We are all feeling the difficulty of this pandemic in different ways. The uncertainty around health and jobs are real and weigh upon us. Social distancing takes a hard toll on our souls, yet are necessary tools to help not overwhelm our healthcare system. Today is Maundy Thursday, the day we, Christian’s, observe the final meal (Passover) Jesus shared with his disciples. In our corner of the world today, this is commemorated as a pot-luck meal that we have shared with our partner congregation, Iglesia: Mision Bautista de Westchester, and neighbors, Trinity Lutheran Church, several times in the past. It was at this meal that we celebrate Jesus taking the known ritual of the Passover meal and making it about himself! The lamb was slain to put blood upon the doorpost to protect the firstborn of each Jewish household – thus saving the presence of God in their world, is now the role that Jesus embraces for all of humanity and creation. The doorposts of the universe are about to get coated in Jesus’ blood to protect everyone and everything and to preserve God’s holy, universal presence once and for all time.

Clearly the disciples did not grasp his meaning that night. The question for us, all these years later is: Do we? They had expectations of a new political Kingdom, where the Roman authorities would be removed and resoundingly defeated. But this would only be a giving into the temptation of Satan upon Jesus in the wilderness for worldly power and domination over nations. This is the sad and reliable story of human history. Violence only begets more violence. Yet, Jesus offers a new way of abiding peace (Shalom), freedom, compassion, and grace through his sacrifice.

Perhaps this Holy week is the one where we are most able to relate to and dwell with the disciples in their bewilderment, anguish, questions, doubts and fears. They did not know that Sunday’s empty tomb was coming. They did not expect a bodily resurrection of their teacher and mentor. They did not expect that God’s plan for redemption would play out like this. They just couldn’t get their minds around that large of a God; that large a love.

So, as we gather around computer screens or cell phones and participate in Easter services this year while sanctuaries are empty, unthinkable just a few short weeks ago, let us be reminded how unthinkable it was for those grieving, dedicated women, who set out to anoint his body, and find Jesus’ tomb empty. May we, like them, encounter this risen Lord, Jesus the Christ – the Messiah in a new way, too! It is this risen Jesus who would equip their rag-tag group of misfit followers into God’s powerful instruments of peace to share with the world. If we can get that truth in this strange Holy Week, then we will understand the first Holy Week in ways we never could have before. 

Holy God of transformative presence, grant us to be with you in your absence, obeying you even in the deep moment of your apparent defeat. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

​I came across this video (below) while I was … well, you know … consuming content on my phone. It’s from an advertising company out of England, commenting on how to reach and engage potential consumers. This has become increasingly difficult for them since most of us (as they say) are “time poor and content rich.” So, in order to break through the noise, they say that an advertiser must be “relevant, evoke an emotion, be creative, and have a purpose.” Well, yeah, that goes for followers of Jesus too! So, how can Christians and the Church get the story of Jesus’ love, compassion, and mercy to cut through the everyday noise of our distracted society today? Watch this video and see my take below.

​Have you ever been in a situation where you were meeting someone, for the first time and only had a vague description of what they looked like? If you were lucky, maybe they let you know what they were wearing. As Christians, if we are going to follow Christ throughout our lives,, then it would be important to answer the questions, how do we recognize the risen Christ? Looking at the New Testament, that was an important question for the early church. In several passages we read about encounters and metaphors that help us identify how Christ is present in our lives.
Recognition of Christ is sometimes slow in coming. Consider the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They travel for miles talking with Christ without recognizing their friend. Yet, it was only when they broke bread together that they recall, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?” (Luke 24:32). Consider Mary Magdalene, where she is the first to discover the empty tomb and the risen Lord, she does not recognize him, assuming that he is a gardener who has moved the body. It isn’t until he says her name that she truly sees who he is.
Have you ever been touched by the compassion of another? Perhaps the risen Christ was extending you compassion through that person. Have you ever had a profound conversation with someone about suffering, death, and meaning, a conversation that awakened intensity in your thoughts and a general feeling that put your whole life in a richer, deeper, wiser perspective? Perhaps the risen Christ was moving through that person toward you. Have you ever found a community that revealed an abundance of life (John 10:10), a way of living overflowing with grace and delight? Perhaps the risen Christ was moving through them toward you.
How do you recognize the risen Christ? We listen to what is awakened in our hearts through deep conversations. We attend to the voices of compassion we grow to trust. We participate in a community of abundant life. Then we know that Christ is risen indeed! Through this Lenten time, I will be preaching a series called: Encountering Jesus. We will look at several encounters that Jesus had and how they can lift our hearts, empower compassion, and reveal abundant community. Please join us as we Encounter Jesus together!

We've been studying the Prophet Isaiah here at First Baptist since September and will continue on through November. We have looked at key passages that instill a sense of hope in the face of the Israelite despair at being taken into exile. The Babylonians had destroyed their temple, captured their king, and destroyed their city. Today, we too face a metaphorical exile of sorts with severe feelings of dislocation from cultural identity and disconnection from one another is more real despite the hyper technological connections found within our phones and social media. Studies show that Americans are literally dying of loneliness. And yet, out of the darkest of nights, hope remains possible with God! Then suddenly, in the midst of a desolate refugee camp of despair, far from home in a foreign land, Isaiah speaks: a change is finally going to come! They are not forgotten; in fact the opposite is true – the dawn of a new day is breaking!
Isaiah helped the Hebrew people to imagine reality differently, the possibility of a different world, a world that God has waiting for us! Jesus embraced this dream of a new reality. I am inspired to image the Body of Christ that is compassionate to the world’s forgotten and left behind. Whether that’s a dozen refugees on a rubber boat in the Mediterranean, a scared and lonely child separated from her family at our southern border, hungry kids in our community, a family huddled in a Syrian basement praying to survive another night … “For unto them a child is born, unto them a son is given.” (Isaiah 9:6). That’s the Gospel. That’s the dream God has for our world.
 
