a good friday blessing in the midday night, Kate Bowler, OSLC, Good Friday C, April 18 2025

On Good Friday, a sermon or even a homily seems overdone. We're already deep in the meditation on the cross in front of us. We already feel death in our spirit and bones. This felt like the right words at the moment.

a good friday blessing in the midday night

Kate Bowler  

o dear God,
we’re in darker places
then we’ve ever known

God, light the way
for this whole sad earth,
for the helpless ones,
and for me

God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.

night has fallen
on the light of the world
and betrayal seems
the order of the day.

love itself is handed over
to brutal ignorance
and cunning that loves the dark.

o God,
you chose to feel what we feel—
how it is to die totally alone,
ghastly to behold
in your outstretched
arms of the cross.
are you gathering to yourself
every hideous thing?
every failure,
travesty, and wrong?
blessed are we
who shout: yes! do it!
turn things right side up again!

blessed are we
who bow and wait
for the morning of the world.

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness
has not overcome it.
John 1:5

God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.

open your hands.
receive it–
love that comes
gently as the dawn.

With the Time You Have Left, OSLC, Maundy Thursday C, April 17, 2025

Jesus knew what was coming next.

Jesus had predicted his death to his disciples, not once, not twice, but three times. It was obvious they weren’t grasping it – perhaps they couldn’t put it together that Jesus had confirmed he was the Messiah, but he kept saying he would suffer and die.

Jesus knew that even within his own closest friends, one disciple would betray him, give up his location during the Passover so the Roman guard could arrest him and make an example of him. Look here, Jewish people. This is what happens to people who don’t toe the line.

What do you do when you know your time in this life is about to end?

Jesus invited his closest friends to a dinner party for the Passover. His Last Supper. He didn’t hide. He didn’t leave town. He invited all 12 – even the one he knew would betray him, and another one who he knew would deny he even knew him within hours after he was arrested. He invited them all to dinner in Jerusalem.

And before the meal started, he washed their feet.

Washing feet. A dirty, stinky job, usually left for the lowest ranking person in the group. A servant. Maybe even a woman or child. As a group reclined around the table to eat, they took off their sandals, sat next to each other. Hospitality required that they have the dust of their travels washed from their feet.

Maybe all the disciples came into the room, looking at each other. “Not my job.” “Well, I’m certainly not going to do it.” After all this time, they still didn’t get it, Jesus must have thought. And he removed his robe, grabbed a towel and basin, and got started.

Maybe his disciples didn’t think they personally should be the ones washing feet, but apparently, they didn’t think Jesus should do it either. Peter was downright put off by the idea. Nope, he said, Not having this. “You’re not going to wash my feet.”

Jesus insisted, and Peter then tried to turn it into a baptism. “OK, Jesus, if you insist, then wash my hands and head, too!”

Dear, dear Peter, always gung ho. Declaring that Jesus was the Messiah, then rebuking him when he told them he would have to suffer. Going overboard, sometimes literally, like when he asked Jesus if he could walk on the water with him. Dear Peter, he still didn’t get it. It must have showed.

Jesus put his robe back on, and resumed his teaching, even in his final hours.

“Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you."

Dozens of times in the gospels, Jesus gave his disciples the same message. Remember the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor, the peacemakers, those who mourn. The first shall be last, the last shall be first.

When you “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, … But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Over and over, Jesus instructed his disciples that they should aim to serve, rather than be served. And here on his final night before he would be arrested, tried, beaten and crucified, he told them again. Humble yourself. Take off your robe and set aside your pride and kneel down to serve other human beings.

What do you do when you know your time on this earth is short?

Doug Ruch, a San Antonio man, was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2021. He underwent treatment and fought it. Prostate Cancer is a challenging cancer – oftentimes not diagnosed until it has advanced too far to be treated or metastasized within the body. Recently, the 55-year-old man received the worst possible news: the cancer was terminal. He had 12, maybe 18 months to live.

