Thank God (It’s Friday) Sunday’s Coming

THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY SUNDAY’S COMING!

by Pastor Dan Palomino

As we finish out our Lenten journey this week, having celebrated Palm Sunday and Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem, we are now into Passion Week. On Palm Sunday, everything seems wonderful. Jesus is lauded with Hosannahs and praise. But the story takes a drastic turn. The darkness of evil descends to the point of blotting out the sun on that awful, awful Friday (Mark 15:33). Jesus is beaten and whipped, his flesh ripped apart. He’s ridiculed and dehumanized, then nailed to a criminal’s cross, naked and bleeding. So why is Good Friday “good”?

Good Friday reminds us, ironically, that there is evil in this world. But, the story isn’t over yet. Our story isn’t over yet. Evil does NOT have the final say. Death is NOT the end of the story.

In the work that I do as a hospice chaplain, I am constantly reminded that bad things happen this side of heaven. Hospice is end of life care, focusing on symptom management so that the person may be as comfortable and pain-free as possible, thus making their last days more bearable and maintaining their dignity as a human being.

Good Friday stands as a reminder of the truth that  bad things happen. Jesus actually warned us, “In this world you will have trouble, tribulation” (John 16:33), but he also reminds us of the hope of Sunday, “Take heart, for I have overcome the world.” That’s the promise of Easter. Redemption. Resurrection.  New Life!

Yes, Friday is here and it’s awful. It’s terrible. But we can say “Thank God it’s Friday!” because we know that Sunday is coming!

The biggest question in the world is summed up in one little, three-letter word: Why?

I hear this question a lot. Why? Why is this happening? If God is such a good God, then why is this happening to my loved one? “Why?” is the unanswerable question. Life on this side of heaven is not fair. We don’t all live to be the same age. We don’t all get treated the same way. We don’t all have the same opportunities. The list is endless.

Honestly, it’s no comfort to me to hear Jesus say, “In this world you will have tribulation.” But thank God Friday is not the end of the story. Sunday’s coming. Easter is coming! “But take heart, for I have overcome the world!”

As a hospice chaplain, I have many opportunities to remind people that, even in the face of death, hope is not lost. In the face of a disease that has gone beyond the point of reversal where there is no hope of a cure, Hope is not lost.

In the dark days of Lent, and on the darkest day, (Good) Friday, when the disciples feel like the wind has been knocked out of them and fear takes over, they scatter, they run. Our  temptation is to return to  our old ways of life when we think God has let us down, that our Lord has been crucified and lies dead in a grave. But “take heart” because it’s not the end of the story. Sunday is coming. There is the promise of victory, even victory over death!

While Jesus says from the Cross, “It is finished,” the story isn’t yet over. He makes all things NEW! The promise of a new heaven and a new earth in the Book of Revelation is the ultimate Easter of history.

God is ever on his throne. Harkening back to Hebrews 12, Jesus endured the tribulation of this world.  He endured the shame of the cross “for the joy set before him” — the promise that Sunday is coming, that he already HAS overcome the world! That promise is already in the Books. It is already reality from God’s eternal vantage point. God gives us total assurance of this as fact.

Jesus does not promise the avoidance of Friday. But he does promise the Victory of Sunday.

Why is Good Friday good? Because it isn’t the end of the story. Resurrection is at hand!

4-16-19

5000 Pies Easter Pies
Please consider ordering a delicious pie from our church’s Social Enterprise, 5000 Pies, for your Easter gathering. Place your order at the Info Table today!

Baby Dedication Pastoral Meeting: April 16
On Tuesday, April 16th, Dan Palomino will meet with parents who want to dedicate their child/children to the Lord from 7-8pm at the Training Center (2060 Santa Fe Ave, LB). Please sign up at the Info Table today or email (emily@folcov.org) for more info.

Good Friday Service: April 19
Our Good Friday service will be held in the Muir Auditorium on Friday, April 19th from 6-7pm. Childcare will be provided from ages 2 and up on the playground.

New Members Class: April 28
A mandatory class for those interested in pursuing FOL membership will be held on the afternoon of Sunday, April 28th at the Training Center. To sign up or get more details, visit the Info Table.

Easter Egg Hunt Help: April 21
We will have an Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday, April 21st, during CROSSwalk. We need help setting up before the services. If you are interested in helping, please contact Alice (alice.gonzales@gmail.com) for details.

Easter Sunday Outreach Service: April 21
Our Easter Sunday Outreach Service is next week! Please invite friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors to join us next Sunday, April 21st at 10am here at Stephens.

