Rumors of War

 Then Jesus began to say to them, "Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, 'I am!' and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs. As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. (Mark 13:5-10)

In my sermon for the Fourth
Sunday in Lent I asked the question, "Will we choose Barabbas and chaos, or Jesus and peace?" It really is an important question. Jesus in the Gospel of Mark reminds us of our folly. That we just seem to always get ourselves in trouble by following the wrong leader, choosing war and violence to solve our problems (Will Smith slapping Christ Rock, anyone?), thinking that the world is getting worse. The sad state of affairs is that we humans have always lived in a time of chaos. We just seem to want to remain in a state of suffering.

But, then comes resurrection. The nation of war and violence solves its problem by nailing to the cross the Prince of Peace. And in their mind they are done with that challenge to their power and authority. Little did they know that God was up to something new. God has different plans for solving the problem of our waring ways. What if death no longer rules our lives? What if violence is not that last word? What if God's word of love is poured out with no need for achievement?

This Easter we need this Word spoken aloud to us. We need to know that this indeed is true. That Jesus and resurrection is the last word. And that word is PEACE.

Pride and Prejudice

 A few years back, the people of First Lutheran Church studied scripture, held conversations, and prayed about whether or not we would be a welcoming place for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersexed and other non-traditional identifying people into our congregation. We voted overwhelmingly "YES" to be a Reconciling In Christ congregation. It was a proud moment of saying yes to love and inclusion.

To show our support we purchased a rainbow flag to display outside our building (shown to the left). Three of those were stolen and we instituted a policy of placing the flag out in the morning and taking it in at night. When "anti-trans" bills started to be brought into state legislatures we decided to make a more inclusive statement with our flag. So, we purchased a new flag pole and mounting bracket along with a "Progress" flag which expands the rainbow flag to highlight trans and BIPOC people, as shown to the right.

Sometime over the weekend of February 26-28, this flag was torn down and stolen.

I tell this story as we move into our Lenten season to highlight the struggle we have in sharing the Love of Christ to all of God's children. Our communal sin of exclusion needs to be repented of and a life of inclusion be practiced sincerely. Sadly, there are people full of hate in our community that they feel it is okay to destroy personal property. But, we will not give up sharing God's love, even those who we might consider our enemies.

Our them for our Wednesday Lenten Vespers is Community. We will show movie clips that highlight the various ways we either defeat community or expand community. This will all be done on Zoom and not in person. Our hope is that we can grow our understanding of who we are in Bothell and how we can express God's love for all.

It is OK to have pride in our congregation and its work for a world of peace and love, even in the face of extreme prejudice.

Jesus says to us in John 8, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life … You judge by human standards; I judge no one."