Many people would have traveled around the world, eaten the best foods and taken in the wonders of the planet. They might have explored every experimental treatment available, hooked up to IVs and in hospital beds until their last moment.

That wasn’t even on the table for him, since he had exhausted his savings fighting the cancer already. As he put it, "I thought to myself, I have two choices. I can sit at home and wait to die, or I can go out and live.” He decided on the second choice.

Doug is volunteering – with the goal of serving in all 50 states before he dies. He has already accomplished 11 states. He is raising money on GoFundMe, and tells people he is on tour, the “Dying to Serve” Tour, even setting up a nonprofit to inspire others in the same situation.

While nothing in the media talks about Doug’s faith, he’s taken off his robe, knelt down, and with his final acts on this earth, he is washing feet. Serving in soup kitchens, food pantries, and other organizations that serve the struggling and unhoused, Doug is creating a final chapter for himself and inspiring others.

What do you do with the time you have left?

And that brings this story to us. Our time on this earth is oh, so, short. Maybe 60, 70 years, 80 or 90 if we are very fortunate. In the scale of eternity, a blip. What are we going to do with our time on this planet?

I haven’t been here long enough to know each of you, and how you spend your days. I’ve only gotten a glimpse of life for those of you who have made Our Savior’s your faith home, decided that the mission here -- To Promote and Live God’s Word – connects with a fire inside you. You want to learn Jesus’ teachings, and follow them.

Whether it’s taking communion to someone who struggles to get out of their home, or dropping food off for the food pantry, or keeping the building in repair, or honoring our veterans, there’s something inside you that has heard the words of Jesus, and taken them to heart: So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

Maybe you’ve been to churches where a pastor, on this evening, will kneel down, take a basin, and wash the council’s feet. That’s fine. But in a day and age where most people wear shoes and have ready access to showers, it’s no longer the same ritual. It’s not the sign of hospitality it was in the First Century.

I wondered today, about what would have the same effect, would be humbling and servant like? What would take us out of our comfort zone to serve one another?

And then the pictures came into my head:

• The one who stops when someone has run out of gas or has a flat tire, because he can help.
• The one who finishes a shift, then takes someone to see their spouse in the hospital, because that person no longer drives.
• The person who goes and cleans up dog piles at their neighbor’s home, because the dog is the only companion the person has left.
• The person who helps someone create a resume and practice interview skills, because they lost the job they expected to have forever.

None of these make a good demonstration for a Maundy Thursday church service. No flat tires or dog piles in the Bible. But maybe they are the stuff of servant disciples in 2025.

What will you do with the time you have left? 

What will this congregation, collectively, do with the time it has left? Tonight, as we ponder Jesus’ last acts of love for his disciples, his last teaching that he left us, each of us needs to sit with this lesson: how can we best take off our own robes, kneel, and locate the feet we were meant to wash.

Don't Miss the Cross, OSLC Palm Sunday C, April 13, 2025

Grace and peace to you, from our God of Hopefulness and from our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen.

In ancient days, when I was a kid, today was Palm Sunday. We would wave the palms, process and shout. Hosanna! Hosanna to one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!

And we would sing Palm Sunday songs. The pastor would preach about the hopefulness of this day, the fulfillment of prophecy, Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

Holy Week was a week-long emotional journey. From the celebration of Palm Sunday, to the disciples’ final meal in the Upper Room and the arrest of Jesus in the garden on Maundy Thursday. And then the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Friday, before a triumphant “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” at sunrise on Easter morning.

I remember being up, rain or snow, in my Easter Sunday best, part of the youth group that celebrated the Resurrection by re-setting the altar in white, re-hanging the banners, and placing Easter lilies to signify our Lord lives. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!

But here we are today, celebrating Palm and Passion Sunday, reading the Gospel from Palm Sunday to Good Friday. What happened?

