Hi everybody God be with you and welcome to Clackamus United Church of Christ as we come together to worship uh worship with one another and uh Point towards hopefully a better world so uh here we are and uh God be with you and uh friends we just have a few announcements
Today uh today is the beginning of Lent uh today is the first Sunday of Lent actually the beginning of Lent was Wednesday Ash Wednesday and here we are on the first Sunday of Lent and uh lent is a time of uh spiritual cleansing you might say one of my favorite metaphors
For the spiritual life especially for Lent is Barnacles you know like the Barnacles that get onto a boat and just kind of weigh the boat down lent is a time of uh taking whatever tool you need to get that Barnacle off of the boat that is our lives and so that is the
Spiritual metaphor that I often take in with me into lent uh and so for the next 40 days uh we’ll be dealing with the Barnacles I guess so if that metaphor uh works for you that’s awesome feel free to take it so good morning tree and Luke
Uh good morning to you princess M and uh uh Luke God be with Palestine Amen to that so uh friends Michael my people my people it’s so good to be here with you good to have you here with us Michael as always so friends uh Happy beginning of
Lent this is also uh we are doing something a little bit different starting here in Lent uh many of you know that I am a lectionary preacher which means that we go off of a lectionary a lectionary is some document uh goes back way back into ancient Christianity and ancient Judaism it’s a
Set of biblical readings that um that are given to preachers pastors each Sunday to kind of guide the worship service and the sermon and I have been going off of the revised new revised common lectionary which was put together uh in the 19 70s or so uh and it gives
You a series of readings for three years uh and then you repeat those readings well we’ve repeated those readings uh at least twice uh here at Clackamus UCC during my tenure so I’ve been looking for a new lectionary to guide our worship services and so today we are
Starting with a women’s lectionary for the whole church and uh this is put together by many of you know Dr will Gaffney who’s a womanist theologian uh that means a womanist is a a black female Theologian who does Black Theology and she does excellent work highly recommend Dr will Gaffney uh if
You’re whatever like I was gonna say if you’re interested you should be interested in Black theology so go read some Dr will Gaffney uh F fascinating stuff and she put together a lectionary that we are going to be using uh from for the foreseeable future and I’m going
To put that in the chat section here if you are interested in following along uh each Sunday with uh what we’re going to be doing the upcoming Sunday so there is uh a women’s lectionary for the whole church uh often emphasizes uh women uh in the scriptures so we’ll be seeing
That today uh as we move along so uh April good morning uh Sandra good morning to you from Maryland good to have you with us Sandra so so friends uh that I think are our main announcements today we will be having a time of prayer
With one another so if you would like to offer a prayer request I invite you to put that in the chat section begin with a hashtag prayer and that will help us sift through the prayers today uh and lift your prayer up uh during the worship service so friends uh we will
Also be having a zoom coffee hour later on today so after service so if You’ like to join us online for Zoom coffee hour I’ll put the link to that in the chat section so good morning Ellen and Karen good to be with you uh let’s see Ellen says there’s nothing on YouTube
Could somebody check us out on YouTube and see if we are on YouTube uh we’ll see so Terry good morning to you and uh friends let us begin our worship service with our pray music from Jean Herrera E I Thank you Jean for that up the song today Good there we go okay can you hear me can you hear me now all right yeah the prud music started playing again so here we are I think we’ve got things under control faen uh good to good to see you welcome and Victoria Lucia and Lisa good
To see you as well so uh friends Welcome To Worship Clackamus United Church of Christ God be with you if you can be give me a nice God be with you in the chat section uh let’s do that awesome God be with you friends and we will now welcome into our
Worship service our worship leaders for the day they are cliff and let’s all give let’s all give a little dance for our worship so Cliff welcome good morning good morning it’s good to see you and Mike Michael hello to you my friend hello good morning good morning good morning Michael is always bringing
The shirts that need an explanation and so we’ve got another shirt here with Greek letters so Michael tell us about your shirt uh so this is 5 Beta Sigma uh this is an historically African-American fraternity that I joined when I was in college uh this fraternity was founded
On the campus of Howard University and HB CU um on January 9th 1914 and we have three founders uh there is uh B lingon Taylor Leonard F Morris and Charles I brown and our fraternity was organized or exemplified on the ideas of Brotherhood scholarship and service and
