pictures on the wall and in photo albums or on our media devices. They tell the story of a life, the story of the family. Different ages. Maybe grandparents, great grandparents.

A house also bears witness to these relationships through meals. Through conversations. And even through the arrangement of furniture. If you had a single chair sitting in front of the fireplace, it’s a very different communication than if you have maybe chairs in a circle or somehow in a semicircle.

The furniture speaks. To the movement within the house.

Children learn invaluable life lessons over meals. With their parents, I used to, I think I wrote an essay years ago on how, we learned the first elements of liturgy in a meal. And even people who don’t like the word liturgy, have learned liturgical movement within a meal.

You pray. There’s certain things you do. There’s an order of service in the meal. There are certain things you do and certain things you don’t do during the meal, depending on the family.

When I went to visit my aunt and uncle as a child, we were not allowed to put our elbows on the table. I was a little bit fearful of going to their house because I didn’t know their rules very well. I might break them.

In my house, there was another a different rule, an unspoken rule, Kelly discovered when we got together. You did not interrupt my dad when he was telling a story. Very different kind of rule.

If you wanted the salt, you pointed to it. Later Kelly asked, why was everybody pointing? I said, because we cannot interrupt my dad’s story. If we do, he’ll say, well, I guess you’re not interested. So even those who live alone actually carry the stories and memories of friends and family. So even a person who lives alone, still carries remembrance of community.

A large empty house can become a haunt. When I was in high school a whole group of us drove out to the country to a haunted house. What we actually saw was an abandoned house. It was haunted because people had lived there at one time and no longer lived there, and it was empty, completely abandoned. That is a haunt.

Proverbs 9 tells us about a perfect house.

“Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.
² She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
³ She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
⁴ ”Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,
⁵ ”Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
⁶ Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”^[2]

Interesting. This picture of Wisdom’s home has seven pillars, which indicates perfection or completion. People are invited to this house for wisdom. She has prepared them a meal, and when they come, they eat and drink.

This should recall another story. Jesus tells the story of a king who throws a banquet and sends his servants out to the highways and byways to invite people to come. Jesus first miracle is at a wedding feast. He eats with people, and they are changed. Consider Zacheus, or Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. He feeds thousands of people. And he feeds a handful. Consider the disciples. He teaches them wisdom during meals.

Together, we are becoming the house of the Lord. That’s what Peter is telling us in his letter. Wisdom’s perfect house.

We are becoming that house of wisdom. With the 7 pillars. where they come and eat, and they fellowship. Every week we gather and we partake of the meal Christ gave us.

In some weeks, we partake of more than that. In fact, I think some people have already partaken of it look like fudge or something in there. So we partake of all sorts of wonderful things.

We eat and drink Christ’s very life. And he ministers to each one of us through each one of us. Like the disciples, we may come weary, discouraged, fearful, even tempted to lock the door.

But Christ will come. He shows up in our midst. He welcomes us to the feast, to the house of wisdom.

To the community of wisdom. I’ll just throw this in one other note about the wise woman. You notice there’s 2 women in Proverbs, the wise woman, and the prostitute or the whore.

Where do those women show up again? In Revelation? The New Jerusalem, and Babylon.

Two cities. Two women. One place is where you feast and become a community, and the other places where you’re used up and eventually are destroyed.

It is here, in this little community, that we learn to bear one another’s burdens, to serve one another, to pray for healing and restoration for one another. It is here that we’re commissioned.

Christ says, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Every time we dismiss at the end of the service. There’s some form of sending. It is here that we learn to bear one another’s burdens, to serve one another, to pray for healing and restoration for one another. It is here that we are commissioned. Jesus says to us, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”^[3]

We’re the community that Christ has gathered, and we’re part of a larger community. So many of you meet with people from other churches or maybe online with people from around the world. I’ve met with Russ and Heidi and people in Europe and other places online before, talking about their various mission work.

And in that those communities that we participate in, once again, Christ is present, he’s speaking, encouraging us, stirring us. So it is in the community of Christ that we encounter the Risen One, who has “caused us born again to a living hope through the resurrection.”^[4] Then in verses 8 and 9, Peter says,

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8–9, ESV)

Peter is writing to a people who face struggle in the culture. At different times, the church will face harsher suffering and lesser suffering. Sometimes it’s simply social suffering and sometimes it’s martyrdom. Now, unlike the disciples in our gospel reading, these Christians who are gathering, do not physically see Jesus or touch Him, as Thomas did.

They experience his encouragement in love. Thus, they rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Their little communities of faith have become houses where God dwells, where they feast in God’s wisdom, where they’re strengthened in the Eucharist.

