Incarnate Word Table Talk: Week of March 28, 2010

Prayer of the Day, Festival of the Resurrection, April 4

God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive and has become the Lord of life. Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ, and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.


Acts 10:34-43
Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Luke 24:1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.



Easter us
You God who terrified the waters,
who crashed your thunder,
who shook the earth, and
scared the wits out of chaos.
You God who with strong arm saved your people
by miracle and wonder and majestic act.
You are the same God to whom we turn,
we turn in our days of trouble,
and in our weary nights;
we look for steadfast love and are dismayed,
we wait for your promises, but wait in fatigue,
we ponder your forgetfulness and lack of compassion,
and we grow silent.
Our lives, addressed to you,
have this bitter-sweet taste of
loud-clashing miracles and weak-kneed doubt.
So we come in our bewilderment and wonderment,
deeply trusting, almost afraid to trust much,
passionately insisting, too timid to insist much,
fervently hoping, exhausted for hoping too much.
Look upon us in our deep need,
mark the wounds of our brothers and sisters just here,
notice the turmoil in our lives, and the lives of our families,
credit the incongruity of the rich and the poor in our very city,
and the staggering injustices abroad in our land,
tend to the rage out of control, rage justified by displacement,
rage gone crazy by absence, silence, and deprivation,
measure the suffering,
count the sufferers,
number the wounds.
You tamer of chaos and mender of all tears in the canvas of creation,
we ponder your suffering,
your crown of thorns,
your garment taken in lottery,
your mocked life,
and now we throw upon your suffering humiliation,
the suffering of the world.
You defeater of death, whose power could not hold you,
come in your Easter,
come in your sweeping victory,
come in your glorious new life.
Easter us,
salve wounds,
break injustice,
bring peace,
guarantee neighbor,
Easter us in joy and strength.
Be our God, be your true self, lord of life,
massively turn our life toward your life
and away from our anti-neighbor, anti-self deathliness.
Hear our thankful, grateful, unashamed Hallelujah!
Amen.


Walter Brueggemann, March 29, 1994

Holy Week Schedule

Thursday, April 1
12:15 and 7:30 pm Maundy Thursday Worship (7:30 with 3rd Presbyterian at Incarnate Word)
Friday, April 2
12:15 Good Friday service at 3rd Presbyterian Chapel
7:30 pm Tenebrae service of shadows at Incarnate Word
Saturday, April 3
2:00 pm Easter Egg Hunt
8:00 pm The Great Vigil of Easter

Sunday, April 4 Festival of the Resurrection
9:30 am Festival Eucharist

Pastor Doug's Holy Week Reflections

“To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ”
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The days are getting warmer. Bulbs that were planted last fall are beginning to push their way through the once frozen soil. The hours of daylight are lengthening. Deciduous branches which once mirrored death are giving signs of new life with slight hints of hazy green beginning to emerge. The journey toward new life has begun.

The journey toward new life has begun as well for followers of the One who became flesh and dwelled among us. Our new life is not born in the bright light of a warming spring day, but in the darkness of a cold grave, ushered in by the hard wood of a Cross on Golgotha. We now enter into the darkest, yet holiest week of the year for the Church. A week that begins with shouts of hosannas and a triumphal entry and ends in screams of "crucify" and "My God, why has thou forsaken me?"

By all appearances, "darkness" and "holiness" should contradict each other. And yet it is precisely because God's son was not born into the bright lights of dazzling and powerful empire, but rather came into the world through an un-wed teenager in the cold darkness of a Bethlehem cave, that the Holy One, Jesus, dwells in the darkness with us.

In just a few hours, Harry Morrow, one of our cherished members of Incarnate Word, is going to be given his inheritance with all the saints in light as his body closes down and he is gathered into the arms of Christ to stand in the presence of God forever. And all of this made by possible by the Cross of Christ. As sad as I am at his approaching death, I am profoundly comforted by the truth of the impending Holy Week journey that reminds me of God dwelling most brightly and powerfully in the darkness and weakness of a Holy Week Cross.

I, along with you, will shed tears at Harry's passing, but I also know that at the end of our Holy Week journey, you and I will stand at the foot of the cross where heaven and earth touch in powerful love. And in that place, I will be assured of two things: Harry is going to be okay. And so too shall I.

Peace in the Cross of Christ,
Pastor Doug


Holy Week Schedule:

Sunday, March 28 9:30 am Passion/Palm Sunday - All congregation communion
Thursday, April 1 @ 12:15 Maundy Thursday service
Thursday, April 1 @ 7:30 pm Maundy Thursday service with Third Presbyterian Church
Friday, April 2 @ 12:15 pm Good Friday service at Third Presbyterian chapel
Friday, April 2 @ 7:30 pm Tenebrae service of shadows at Incarnate Word
Saturday, April 3 @ 8:00 pm The Great Vigil of Easter w/Holy Communion
Sunday, April 4 @ 9;30 am Festival of Easter

Incarnate Word Table Talk: Week of March 22, 2010

Prayer for week of March 28
O God of mercy and might, in the mystery of the passion of your Son you offer your infinite life to the world. Gather us around the cross of Christ, and preserve us until the resurrection, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Thoughts:
In the space of a week, we move from the excessiveness of Mary’s response to God’s amazing grace to the emptiness of death on a hill outside Jerusalem. This past Sunday, we heard the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair. What a strange ritual this is! Those gathered around the table could not understand it. But Jesus knew. And Mary knew. They knew that Mary was anointing Jesus for his burial.