They also had a a perspective of serving the community and serving those outside of the organization opposed to having exclusive goals and purposes I love it yeah if we all did that the world would be such a better place so indeed it would be indeed it
Would be thank you for that uh friends let us continue our worship service today with uh the lighting of the peace candle so Michael whenever you are ready feel free to start us off goodness did it again yeah we’ll fix that hold on there we go hold on there
We go you can still see me all right here we go take a deep breath there we go all right here we go to join us in the lighting of the peace candle and is as it is found in the description of your video we pray for peace in our hearts in
Our homes in our Nations and in our world amen uh Cliff I didn’t want to leave you out of the shirt explanation either but I am enjoying your very blue shirt my mind is blank okay going on up here that’s good oh Carly good to see you good to see you
Carly welcome uh friends our scripture readings today today uh are from our first scripture reading is from the Book of Judges chapter 5 verses 24 through 31 I just I mentioned in the announcements that we are starting a new lectionary and we would never have had
This Reading had we had stuck with the uh old lectionary so this is going to be new to a lot of us and it is a pretty fascinating story from the Book of Judges the Book of Judges is about uh ancient Israel before they had a king uh
To lead them and uh judges would rise up not only to make judgments among the people but also to lead the people whenever enemies would come in they were kind of like the uh the the lead general of uh the armies of Israel and uh during
This time of our reading there was a woman named Deborah Who Rose up to be the judge of Israel and need them uh during times of strife and so during this time there was also uh another uh woman in the story named uh JL and uh JL
We’re gonna hear part of her story today she was uh in her tent and an enemy General came along and JL uh took her pent tag and killed the enemy General so here we have some violence in the Bible and we’re going to hear more about that
In the sermon a little later on today uh but uh let us open our hearts and our minds to uh this story today from Jud 5 ver4 through 31 as Michael reads it for us Most Blessed among women is gel the wife of Herbert the canite may she be
Blessed above all women who live in tents C Sarah asked for water and she gave him milk in a bowl fit for Nobles she brought him yogurt then with her left hand she reached for a tent Peg and with her right hand for the workman’s Hammer she struck cicera with the hammer
Crushing his head with a shattering blow she pierced his temples he sank he fell he laid still at her feet and where he sank there he died from the windows Cicero’s mother looked out through the window she watched for his return saying why is his Chariot so long incoming why don’t we
Hear the sounds of the chariot wheels her wise woman answered and she repeated these words to herself they must be divided the captured plundered with a woman of two for every man there will be colorful robes for cicera and colorful embroidered robes for me yes the plunder will include
Colorful robes embroidered on both sides Lord may your enemies die like Cera but may those who love you rise like the sun in all its power then there was peace in the land for 40 years here ends our first reading thank you Michael Michael shows a uh slightly
Different um translation than what I had also a very gruesome translation so thank you for that Michael Luke says lots of violence in the Bible and in history but I’m especially concerned about the genocide violence in the modern world outside of the Bible yes L we are all concerned about that too so
More on that later today so thank you for that Luke our second reading is from the gospel of Mark chapter 6 verses 21- 29 and uh this is another gruesome story in the Bible this time from King Herod who throws a birthday party for himself which ends in Herod committing an act of
Violence against John the Baptist so uh violence as Luke says runs throughout our our world throughout human history and the Bible is helping us here uh acknowledge that violence and possibly see A Better Way Forward so with that uh Cliff whenever you are ready go ahead and read our passage
Today but an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee when his daughter herodias came in and danced she pleased Herod and his guests and the King said to the girl ask me for whatever you wish
And I will give it and he solemnly s to her whatever you ask me I will give you even half of my kingdom she went out and said to her mother what should I ask for she replied the head of John the baptizer immediately she rushed back to
The king and requested I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on on a platter the King was deeply grieved yet out of regard for his Oaths and for the guests he did not want to refuse her immediately the king sent
A soldier of the guard with others to bring John’s head he went and beheaded him in the prison brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl then the girl gave it to her mother when his disciples heard about it they came and
Took his body and laid it in a tomb here ends our readings this morning may God bless us as we reflect upon them amen Abid welcome greetings from Pakistan uh Pakistan Abid welcome uh it is good to have you here our brother from Pakistan good to see you Abid uh
