Rev Chris Roth

  Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31 The Bible begins with human beings in a beautiful garden- paradise. They have a life of perfect relationships with God, with each other, and with the rest of creation. They live in harmony. … But they decide to believe a lie, that God really doesn’t want what is best for them- that God is hiding good things from them. And to get at those good things they have to ignore God’s directions. … The human beings decide to eat from the forbidden tree that provides the knowledge of good and evil. … So far, they have only known good, but now they have to leave the garden to experience evil. They rejected God, and God’s guidance for their lives. That sin infected all the generations like a virus. Jealousy leads to anger and then violence. Pride led to the need to protect one’s status using lies and manipulation. Living with the possibility of violence led to fear and prejudice and inhospitality towards the other. Sin manifests i...

  Isaiah 65:17-25;  Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24;  1 Corinthians15:19-26;  John 20:1-18 The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the defining moment in history for Christianity. Christians believe that the Old Testament points to Christ and his resurrection. The first Christians, who experienced the resurrection, went back and read through their Scriptures and saw Christ everywhere. They looked at the blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12 where we read God say,  "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:3, see also 28:14).  They saw one of Abraham’s descendants defeat sin and death through the cross and resurrection and offer the fruits of that victory to all of humanity who wanted to receive it. Those first Christians looked back at Genesis 22 and saw the near sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham and saw another Son who carried the wood for the sacrifice on his back as he...

  Luke 19:28-40;  Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11;  Luke 23:1-49 No one wants to see themselves as the enemy in a story. In the story of the prophet Elijah, for example, the people have wandered down a wrong path. They are being led by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Jezebel is trying to impose the worship of a Canaanite god named Ba’al on the people, and ruthlessly persecuting those who are loyal to Israel’s God. … Israel became a very difficult place for Elijah to be. He felt like the only one left who worshipped Israel’s God. We don’t like thinking about ourselves as people who just went along with Ahab and Jezebel. This story is repeated over and over again. God uses Moses to rescue the people who have been enslaved in Egypt. But when they are on their way to the Promised Land they start grumbling and yearning to return back to Egypt. We don’t like imagining ourselves as one of those grumblers. We have the Prophet Jeremiah, who had bad news for the p...

Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8 In the Gospels, we see Mary at the feet of Jesus on 3 separate occasions. First, she sat at his feet listening to every word, instead of helping her sister Martha prepare the meal, which caused her sister to complain to Jesus. Against the gender norms of their culture, Jesus responds by defending Mary’s choice to sit and learn at his feet, rather than help her sister (Lk 10:39). The second time we see Mary at the feet of Jesus is when her brother Lazarus has died. She had cared for her brother, Lazarus, as his illness progressed. At some point they realized that Lazarus was not going to recover. Their attempts to help him weren’t enough. They called for Jesus hoping he could work a miracle and save him, but he didn't come. Lazarus died and they entered into mourning. … Mary had been grieving for 4 days before Jesus arrived. There we meet a grief-stricken Mary. In John 11:32 we read  "When Mary reach...