Were You There? Meeting the People of Passion Week
Lent 2020
What's Next?
April 19, 2020 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
There’s no going back. Jesus is risen. Death is defeated. One man has shown himself to be Lord of life and death, Lord of all the cosmos. Once you know that, you can’t return to the old game of living just for yourself. You can’t think again that the point of your life is about being the you you dreamed up for yourself. It’s about shaping your life to love Jesus by knowing him for who he is and then loving his little ones in his name.
Maundy Thursday Service of Shadows
April 9, 2020 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
Interactive Service of Shadows: Participate at Home! Wherever you are, you can take an active part in our annual Holy Thursday Service of Shadows. Here’s what to do: secure four candles, a lighter, bread, and a cup of juice/wine. Watch and listen as we move through the story of the passion. Wait for the signal to light and/or extinguish candles, and for the time when we can all take communion in our homes, yet spiritually together!
Joseph of Arimathea Video
April 5, 2020
Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin council. For political reasons he had to keep his loyalty to Jesus hidden. So why did he risk his position to approach Pilate? Only love could have made him do it. All he cared about was honoring Jesus in his burial. Too late to speak. Too late to stop them. Lord, I tried to work quietly behind the scenes. But I was only protecting myself. For what? Without you, nothing I have matters. This world is dead to me. These positions a joke. I know I could not save you anyway, There were too many of them, But I ache to have tried harder. No more hiding! I will get you off that cross. Gently, with dignity that befits a king. I will save your body from the dogs and the gawkers. You shall have my burial place. I will tend your tattered form With all my love and care, With all the power at my disposal. Too late, I know, to save you But not too late to let them know I am yours, and I will love you forever.
Love and Lost Causes: Joseph of Arimathea Sermon
April 5, 2020 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
Joseph just wanted to honor his slain master. He just wanted the cruel shame to end. So he was willing to sacrifice politically, socially, personally to give Jesus a proper burial. And what a difference it has made! If Jesus had been dumped in a mass grave, there would have been no empty tomb to point out on Easter. If he had been discarded in an unfindable place, the resurrection would have seemed like a mere fabrication. But the world saw Joseph take Jesus to his home address. They saw the Lord laid in a tomb with a stone rolled over it. They beheld the Roman soldiers guarding it. So Joseph’s gift became an essential, everlasting witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He was buried in Joseph’s tomb. On Sunday, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. Jesus really died. A lost cause. He also really rose. The triumph of love.
Three at the Cross Sermon
March 29, 2020 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
The key to surviving the uncertainty of these days? The net that holds us when huge crevices in our future keep opening up? The way we face illness, death and life in a new era? We look to that man on the cross and know him to be the Son of God who is with us always. We cry out to his Spirit to come through our locked doors and besieged city with ample supplies of love and grace to get us through. We reach toward him as we reach toward each other. We offer the hand of grace to Christ with his cross in every way we care for each other.
Pilate Video
March 27, 2020
That King of the Jews had something. A light. A peace. A trust. Even beaten to a pulp he radiated beauty, He seemed more a man then than I’ll ever be. Authority from above he claimed. From above but flowing from within. What is truth? I had mocked him. But he was unfazed. “My kingdom is not of this world. I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” His voice rang with truth. How I wish I could hear it again? Would I hear the truth if I heard him? Did I do the right thing?
Enter the Drama
March 1, 2020 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
For several years now, on the Thursday before Easter, we finish our service and go into the church garden. We stand by the tomb and sing the question, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” The event happened two millennia ago in a land far across the sea. It occurred amidst people who spoke a language very few of us today can understand. How could we possibly have been there? But still we sing the answer, “Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.” The distant story moves us still. Convicts us. Gathers us up. Changes us. Because it’s not just ancient history. The unbroken witness of the people who belong to Jesus is that we are included in his passion and resurrection!
Mary of Bethany Sermon
March 8, 2020 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
If you knew that Jesus would be crucified within the week, what would you want to say to him? What would you give him that might ease his way? A word? A gift? A service? What would you do to give him the comfort that he was loved by you? These are the questions that stirred inside the woman we know as Mary of Bethany.
Judas Sermon
March 15, 2020 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
Judas broke faith. We all break faith. But that doesn’t have to be the end like it was for Judas. We go in faith to our Father. We turn to his Son Jesus in faith that he can do more than we can possibly see right now. Don’t give up. Don’t give into despair. Don’t stay stuck with your life in your hands.