Leaning Into Lent | Week 6 | Holy Week - Monday (3-30-26)

Thank you for joining us on this Lenten journey. You can find additional resources at spanishfortumc.org/lent. If you want to know more about our congregation, check us out at spanishfortumc.org/welcome

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Hey everybody. It is Holy Week. It is the final week in our Linton journey. And it has been wonderful to go through each week, getting to dive into the scriptural lessons together. I'm getting to uh talk about it with other pastors in our in our area as well as with you. Um our groups have been wonderful hearing how our Sunday morning and Zunda night groups have gone. I know Pastor Mike group has been uh a good journey through Lent. Um and it has just been uh a really rich season. But we are finishing out Lent this week and we're gonna go through some of our Holy Week text. Um Pastor Mike is with us. You all know him, obviously. Um he is our associate pastor and is in charge of the uh music for the traditional worship service, but what you don't know is he does a lot more. Um he is robbing buses, he's making sure our air conditionings are uh working the right way. He is uh often doing things behind the scenes that you would never notice. So uh Mike, I'm so grateful for you and thank you for joining us for this. Thank you for the invitation. This will be fun. Yep, yeah, and Sarah, I appreciate you as always been putting up with me these past six weeks of Lent and this past year of your appointment here. Um, but today, so what we're gonna do, we're gonna do things a little bit different. So, you know, we have it doing on Monday, we go through the Old Testament, New Testament on Wednesday, gospel on Friday. But um during Holy Week, there are daily readings that I think are helpful as we kind of go through the old journey. We're still just gonna post on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Um, but we're gonna kind of go over the three texts that are assigned for that Monday, um, all Wednesday and Friday, too. So today, Wednesday, Friday, in part because uh I don't want to jump ahead to Easter, right? If we were to do it the same way we even did it in the past, all we talk about on Monday is our Friday's Easter text. But it's Holy Week and we're not there yet. By now you have likely heard my spiel. Um and everybody rolling their eyes at this point. But come to church um Thursday night and Friday night. Join us um on the journey to the cross and then uh all the way until Easter. Because uh, if you came to worship yesterday, thank you. It was a wonderful day. Um, don't wait until this coming Sunday to come to church. Um, because if so, you missed the heavy parts, the the cross, you miss the the last supper, you missed the the things between Palm Sunday and Easter. So that's why I didn't want to jump ahead of the Sunday text. So we're gonna sit today with the daily text designed for Monday, and then we're gonna do this on Wednesday and then Friday. And so uh this will be a little more thematic in nature. We're not gonna really drill down as deeply into any one individual text, but today's texts are Isaiah 42, 1 through 9, Hebrews 9, 11 through 15, and John 12, 1 through 11. And so rather than um give you a summary of all of them, we're just gonna talk about them for the 30,000 foot deep. We're gonna um say, hey, here's some things that I see connecting these texts, here's um a thing in this one particular text that really spoke to me, and kind of go through it in map pattern this week. So sorry, that was a lot more said than normal. Let's get into it though. So let's just start anywhere you want. Um, I'm not gonna say you have to start the Isaiah passage, but if you're already there, then then we can start with Isaiah 42. But if there's something that's really um striking to you about the Hebrews, the John passage, let's just kind of what was the first thing that you thought, man, I can't wait to talk about that whenever you were uh going through these passages.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Really, for me, the connectedness uh beginning with Isaiah, right on through the New Testament passages of God's plan coming to fulfillment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

That's good, yeah. Uh like always, the lectionary gives us these themes that connect with the passages to one another, which I appreciate. And it it this felt very um like the last setup, like like when you're entering the third act of a movie and you're you're like, okay, the build is about to happen. We're not to the climax yet, but we've also like built the world, and so like we've gone through this whole journey with Jesus and the disciples um through John, Valley's passages from the Old Testament, these prophecies that are leading us there, and then um other the epistles, Paul's kind of makes sense of like what Holy Week is or what Lint is, and now it's kind of like okay, you can almost feel the crescendo coming, and that's what it kind of liked about these Monday passages.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I a little bit of both of what y'all had said, honestly, it kind of those things kind of tying together is what I noticed too, is how honestly it kind of how beautifully these verses go together and how it is like that. It's it's almost like I say makes me kind of anxious, but not in a bad way, because there's like good and bad anxious. So it's like reading it, you know, it's building up to this. I mean, we know it's gonna happen, but but there's still that kind of anxiety um leading up to like what you were saying, the crescendo. And even even still, when we know what's gonna happen anytime that I read passages like that, it still evokes that same thing.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Yeah, I can already tell this conversation. I'm having a hard time not like jumping deeper into any individual. Yeah. So I'm just gonna I'm gonna name some things I like from some of the passages specifically. Like in the Hebrew passage, I I I like how uh when it's talking about in the sacrifices that we do, we have the law, these old uh there were these external purifications, these external things that we did. Um, but Jesus is doing some sort of something on the inside, the cleanliness that is happening to our our our our consciousness, our soul, our spirit, however you want to describe it. Something that the it's like there is a deficiency in the law that Jesus has overcome. And one of the things I feel like I've been in a couple of conversations this week or in the best two weeks about something like this, to where the law was insufficient and or we were incapable of keeping it, and so God had to do something new in Jewish. That's right. That's the beaver, so every count. Um, but I have found myself in conversations where people will use the law as a defense for their position, meaning, like, I do this thing because the Bible says blank and it's in the Old Testament. And sometimes we use the Old Testament and forget about Jesus. And as Christians, we have to look at we cannot read the Old Testament without the lens of Christ. If you want to do that, that's fine. You're just that's not Christianity, that's Judaism, or that's philosophical thinking or anything else. Like to be a Christian is to follow Jesus, and the way Jesus interprets the law, the way Jesus is a fulfillment of the law, the way Jesus speaks of the Old Testament. And so if you read the the Old Testament devoid of Christ, um then you're kind of missing what Hebrews is trying to show us about what Jesus did. Um the new thing, and this new covenant that he brings.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

