God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth."  Genesis 9:17

Oftentimes we will set off with a goal in mind, and become so absorbed with the goal, we find ourselves in the midst of a "wilderness experience". We all find ourselves in the midst of difficult and confusing times, although we can never predict them. God gave the sign of the rainbow indicating his covenant with the earth. Has God brought a sign into your life as an indication and reminder of his faithfulness to you? What signs are there in your spiritual life that might be an encouragement to you during wilderness experiences? God points the sign to himself as an indication that the responsibility of the covenant is his, and that he will never leave us, forsake us or fail us. He wants to be at work with us and in us.  During this Lenten season, ask God to give you a sign as a reminder of his steadfast love for you. What lies ahead is so much better in Christ.

And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."  Mark 8:34-38

What are we worth? What is our value? Jesus' challenge to us is to take up our crosses and follow him. He doesn't ask us to go somewhere he hasn't been. He has died for us, before we have to die to self. He asks us to a place of challenge, and a place of denial, which is the way of the cross. What are we spending our lives on? Jesus said that if we lose our life, we will then find it. What would Jesus ask you to sacrifice this Lent? Remember that Jesus had no doubt about the cross that lay ahead, but he was also absolutely sure about his future triumph (v.38). He never knew despair -- because he never doubted his Father God. It's not going to be easy, but take up your cross and follow. He did not come to make life easy, he came to make us great.

Rev. Bill Kruse

And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."  Exodus 20:1

For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Romans 7:22-25

The Jews said to him, "What sign have you to show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  John 2:18-19

Our Lenten focus is: will we give up, or will we give in? During this Lenten season, we remember how Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days. His fast was not an end in itself; it was a means to an end, to empower him to focus on his Abba Father. God is always ready, willing and able to take us to a better place. Whatever spiritual level you are on now, God is ready to meet you there, and to bring you to a higher level with him. Giving in means to surrender whatever is keeping you from God. When we read the passage from Exodus, our hearts are filled with thanksgiving, because we know that God has moved us from a place we once were, perhaps out of an addiction or some sin area.  Looking at the reading from Romans, we see that Paul has a deep respect for God, even in the midst of his inadequacy. We realize that Paul was a sinner, and we are all sinners. We are not slaves under the law, but we are saved by grace, and loved just the way we are. This empowers us to move to that new level of living. In the Gospel passage, Jesus speaks of the temple of his body. This is the new sacrifice, the new temple, the new Jerusalem. If you've been resisting God, hear him today, and give in to a life of sacrificial love. Give in unconditionally to follow Jesus, even if it means some radical change in your lifestyle. The Lord is still inviting us to follow him. Whatever it is that stops you from giving in to God -- repent of this, and allow God to have his way with you. This is our season to move to a new place with the Lord.

Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, "How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, "Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?"  John 6:1-9

In this account of the miracle of Jesus feeding the multitude, there are three characters described. Which character do you most relate to? The first character is Philip. Jesus asks him how they were to buy bread for such a large number. From this we might surmise that Philip was sort of a local expert, or maybe even a know-it-all. Philip begins to solve the problem on his own, without God. Jesus was of course testing Philip, and those of us who are like him. Sometimes knowledge can be a handicap ~ sometimes we may limit God because of our knowledge. The second character in the story is simply referred to as a little lad. This boy had a small lunch of five loaves and two fishes, which was a poor man's lunch. This was a nameless, insignificant, poor little boy ~ but that is the point at which God can work wonders, when we realize our insignificance. With God, the small and insignificant was great. The third character in the story is Andrew. Andrew is one of the first disciples to follow Jesus, and we see him immediately go to his brother Peter to tell him about Jesus. Later we see Andrew bringing some Gentiles to meet Jesus. In this story, Andrew brings a small boy to Jesus. Andrew is an intermediary, a go-between ~ he is someone who becomes a friend.  Which character in this story most reflects you? Do you appear to have it all together, like Philip, but inside are really needing God's solutions, instead of your own? Are you feeling small and insignificant, like the little lad, and are in need of the truth that you are great in God's eyes? Or are you someone like Andrew, who dares to be someone who points people to the Bread of Life, Jesus?  This Lent, who would you be?