What happened? Life happened. The world happened. School events were scheduled on Wednesday nights, which used to be a faith-centered night. Workplaces and schools stopped taking Good Friday off. So the faithful stopped filling the sanctuary today, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday AND Easter. What happens if you miss worship on Holy Week Thursday and Friday? You get a distorted message of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection: going from the celebration of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the celebration of Jesus triumphant resurrection on Easter, without the grief and pain and death in between.

If we miss the cross, we miss everything. If we miss Jesus’ death, Easter is pointless. So I really encourage you to make the time this week, this Holy Week, to attend the services on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, to experience the depth of sorrow and loss, before celebrating the Resurrection Easter morning.

But for those who cannot, I’m not willing to let you go from celebration to celebration, and miss the Cross, the center of our faith. I care about you too much for you to miss the whole point! Hence the long Gospel reading today.

Let’s back up again, to the outskirts of Jerusalem. What you may not realize is that for the Jewish faithful, these were the lead-up days to Passover. Passover, when the Jewish faithful came to Jerusalem, to the temple from everywhere, if they could. So, imagine two parades in Jerusalem that day. Coming into Jerusalem from the west side (right hand) was a military parade, the show of Roman power, led by Pontius Pilate, the regional governor over Judea and Samaria and the surrounding area. Pilate made his presence and authority known from the saddle of an imperial warhorse, followed by a column of centurions, soldiers and cavalry. The message: Remember that you are Subjects. The well-to-do and Roman loyalists showed up in force.

But if that left you out, perhaps you showed up on the east (point left) side of town. Coming in from Bethany and the Mount of Olives, the second parade, much smaller, a non-descript man on the back of a donkey. His disciples, along with those who had heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and those who just happened to notice this unusual procession jumped in. “This is Jesus, the one that healed people, who fed thousands, who brought Lazarus back from the dead. Hosannah, Messiah! Save us!”

And the people threw cloaks on the ground for this coming King. And they stripped branches from palm trees and whatever trees were on the road to wave in joy and honor. Finally, some hope. Perhaps an anointed one to rescue them from their lives of being ruled by Caesar. Hosanna, Messiah, the anointed one! Save us now!

For a few hours, the people had a bit of hope. This young man had Something*. He didn’t look like someone who would take on The Roman Empire. He didn’t dress like a powerful successor. He certainly had no warhorse or legions. But the people were drawn in by the contrast. Maybe something will change. But within the crowd, the Pharisees and Roman officials were watching. This Is Trouble. This is a spark of resistance. And a little bit of hope is dangerous.

Hope. When the people are hopeless, they go about their lives with their heads down, toiling, expecting nothing more than years and decades of the same. Paying their taxes to Caesar, going to the temple, struggling to just get by. But give them a little hope, and it’s different. People start talking about a life of freedom, of self-determination, of potential. Maybe their lives will be better. Maybe they can shake off their oppressors.

A little hope is a dangerous thing. The Romans knew it. And the only way to keep the status quo, the Peace of Rome, the Pax Romana, was to stomp out any hope and any possible uprising, before it could turn into a movement. This Jesus was dangerous. We need to make an example of him, and the sooner, the better. During Passover, when all the Jews are gathered in Jerusalem. We need to show them what happens to rabble-rousers who teach about justice, so that this rabbi’s followers move on.

And Rome’s goal played out over the next week. After Jesus overturned the money changers’ tables outside of the Jewish temple, the Jewish high priests were on board, as well. This Jesus is a nuisance, a threat to the faithful, not to mention our treasury.

And so, Judas was talked into betraying his teacher. Jesus’ Passover supper with his disciples became his Last Supper. Jesus was arrested while praying and put on trial. Strange how the people chanting “Hosanna! Hosanna to the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” within five days would become a part of the crowd yelling “Crucify Him!”

And instead of standing up for this young man who taught them about love, they became the ones watching the spectacle of an arrest, a trial, a beating, and a crucifixion. A Jewish young man, an innocent man who preached what he was taught in the Torah, Wisdom, the Prophets. To us, however, Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified for living out his beliefs.