Friends we now have our call to worship uh Michael feel free to lead us off please join us in the call to worship We Gather today to share God love for all people Outsiders and insiders oldtimers and newcomers the young old and in between non-binary transgender female and
Male black brown indigenous Asian or white come as you are for this is God’s house a house of prayer for all people and God welcomes us all amen amen amen friends we come to the point where we pass the peace I invite you to type the word peace in the chat
Section beloved of God May the peace of Christ be with you also peace be with you peace uh we now have our song for the day it’s a familiar tune uh in the world today uh we could use a little more of God’s light in the world and so our song
For Today Is This Little Light of Mine uh may we share God’s light and love with all people um so uh Michael and Cliff and I will see you on the other side you I’m going let it shine this going let it shine this I’m going to let It Shine Let It Shine Let It Shine Let It Shine hi it under a I’m going to let it sh it under a I’m going to let it sh sh it Sh Sh sh don’t let anyone it I’m going to let it shine let it shine sh it Sh it sh going to let it sh the of going to let it sh it sh sh sh you zipped us right a lot oh that was fun nice little tuba there action going thank you for that Jeff uh friends we now enter into a time of sharing our offerings with the church
Uh we rely on the uh generosity of our members and our friends here at Clackamus United Church of Christ to continue our Ministries uh including to continue this ministry of uh worshiping with one another being together lifting one another up in prayer on uh Sunday after Sunday so if you can help us
Financially we would be so grateful there are a number of ways that you can do that I put a link to the uh website uh C- ucc.org giving where you can donate there you can also donate on Facebook and on YouTube uh and you can also go to
Our website and get these Progressive Christian t-shirts like Jesus is woke and proceeds go to uh support the missions here at Clackamus United Church of Christ and just in case uh you need some backup I got the receipts on on this shirt right here so there you go so
Friends um let us offer a prayer over our offerings uh today gracious God thank you for these gifts for the opportunity to share them we ask that you bless them that they might be used to your glory to spread your peace love and Justice throughout our communities and throughout the world
With them we offer all that we have and all that we are in praise and thanksgiving to you we pray together amen all right April says that that was a baritone I I I don’t know my brass music so so thank you Jeff for the baritone in April thank you for uh for
That correction there so uh friends we now enter into a time of lifting one another up in prayer uh so if you have a prayer that you would like lifted up today invite you to put that in the chat section and we will we will lift one
Another up in prayer uh rev Bronte uh good to good to see you H good to have you here with us peace be with you as well so I’ll bring Michael back in and Cliff back in we made it we made it we made it to the other side welcome back friends um
All right so I Cliff do you want to start up at the top and is that is that how we do this Michael forget how it’s best for you yeah so at the bottom so what I actually started doing was commenting because there’s a place where you can see your reply and see
Everyone’s prayers but um I can start at the bottom either way all right uh Michael why don’t you start at the bottom and work your way up and Cliff you start at the top work your way down and I’ll get thing I’ll get the prayers to come in
Afterwards I’ll start off with uh patty patty offers prayers of gratitude for my return to a less depressed state of mind oh Patty we give thanks for that and we pray for your continued uh uh return to less depressing states of mind we give thanks for that God and your love here our
Prayers I have a prayer from rilen uh for Erica as she continues her healing Journey so we definitely pray for Erica lift her up and we look forward to when she has reached full recovery and she is well so God in your love he our prayers Luke zinker recovering from a
Mild bout of breakthrough covid first time I’ve been sick in five years but don’t pray for me pray for Palestine Luke we’ve got plenty of prayer and plenty of God we lift you up for prayer and healing and we lift up Palestine for peace God and your love here our
Prayers I have April a pray continuous prayer for her Aunt Diane and her cancer treatment and I know how much cancer has infected so many of us and I just pray for you as well uh your family and also Diane as she goes through her treatment
And we uh pray for a prompt and quick um remission of her cancer so we lift her up God In Your Love here our prayers Carly we pray uh for your insurance pays for the medication that you need so that you can avoid surgery Carly we pray for you we pray for your
Insurance to be able to pay for this medication we pray for you your body we pray for healing God and your love hear our prayers and Angela Banning prayers for my friend’s mom who just learned she has stage four bladder cancer protection peace of mind and healing all claimed for them and their