The Well Annual Tea & Brunch: May 4
Women and girls of FOL, please join The Well, FOL’s women’s ministry, for our annual tea and brunch on Saturday, May 4th at from 10:00 am – 12:30 pm at Fay Mandalia’s home. Please contact Sammie (sammie@folcov.org) with any questions.

Weekly Events

  • High School Youth meet on Wednesdays at 7:00 pm.
  • Middle School Youth meet on Fridays at 7:00 pm.

A Lenten Reflection on John 9

“The Blind Man Washes in the Pool of Siloam” by James Tissot

 

A Lenten Reflection on John 9
by Anna Larson

“You have seen him, and he is speaking to you!”
John 9:37

When we consider the story of the man born blind in John 9, we tend to focus on the healing, Jesus’ conflict with the Pharisees over this issue, or the spiritual blindness metaphor. This week, though, I found myself connecting to the blind man’s story as a whole, and most of all the bigger, better, best happy ending God eventually leads him to.

The opening event, from the blind man’s perspective, is his healing by an unknown Galilean passing through town. This stranger spits on the ground, swirls it around to make mud, paints the gunk on his face, and then tells him to go wash it off in the local pool. The blind and now muddy man goes off to wash. How desperate must he have been? He doesn’t even seem to know rumors about who Jesus is and yet he follows his directions, and comes back seeing. Suddenly, his life has been revolutionized. This is the basis of the man’s faith—a merciful healing he will never forget. Is this the end of the story, we wonder and our friend the blind man wonders? A beautiful bolt from heaven into our lives, that we will always remember, but which will never be repeated? I think of this healing as similar to the “mountaintop encounters” we sometimes have in our spiritual lives—sudden, occasional experiences that change us. These experiences are certainly from God, but do we have to figure the rest out ourselves?

Next off, our formerly blind man is jolted into a testing period. Everyone suddenly starts questioning the crazy fact that has changed his life. They even question who he is—his own neighbors! Is this the blind beggar, this man who’s suddenly overjoyed with seeing eyes? Our friend tells his story again and again. He is called up before his religious leaders, the Pharisees, and relates the facts once more. They argue, call in his parents, and argue some more, before bringing him forward again. “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” our healed man says, “but I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” This one fact is clear to him, and he clings to it. I am reminded of a quote by John Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”: “My memory is nearly gone. But I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.” In testing periods, we have to hold on to that miraculous truth, that one contact with Jesus, even if it’s the only thing we’ve got.

But the situation gets worse for the healed man. His religious leaders curse him. They say they don’t know where Jesus comes from. Our friend seems shocked (or at least exasperated) by this, exclaiming that “he healed my eyes, and yet you do not know where he comes from? . . . If this man were not from God, he could not have done it.” This great declaration of faith seems admirable to us, but the Pharisees do not see it that way. In fact, they cast him out of the synagogue—basically, throwing him out of his church. All this faith, and none of it believed or rewarded by community or leaders. Is this the end? Does the healed man live the rest of his life preaching a belief no one will listen to, about one experience growing ever fainter in his memory?

No. Jesus doesn’t leave him after the miracle, Jesus doesn’t leave him after the testing, Jesus doesn’t leave him after the ultimate rejection. John 9:35 says that when Jesus heard what had happened, “he found the man.” He comes back. But he does not only come back with comfort, a hug for everything the man has been going through. He comes with a challenge, and a final question. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Our friend questions further, but asserts, “I want to believe in him.” Jesus responds, “you have seen him and he is speaking to you!” Finally, the text tells us one more thing about the healed man’s story: “And he worshiped Jesus.” This is the ending the Bible gives us; this is the story God wants us to live. It doesn’t end with a miracle. It doesn’t end with testing. It doesn’t end with rejection. It ends in worship.

Through this story I feel that God is calling us to open our eyes, to look at the bigger picture! God’s story is so much bigger than this one week, this one year, this one struggle that never seems to come to an end. There are miracles, and there are hardships, and there is heartbreak, but it will end in belief and worship. The blind man’s story shows us our story–but bigger. Jesus, through this Scripture, has granted us the God’s eye view. Look out, and look up; your story will end in worship.

4-7-19

 

The Well Hike: April 13
Ladies, please join our women’s ministry, The Well, on our annual spring hike! The hike will be on Saturday, April 13th from 9:00 am – 12:30 pm at Ladera Linda Park (32201 Forrestal Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes). If you have questions, or would like to carpool, please contact Laura Leventis.