Mob mentality. It happens so fast, in First Century Jerusalem and in 21st Century America. We line up on this side or that side of what is right. We take actions and say things about others that don’t always fall in line with love, grace, mercy, and truth. And again and again, we are called back to examine ourselves, to repentance, to love.

This week – this Holy Week – passes so quickly. From two parades to a crucifixion. From an outraged rabbi who thought the temple should be a house of prayer and a servant rabbi who washed his disciples’ feet, to a betrayal and a denial. From a dinner gathering where Mary anointed her friend’s feet, to that friend crucified and sealed into a tomb.

This week – this Holy Week – from a celebration today to a gathering around a table Thursday, to a time of remembering the cross Friday, until finally, another celebration. When we take the bread and the cup, the body and blood, and remember that it didn’t end there. Our Lord is a Resurrected Lord, a Living Lord, who is present in our World and with Us, Here.

This week, take the time to experience the whole story, the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. Here, or wherever you are. Because without the Cross, there wouldn’t be an Easter Morning.

Amen.

Doubt Is Part of Faith, OSLC, Lent 6C Midweek, April 9 2025

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1.

Grace and peace to you from our ever-faithful God, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen.

It’s 2025, and science has given us a lot of certainty. We can take a blood test and find out what kind of virus or bacteria is causing that cold that just won’t go away, and know what kind of medicine can cure it.

We know about stars billions of light years away that were born lifetimes ago, but the light has only reached the James Webb Space Telescope in the past three years.

We know about particles smaller than atoms. We’ve built electron microscopes so powerful that they allow physicists to see quarks and leptons, the building blocks of atoms.

Now, I have no medical degree and I can’t take a blood sample and test it for viruses and bacteria. I have never seen direct, real-time images from the James Webb Space Telescope. I’ve never looked through an electron microscope – and I wouldn’t know what I was seeing if I did!!

I have seen secondary images. And I have faith that the people who have advanced degrees in medicine, astronomy, and physics have the knowledge and tools to see these things and make conclusions. I trust them.

I trust the doctors I have chosen in my lifetime to care for my health. I trust the fund managers who know far than I do about investments. At least I hope I can in these turbulent times!

And I trust people who walked the earth in the First Century, who followed Jesus personally, who passed along their first-hand accounts to our Gospel authors. I trust they knew something about life and death, natural law and common sense.

And based on their observations, Jesus was a man in his 30s who traveled throughout Galilee and the Holy Land. He had a group of about a dozen followers, and thousands more who listened to him teach about God and the way to live. He said he was one with God, the Son of God, and through his miracles and signs, and his life, death, and resurrection, he proved it was so. I trust his disciples knew what they saw was out of the realm of normal human action. Especially when it came to his brutal death on a cross, and then seeing him alive, moving and talking and eating three days later.

Was I there? No. Was anyone I know personally there? No.

Just like science, like technology, like finance, and many other things in my life, I trust and believe because I trust the people who did see it. The people who were there and had their lives directly impacted. And my life is indirectly impacted by this Savior today.

Has he healed any member of my family? No, but I believe there are family members who have been healed through prayer AND the gifts of medical science. Has he performed any miracles for me? No, but there are miraculous things that have taken place in my life, and my family’s life that I cannot explain besides the grace of God. Was I there on Easter morning to see the empty tomb? No, but a handful of those closest to him were, and their lives were changed forever because this Jesus was the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with Us in human form.

The message of Jesus Christ IS CRAZY to those who choose not to believe. Maybe the writer of Hebrews put it best: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” If a real-life Dr. Doubt walked in the door right now and said “Prove It,” none of us could pull out a TikTok video of Jesus changing water to wine, feeding the 5,000, or rising from the dead. The Apostle Paul told the church at Corinth the doubters will doubt: “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

We all have to choose whether to believe. And to those of you who struggle to believe, I want to remind you – Doubt is NOT the opposite of faith. Doubt is part of our faith journey. The opposite of faith is certainty, and that’s something we just will never have in this lifetime. But through the testimonies of the apostles, and the modern-day apostles that are sitting around us with their own stories of faith, we can profess with all the saints: “I know that my Redeemer lives!”