Family absolutely Angela we lift you up and your family God and your love here our prayers I have a prayer from Patty uh for America may we send our appropriate leaders Our concern and she will not give up God is with us too so um this is a prayer that I know
Has come through we pray for our leaders um make sure that they are at peace have peace of mind and are making wise decisions for all and not for selfish greedy um with well with selfish and greedy intentions so we lift this up for all of our leaders around the world and
We ask God and your love to hear our prayers our prayers on we pray for all struggling with mental health honol Le we we lift up your prayer to God we pray for everybody who is struggling with mental health and we pray for healing uh of
Mind Body and Soul God In Your Love here our prayers April ramit prayer continued prayers for my Aunt Diane and and her Cancer Treatments April we lift you and your aunt up in prayer strength endurance and healing in these times God in your love he our prayers Victoria we pray for peace among
Your family members and we pray for your students we lift you your family and your students up to God Victoria God and your love hear our prayers is this m Ray did you read that one Pastor no I don’t think so so M Ray prayers for her client Gary and his wife
As they’re aging has brought them to make difficult life decisions and for her straight cat Mama as she near as she nears the birth of her kitten litter and the unprecedented weather of Kansas um so we we got some blessings and we have some challenges um on that prayer
So we lift Gary and his wife up and we ask that God is with them on their decisions and hopefully they have a village in a circle around them as they go through these this transition and then also pay praying for Mama to have a healthy litter of a beautiful kittens
And we pray that those kittens are able to bring joy to the lives of others so we ask God to In Your Love hear our prayers he our prayers railen hungate prayer for Erica bada as she continues her healing Journey Erica we lift you up in prayer God In Your Love here our
Prayers uh Jessica uh says all eyes are on Rafa uh we pray for an end to violence uh in Palestine we pray for peace in Palestine for justice we pray for peace uh in Israel we pray that the occupation will end we pray for justice we pray for hope uh in Palestine
God and your love here our prayers Lucia we pray that your baby to be healthy in tomorrow’s ultrasound Lucia we pray for your baby we pray for your body too Lucia H we pray for your doctors God and your love here our prayers a prayer from Cheryl uh pray for
The healing of an infection in her left eye so we pray that you have healing you have the proper medication and we look forward to you um a healing healing properly so God In Your Love here our we have oh go ahead Cliff go ahead Carly msman uh pray for my insurance
Pays for the medication I need so I can avoid surgery absolutely Carly we pray that the decisions of your insurance company are favorable uh we need those and we pray for your healing and your body God In Your Love here our prayers I think maybe you both have met in the middle because
Uh as Cliff you said earlier there are plenty of prayers uh to go around that’s the second time we pray for Carly and her insurance so uh Carly a double portion of prayer for you and your insurance so uh I’ve got some more prayers here at the bottom Patty and Peg
Uh offer a prayer that I will combine together they’re about um the same thing uh Patty offers prayers for Russia as they mourn the loss of Alexi naali and uh Patty or sorry Peg offers uh prayers for the family of Lexi navali um and so
We we pray for uh Russia we pray for the opposition movement there we pray for justice uh we pray for the family of Alexi nabal God In Your Love here our prayer I have three more if we didn’t miss these so one from Luke prayer for money that we send overseas genocide to
Be first used on single payer uh so we pray um that money is allocated and used appropriately um then we have a prayer from April uh April will be celebrating 19 years of marriage tomorrow with the best husband a girl could have uh well you know but
You know we got that up for you April 100% and congratulations and then the last one that I saw on here oh if not on there this is a prayer personally for me out to Peggy uh Peggy sent a letter to me uh as she was uh celebrating lent and
She wanted to communicate I believe she sent a several out to other people so with those three prayers um we just ask that God watches over you all um we ask for the celebrations we ask for the allocation of funds to be used appropriately and we just ask God and
Your love to hear our prayers Cheryl we pray for the healing of your of the infection in your left eye Cheryl we pray for you God and your love hear our prayers she got a double she got a double dose of ey prayer we got okay all right so I I think we’re
There did we get uh Margaret’s prayer for Margaret’s boyfriend who has leukemia I don’t recall that one hey Margaret we lift up your boyfriend uh who has leukemia we pray for you Margaret and your boyfriend and we pray for healing uh God In Your Love here our
Pray uh Carly not sure we got yours uh we pray for a friend’s son who is Young going through cancer and for it to stop spreading God and your love here our prayers and I think two just came in at the bottom these are the last two that I
