Please Note:  Building is Temporarily Closed   

 6-6:30 p.m. LENTEN WORSHIP     In-person (Reservations needed)   And on Facebook Live

 Wednesday, March 3

Wednesday, March 10

Wednesday, March 17 (FYFI Spring Break)

Wednesday, March 24

  A Message from Pastor Bob:

 At times, it’s rather difficult to be a Christian. Even Jesus said, in John 16, “In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.” 

 As we enter the season of Lent 2021, we acknowledge that our lives have been rather strange and difficult, and that it’s easy to believe the world is more godless than ever. Then, we notice that the Lenten narrative starts in a way that is also strange and difficult. At first, we get a nice, shiny Jesus (at his Transfiguration). This is the Jesus we want. But Lent ends with a Jesus that’s bloody, disgraced, and destroyed (at his crucifixion). This is the Jesus we don’t want! See! I told you that its rather difficult to be a Christian! Dr. Larry Osborne outlines this is idea of “The Jesus Want” versus “The Jesus We Get.”

  We wanted a Jesus who fixed EARTHLY PROBLEMS.

  We got a Jesus who fixed our ETERNAL PROBLEM.

 We wanted a Jesus who destroyed our OPRESSORS.

  We got a Jesus who destroyed the stranglehold of SIN.

 We wanted a Jesus who judged BAD PEOPLE.

  We got a Jesus who dealt with our SINS FIRST.

This church year, we are studying the Gospel of Mark. In Mark, we find a few instances of Jesus asking us to do something:

 Mark 2:14 NIV (Emphasis added) As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at

  the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

Mark 8:34 NIV (Emphasis added) Then Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples

  and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross

  and follow me.

 Mark 10:21 NIV (Emphasis added) Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he   

  said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

  Then come, follow me.”

Really? Follow someone that did the opposite of what we want? Someone who ignored what we wanted from him? This is so difficult and frustrating, and that’s why the Jesus that many people follow isn’t the Jesus we got, but the one we want. I heard of a pastor who was asked (told?) by his church council to only preach good news, nice things, happy things. When the message of Jesus is only good, nice, and happy news, there’s no room for the Jesus we get. There’s no room for Lent, Good Friday, and certainly no room for Easter! How often do you and I want a nice, shiny Jesus? How often do we want to forget about his long, troubled, and torturous journey to the cross? More than we’d like to admit, I’m sure! I believe that’s why the nice, shiny celebrations of Easter and Christmas draw such big crowds to church. I believe that’s why we turn the brown-skinned, broad-faced Middle Eastern Jesus into a white, pleasant Midwestern-American Jesus. We just don’t like what we get, so we change it into what we want. But that doesn’t lead us to Jesus.

 Dear friends, may we allow our hearts to embrace the Jesus we get at the end of Lent. Without the journey to the Good Friday crucifixion, Easter becomes empty and meaningless. And so our future becomes empty and meaningless, too. Lent can help us to accept that it really is difficult to be a Christian. Lent can help us accept that truly following Jesus means that – when we leave the bright, shiny Jesus behind and embrace the nail-scarred Jesus – this godless world will continue to bring us difficulties and hardship. Lent can help us to follow the Jesus that proclaims, “Be of good cheer! Take courage; be confident, be certain, and undaunted! For I have overcome the world. I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.”

 These words don’t fit with the Jesus we want, but they align perfectly with the Jesus we get. And the Jesus we get is the best one, the only one, we are called to follow. Thank God!

Blessed Lent and Happy Easter!

Pastor Bob