Amen.

God Is Doing a New Thing, OSLC, Lent 5C, April 6, 2025

Grace and peace to you from God, who is always doing a new thing, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen.

It’s serious work, this work we do for the gospel. There’s more than we can possibly do, every day, year-round, to share the gospel, to care for those who are hungry, who are homeless, who need help. It could be our lifetime job, every single one of us. There aren’t enough hours in the day.

I think the Apostle Paul felt the urgency and overwhelm of the call of the gospel when he was writing today’s gospel: “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him….I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul came from an opposite worldview: a persecutor of Christians. He was well-known and firmly entrenched in the Roman Empire. And then came that flash of light and the call of God. And he gave up everything, EVERYTHING, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. Church-planter, tent-maker, letter-writer, travel planner. Paul’s life was changed in an instant. “I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul’s language in this passage sounds awfully Type A Christian. “In order that I may gain Christ.” “if somehow I may attain the resurrection.” “I press on toward the goal, toward the prize...”

I guess that’s how we like to think of all-star Christians. At church four days a week, not including Sundays. Involved in two committees, a couple of special projects and always available to help out with the youth or bake a plate of cookies. The Type A, Paul-approved style of Christian.

So what do we make of Mary? We’ve heard a bit about Mary. While her sister Martha cooked and cleaned to make Jesus and his disciples comfortable, Mary reclined next to Jesus, attentive to his every word. And when Martha, another type A disciple, is doing all the work, she’s getting bent out of shape at her sister. Jesus takes Mary’s side: Martha, Martha, you are troubled and distracted by so many things….

And today, Mary is back at it. Jesus had recently brought their brother Lazarus back from the dead. And she is listening to Jesus telling them he will be heading into Jerusalem for the Passover, predicting that his controversial ministry will result in his death when he heads into Jerusalem.

I picture Mary, so intent. While the other disciples blow off yet one more prediction from Jesus about dying, Mary is wide-eyed and heart-broken. His words take away her breath, consume her.

Mary doesn’t back out of the room to go help in the kitchen. She leaves the room briefly and comes back with the jar of spikenard, an expensive perfume often used to anoint someone for burial. This highly scented perfume didn’t come cheap: think about a year’s wages for a laborer. 300 denarii. Oh, U.S. currency, maybe $10,000. So, not a dollar-store bottle with a twist-off cap. This costly fragrance came in an alabaster jar that had to be broken to be used.

And instead of setting it aside in case Jesus’ prediction about his death comes to pass, Mary breaks the bottle, the sharp, spicy scent filling the room. She walks over to Jesus, and instead of anointing his head and shoulders,

Mary pours it over Jesus’ feet, takes down her hair, and slathers the perfume all over his ankles, his dusty feet, his toes. She rubs the fragrant oil into his skin and uses her hair to spread it.

Now, just a word of protocol – no woman took her hair down in mixed company. It just wasn’t done. No woman dropped to her knees at a man’s feet in a room full of people. So, imagine a room full of men and women, jaws on the floor. Judas was the first to put words together, and his words weren’t amazement; they were anger. He tried to look like the Type A disciple. “Why did she go and do that? We could have sold that perfume and fed the poor.”

But everyone knew he was making no sense – Jesus didn’t use the disciples’ fund that Judas managed to feed the poor. He multiplied the bread and fish of a little child to feed thousands. Jesus didn’t need the 300 denarii to feed the poor. Which only meant Judas was desiring the funds for himself. And Jesus turned on him:

“Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

More than a few of us have read Jesus’ words, struggling with that part about “always having the poor.” It’s the last thing we want to hear. We want our Christian work to end hunger, to make a dent into poverty. We don’t want our work to be for nothing.

