Simply the Sermon for March 30, 2025: Fourth Sunday in Lent

Our texts for Sunday, March 30, 2025 are Joshua 5:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, and Luke 15:1-3,11b-32. 

As the old hymn says, Our Father, we have wandered and hidden from your face, in foolishness have squandered your legacy of grace. We read today of a prodigal parent, so in love with their child that no matter the situation they wait with baited breath to welcome their child home. This grace seems foolish and extravagant but we so welcome it when we recognize the gifts of God, freely offered.

Live in love, my siblings in Christ,
Pastor Diana

March 30, 2025: Fourth Sunday in Lent

The Bethel Worship Team

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Simply the Sermon for March 23, 2025: Third Sunday in Lent

Our Bible texts for Sunday, March 23, 2025 are: Isaiah 55:1-9, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, and Luke 13:1-9.  

The warnings are plentiful and blunt on the third Sunday in Lent. Cut it out or get cut down! The warnings are accompanied by God’s invitation to attentiveness: “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.” The landowner’s ultimatum is forestalled by the gardener’s readiness to till the ground one more year. That is good news for all of us. Thanks be to God!

Live in love, my siblings in Christ,
Pastor Diana

March 23, 2025: Third Sunday in Lent

The Bethel Worship Team

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Simply the Sermon for March 16, 2025: Second Sunday in Lent

Our texts for Sunday, March 16 are Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18, Psalm 27, and Luke 13:31-35.

Though we sometimes doubt and often resist God’s desire to protect and save us, our God persists. In holy baptism, God’s people have been called and gathered into a God-initiated relationship that will endure. Lent provides the church with a time and a tradition in which to seek God’s face again. Lent provides another occasion to behold the God of our salvation in the face of the Blessed One who “comes in the name of the Lord.”

Live in love, my siblings in Christ,

Pastor Diana

March 16, 2025: Second Sunday in Lent

The Bethel Worship Team

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Simply the Sermon for March 9, 2025: First Sunday in Lent

Our readings for Sunday, March 9 are from Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Romans 10:8b-13, and Luke 4:1-13. Sundays and Seasons introduces worship with these words:

These forty days called Lent are like no other. It is our opportune time to return to the God who rescues, to receive the gifts of God’s grace, to believe with the heart and confess with the mouth the wonder of God’s love in Jesus, and to resist temptation at every turn. This is no small pilgrimage on which we have just embarked. It is a struggle Jesus knew. It is a struggle Jesus shares. The nearness of the Lord, in bread and wine, water and word, will uphold and sustain us.

Live in love, my siblings in Christ,

Pastor Diana

March 9, 2025: First Sunday in Lent

The Bethel Worship Team

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Simply the Sermon for March 5, 2025: Ash Wednesday

Our readings for Ash Wednesday are Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Live in love, my siblings in Christ,

Pastor Diana

March 5, 2025: Ash Wednesday

The Bethel Worship Team

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Simply the Sermon for March 2, 2025: Transfiguration Sunday

Our readings for Transfiguration Sunday, March 2, are Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, and Luke 9:28-43a. 

On this Sunday, we remember and experience the liberating power of our Lord and Savior as his kinship with both God's promises of the Hebrew Scriptures and with God's self are revealed. As we revel in this liberation, who will we invite into this incredible relationship?

Live in love, my siblings in Christ,

Pastor Diana

March 2, 2025: Transfiguration Sunday

The Bethel Worship Team

Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash