It’s Labor Day weekend, and I want to spend a little time thinking about labor. Not so much the labor you do at your job. Or that other kind of labor. I’m talking about kingdom work. This summer we spent a good deal of time on “sanctuary” and what that means for our church. One theme that arose again and again, for me, was the relationship between resting and working. It’s something I’ve continued to wrestle with, and as we head into a new church year, I want to return to it one more time.

Jesus tells Martha that she’s doing many things, and it is causing anxiety and worry. But he praises Mary for doing one thing, because she has chosen the one necessary thing. One necessary thing. What is it? What has Mary figured out that Martha has not? It is the same thing that the psalmist has figured out when he says, “One thing have I asked of the Lord . . . that I may dwell in the house of the Lord."

Life can be hard. For many of us, this week has been hard. News from Afghanistan and the increased spread of the Delta variant has many of us saddened about our past, confused about the present, and worried about the future. Add to this, we all have personal trials and fears that are too deep to mention aloud. Keeping faith in the middle of life’s storms can be difficult, but we are not left to our own devices. When belief and unbelief rise up side-by-side within us as the storm clouds surround us, let us continue to walk step-by-step together in the grace God has given us, trusting that our affliction is momentary and God’s goodness is infinite.

Last week, through the story of the fish and the loaves, we encountered God’s abundant provision, the hurdles of faith experienced by Philip and Andrew, and the deeper rhythms of faith that God is calling us into as followers of Christ. This week, Jesus builds upon this same story and continues the conversation. Jesus takes the opportunity to clarify what might have been missed in the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. He proclaims one of his famous one-liners saying, “I am the bread of life.” Let us not miss the deeper significance at work here.

The story of Jesus turning five loaves and two fish into a feast for 5000 people is a story that most Christians learn early on in their spiritual training. Sunday school lessons and children’s Bibles inevitably have this story in them. Thank God! Because the earlier we embrace that there is an abundance in God’s economy that we have no human measure for, the sooner we can begin to live into the fullness of life available to us through Jesus. This is no children’s story. It is a roadmap to a new reality.

It’s not often that we get a living, breathing object lesson standing before us. So I wanted to take today – a special day where we baptize two sisters into the family of God – and talk about the topic. What does it mean to be baptized? What is happening in our baptism? And why have Christians, since the dawn of Christianity, insisted on practicing this rite? Let’s dig in!

Let’s talk about forgiveness. I have a hunch that I’m not the only one who needs to hear what God has to say about this topic. We can pick back up with the sanctuary series in a few weeks, but, for now, this is important. This year has been filled with opportunities for hurt and pain. Political strife, racial strife, and strife from being in a pandemic have collided into the most unlikely of years. Navigating it all has undoubtedly left us with wounds that need to heal. And if we’re honest, we have likely wounded others too. Forgiveness isn’t a minor topic in Scripture. It stands at the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us today remind ourselves of where we came from, who we are, and where we are going, all because of the love of God.

We have spent considerable time digging deep into the scriptural vision for sanctuary. There is a temptation, however, to make sanctuary a self-centered, inward-focused ideal, whether that focus is on the individual self or the broader church. We think: it is MY sanctuary or OUR church’s sanctuary. But to do this limits God’s intentions. As we will see in Solomon’s prayer for the consecration of the temple, the nations have a role to play too. They will be drawn to the glory of the temple. Likewise, Jesus, who embodies all the attributes of sanctuary, calls all people unto himself. Therefore, as we attempt to embody what it means to be a sanctuary, let us be reminded that our church sanctuary is not for us alone but that we might share it with the world around us drawing them to the very presence of God.

The word “sanctuary” in the Hebrew language is a derivation on the word “holy.” This should not come as a surprise really. The tabernacle, or sanctuary, is a holy place. In it is contained the Holy of Holies. It is holy ground in the holy land. It is where the holy people of Israel go to meet the Holy One of Israel. Holiness is everywhere in the Old Testament! So as we continue thinking about what it means to live into our value of sanctuary, we must consider what it means to live into holiness. That is our task today. Let’s dig in!

Continuing our series on “Sanctuary,” today we dig down deep into the building of the tabernacle. From our text for today, Exodus 25 and continuing into the last chapters of the book of Exodus, we find clear and explicit instructions for the building of the tabernacle. We find these instructions not just once but twice. It is clear that this building is of utmost importance. It is the very dwelling place of God. The creation of this sanctuary space requires intentionality, artistry, and labor. It requires listening and obeying the will of God. And, not to be missed, it requires the willing hearts of the people of God who must offer their contributions to this sanctuary space.

We continue to think about the sanctuaries of Scripture. The places where heaven and earth come together. Where God and humanity commune. And where rest and refuge happens. In the Exodus 3 passage for today, we find that it is God reaching out to his people through the person Moses as God desires this kind of sanctuary. He desires that Israel, who is in bondage in Egypt, not only be freed from it, but that they find their way to a land that promises God’s very presence and peace. God was, and is, and will always be in the business of sanctuary building.

