In Jesus, we see God’s glorious divinity revealed not to be something that keeps God distant from us, but that is most fully expressed through God’s loving, serving incarnation - taking on humanity, living life like us, and making new things possible with that presence. Because that was done for us, following Jesus and experiencing salvation includes joining Jesus in finding ways to relate to others the same way. It’s often not easy, but even in the most difficult to connect circumstances, it is a profound means for transformation and true live to be experienced together.

Worship can take on so many forms in our lives both within a particular Sunday service, and in our daily rhythms or unique things we have to face outside of church. This reflects the breadth, depth, and majesty of God, and also helps worship be incredibly transformational for us when we turn our attention to God in vulnerability, awe and thanks because it’s range of relevance can touch any personality in any experience.

Modern technology and social structures hold remarkable capability and power, and often offer it to us as well. Understanding and discerning the distinct and life-giving values for power that are embodied by God and extended to us as followers can be essential to navigating temptations and finding expressions of technology, socio-political influence, relationships and more that can bring holism and shalom instead of exploitation and marginalization. This has been true going back to well before the technology that fascinates us most now, and is still valuable to lives in today’s context.

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence technology can feel very hard to keep up with. It has powerful potential which can be received as either ready for amazing feats, or as set to overwhelm us into a dystopia. With something possibly seen as so all powerful, we can remember one of the best questions we can ask ourselves as people of faith is whether we are engaging with anything we come across as people of our own conscience as formed by God - rather than just getting swept along in either triumphalism or doom.

For many people, one of the most perplexing stories in the Gospels is of Jesus apparently calling a Canaanite woman a dog - using a slur and seeming to pick favorites for God’s love and power when that is so antithetical to the values expressed in the rest of his recounted ministry. But as we’ve seen in other sermons in this series, context often gives us a bigger and clearer picture with more faithful meaning. This story may actually help us encounter Jesus as more alive, clever, joyful and insightful than we can sometimes experience in the text - and encourage us in how we follow Jesus in our relationships too.

It is very exciting to think about the possibilities of being called to be a hero in God’s kingdom that stands out and does something it seems like no one else can do. On a surface level, we may even mistake some of the stories of people in the Bible as being about that. However, if we look at context more carefully for how God moves, we can see ways God lifts lots of people up and draws us together to bring about the Kingdom. Still very inspiring and empowering, but perhaps different that we would picture if we’re used to the glory and power of the world.

Miraculous stories of people being caught up into heaven leave us in awe and might have us focusing most on what is now missing. However, in Biblical stories of this, we can see that what is passed along and what people are invited to continue in the legacy of those who have left actually offer a gift of profound presence to celebrate and in some ways be in just as much awe about.

One of Jesus’ most difficult teachings, because it seems so incongruous with so much of other things we associate with Jesus because of what we see in his teaching and actions, is the saying “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Yet Jesus also says in this same teaching about how conflict can happen when living his values that “you are not worthy of me if you do not take up your cross and follow me.” When we hold those images together, and also see the connections of Jesus’ teaching with the legacy of Hebrew Bible prophets correcting the people’s misconceptions of peace before the exile, we may find a difficult, but uniting meaning in Jesus’ sayings and insights for navigating our time and place.

The world has a lot of things swirling beyond our control that can draw out all kinds of emotions from us. In the face of turmoil, our faith naturally seeks peace and reassurance, but a command of “don’t worry” can feel as likely to be as effective as telling someone really upset to just “calm down.” But perhaps in seeking real practices of the Kingdom of God in how we value and treat each other, we can find a community that helps alleviate what we worry about most because of how we treat each other after God’s example.

The Bible has a lot to say about who we are and what our relationship with God is like: we’re created in God’s image… we are prone to sin and failure and mistakes and pushing ourselves away from God… we are invited to be a part of God’s redemption of all creation… Sometimes we can focus a lot on any particular aspect of that, for ourselves or others, and be prone to pride or dehumanization. Perhaps reflecting on all these ideas together can help us operate humbly as Children of God seeking transformation of ourselves and everything.