See um one from Britney prayers for her husband Kevin to have a safe trip home from type on Wednesday and then also Janice a prayer of gratitude for all true-hearted peacemakers and peacekeeping humans uh so we pray for both of those um we pray for sa trip for your husband I know
Taipe is a long journey uh so we pray for comfort um and safe travels and then we also just pray for the kindhearted people around this globe um we ask for their protection so God In Your Love hear our prayers here our prayers uh Mark I see
That we missed yours I found it here uh we pray for Mark and continue to pray for your brother James as he had a rough day yesterday and we pray for a young man named Christopher as he deals with addiction to alcohol Mark uh we pray for
James and we pray for Christopher God and your love he our prayers prayers uh so friends I we may have missed other prayers other than Mark’s and if we did uh we are so sorry we did was not intentional it is often hard to uh sift through all of the comments and
Find all of the prayers so uh know that uh we will continue to lift one another up in prayer uh this week uh we’ve got the Clackamus United Church of Christ connections page where we continue to pray for one another I’ll put a link to that in the chat section if you are
Interested in uh joining that page and continuing to pray uh during the week for one another so uh friends I will take myself off screen uh for the moment as Michael and Cliff continue to lead us in the spirit of prayer with our community prayer we invite you to join us in the
Spirit of prayer we will end each petition with God and your love and we invite you to respond with the words hear our prayer we will conclude with the prayer Jesus our brother taught us you may say it in whichever version you are most comfortable let us
Pray blessed are you our God creator of the universe you form us in your image and call us to be a blessing you baptize us in your love and strengthen us in your Holy Spirit We Gather this day to pray for your world and your people we
Remember all of those who are suffering and in need of healing in mind body and soul comfort those who are anxious and in pain strengthen those who are weak and lead us to be Healers of one another God In Your Love here our prayers let us long for
And pray for the light of God in Christ Jesus to drive back the darkness of human error misery and evil God in your love he our prayers where people are lost and jaded in contemporary consumerism where addictions cause ruin we pray for Hope comfort and transformation God In Your Love here our
Prayers where dictators rule without Mercy or wisdom where democracy are manipulated by the rich and Powerful we pray for justice God In Your Love hear our prayers where people see no Prospect in the future where the long-term unemployed exists without hope we pray for your strength God In Your Love here our
Prayers where the church Dodges its mission where the church evades its social and political responsibility we pray for your courage and Truth God in your love he our prayers we determinant ill face death fearfully where people without purpose face life despairingly we pray for your love God In Your Love here our
Prayers gracious God to all people precious God to you all people are precious please take your take from our eyes the scale of prejudice and indifference that we may increasingly share your awareness of the neglected and abused people and do all we can to make your love real to them in all the
World God In Your Love here our prayers gracious God there is so much noise and so many distractions in our world and so we come before you now in a moment of silence as we welcome you and all of those participating in this worship service into our
Hearts loving God in all these things that we have prayed out loud and in all of the prayers that remain in our heart we lift them up to you in the name of the living one who taught us to say together Our God our father
In be th name thy kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for
Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever amen amen thank you Michael and thank you Cliff for leading us in prayer this morning I will take you off screen as we have our sermon for the day uh and Jan uh is blessing all of us um may God’s
Grace and unconditional love gentle the hearts of those in the throws of addiction uh we we lift up that blessing to everyone uh in the throws of addiction thank you for that for that tenness um friends I’ll take uh Michael and Cliff offc screen for the moment and
Uh see you both on the other side so our readings today from scripture Center uh around women and around violence and as we have been worshiping with one another and making comments in the chat section about the world and violence today my mind has been going to as many of your
Minds are as well uh to what is happening in Israel and Palestine and uh these stories uh from today about women and violence uh are reminding me and possibly you as well as recent stories coming out of Palestine about uh women and violence there I am especially tragically reminded of a young girl