In our Scripture reading today from Revelation, we find a large group gathered around the throne of God in heaven worshiping. Heaven is the domain of God, and because of this, heaven should be understood as the sanctuary of all sanctuaries—the place where God is most fully present. To find that worship goes hand-in-hand with sanctuary comes as an important revelation. Today we continue our sanctuary series with a sermon titled, “Made to Worship.” It is my contention that we are designed for worship, but worship means far more than we often think. Let’s dive in.

We will spend the coming weeks drilling deep down into what it means for our church to value sanctuary. In Scripture a sanctuary is a place where one meets God. The tabernacle and the temple are examples of sanctuaries where Israel experienced the presence of God. However, sanctuary is more than a place. In the New Testament, it is a person—Jesus Christ. Jesus is the new temple in whom the full presence of God dwells. And yet there’s still more! Paul doesn’t stop there. He says that you and I are temples too! That God dwells in us and others can find God when they're with us. There’s a lot to unpack here, which is why we will take some time with this topic. Today we will start at the bookends of the Bible, Eden and The New Jerusalem, two places where God and humanity live together in perfect peace.

The theme of the image of God found throughout Scripture has tremendous theological significance. It should inform the way we think about both God and humanity. Page 1 of the Bible tells us that humans are made in God’s image, and this is good news for us! Furthermore, when Paul says that Christ is the “image of the invisible God,” he is saying something both similar to and different from what is stated in Genesis. As we explore Christ as the image-bearer of God, we are simultaneously exploring our own identity and meaning in this world. All of this should point us back to the eternal God who created all things and through whom all things find their true meaning. Let’s dive in!

This Sunday we continue our ongoing series entitled Jesus Is _____. Perhaps one of the most significant themes in Scripture is that of salvation. “Salvation by grace through faith” is a bedrock component to most protestant teachings about the person and work of Jesus. To get at its significance, we must answer a few questions. What are we saved from? And for what are we saved? How does the Old Testament speak of salvation? And how does Jesus tie together the promises of salvation in the Old Testament to the promises in the New Testament? We will tackle these and many more questions in this week’s sermon: Jesus is the Savior.

As we continue to think about the person and work of Jesus, we turn to one of the most important titles given to him. Together we confess that Jesus is the Son of God. As with the titles we have explored in previous weeks—Lord, Christ, Risen One—we find that there is a lot to unpack. There are lots of assumptions about what the Son of God means. There is hidden significance that we never knew was there. And so today we examine just what it means to call Jesus the Son of God.

We are now in the third week of Eastertide, and we continue our study of the person and work of Jesus. It’s possible that you mentally tripped over “the” in the title of today’s sermon, “Jesus is the Christ.” Christ is not originally a name, and certainly not a last name for Jesus, but a title. Like “the CEO” or “the janitor” or “the principal.” It implies a job description and tells us much about his actions, goals, and the work he was sent to accomplish. Perhaps you’ve not given it much thought, but today we dig into what it means for Jesus to be “the Christ.” Let’s go!

The phrase, “Jesus is Lord,” is most likely the oldest Christian creed ever used. Long before the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed, people would say, “Jesus is Lord,” as a short-hand faith statement. It was often used at the moment of baptism as one is dying to the world and being raised with Christ. It is a declaration of service to Jesus. You are willingly becoming a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while all of this might, from the outside, look overly serious or inhibiting to one’s freedom, for those of us who confess Jesus as Lord, we know it is actually filled with joy unspeakable, and it is the most freeing thing a person can do.

It is Easter and new life is around every corner! Quite literally. The trees with their blossoms and buds tells us that life will not be stopped. The daffodils have broken through the soil and are singing the first song of spring. But just the first. There are more songs yet to be sung. Each flower, in its turn, joins the symphony of life that has been unleashed upon the world in this season. And as the chorus grows, the power of God’s life-giving Spirit grows increasingly loud. Can you hear it? … But we do not gather today because of a season of the year. We gather because we remember a day that forever changed history. A day in which Christ was risen, death was defeated, life won out, and you and I were invited into the banquet of eternal life.

As Jesus turns the corner on his journey to Jerusalem, he meets a blind man begging for help on the outskirts of Jericho. But is he begging, or is he seeking, and is there a difference? Is he blind, or is he one of the few that can see Jesus clearly? There is, no doubt, a deep irony at play in this encounter. How the blind beggar knows he can trust Jesus, we do not know. Why he trusts Jesus, we do not know. But that he has faith is plain to see in his insistence, and his shouting, and his passionate pursuit of Jesus. Jesus tells him that it is his faith that saves him. He is not, however, the only one changed by this encounter. The whole town ends up praising God, their faith in the Almighty renewed.