In spite of their challenges, Unlike the disciples in our gospel reading, these Christians do not physically see Jesus or touch Him as Thomas did. He is not absent. They believe in Him. They encounter Him. They experience His encouragement and love. Thus, they rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

Their little communities of faith have become houses where God dwells, where they feast in God’s Wisdom, where they are strengthened in the Eucharist, where Christ reveals Himself through fellow believers around them.

I did not enjoy church as a teenager. For some reason, my parents chose to go to an angry church always railing against the world. In college, my sister suggested that her and I go to a church that had a college ministry. From the moment we stepped through the doors, we stepped into a community of joy, a house of wisdom, a house of God. We built deep friendships with the people around us, which reshaped the trajectory of my life. The preaching was good, but what changed me was the community.

Among these saints, I learned that our Christian walk is not a dour struggle through the wastelands of a sinful world. It is a joy-filled dance amidst a world at odds with Christ. Peter is encouraging us today that Christ is present and He will sustain us.

During the extended Easter season, we will keep returning to I Peter. He is instructing God’s people on how to walk out their faith in the midst of struggles and suffering of life. Christ is present among even though we have not seen Him as Peter and the disciples did. But we do hear Him in the Scriptures, we do taste Him in the Eucharist, we do encounter Him in one another as His gifts and His life our poured out in our midst.

Today let us offer back to Him in worship our worries, our failures, our weaknesses, our griefs, and our hopes. Let us rejoice in His faithful love poured out in our lives.

^[1] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Light of the Word: Brief Reflections on the Sunday Readings, trans. Dennis D. Martin (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), 74.

^[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Pr 9:1–6.

^[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Jn 20:21.

^[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), 1 Pe 1:3.

Easter 2026
Rev. Doug Floyd
Matthew 28:1-10

We begin at the end of all things. George Mackay Brown writes about the three kings who stopped and could go no further.

The red king
Came to a great water. He said,
Here the journey ends.
No keel or skipper on this shore.

The yellow king
Halted under a hill. He said,
Turn the camels round.
Beyond, ice summits only.

The black king
Knocked on a city gate. He said,
All roads stop here.
These are gravestones, no inn.

They could go no further. Their journeys halted. Their future closed. All hope lost. Then surprise.

The three kings
Met under a dry star.
There, at midnight,
The star began its singing.

The three kings
Suffered salt, snow, skulls.
They suffered the silence
Before the first word.[1]

Three kings. The star began its singing. At the end of all things. The future began. They’re eyes were opened, and in the silence, they heard. They beheld. The first word. The word made flesh.

This week we rehearsed the final days and hours of Jesus Christ. Even as we follow Jesus to the end, we realize the world itself was weary and at an end. Humanity had gone as far as it could go.

Peter was at an end. The fisherman turned disciple denied his Lord. Peter curses anyone who would associate him with Jesus. He hears a rooster and realizes that he has come to the end of himself. He went out and wept bitterly.

The Temple was at an end. The Temple was the dwelling place of God with man. It was built to be a house of prayer but it had become a den of robbers.

Israel was at an end. It has no eyes and no ears for the very God who redeemed it, created it, sustained it. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”^[2]

Rome was at an end. Though it claimed Pax Romana (Peace of Rome), it was built on blood and violence. Though Pilate claimed to enact justice, he washed his hands of justice and crucified the Lord of Glory to appease the shouting mobs.

The world was at an end. There are experiences we each face when the future closes in. All hope disappears. Sickness, suffering, loss, and countless other problems can crush us and still all hope and joy. Jesus came with us and all humanity to dwell at the end of life, at the end of the world.

At the end of all things, the Son of God lays in a tomb. All hope is gone, love grown cold, the light gone out.

St. John Chrysostom sings out,

Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Jesus steps forth from the tomb, and all things are become new.

Peter, who denied Jesus, is welcome home. Our risen Savior feeds Peter and the disciples, and then commands Peter, “Feed my sheep.”

The Old Testament is transformed. Jesus walks with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and reveals how all of Scripture is telling His story.

Rome is transformed. It was said that all roads led to Rome. The disciples would walk those roads, bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the far reaches of the empire.

Jesus stands before you and me even now. He speaks. We are recalled to life. Now we live in the light of this eighth day, this new day, this day of salvation.

Sometimes we still grow weary. We lose heart. Our love grows cold. Our light flickers.