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come  for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If any one serves me, he must follow  me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor  him. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name." John 12:20-28

Today's Collect mentions the "swift and varied changes of the world". How quickly things change in this world, and we see things changing even in Jesus' ministry. Before his first miracle at Cana, Jesus says, "My time has not yet come". But in today's gospel reading, Jesus now says, "The hour has come". Even though we realize that most things can happen at just about any time, Jesus realized that there is a right time and a wrong time for everything. Two words in the Greek, chronos and kairos, can be translated as time. The first, chronos, or chronology, means a literal point in time, or a description of time. The other, kairos, refers to not merely a certain point in time, but a holy moment. Each of us has chronology in our lives, but each of us also experiences kairos in our lives. God brings each of us to just the right place, in just the right time. If we ever experience a time when we try to force God's hand in a situation, rather than waiting for his perfect timing, we may become upset or antsy because things aren't going our way. Has that ever happened in your life ~ a time when you needed an answer from God, but one didn't seem immediately forthcoming? With God, it has to be his timing, not ours. Consider the following questions, and see what you might discover about yourself. Is it time for you to perhaps give something up permanently in your life, instead of just for Lent? Is it time for you to experience spiritual growth in your life, or do you have to admit that you are further away from God spiritually than you were a year ago? Now is the hour to turn to God, to let go of ourselves, and as we die, we find that we live. It is Jesus' death which brings us life, which enables us to bear much fruit.

And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethpage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it. If any one says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, "The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.'" And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied it. And those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" And they told them what Jesus had said; and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and he sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!" And he entered Jerusalem, and went into the temple. Mark 11:1-11a

There are two great truths about this day we celebrate, Palm Sunday. The first is: Jesus came to Jerusalem to die. The second is: Jesus came to Jerusalem to fulfill Scripture. In the tenth chapter of Mark, the disciples are astonished, and afraid for themselves, when Jesus predicts his own death. But even then he was helping them to prepare for what lay ahead. The hour was at hand for Jesus -- he was a King coming in peace, riding on a donkey; not to wear a crown, but to bear a cross. Jesus was prepared to die, even though it wasn't easy. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says, "Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Jesus came to die for us.  Jesus also came to fulfill Scripture. "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." Zechariah 9:9. This Scripture was fulfilled on this day in Jerusalem. The crowd shouted, "Hosanna!," which means, "Save us".  Psalm 22 was also fulfilled as Jesus died alone. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?" Psalm 22:1.  Who are we as Christians? We are defined and led by the Bible, just as Jesus was defined and led by the Bible. Just as all the sacrificial lambs were led into Jerusalem for Passover, Jesus, our Sacrificial Lamb, came in to Jerusalem to die for us and to fulfill Scripture. See this day the whole picture, and believe this for yourself -- Jesus was pierced for my transgressions, he was crushed for my iniquities, and by his wounds am I healed. (Isaiah 53)

Then he [Pilate] handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. John 19:16-18

None of us known when, how or where we will die. But unless the Lord returns soon, we will die -- death is inevitable. The Venerable Bede said, if you really want to live, you must contemplate death. In light of this reality, we come to this question: Why did Jesus die? Good Friday impels us to ask the hard questions about ourselves and one another. Good Friday challenges us to ask our God -- Why did Jesus die? Throughout history, the following answers, although not complete in themselves, have been offered. The first answer was given by Augustine. His answer is that Jesus died to pay a ransom for each of us, to rescue us from the darkness. "These [trials] have come so that your faith -- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire -- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Pet 1:7. We have been redeemed through the precious blood of Christ. We are of infinite worth; nothing in all of the created order is worth more than you and me, and therefore God came into the created order to provide an answer. We can find a second answer to the question, "Why did Jesus die?", from Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 11th century. Anselm suggested that even though we are of infinite worth, there is a greater challenge: in spite of our worth, every one of us stumbles. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23; "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23. As Anselm wrestled with this challenge, he realized that although we deserve death, in Christ we live. The death we ought to die, Christ dies for us. A third answer to the question, "Why did Jesus die?", was also offered in the 11th century. Jesus gave himself for us as an example of how each of us should live our lives. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13. As we see Jesus do, so are we to do. And finally, from the modern mind, we might offer a fourth answer to the question. The modern times have given us the new point of view of psychology -- but we are not talking here of psycho-babble pop psychology, but rather an awareness of how the modern mind thinks. Modern psychology teaches us what love is. The modern mind gives us a special new insight that love is wanting the very best for the one who is loved. Each of us, as modern thinkers, can relate to this.    As Jesus stretches his arms out on the rugged cross, remember that yes, you are of infinite worth, and if you will confront the darkness, and if you are willing to follow his example, you will know that God wants the very best for you.  "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12.