I like the Hebrews passage also makes the distinction from uh Adam's the covenant God laid out with Adam, then we know also, not from this scripture, but from others, about Noah's covenant, Moses' covenant, and now this covenant of Christ Himself, the new covenant. As you said, in our humanity, we can't keep any covenant. Covenants have been by God on behalf of God to his people, but yet we're still sinners, saved by this last covenant. Yeah, thank God for that.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Absolutely. And and uh when you read the the ark of the Bible, no, sorry, sorry, I keep jumping in. Uh, but when you read the ark of the Bible, it is this almost like God keeps trying to get us out of our own way and getting us more opportunity and more options, and finally he just says, you know what, I'm gonna do it for you. And that's why Jesus comes, is it's because we couldn't keep that covenant. So he does the the saving work for us. We have to accept that. We have to live into that as faithful Christians, but we cannot save ourselves. Like one of the most underlying features of Protestantism, Christianity, and particularly of um modern-day Protestantism, it is we really lean into this saved by grace, right? That we are saved through faith by grace. And it's because we couldn't do it by ourselves now. As we talk about multiple weeks now, there's more to it. You know, you gotta keep going, you gotta take those steps, you gotta be a bible Christian, sanctification, purification, all those things. Um, but uh same Jane, justification, not purification. Um, but but the essential part of it is the new covenant is just being like, Yeah, y'all can't take care of this bicep. I'm gonna do that. Yeah, let me come in and carry you away.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

And that's literally what I was about to say, too, is you know, instead of these repeated animal sacrifices, and then it almost seems like they're just doing it to like check something off, like check a box. Like, well, we did this, so we're good now, but they're not good, and they keep doing it, and that's this cycle, and then like you were saying, Christ comes, is like, okay, you know what? I'll take care of it because humanity is not humanity does not get it right and um never has. So, yeah, that's that's what was one of the things that stood out to me.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

I I appreciate on the John passage not long ago, and it was it was before all each. And I uh I read it. Actually, I'm always amazed anytime somebody remembers something I preached about. They're like, oh, I remember that time. This I don't remember what I preached about like yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

I remember reading this that I preached about.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

And and I remember as I feel like I preached on this story recently, and yeah, I had, I don't remember when it was, but I do remember one of the most vivid images when I was reading this passage and comparing it for a sermon recently, which is the idea of like strong smells. Um and uh and there is a connection here because you know the old sacrifices were these smells, right? They would go up to God. Uh Brian and I, we don't wear perfume or cloth, like we don't have strong smells around whether very sensitive, like allergies, noses, all the things. Um, and so like one of my children I fought had like nasty body the other day for like one of the first times. I was like, oh, we're gonna have to do something about this real fast. Um, but but I I I I imagine being in this room. By the way, if you didn't know, the John 12 passage is about when Nairy's talking about anoints his feet with costly perfidia. So it's just like if you're no, we are just I'm not just like jumping in like nasty smell. There's a point for it, go read John 12. But but Mary comes in, recognizes the importance and magnitude of the moment. She comes in and pours this perfume, and they're just trying to like eat dinner, and then all of a sudden there's this aroma that fills the room, and it's just kind of like it is the most disruptive thing, I think, that that could have happened in that moment, and it's almost like that's what the disciples needed. They did they still missed it, but it's like Mary almost gave them a disruption in their lives that they couldn't avoid because it was so strong, so pungent, the smell, it's perfume. And I think that's what Holy Week does for us. Uh the reason why uh unlikely coming to church on Thursday and Friday is because we don't ever ask you to do that, right? Once a year, maybe twice if Christmas Eve Paul's bright button next to a Sunday. But like 50 51 times a year, we ask you to come to church one time a week. But once a week, we want to interrupt your life because this is the most important part of being a Christian. The most part of our liturgical calendar is the fact that um uh Easter and Good Friday and stuff like they are the interruption we need to give appreciation for what happened. And that's what I kind of took from this time, because I've been on this shtick so much the past couple weeks about like Thursday and Friday matter. Um that like it reminds me that Holy Week is supposed to interrupt your life in the way that that kind of like overpowering smelled it. What else from uh Isaiah Hebrews, John? Anything? What you got?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