In our weakness, His strength is revealed. The Risen Savior calls us into the new day. Today is the day of salvation. The wonder of our faith is that each day is the day of salvation. Each day we wake to the day of salvation, the hope hidden behind the veil, the yes and amen of God in Jesus Christ.

Each day we wake to the star that sings and points us to the first Word, the living Word, Word made flesh. Each day we turn and face the Risen Lord. Though we draw from the riches of tradition, our faith is not in tradition but in a person.

Though we give voice to our faith in a series of doctrinal statements, our faith is not in a statement or an idea but in a person.

Though we study and reflect on the Bible, our faith is not in a book but in a person.

Whether we realize it or not, Jesus is the one who created us and sustains us. There is no independent existence outside of Christ. We are resurrected In Christ, through Christ and for Christ.

Today, we rejoice. We sing out the Alleluia. We feast on His love and His life. For He is Risen and all things have become new.

[1] Williams, Rowan. A Century of Poetry (p. 61-62). SPCK. Kindle Edition.

^[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 1:11.

Good Friday
Rev. Ash Bramblett
Matthew 27:11-61

You probably familiar with the phrase, “This isn’t what it looks like.” Think about the cross.

One man praised God, saying, certainly this man is innocent. And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.

And all his acquaintances, and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things. So what comes to your mind when you hear the phrase, “this isn’t what it looks like?” Maybe we think of a sitcom and the shenanigans that go on, someone who’s got themselves into an absurd situation, and then was discovered, and then they say, this isn’t what it looks like.

Or we might think of someone else who’s caught in a compromising situation, saying something similar. So what I want to suggest to you is that the cross has a sense in which we would say as we look at what is going on, this isn’t what it looks like. It looks like the execution of an obscure, religious leader from the Middle East, from a troublesome sect, from the armpit of the Roman Empire.

A person, one of countless, who was chewed up by the oppression of the Roman government, But it isn’t what it looks like. The events of that day make it impossible to assume that this is just another Roman execution. Just the things we read.

In verse 44, It says it was about the 6th hour, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. While the sun’s light failed. So the 6th hour being noon, the ninth hour being 3 p.m., the approximate time of Jesus’ death, the sun going out, the sun going dark, is a symbol all throughout the Old Testament of God’s judgment.

In particular, associated with what’s called the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is mentioned throughout scripture, refers to the time when God will intervene in human history. Often for judgment, but the imagery also includes judgment that leads to salvation.

So it was thought by many that there would be an ultimate day of the Lord, at the consummation of the world. And yet there were also types and precursors of the day of the Lord. Joel gives a description that sounds very similar to the events that we just read in the Gospel account.

In chapter 2 of Joel’s prophecy, “For the day of the Lord is coming, and it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like blackness there is spread upon the mountains. The earthquakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars will draw their shining.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and on earth, blood and fire, and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” So that darkening of the sun is evidence of this is a day of the Lord, perhaps the day of the Lord.

God is visiting the people with judgment for salvation. But in what particular way? We can think of it in from 2 different angles, both of which are true.

God is bringing judgment on the people. The darkness and the quaking indicate the justice of what is going on. The fact that the innocent son of man is being crucified.

But in a more important sense, the judgment that has arrived is the wrath of God being poured out on Jesus as he bears the sins of the entire world as a substitutionary sacrifice. We think of judgment day being some future event at the end of the world, but there is a true sense in which this is judgment day. The day on which mankind will pay for their sins, but instead someone else has stepped in and suffered in our place.

The judgment we are seeing that is being poured out on Jesus is accomplishing something. And we see it symbolized in verse 45. where it says the curtain of the temple was torn in two. So the assumption is that this is a curtain that divides the holy place in the temple from the most holy place, the holy and holies in the temple, where the Ark of the Covenant sat.

And that place, it is sometimes called the Mercy Sea. symbolically is the throne of God on earth. And man’s sin required that there be a separation between those 2 places. And as you were probably aware, it was only on one day of the year that the high priest was allowed to go in and after extensive ceremonial cleansing to make offering for the people, but as Jesus offers his blood as our sacrifice, his own perfect life, the curtain is torn in two.

And Matthew tells us that it’s torn and two from top to bottom, a 60 foot high curtain, 4 inches thick. Only God could tear this curtain in two. Only God can break down the divider between man and his holiness.

And so it represents the removal of that barrier by God. Not because God is any less holy, not because we are anymore. But because the ultimate sacrifice has been made, the debt has been paid once and for all.