We have heard that God knows plans for us - not to harm us, but to prosper us, and to give us a future and a hope. It might surprise us that God originally spoke these words to people entering an exile in the country that conquered them and destroyed their home that most of them would never leave, not to people ready to enter the best of times. Maybe seeing this context helps us find a resilient salvation that brings transformation and thriving to any circumstance, with even unexpected people, and helps us know God will walk with us all the way through anything, even if we aren’t promised easy escape or constant comfort.

The idea of God being with us, even when there are only a few of us together, is incredibly encouraging. As it turns out, though, Jesus gave this reminder in the context of people approaching someone to repent about a problem. However, when we see this verse in it’s full context, we don’t replace a God of intimacy and care with a God piling on confrontation. Instead, we meet a God with us, in whatever we can bring, in all aspects of life, graciously transforming us for a life of thriving for everyone.

The Resurrection demonstrates to us that Jesus is able to overcome any oppression, failure, sin, rejection, shame, and even death, but we are also invited to recognize and remember that it is a certain kind of overcoming. Jesus exists in the Resurrection with a certain kind of body - one that retains scars and all the pain and complications those include. Even more than that, if we as God’s people are the Body of Christ, that reality has implications for how we view ourselves and those we’re joined with. We can be tempted to hide, reject, deny, call shameful or try to get rid of some of God’s people around us, but Easter exhorts us towards a new, more salvific way of life.

When considering how the cheers of Palm Sunday transformed into condemnations on Good Friday, we can remember that many people may have expected that Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem would be about accomplishing the goals of a conquering, enemy destroying Kingdom, while Jesus had another purpose in mind. How can we be mindful of holding our expectations of what we might want church and faith to be about accountable to Jesus’ values today, as well, that we might experience the fullness of God’s Kingdom that transforms every aspect of our lives and transcends petty focus of earthly power games?

As we reflect on decades of life together as a church community, and look ahead to a future of carrying on and developing that legacy together, a chance to re-root in the vine of God’s faithfulness is important. We can sometimes fixate on worrying about the achievement of certain fruit in our faith lives together, but the reminder that it is not about showing off fruit or we will be rejected, but that when we focus on abiding in God’s love, it will flow through us and produce fruit of love however God wants, reassures us of what is really important, to measure, to live and to experience.

God describes many beautiful, powerful, and meaningful images for what a thriving Church community is like in scripture to help us find things we can resonate with. God also consistently portrays what corruption and perversion of God’s values in a community can be like, and the consequences when we stray that way. What most helps us recognize the difference in fruit when allegiance to God is claimed, and live faithfully in God’s values ourselves?

Jesus is portrayed as a cornerstone holding the people of God together as a temple that is more than walls, and a high priest over all of us in a new priestly order ministering to each other in the values of God’s salvation life. We can sometimes pick the wrong things to prioritize in our worship and ministry, though, just like some houses are places with burdensome rules and expectations more than homes to safely grow, develop and form transformational relationships in. How does Jesus show us and help us form communities that are more than “do and do, rule on rule, a little here, a little there”?

God calls the Church to be a particular kind of people - after God’s own values and salvation life - in how they relate to each other as God gathers them, but also in how they connect with people who aren’t a part of the closely established community. One special metaphor for this that we can be inspired by is “ambassadors.” It may not always be comfortable and simple, but we will find that God has always had the experience of salvation marked by reconciled relationships with people all around us - even and especially those we wouldn’t expect and that the world would be inclined to leave out.

A common metaphor for the church through the Bible is being God’s flock, led by Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Sheep don’t always have the most positive connotations associated with them, but they do also have plenty of value and dignity, even as they also remind us to be humble about our sin, vulnerabilities and temptations. The metaphor also reminds us of the responsibilities we have to follow God’s values as shepherd in how we walk with and care for each other, and how to encourage each other away from those that would exploit towards the God who cares, serves, sacrifices and provides for all. How do we best hold these values as a flock?

God’s people have often been called to take on ashes and to remember their temporality and frailty in dust. This is not just for individuals, but also for God’s faithful gathered people. As we reflect on how that is relevant in our own lives and times, we can gain insight reflecting on what values and identities God has emphasized to the gathered faithful in times of ash and dust before. As we congregate ourselves, with our resources and practices, how we might especially remember to be a different kind of den, than a den of robbers God has previously called the presumed faithful to repent from?