That calls to my mind the hopeful song, A Million Dreams, from the musical, The Greatest Showman –
 
I close my eyes and I can see
The world that's waiting up for me
That I call my own
Through the dark, through the door
Through where no one's been before
But it feels like home
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I've lost my mind
I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy
We can live in a world that we design
'Cause every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all its gonna take
A million dreams for the world we're gonna make
There's a house we can build
Every room inside is filled
With things from far away
The special things I compile
Each one there to make you smile
On a rainy day
They can…
 
However big, however small
Let me be a part of it all
Share your dreams with me
You may be right, you may be wrong
But say that you’re bringing me along
To the world you see
To the world I close my eyes to see, I close my eyes to see!
                                                                (by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul)
 
Do you see the world that Isaiah and Jesus dreamed? Pray that you might be open to the realities of the undying dawn of God’s Kingdom to enter our world through Christ in you! God has a beautiful vision “for the world were gonna make!”

I recently came across this beautiful song by Sara Bareillas, from the musical "Waitress". It speaks to the critical importance of a nurturing environment for dreams to be cultivated and grown. Basically, the song shares that dreams need a "Soft Place to Land."
It is my goal, everyday, as Pastor of First Baptist, to foster this reality in our congregation! We can be that "soft place to land" for God's dreams to grow inside and take hold of you! We can be that sense of place where God's dreams can shape and mold you into who God sees you can become! A place where hurt and shattered dreams can be mended. A place that knows that with God, "Nothing's impossible child!" That's what dreams need. That's what we are fostering here at First Baptist!

If you're "someone" longing to find your "song" this Holy Week, this might just be it. #JourneyToResurrection #DontLetTheLightOut
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​We celebrate the Risen Christ this Easter! Please join us as we not only hear the familiar story of Jesus’ resurrection, but also hear a lesser known passage written in Isaiah to the devastated exiles who had lost their land, their king, and their Temple. The disciples and followers of Jesus felt heartbreak and despair on that Sunday morning, like the Hebrew people in bondage in Babylon. As Jesus shows himself to be alive once more, the passage in the 49th chapter of Isaiah speaks of a God who has answered them, who has helped them, who has kept them, and has given them as a covenant. God calls on them to courageously say: “to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Appear.’”

As we celebrate Jesus’ coming out of the tomb and appeared before the whole world demonstrating a power and love that the world  had not yet imagined, Isaiah’s usage of two little Hebrew verbs also suggest the cosmic purposes of God for his people. The two mandates are first to “come forth” and free the prisoners- free people from their fear, anxiety, despair, hunger, poverty, shame and guilt. Second, we are to announce to the invisible, those in the shadows, at the margins of our society, “Appear!”  The power of the resurrection and the life of Jesus is to authorize all persons, all exiles, all marginalized to be fully present and visible, to be fully reconciled to life in community.

So, as we celebrate the reality of Jesus’ coming forth out of the tomb and appearing to the world, we also understand our new role to utter and enact these two little verbs: come forth and appear, so that we might become the covenant that God is seeking in the dawning Kingdom of Heaven!

We now come to Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem this Palm Sunday! He has just come from Bethany, where his raising of Lazarus from the dead made made him a first century rock star! The crowds shouted “Hosanna!” as a word of welcome greeting. Today, we use this often as a word of praise, but it was originally a word of pleading. It welcomed the one who arrived and called for the fulfillment of promises. Realizing this, we can see why the crowd who was so excited on Sunday shouting “Hosanna!” did not oppose the crucifixion of Jesus by Friday. Perhaps many of these same people, seeing that Jesus had not upheld their expectations of a political-militaristic messiah would have become disappointed to the point of shouting “Crucify him!”.
​We have a similar problem with “Hosanna!” today; as we make God in our image, contort God to our desires, connect God to our tribal expectations. Let’s not limit the work of God in our lives and relationships with shortsighted understandings. Let us shout “Hosanna!” in faith and trust that wherever God wants to lead us, we will go! Let us welcome that reality this Palm Sunday!

What does it mean to be anointed? Anointing was a common ancient cultural practice. Shepherds often poured oil on the heads of their sheep in order to protect them from insects that would burrow in their ears and kill them, contributing to anointing becoming symbolic of blessing, protection, and empowerment. The Jewish people anointed the altar when making sacrifices. Spiritually, anointing was related to the idea of strength or blessing. Priests were anointed with oil, later followed by Samuel anointing both Saul and later David (one of our texts this week) as kings of Israel. This anointing signified a person as a chosen one among the people.

In the New Testament, we are told God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor" (Luke 4:18.) In Acts 10:38 it says, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power."  This was a term used to emphasize Jesus as the chosen one of God.
 
In our texts for this week, we see the anointing of David and also Jesus with expensive perfume by his friend Mary, the sister of Lazarus. What do these passages say about the calling of the anointed? What is God calling you to become? What have you been anointed to do? Come and worship with us this Sunday as we explore these questions.