SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016
Psalm 67
Acts 16:9-15
Revelation 21:10
and 21:22 - 22:5
John 5:1-9 and 14:23-29
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As we move abruptly from April into May, here are some calendar notes. 
We are currently still in the season of the church year called Easter-tide.  It starts with Easter Sunday and continues until the Day of Pentecost.  During Easter-tide, we go a little farther than usual to emphasize what Jesus Christ’s resurrection means to us… although as Christians, new life in Christ ought to be our main topic, year-round !

Before we are through with Easter-tide, on May 5th we will mark Ascension Day.  Easter Day this year was March 27th.  According to the New Testament book called The Acts of the Apostles (which seems to be written by the same author as the gospel called Luke), after Jesus was raised from the dead on that Easter Sunday morning, he stayed with his followers during forty days, teaching them more about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).  Then his followers witnessed him being lifted up, or “ascending” into heaven on the fortieth day.  So Christians observe Ascension Day to remember that Jesus still lives, though now exalted at the right hand of the Father.  The date of Ascension Day moves each year, depending on the date of Easter.  We don’t have a special Thursday worship service planned for May 5th, but it is always a good time to reflect on the fact that Jesus is alive and he reigns on high !  In our worship on Sunday, May 8th, we plan to observe both Mothers’ Day and the ascension of Christ.
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The date when the church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles is also different each year, depending on the dates of Holy Week.  We read in Acts chapter 2 that the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles on a Jewish holiday called Pentecost, or The Feast of Weeks.  According to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 23:15-21), the Jews were to offer special sacrifices to God, hold a feast, and declare an extra day off from work on the fiftieth day after the Passover observance: seven weeks plus one day.  Pentecost means “fiftieth.”  Christians count the fifty days from Good Friday, because Jesus, the Lamb of God, was crucified (sacrificed) at the time of the Passover festival.  The Day of Pentecost marks the early harvest time, reminding the Israelites how they settled the Promised Land after their long years of wandering in the wilderness: they were finally able to plant and harvest their own crops- so they give thanks to God. 
Among Christians, Pentecost is often called “the birthday of the Church,” because the coming of God’s Holy Spirit equipped and empowered Jesus’ followers to continue Jesus’ mission on earth.  What would the “body of Christ” be without the breath of life, the Holy Spirit ?  This year’s Day of Pentecost falls on Sunday, May 15th.  It is traditional to wear red clothing to church on Pentecost, and to decorate the sanctuary with red flowers and cloths.  We will remind you, as we get closer to Pentecost.

 
Here is a special invitation from our Central Atlantic Conference General Synod 2017 Team:
Jill White, Sia Barbara Ferguson Kamara, and Robert Ziegler.
The United Church of Christ General Synod 2017 that the Central Atlantic Conference will host in Baltimore next summer offers an opportunity to put forward our values at a time when our voice is needed more than ever, and to model the radical hospitality that is central to our life.  Our success depends on you and other leaders in our Conference who are committed to the United Church of Christ and its expression of God’s mission here and throughout our country and world.
Our Conference leadership has scheduled five events for potential volunteer leaders, prospective donors and others who will be key to our success in the summer of 2017.  On Tuesday, May 24 at Jimmy Madison’s, 121 S. Main St in Harrisonburg, from 6-9 PM, we will gather to introduce the plan for General Synod, talk about how we hope to leverage it for sustainable mission success in the Conference, and ask for your support in doing so.   We hope you will attend. 
[PLEASE RSVP TO DAN BY WEDNESDAY, MAY 4th]
We know you share our excitement about next summer, and hope you can join us in making the kickoff of what will be a seminal moment in the life of our Conference and the whole Church.  We look forward to seeing you on [May 24th] and to our working together to make Synod a success.

​Yesterday (Sunday, April 17th), the Spring Meeting of our Shenandoah Association met at St. Michael’s UCC, south of Bridgewater. 
The centerpiece of this meeting was an “Ecclesiastical Council,” in which we all had the opportunity to examine Rev. Hollis Dodge, to determine whether we should grant him “privilege of call”- full ministerial “standing” as a United Church of Christ minister.  The question itself was a ‘no-brainer’:  Rev. Dodge is known far and wide as an exemplary pastor whose heart and mind have been totally devoted to God’s work for many, many years already: there was never any doubt that we would affirm him to the change of status he requested. 
No, the challenge of yesterday’s program was to communicate to the folks attending the meeting some of the issues involved in vetting and holding accountable people who feel called to ordained ministry.  Our Association’s Church and Ministry Commission oversees this work throughout the year, on behalf of all of our churches.  (They put me through it, for you!)  Ordination and licensing of ministers is a task we take very seriously.  And when, like yesterday, someone gets all the way to the final stage of the process, all of the churches of the Association get to have their ‘say,’ whether to grant “ordained minister” status.
In the end, we affirmed Rev. Dodge unanimously.
 