So just as in that text that we read a few minutes ago in the New Testament, reading, therefore, brother, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that it was open to us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

We see that Jesus own body is the curb. And as his body is broken in crucifixion, the curtain is torn and broken so that we may, again, from Hebrews, with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. that we may receive mercy and find help in our time of need. Those 2 facts, the connecting of the darkening of the day on the day of the Lord, and this miraculous tearing of the curtain in the temple, paint a pretty blatant symbolic picture of what is actually taking place here.

Jesus’ death is atoning for the sins of the world and making peace with God. And with his mission accomplished, the mission that the Father had sent him to do since the beginning, he says his final words. in verse 46. Calling out with a loud voice, he said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

And having said this, he breathed his last. So John, the gospel of John references Jesus’ last words as being, it is finished. But Luke is drawing attention to a different point for us.

We see numerous references in the Old Testament scriptures to the day of the cross. It’s always struck me that Jesus is pretty quiet on the cross, right? He doesn’t say a whole lot.

But what we immediately realize is that Jesus is referencing and saying much more than he’s actually saying with just a few words. Again, you’re probably aware that there are 7 phrases that Jesus says from the cross. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

“Today you shall be with me in paradise.”

“Woman, behold thy son, and behold thy mother.”

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken?”

“I thirst.”

“It is finished.”

And “Father into your hands, I commit my spirit.”

So Luke and John are the ones from whom we hear most of Jesus’ words from the cross. Each of them tell us 3 of those different phrases. that he says. If Matthew and Mark were our only sources, the only thing that we would know that Jesus said from the cross would be my God, my God, why have you forsaken?

But Jesus isn’t quiet on the cross. He’s hyperlinked if we can throw an anachronism in there. He is referencing things backwards and saying much more than just a few words that he said.

And so why have you forsaken me? A reference from Psalms. I thirst, another reference from Psalms.

And the same is true of, Lord, into your hands. I commit my spirit. Looking back to Psalm 31.

And so what I want to do is quickly read Psalm 31 and but I want you to hear it as Jesus speaking these things. Now, obviously, all of the songs, there’s a sense in which they are being written by the psalmist, and so we hear it from them. But I also want you to hear Jesus saying these words.

“In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. For I hear the whispering of many— terror on every side!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol. Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt. Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 31:1–24, ESV)

So as Jesus hangs there naked and ashamed, bleeding out and suffocating to death, condemned by his enemies, rejected by the people, abandoned by his friends, and seemingly even abandoned by God.

He points us to Psalm 31 and says, this isn’t what it looks like. Strange things happen that day. Luke mentions the darkness, but Matthew also tells us that there is an earthquake, just as in Joel’s prophecy, that the tombs of various saints crack opened and they were seen walking around the city. in the coming days.

You can do with that whatever you want. These strange signs and the presence of God and the gravity of the moment are not wasted on those who stand in mocking spectacle of Jesus. The soldiers thought that they were just executing a rabble rousing Jew.

The Pharisees in Sanhedrin thought he was a blasphemous revolutionary usurper. But verse 47 tells us that now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying certainly this man was innocent. And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.

Those who have mocked realize something is terribly wrong. In their own way, they are coming to realize that this is not what it looks like. So when I was in the 8th grade, we read a medieval morality play called Everyman.

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s basically a Catholic version of Pilgrim’s Progress. But towards the end of the story, every man at a certain point utters a Latin phrase. He says, in minus, to us, commendo, spiritone, male.

I didn’t know what that meant because I didn’t know Latin. But I looked it up and found that it was the words into your hands. I commit my spirit.

And so even as an 8th grader, I recognize the gravity of that phrase. that somehow it summarized everything, that it was all encompassing in its nature, that it was a summary of Jesus’ life, that is a summary of his cross, his death, and is the same in our lives. We entrust our lives to God. We trust our debts to God.

We entrust the 2 a.m. tragedies, the doctors diagnosis. The way we’re children, we entrust our ministries and our marriages. We trust our meaning, and we lay all those things in the Father’s hands.

And because of what Jesus did on this, his darkest day, in the world’s darkest day, if we have placed our faith in him and received the free gift of salvation through his blood, that even on our darkest day, we can say, this is not what it looks like. Death is not final. Evil does not win.

The greatest injustice ever perpetrated by man is actually the ultimate act of mercy that all history hinges on. And the God who was, and is, and always being. Through his son Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. is faithful yesterday, today, and forever.

Amen. Amen.

Note: This sermon was recorded outdoors in a park, so there are outside noises.

Maundy Thursday 2026
Dr. Christopher Graham
John 13:1-15

Jesus has an encounter with the Samaritan woman in a place where there was no water. There was no food, and we presume by extension, there was no wine. You may recall that this lack of water and food and wine stood out even more because through the first five chapters of John, there’s water, water, everywhere.

