REFLECTION John's telling of the events on the first Easter Sunday is chock-full of details: descriptions of linen cloths, two disciples racing toward the tomb, one disciple peering in the tomb--but Peter bravely entering the tomb. The most tender of details, though,...

PSALM 118:1-2, 19-29 | A Song of Victory O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the...

A LANDSCAPE This painting of a barn and barnyard near sundown May be enough to suggest we don't have to turn From the visible world to the invisible In order to grasp the truth of things. We don't always have to distrust appearances. Not if we're patient. Not if we're...

SCRIPTURE | John 18:33-38 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation...

CHRIST IN FRONT OF PILATE ARTIST | Mihály Munkácsy Munkacsy, Mihaly. Christ in front of Pilate. 1881. Deri Muzeum, Debrecen, Hungary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org./wiki/File:Munkacsy_-_Christ_in_front_of_Pilate.jpg  

SCRIPTURE | John 18:33-38 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation...

LESSON This Sunday is called Palm Sunday because we are at the beginning of Holy Week when Jesus enters Jerusalem astride a donkey. It is also called Passion Sunday because Jesus' betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion are just days away. Our focus this week is on the...

PSALM 130 | Waiting for Divine Redemption A song of Ascents. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.  Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!  If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,  Lord, who could stand? But there is...

FORSYTHIA What must it feel like, after months of existing as bare brown sticks, all reasonable hope of blossoming lost, to suddenly, one warm April Morning, burst into wild yellow song, hundreds of tiny prayer flags rippling the still- cold wind, the only flash of...

SCRIPTURE | John 11:17-27 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard...

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS ARTIST | Euryl Stevens   Stevens, E. (1964). The Raising of Lazarus. https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/life-and-faith/the-methodist-modern-art-collection/browse-the-collection/the-raising-of-lazarus-euryl-stevens/  ...

SCRIPTURE | John 11:17-27 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard...

LESSON As the story of the death of Lazarus begins, Jesus had just escaped across the Jordan from Jerusalem as the Jews were trying to stone him. When Mary and Martha asked him to come to them, Jesus certainly knew that returning would mean his own death. Yet, even...

PSALM 139 | The Inescapable God To the leader. Of David. A Psalm. O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my...

GO TO THE LIMITS OF YOUR LONGING God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night.  These are the words we dimly hear; You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing.  Embody me.  Flare up like flame and make...

SCRIPTURE | John 9:13-21 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my...

CHRIST HEALING THE BLIND MAN ARTIST | P.C. Hodgell   Hodgell, P. (2009, June 4). Christ Healing the Blind Man. http://www.pchodgell.com/

SCRIPTURE | John 9:1-2 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the...

LESSON If you were to lay the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John side by side, you would notice similarities among the first three but several stories and themes that only appear in John. They all depict different versions of the life and ministry of Jesus...

PSALM 147 | Praise for God's Care for Jerusalem Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up...

LOGOS Why worry about the loaves and fishes? If you say the right words, the wine expands. If you say them with love and the felt ferocity of that love and the felt necessity of that love, the fish explode into many. Imagine him, speaking, and don't worry about what...

SCRIPTURE | John 6:9-11 "There is a boy who has five barley, loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then...

LA MULTIPLICATION DES PAINS ARTIST | CORINNE VONAESCH La multiplication des pains | Corinne Vonaesch Peintures: http://c-vonaesch.ch/galerie  

SCRIPTURE | John 6:5-9 "When [Jesus] looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, 'Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?' He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, 'Six months'...

LESSON Our sermons for Lent are based on texts from the Gospel of John, which is a Gospel full of literary devices that help paint a picture of who Jesus is. One of these is the rich use of metaphor. The Gospel begins by proclaiming that Jesus is the Word made flesh,...

PSALM 25:1-12 | Prayer for Guidance and for Deliverance Of David. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed...

WHAT YOU MISSED THAT DAY YOU WERE ABSENT FROM FOURTH GRADE Mrs. Nelson explained how to stand still and listen to the wind, how to find meaning in pumping gas, how peeling potatoes can be a form of prayer. She took questions on how not to feel lost in the dark.  After...

SCRIPTURE | John 4:13-14 Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.  REFLECTION As...

THE WOMAN AT THE WELL ARTIST | Daniel Bonnell The Woman at the Well | Fine Art America: http://www.fineartamerica.com    

SCRIPTURE | John 4:5-12 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.  A Samaritan woman came to...