Also at yesterday’s meeting, we put forward a slate of officers to serve our Association for the coming year.  We went into the meeting with two offices that had no nominee— but two folks in the meeting accepted the call to serve in those “slots,” and all of those in attendance voted to approve the entire slate of nominees for their jobs.  At the close of the meeting, our Conference Minister, Rev. John Deckenback, led us in prayer and laying-on of hands, gathering all of our Association officers.  We felt the spiritual investment of all of our churches laid upon folks whom God calls to serve the church.
Roles and titles and offices can be an honor.
They can mean a lot of work, too, for those who accept their jobs seriously and strive to fulfill the duties that come with them.
 
In the Christian faith, many of us struggle to imitate Jesus, who carried out his heavenly mission with the humility of a slave.
In our gospel lesson this week, Jesus has just washed his disciples’ feet, but then, only moments later, he noted Judas Iscariot going out to betray him to the authorities who wanted to kill him.  Strangely, according to John’s gospel, Jesus chose that moment to state: “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.” (John 13:31) 
Glory??  He’s about to be betrayed and killed, and he calls it “glory” ??
I have a weird custom, each year around Holy Week, of listening again to the rock opera, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”  I find that it challenges me emotionally, to feel the passions and motivations of the characters in the story in a fresh way.  Thinking of John 13:31, I hear this:
For the opera, lyricist Tim Rice imagined Jesus’ disciple Simon the Zealot, on Palm Sunday, experiencing the excitement of the palm-waving crowds and urging Jesus to seize this moment to try to become king of Israel:
There must be over fifty thousand
Screaming love and more for you:
Every one of fifty thousand
Would do whatever you ask him to.
Keep them yelling their devotion,
But add a touch of hate at Rome--
You will arise to a greater power !
We will win ourselves a home !
You'll get the power and the glory
For ever and ever and ever !
But Jesus challenges Simon’s notion of “glory” :
Neither you, Simon, nor the fifty thousand,
Nor the Romans, nor the Jews,
Nor Judas, nor the twelve,
Nor the priests, nor the scribes,
Nor doomed Jerusalem itself
Understand what power is,
Understand what glory is,
Understand at all, understand at all….
What is glory ?  Let’s seek the mind of Christ about this. 
What was he thinking ?
… praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
   His glory is above earth and heaven. (Ps. 148:13)

Last evening in the Isaiah Bible study, we engaged in a discussion about suffering injustice and forgiving.  The following verses from Chapter 26 raised the issue.  I am presenting them here the way I do the Journeys Crossing Bible study pages, most Thursdays.

So, what has been your experience with “the wicked” ?  Have you ever known one of “the wicked” to get straightened out and behave in a righteous manner ?  Isaiah 26, verse 10 states that bad people just don’t get it:  they don’t see or acknowledge “the majesty of the LORD.”  Just as a parent tells a child ‘You’d better stop that or you’re gonna get it,” but the child continues misbehaving until the parent actually pulls him up short, so wicked people don’t “see” the hand of God… perhaps not even when it whacks them upside the head.
Most of us can tell of bad experiences, when someone has done us wrong: lying, cheating, stealing, hurting, ruining.  In our Bible study group, we can share real-life events, holding them up in the light of the written Word.  Do you have a time and a place where you can give and take, in an atmosphere of holy confidence ?  Especially when other people are behaving “unjustly” or “perversely” toward us, it is a great blessing to be surrounded with encouragement.  Left to ourselves, it is so easy to just pray for God to burn up those wicked people !  But we may learn better ways to cope with the trauma and stress of living in this world.
In John’s gospel, as in Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read how Peter swore he would stick with Jesus no matter what— even to death… and then we see how Peter denied that her even knew Jesus, three times.  Wicked !
In The Acts of the Apostles (chapter 9), we read how Saul of Tarsus approved when they stoned St. Stephen to death, and then how Saul went on to persecute the church.  Wicked !
I find it really instructive, in Acts chapter 4, how the church prayed when the authorities persecuted them unjustly:
     they raised their voices together to God and said,
“Sovereign Lord, Who made the heaven and the earth,
     the sea, and everything in them…
For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.  And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness,  while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”
     Notice that, in their prayer, they ask three things of God: 
1) Look at their threats (wickedness), 
2) grant us boldness to speak Your word, and
3) You heal and perform signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.
Notice that we, ourselves can pray this way in the face of any wickedness that worldly people do to us.
Notice that we can pray this prayer while forgiving— letting go of— the sins and loving the sinners (as Jesus told us to do). 
Let go and let God. 
Who can predict whether sinners will turn from their wicked ways ? 
Only God knows.
I am so thankful for the story of Jesus accepting Peter back, in John 21 ! 
I am so thankful for the story of Jesus (through the bold, forgiving love of a guy named Ananias) receiving that mean old persecutor Saul into his service !