The liturgical movement of these 2 Sundays is dramatic, flowing from love poured out on Jesus by his friends, to love shouted in the streets of Jerusalem welcoming Jesus, to love poured out as Jesus pours out his life on the cross. So much seems to happen in just a short time.

May we, the church, live out this story in the coming days. May we journey with Jesus to the places he goes because there we will see the love God pours out for us, the love that washes over us as grace, forgiveness, mercy, and new life. And may we proclaim this story with lives that reflect this grace, mercy and love in all that we do and with everyone we meet.


Upcoming Readings:

Luke 19:28-40 (procession with palms)

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”


Isaiah 50:4-9a

The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.


Philippians 2:5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.


Luke 23:1-49

Then the assembly rose as a body and brought Jesus before Pilate. They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.” Then Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He answered, “You say so.” Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no basis for an accusation against this man.” But they were insistent and said, “He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to this place.” When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform some sign. He questioned him at some length, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10he chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him; then he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate. That same day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other; before this they had been enemies.
Pilate then called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. Indeed, he has done nothing to deserve death. I will therefore have him flogged and release him.” Then they all shouted out together, “Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!” (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.” But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished.

As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent.” And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.








Upcoming Events:
Tues. March 23 7:00 pm Executive Team
Wed. March 24 7:30 pm Senior Choir
Thurs. March 25 6:00 pm SPIRIT
6:30 pm Crossways Bible Study
Fri. March 26 10:00 am Wellness Center
7:30 pm Harmonium Recital by Winfried Dahlke, featuring the Eastman School of Music Mustel Concert Harmonium. Concert is free and open to the public.
Sat. March 27 10:00 am Third Presbyterian Dining Room Ministry

Sunday, March 28 Palm/Passion Sunday

9:30 am All Congregation Communion
10:45 am Sunday School
11:00 am Renovation Discussion of Education Space
No Adult Forum this week or on Easter Sunday
3:30 pm Nile Lutheran Service
6:00 pm Confirmation Seder Meal
Youth are to come dressed in your “Sunday best”


Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

If you are scheduled in any of the following Sunday morning leadership ministries, please be aware of our new sign-in book found outside Pastor Doug’s office:

Communion Preparers
Worship Assistants
Bread Bakers
Hosts
Ushers
Church Office
Coffee Fellowship

The purpose of the sign-in book is to allow fellow volunteers and the pastors to know if all positions are fully covered on any given Sunday. Also, in the book are copies of schedules and rosters of each of these Sunday morning ministries. Hopefully this will make finding substitutes easier as well. If you cannot make the day you are scheduled, please find your own substitute and let the church office know as soon as possible so that our bulletins can more accurately reflect those who are serving.

Incarnate Word - March 21, 2010

Creator God, you prepare a new way in the wilderness, and your grace waters our desert. Open our hearts to be transformed by a new thing you are doing, that our lives may proclaim the extravagance of your love given to all through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.


Thoughts:
"Israel’s reflection on that forty years of landlessness leads to a remarkable affirmation. Wilderness should have been a place of death, but life is given. Wilderness should have been a place of weariness, sickness, poverty, and disease, but Israel is sustained and kept well. Israel has no tattered clothes, no sore feet. It is subjected to the worst thinkable conditions and is kept well. The place of all lacks, because Yahweh is present, is where nothing is lacking...There in Yahweh’s presence, life-giving resources are adequate, not too much, but not too little. Israel knows life as unmerited gift and so it can say, ‘Yahweh is my shepherd, I will not lack’ (Psalm 23). Yahweh has acted in landlessness to provide there for his people, just enough for life" (The Land, Walter Brueggemann p.44).


Upcoming Readings:


Isaiah 43:16-21
Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.
　
Philippians 3:4b-14
　
Even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard 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 one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
　
John 12:1-8
　
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."


Upcoming Events:


Tues. March 16 7:00 pm Book Club
Wed. March 17 7:30 pm Senior Choir
Thurs. March 18 6:00 pm SPIRIT
Fri. March 19 10:00 am Wellness Center
Sat. March 20 10:00 am Third Presbyterian Dining Room Ministry
Sunday, March 21 5th Sunday in Lent (Scroll Deadline)
8:15 am LYO Pancake Breakfast - free will donation
9:30 am Holy Communion
Commitment Sunday - 10:45 am Sunday School
11:00 am Adult Forum - Luke Bible Study

11:00 am Renovation Discussion - Choir space
3:30 pm Nile Lutheran Service