And food and wine. There’s John baptizing in plenty of water, but of course, there is plenty of water at the feast in Cana, where Jesus turns it into wine. And just after he meets the Samaritan woman, he performs a miracle, a sign in the waters of Bethesda.

And then in the same chapter, we read, he takes the five loaves of fishes and two fishes and turns them into enough bread for the multitudes. Tonight, we see Jesus in a place where there is water. and bread and wine. But it’s really a rather mundane scene this evening.

No miracles going on here. Of course, on this side of history, we see that it’s the beginning of a complex of days and events that are going to have great significance. But tonight, it’s just a meal.

So how are we to respond to this evening? to this passage that was read for us from John 13? I want to give you three reasonable and straightforward, appropriate responses.

First, we could simply obey. Jesus gives commands here. Take this.

Divide it among yourselves is how Luke records it. eat and drink. Do this in remembrance of me. Wash, one, another’s feet.

The passage is full of commands. In fact, as your bulletin this evening points out, we call this Mondi Thursday because it comes from the Latin word for commandment, specifically the one that’s given in verse 34. When Jesus says, I am giving you a new commandment. that you love one another, just as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Obedience is a proper response to any anyone’s master. It is appropriate response tonight for those of us who call Jesus Lord. And Jesus does not shy away from that title as you heard read.

You called me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. Unless we think somehow that love somehow obliterates obedience. Remember that Jesus goes on to teach his disciples very soon in this next chapter.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Oh, my God! The second response that we could have, that would be entirely appropriate, is to emulate or to imitate Jesus.

He tells us here that he has given us an example that we are to follow, for I gave you an example. He says, that you would also do just as I did for you. It is, again, expected. that a disciple follows the example of one’s teacher.

It’s rather striking, I think, that the one who resists Jesus’ actions, Peter. Well, then also refuse to follow Jesus in the days ahead. But then this same Peter will write in his letter, for you have been called for this purpose, because Christ also suffered leaving you an example so that you would also follow in his steps.

The 3rd appropriate response is to apply the principles that Jesus teaches here. So if I, the Lord and teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. Truly, truly, I save you, a slave is not greater than his master.

Nor is the one who sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. As he has often done, Jesus lays out the conventional wisdom, which holds true.

A slave isn’t greater than his master. And a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. But in his actions, Jesus shows us that these truths do not restrain the principles that characterize his kingdom.

He, the Lord, washes their feet. It’s in line with his other teachings, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

So the last shall be first and the first last. Obedience, imitation, application, these are all appropriate responses to our reading this evening. Individually and even in combination, all are appropriate.

Then each one of these would be good to anyone who is in charge or anyone who teaches us. What makes our response powerful… is not the response itself. But the one whom we obey, the one whom we emulate, and the one from whom we learn.

At the beginning of his teaching, Jesus identifies himself as teacher and Lord. But after he does these things, he says this, from now on, from now on, I tell you, before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe that I am. Hmm.

The Greek there is ego a mi. And if we follow through the Gospel of John, we know that Jesus uses that phrase, a go, a me, time and again to identify himself as the Lord God. Before Abraham was, Jesus says, eh, go, eh, me.

Ego, Amy, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Ego, Amy, I am the bread who comes from heaven. It was… this one.

This one, this god who came out of heaven, who now washes the disciples’ feet. This is in Jesus’ mind. We heard it this evening.

John tells us, knowing that the Father had handed all things over to him, and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God. So Jesus is certainly aware of this as he does this. And then after he does this and teaches, he says, I am.

It’s in line with what Paul teaches in Philippians 2, about the fact that Jesus being in the very, in the very nature of God, the very form of God, didn’t consider it something to be grasped, but empty himself and took on the form of a bond servant being born in the likeness of men. Paul says, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death. Death on a cross.

John tells us in our passage, this evening, that Jesus will love his disciples to the end that tell us the completion. Which will end in his death soon. But on this night, he does not call for his disciples to die with him.

Or for him. He does not call on them to perform the signs and wonders of I am. He calls for them to eat with one another, to share with one another, to wash one another’s feet, to love. one another.

Remarkably, Jesus doesn’t even call for them to love him back. He calls for them to love each other. And this Jesus, who washed the feet of his disciples, is the Jesus we encounter today and this evening.

He was the host of the disciples, and tonight he is the host for us. And just as he washed his disciples’ feet, on that night, there is no reason to doubt that he would do the same this evening if he were here with us.