By now, maybe you are seeing these two side by side. Paul, serious and goal-oriented, planting new churches, and Mary, perfume in hand, filled with the joy of worshiping the Lord. And it’s easy to see who …

No. Not easy to see at all. Because both Paul and Mary loved Jesus. Loved Jesus with everything they had. Paul was called to start churches, to share the good news. Mary was called to give us the most pure example of worship in our gospel. She held nothing back, didn’t worry one iota about what anyone thought. She heard Jesus say he would be killed, and she anointed and worshiped the Son of God.

When we respond to Jesus with the pureness of what we have, what we are, there are no all-star disciples. There are only those who hear the word of God and respond with gifts they are given. One hears the word of God and responds with their gift of music. Another one hears our worship on the radio and shares the message of Jesus’ love with caregivers. Still another responds with prayer for the people and situations the Spirit places on her heart. Anointing, Evangelizing, Worshiping, Praying, Sharing God’s Love. The Spirit fills us and seeks to use each of us in our own beautiful and unique ways.

And when that happens, it is just a wonder and a joy to behold. A church filled with the Holy Spirit, moving people, the Pauls and the Marys, this way and that, finding new ways to guide our church out, into the community.

• Pastor, what do you think about…? Go!
• I heard about this project… Let’s see if that is the Spirit calling us!
• Could we try…? Why not?

Honestly, that’s one of the reasons why we are beginning a prayer time this Saturday. Every Saturday morning, starting at 8:30, everyone is welcome who feels called to pray for the ministries of Our Savior’s, for our members, for the concerns of our community, the nation, the world. Whatever is on your hearts, then out to enjoy the brand-new day. A centering time each week to open ourselves up to what the Holy Spirit is doing here. If you can’t make it every week, that’s fine. Both Pauls and Marys are welcome. You too.

Because there’s a new thing happening here, if we’re open to it. There’s a new thing ready to spring up, because God promised through the prophetic words of Isaiah that it’s true:

“Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?

Amen

Deny or Testify, OSLC, Midweek Lenten Service, April 2, 2025

John 6:1-15: 6 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 

8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

A lot of people through the ages have wasted a lot of energy and words, trying to explain away the miracle stories of the Bible. Water into Wine? The guests were already drunk. At this point, Jesus could have given them water and they would have thought it was wine. Calming the storm? All storms eventually end by themselves. Healing stories? Jesus was just ahead of his time, and he knew that a lot of disease was caused by lack of nutrition and sanitation. And feeding the 5,000 – we’ve all heard that once the little boy pulled out his five loaves and two fishes, the rest of the crowd felt guilty about the food they had stashed away for themselves and shared. And there was enough for everyone with some to spare.

I suppose, if you want to discredit the gospel, it’s possible. There are always people who will fight to stand on the other side of truth, history, well, anything, really. There is a Flat-Earth Society. In 2025, 500 years after Magellan and his men sailed around the world, 60 years after John Glenn orbited the world. There are those who deny the Holocaust, the Moon Landing, Climate Change, 9-11. It does takes a lot of energy to keep denial alive. But it’s possible.

Think about these miracles. Why would the gospel writers have included them if people weren’t convinced? There were all those wedding guests in Cana. If Jesus hadn’t changed water into wine, Jesus would have been discredited early on. But instead, his crowds kept getting larger. There were 5,000 men and their families by the time of today’s miracle story, following him, wanting to be healed, be filled with the truth, God’s truth, that he was teaching.

And the story gets even larger after Jesus fed them. He had to fight to keep them from taking him to Jerusalem right there and anointing him KING. And the good news continued to be shared. There were people who weren’t even Jewish who became his followers – for example, a Samaritan woman spread the Gospel to her whole community after meeting Jesus. And then Jesus brings Lazarus back from the dead. Not even death is too much for this man. Jesus, the Messiah.