Named hind who uh we recently heard about Hind and her aunt and uncle and cousins were trying to escape violence uh bombings in Palestine and uh left in their cars in order to try to escape they were tragically shot dead uh in their cars as they tried to Escape by
Israeli Defense Forces who shot them and killed Hinn’s family members who were in the car hind survived uh in the car as she waited there for number of hours day a day uh as she called her mom and her family in order to try to find a way to be
Rescued she was on her phone with her family members uh who tried to encourage her and give her strength they ended up calling the red crescent which is sort of like the Red Cross here in the United States the red crescent uh communicated with the Israeli Defense Forces in order
To try to find a way for an ambulance to get to hind in order to save hind from death and the IDF granted them permission to go in the ambulance to get hind uh but tragically worse than tragically I don’t know the right words right now uh as the
Ambulance went to try to save hind the IDF decided to shoot down the ambulance on their way to to get Hind and they also shot the young girl hind uh this is how do you find words to talk about these tragic events that are happening in Palestine at the moment this is
Oppression uh this is genocide this is goes against what we want the world to be like Hind and her family should not be dead they should be alive our Palestinian siblings should not be dead they should not be going through bombings after bombings 28,000 Palestinians have been murdered this is
Unjust this as a pastor I feel as a Church community I feel it is our mission to call out uh these acts of genocide as we point towards a better world this is not only a better world to stop this violence to call for a ceasefire for our Palestinian siblings
But this also is creating more and more violence more and more danger for Israeli citizens these methods of violence as we see in the Bible only lead to more and more violence only lead to more and more tragedy only leads to more and more desire for Revenge oppression leads to
More oppression and we need to find a way to stop oppressing people so that all people who are made in God’s holy Divine image can live and flourish in a world where there is enough for everyone if we just share of what we have can somebody give me an amen in the chat
Section this is what the Bible is leading us towards this is what Jesus is ultimately leading us towards and we find it today in our readings from the Book of Judges this is ancient wisdom friends this is the ancient wisdom of the Bible and yes violence in the Bible
Troubles me and I hope that it troubles you too but there is a message a certain logic in the Bible when it comes to understanding what violence does if you read the Book of Judges which is where our passage comes from today uh the People Israel at the time
Do not have a political leader to unite them and hold them together and so other nations come and oppress the People Israel they occup the land in these stories in the Book of Judges the occupiers are the bad guys freedom is what God desires Liberation from occupation is what God
Desires and so whenever occupiers come into the land god brings up a judge to help free the people from violence and occupation but the tragedy is that the people end up believing that violence is the way to solve the problem of violence and so it works for a time as our reading says
Today it brought peace for a moment but that violence doesn’t solve the problem of violence and so violence just comes back years later to bring its ugly Violent Waves this is the pattern that the Bible is trying to reveal to us that violence begets violence as Jesus says those who
Live by the sword Die By The Sword and so how do we come up with more Creative Solutions to deal with the problems of our day Jesus will I think provide us with one solution a little bit later on in our sermon today but our story today both stories are filled with
Violence you remember it JL uh who is one of the uh people in the story from the Book of Judges a woman in the Bible uh has is a tent maker and the enemy General comes uh to jl’s tent and asks if he can come in and take a nap is what
He needs because he has been on the Run uh because his army has been defeated now if you read the story in the Book of Judges one of the very interesting things that happens is that God is seen as part of the ways that jl’s or sorry
Cera’s Army the general is defeated how does God defeat cera’s army with a rainstorm now you might think that God would defeat the army with uh fire and brimstone coming from heaven in a very violent way but here in the Book of Judges how does God defeat the armies by
Causing a rain rainstorm and their chariots and their horses get stuck in the mud confusion rains and they end up running for fear and in conflict with one another this is how the Bible starts teasing ing God out of uh violence showing more of a nonviolent God because
How does God deal with this enemy Army not with lightning bolts and killing them but by causing rainstorms and confusion and then they go off and run and cicera the enemy General comes to jael’s tent and jel takes matters into her own hand she invites cesera in t takes a tent
Peg and a hammer and drives the tent Peg through cera’s Temple I don’t know if that kind of violence bothers you or not it’s it’s pretty intense there’s a part of me that wants to say uh that here is jet uh perform pering an act that helps to save the