Spring Members Meeting: April 14
FOL members, join us for our annual spring meeting before the service on Sunday, April 14th in the cafeteria at 9:00 am.

Baby Dedication Pastoral Meeting: April 16
On Tuesday, April 16th, Dan Palomino will meet with parents who want to dedicate their child/children to the Lord from 7:00 – 8:00 pm at the Training Center (2060 Santa Fe Ave, Long Beach). Please sign up at the Info Table today or email (emily@folcov.org) for more info.

Good Friday Service: April 19
Our Good Friday service will be held in the Stephens Auditorium on Friday, April 19th from 6:00 – 7:00 pm. Childcare will be provided from ages 2 and up in the Cafeteria.

New Members Class: April 28
A mandatory class for those interested in pursuing FOL membership will be held on the afternoon of Sunday, April 28th at the Training Center. To sign up or get more details, visit the Info Table.

Easter Egg Donations: Through April 14
We will have an Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday, April 21st, during CROSSwalk. We need individuals/ families to donate plastic eggs and nut free candy/toys by Sunday, April 14th. We need help setting up before the services. If you are interested in donating or helping, please contact Alice (alice.gonzales@gmail.com) for details.

Easter Sunday Outreach Service: April 21
Our Easter Sunday Outreach Service is in two weeks! Please invite friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors to join us on Sunday, April 21st at 10am here at Stephens.

Weekly Events

  • High School Youth Group meets on Wednesdays at 7:30 pm
  • Middle School Group meets on Fridays at 7:00 pm.

You’re So Vain, I Bet You Think This Devotional Is About You

Cross made of ashes, Ash Wednesday.

You’re So Vain, I Bet You Think This Devotional Is About You
by Hannah Kazim

[Jesus said]:  “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions. . . .”  Mark 7:6-7

[Jesus] went on: “. . .  it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:15 ff

There is an inherent irony in writing a public devotional about fighting against vanity. How can I possibly choose words without thinking about how they, and I, will be received?

In this Lenten season, I felt led to focus on fighting the sin and temptation of vanity.  Some spiritual mentors helped me identify markers of vanity in my life—places I go, and things I do to “show off.” In foregoing those things, I thought I was spending 40 days trying to be less vain. But of course, God has used this season, in the way that only He can, to gift me grace and blessings so much more significant.

What is vanity? I’m learning that I actually make most of my decisions based on how people will see me: how I will look, sound, or seem. So much brain space and heart energy wasted! When I give in to vanity, not only is my heart far from God, but I suffer needlessly in being anxious about what others think about me.

Jesus said that the arrogance and the vanity that come out of my heart defile me. They desecrate me. They profane me. They spoil, or ruin me. They take who and what I was created to be, and turn me into a lesser, less fruitful version of myself. Praise God that as we strive to follow His commands, we can be free from the consequences and the suffering that result from sinful choices. “Do not be anxious” is a command, and it is also a gift.

But I have also received an even more unexpected grace. As I have focused on the sin of vanity, God has also helped me to better distinguish between choosing to be anxious and living with anxiety.

The curse of sin means that there is sickness in the world. Vanity is a sinful choice that I make, and being anxious its sinful result. But my anxiety—intrusive thoughts, hormonal and chemical imbalance, brain abnormalities, genetic predisposition—my anxiety is a sickness. In revealing the ways that I choose to be anxious, God has also cleared my view of the places of sickness where He wants to bring healing, compassion, and grace.

Praise God almighty, my Father, my redeemer, my healer, and my friend—he is making ALL things new. My sin, AND my sickness.

The incredible grace and gift here is that I get to praise God if he heals me, and I get to praise God if He doesn’t. And in the meantime, I get to focus on fighting my sin, and trusting my doctors.

What freedom.

God our Father calls us to fight against the evil that defiles our hearts. He calls us to not be anxious—to trust him, like the lilies and the birds do. He even calls us to suffer, and to take up a cross, like he did.

But he does NOT call us to bondage.

Not bondage to sin.

Not bondage to disease.

In this season, may we remember that Jesus was tempted, suffered, and died in order to call us OUT of bondage.

In this season, may we  sit in and realize just what is the height, the length, the breadth, and the depth of what He has done for us.

Reflection questions:

  • Are there places you go, or things you do to “show off”?
  • What do you spend time being anxious about?
  • What areas of suffering and bondage does God want to free you from?
  • What steps do you need to take to allow God to bring you to a place of wholeness in this?