What strikes me about the John passages Jesus response, you will always have the poor with you, but right now you have me, and you will not always have me. You know, he's he's counting the days down. And uh it's just a striking statement. Uh there's so much going on in the background uh that you only get allusions to, like there's this building posse, really, that that are on the outside of of the situation, who are waiting for a moment to attack Lazarus, who has been raised from the dead just previously. And because of Lazarus' witness, you have all of this mass of Jews converting over to follow Christ, and the Jewish church does not like that. So that's brewing in the background as well. The passage talks about uh the chief priests are even kind of like sending preparing to send assassins to take out Lazarus and maybe Jesus too and in one swoop.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

So just just curious, uh, when y'all were in seminary to drug it like the assassin class? Because these are the religious leaders, like they have the job, they have the jobs we have. And so it part of their job description was like to plot murders. I missed that class.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

No, no murder. No, we did not have that, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:50

What else from um this first Monday, excuse me, on this uh Monday of holy week that we want to settle over.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

I always I don't know why I always stop it. Um when Judas chimes in and it it's almost like he's trying to make it seem like he knows what's best and he's trying to be good and he's trying to be charitable, and then it just points out, oh, he didn't say this because he cares. And I always just it doesn't say why he said it though. So I can't help but speculate, like, did he say it because he's trying to like kiss up and like compensate for what he's gonna do later? Is I I don't know, but it always strikes me that he just has to chime in. Yeah, and it's Judas that has to chime in and be like, you know, oh, this could have been better used elsewhere, in my opinion, because I I know what's best or whatever. And that always just stands out to me. And then again, the fact that it says, but you didn't say it because he actually cared. But it doesn't explicitly say why you did say it then.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

This year in the luxury is always good for me because I don't use John very much. Um mostly because um I really am drawn to Mark uh and Luke. Um, those two in particular, more uh like if I were to like rank them in the order of my the ones I read or my favorite, it'd be like Mark and Luke. Um, and just you know, we all have different gospels. We're we are drawn to it, which is kind of the point of the gospel, right? That's that's the reason we're at poor, because they're written in different communities, and they'd say and so it is good for me to use uh to have a lectionary like this to push me towards John because John does tell the story in very different ways. John includes those details that other gospels leave out, um, like the he said this, not really meaning it. Like that's a John thing. That is, yeah. And and and John is a uh he likes to tell us more to the story, and he includes there's more stories that are unique to John than any of the other gospels, right? And there's more details even in the shared stories than we see in other gospels. And so it's kind of like after uh likely it was their last gospel written. So after time had passed, more of these kind of either behind the scenes or or or particular stories that kind of come up to to give more color. Um, and so uh you pointed that out, it just reminds me that it is important to to read this version of the gospel and hear what this gospel writer is saying about this story about these things, and you'll hear something that you'll hear in other places.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

John is my favorite gospel, and part of it is because he writes so much in third person, he will say uh um one of my favorite phrases is uh the beloved disciple. Well, he's speaking of himself and uh how he interjects, like what you say, is it's really it's comical to me, it's funny, and it's endearing too.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Yeah, and it is kind of funny too to think that he's you know, he's the one that's pointing out by the way, it's not because he cares.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Yeah, like that's just the words.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah, it's just kind of like a drama movie or drama TV show or something to me.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

Well, and speaking that I will get into detail, I'm sure, on Sunday. Um, but uh just the uh and the two took off on a foot race, and uh the disciple two Jews love outran Peter.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

One Jesus loved. No, that's John. And I'm really Okay, by the way, I was um well, good deal. Uh kind of well, well, what's your favorite gospel? So mine's kind of goes over to Mark Luke, and then just I like John and Matthew 2. I fought four, but and his favorite John's, oh I shoot back here. Luke.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

I don't know if it's Jason Borders. I was gonna say, I don't know if I'm just very heavily Jason Borders influenced, but it is it is Luke, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

We uh I took a Luke class with Jason Borders as well. I took a Mark class with Carl Holliday and those two experiences. I'm sure if I have taken just a Matthew class or your junk off, I'd be all like to meet you all too. You know, you're a product for an experiences, but I feel that's a good place for us to land it here on Monday as we get ready to uh move deeper to holy week. So uh I thank you all for being with us. Uh Pastor Shea, would you mind saying a prayer for us?

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Absolutely. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your presence in our lives, and we thank you for being with us during this Lenten season as we journey through the wilderness. And God, as we go into Holy Week with one another, I just ask that you continue um to be with us and to uh inspire us through your word and to move us so that we can join with one another and fellowship and worship more than just on Sunday, God, so that we can truly experience the entire Easter story from Thursday to Sunday. God, we thank you and we love you. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Amen. All right. Well, I'll see you all next day.