Israelites here is a a woman who in the Bible which is often patriarchal which is often showing women as submissive and as servants here is uh Deborah uh the judge at the time and JL subverting gender Norms uh and acting more like a male figure in the Bible and there is
Something about subverting those gender Norms that I think is worth celebrating in the Bible and at the same time I would just prefer that men and women not be violent that we find other ways to solve our problems and here uh we might find something of a solution in our gospel
Story King Herod throws a party for himself of birthday party a banquet for himself he invites all of the uh Rich folk the uh political leaders his friends to his banquet and he has jailed John the Baptist John the Baptist who has criticized King Herod uh as an unjust ruler and so King
Herod has put John the Baptist in jail and uh King herod’s wife Herod herodias does not like John the Baptist at all and she wants to see him dead so their daughter dances before King Herod and Herod asks her whatever she wants she can have and she ends up saying that
She wants John the Baptist’s head on a platter She Wants Revenge here is violence and politics all United together to the death of one of God’s prophets and so Herod calls for John the Baptist’s head to be brought to him on a platter Jesus hears about this story his mentor being beheaded and
Murdered and how does he respond you might think as one of God God’s uh special people in the Bible that Jesus would enact violence upon King Herod that he would respond by Leading an Army against Herod or by sending lightning bolts and killing Herod but he doesn’t do that
Jesus immediately responds to this story not with violence but by going out into a deserted Place teaching people and the people get hungry and Jesus decides to throw his own banquet his own party where he feeds people who are in need where he feeds the hungry throughout his ministry Jesus
Doesn’t get caught up in the violence that is all around him instead he heals people for free we’ve had prayers for uh insurance today to uh meet the medical needs of one of our friends Jesus here meets the medical needs of people who have needs he feeds
People who are in need Jesus this is how Jesus responds to violence in his world he responds to it not by adding more violence to the world but by adding Justice in a way that meets the needs of the people that’s how Jesus models for
Us what the kingdom of God is all about today is the first Sunday of of Lent and tragically we are hearing more and more stories of violence throughout the world especially for our siblings in Palestine and as we continue to enter into lent and follow Jesus uh Jesus ends up saying
Now after John the Baptist is beheaded he ends up realizing that he is probably going to be going to his own death why not because he says to love your neighbor who includes your enemies but because Jesus meets the political powers of Oppression and violence and he tells
Those powers to repent and live into the realm of God where there is not more violence for people but more Justice more nonviolence more meeting the needs of the people where they are and he enacts that through confronting the powers that be and also by showing them what God really
Desires which is more Justice and peace and health care and food and shelter for all people especially those who are in need Jesus knows that this is going to his confrontations with the powers and principalities of the world is risky Jesus doesn’t avoid political rulers he goes to them just before his
Death and he tells them that God’s desire is not where they are going but in a different direction this will lead him to Good Friday and death but also to Resurrection and so as we move forward in Lent may we know that part of the mission is to
Confront oppression and Injustice in the world may we know that part of that mission is risky may we know that in the end death does not have the last word but Resurrection does God’s love has the last word and so may we boldly move forward following Jesus into the realm
Of God where there is enough for everybody amen all right friends I will bring Michael and Cliff back in for our benediction today welcome back Michael oh we’ve got you on mute I will unmute you welcome back glad welcome back all right whenever you
Are ready I invite you to lead us in the Unison benediction and now friends let us join in the Unison benediction may God bless you and keep you may God’s face shine upon you and be gracious unto you may God look upon you with kindness and give you peace this
Day and forever more amen amen amen friends that is our worship service for the day uh thank you so much for being here Michael and Cliff thank you for leading us uh today and uh friends friends we will have our Zoom coffee hour link uh right after worship
Invite you to join us for that I will put that in the chat section now uh and we will do this all again next week invite you to join us uh next week for another worship service uh until then may you know you are l and may you share that love with others
And whenever it is necessary may you go out there and make like John Lewis and cause some good trouble until next week friends God be with you God be with you
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