The Cross of Christ Week 2

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Call to Worship

Leader: In Christ Jesus, we are all children of God through faith:
People: There is no longer Jew or Greek.
Leader: There is no longer slave or free.
People: There is no longer male and female.
Leader: There is no longer old or young.
People: There is no longer poor and rich.
Leader: There is no longer abled and disabled.
People: For all of us are one in Christ Jesus.
Leader: Clothed in Christ, we are heirs of grace!
People: Clothed in grace, we are descendants of faith!
Leader: Come, let us worship our God, who makes us one!
All: Let us worship Christ, for we are Christ’s body on earth!

Pastoral Prayer

God of the wilderness,
your Spirit leads us to face the truth,
unprotected and exposed:
in our times of trial
help us to resist the worship of empty power,
so that we may find our true food
in Jesus Christ, the broken bread.
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
Crucified Lord, hear our prayer
for those surrounded by the shroud of death
for those covered by the mantle of dying
for those hemmed-in by illness, visible or veiled
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
for those weighed down with worries
for those carrying the burden of distress
for those overwhelmed by isolation
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
for those who are weary
for those who are tattered and worn
for those who collapse from exhaustion
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
Crucified Lord, Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayerof thanksgiving –
for the graciousness with which you hear
for the patience with which you listen
for the grace with which you care
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
for the ways you accompany us through deep valleys
for the ways you lead us to still meadows
for the ways you provide all we need
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
for transforming death in resurrection life
for blessing and breaking ordinary bread
for opening our eyes to recognize you
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
Crucified Lord, Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayerfor communities of faith –
that we retain memory of being together
that we embrace unity in the reality of distance
that we foresee a future side-by-side, hand-in-hand
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
that we sense purpose beyond ourselves
that we perceive the needs of creation
that we stretch ourselves to respond
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
that our ways be formed by Your Way
that our lives be shaped by Your Life
that our love be Your Love
Lord in your Mercy; Hear Our Prayer
Lastly we know that we so often neglect to lift our own souls up to you Lord God. We pray that throughout these 40 days that we would hear your still small voice speaking to us, and that we would be faithful in our response. We lift up the joys and concerns of our own heart in this moment of silent worship.
And hear us as we pray together…
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen.

Connection to Method

Worship - new service at 1030 at Uptown - if you are worshiping online and that is a better time feel free to check that one out
Connect - practically every week is join a small group
Respond - turn it over to Shelly

Shelly Kubik - VBS Promotional

Middle Chunk

Stick around for a listening session today
Appeal for Family Promise volunteers
We really need volunteers for that it is important

Celebration

Family Promise
We are celebrating that we are able to host again, and with that we need your help
(Potentially a Malawi update because it is the second Sunday, but I will only do that if that is the plan)

Sermon

Me section - hearing about the cross in Youth group

The cross is messy
We often don’t talk about the cross or we skim over it
I think we probably do that because we want to look towards Easter to the hope that our faith offers and downplay the lament that seems all to real in daily life.
I think back to a particular time where the cross made sense to me
I was in youth group, and the youth pastor was preaching during holy week on the Good Friday passages
And I still remember that he was describing the nitty gritty details of what crucifiction really was
The steps from being whipped to physically having to carry a cross, and ultimately by going out in one of the most gorry deaths that you could think of
And on top of that it was not so much just a way of execution there were much quicker and easier ways that the Romans had for going about that, crucifixtion was reserved instead for making a statement
Asking questions
Why did this have to happen?
Was this really necessary?
Wasn’t there an easier way?
Why did Jesus do this?

We struggle with these same questions

We see crosses so often that it can be easy to forget what they really mean.

Scripture

Galatians 3:10–14 NRSV
10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” 12 But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
What is “the law”?
The doctrine of the law is “do good get good, do bad get bad”
This is how our legal system is supposed to theoretically work
It doesn’t always
But in theory if you commit a crime that is doing something bad, and they you face usually a bad repercussion for those actions through a ticket, or a fine, or in more extreme circumstances incarceration
I don’t think Paul was specific to meaning the particular laws, but rather a system that is based on the logic of “do good get good, do bad get bad”
Habakkuk 2:4 NRSV
4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.
Leviticus 18:5 NRSV
5 You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the Lord.
Basically these are two incompatible things
On the one hand the law is a useful guide to the people and they are told to follow it
On the other hand they are told that the righteous live by faith in God first and foremost

No body is perfect

Since the beginning of time people have been trying to be perfect
The belief at the time was that being perfect was all about doing the right things
Legal obedience is never enough, because it will always most certainly fail you.
So there is a problem here
The problem is that if we believe that
Who is under the curse that Paul is talking about? Everyone! but that is okay
Another way to think about it is that the belief system that says if I am good God will give me good things and if I am bad God will give me bad things
That is a never ending hamster wheel
And it is quite frankly insanity to keep running on a hamster wheel that delivers you no where
Christ by his death delivered us (redeemed us) from the curse of the law

The cross can only be proclaimed it cannot be explained

Christ by his death delivered us (redeemed us) from the curse of the law
Salvation
Often is understood in one direction and the direction sounds like this:
I do the right things
I say the right things
I am nice to the right people and then God loves me
Paul is flipping that paradigm completely on it’s head
Paul is saying that you start with faith not with the law
You start with the fact that God loves you
And that Jesus died on behalf of humanity and that includes you
And when you fall more and more in love with God you see that God and God alone shapes our desires toward good fruit
When you first and foremost love God, and place worship as an act and a priority in your life
Side may include, but are not limited to:
Doing right things,
saying right things
living holy living
For Paul the cross of Christ and the scandal of the cross that Pastor Angie talked about last week is that the order is reversed.

The Cross of Christ Rescues us

The cross was an intentional and decisive choice that God made on your behalf
I do not believe that God was wishy washy
I do not believe that God was unsure of God’s decision.
God knew exactly what God was doing on the cross...but more importantly God knew exactly WHY he was doing what he was doing on the cross.
From what?
our own insanity
from not being perfect
Through the Cross Jesus rescues us from the insanity of having to believe that we can save ourselves.
Redeem me ans to buy off - to obtain release by virtue of a payment - redeeming also means to deliver from harms way
redeemed is used to describe the emancipation of a slave
We are free to no longer be bound by the law
to turn back to slavery when we have freedom is absolutely absurd
The invitation of the Cross fundamentally shifts who is “in” and who is “out”
It is not just the people who have done all of the right stuff that have been saved, it is all
For the Jew and the Gentile
The cross of Christ rescues us today, not in some distant by and by

Lent and the journey we are on

Know that Christ already has redeemed you
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