Even when the Jewish and Roman leaders teamed up to silence him and eventually kill him, his disciples did not run. They knew the risk of being identified as followers of Jesus and waited together, in Jerusalem, as Jesus asked them to do. The women went to the tomb and found it empty. The disciples ran back to the tomb in disbelief and found it just as the women said. The power of God that allowed Jesus to do all of these signs now is the power of God, present in the Resurrection. Not even death is too much to hold him. Jesus’ disciples shared the truth to the furthest reaches of the world, many of them dying in their efforts.

Had the miracles not actually happened, no one would have wanted to testify to the Messiah. Because Jesus was who he said he was, we have many, many accounts of the life of Jesus the Christ, and many people who have given their lives to share this Good News.

Our Savior’s is just one of the places in the world that the Good News was shared, and snapped up, and a community of believers grew up. We are the receivers of these testimonies, and these children, are the bearers of the Good News still today.

Some people always will deny the Truth. I would rather spend my energy proclaiming the Good News I see, proclaimed right here in front of me.

Love, Love, Love. Just Love Everyone, OSLC, Roger Olson funeral, April 2, 2025

John 14:1-6 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.


Grace and peace to you from God who walks with us in our grief, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen.

Today’s gospel comes from the 14th chapter of John, the beginning of John’s Farewell Discourse with Jesus and the disciples in the Upper Room. Jesus has just washed the disciples’ feet, and predicted that Judas would betray him and Peter would deny him. The energy that would have accompanied this group’s celebration of the Passover meal together in Jerusalem had just been sucked out of the room. In its place, grief had filled the space.

And Jesus began to speak to them.

“My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”

Scott, Shelly and Sherri, I imagine your Dad’s room has a view of the woods. Your Mom went ahead to pick it out, surrounded by pine trees. Made sure there were flowers, too. Of course, they both knew the way. They’ve been telling you about where they were going their whole lives.

They knew the way. Not a bunch of directions or doctrine. Your dad kept it simple: “Love. Love. Love. Just love everyone.”

About that love: He built a life of love with Gloria, starting on their wedding day, right here at Our Savior’s. That love expanded with each one of you.

I heard that in the stories you told me about your Dad: the way he was always there for you. At your events. There for the special moments in your lives. Going out West, to Cody and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Piling people on a houseboat and lighting up the sky with fireworks. Figuring out how to make anything work, either the usual way or Gerry-rigging it and getting it done. Those jack-of-all-trade guys are fewer and fewer these days.

Summer, fall, winter, spring. Your Dad was happiest outdoors. In his work as a lineman, his business trimming trees, cutting grass. Pulling you around on a sled behind the snowmobile. Filling the Blazer with stumps and heading down logging trails to hunting camp. He knew that giving you stuff was temporary, but giving you memories would stay with you forever. He continued that through the generations. He cherished his six grandchildren and then six great-grandchildren.

But alongside all the family, and all of his dedication to this community was another thread: his solid faith in his Lord and Savior, Jesus: the Way, the Truth and the Life. Again, not a bunch of directions or doctrine. That wasn’t Roger’s way. Your dad put his faith into action through serving his neighbors. In service organizations. In the community. Here at Our Savior’s. If there was a project to be done, count him in.

He worked a tough, hands-on, physically challenging job. A lineman. Out in the worst possible weather: thunderstorms, ice storms, blizzards. Restoring power to his customers. That, too, was serving his neighbors.

Roger walked in the Savior’s way. Our Savior, Jesus, who when the authorities tried to trap him in words and rules, wasn’t having any of it. “Which of the 613 Jewish commandments was the most important one to follow, Teacher?” And Jesus responded, “The Greatest Commandment of all is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second one is like it – Love your neighbor as yourself.” Roger took those words to heart. Love, love, love: Just love everyone.

Roger beat cancer in his 50s. And in the past years, he managed his own challenges. Dialysis? A necessary procedure. Learning to care for Gloria, to accept help, to cook and take care of things she would have done. Harder, but he managed. He wasn’t ready to go yet. He still had things to fix. And calls to make – every night. He was still serving as only Roger could do. And passing along those lessons to you.

Sherri said she had a good conversation with him on Wednesday, days before he died. And of the things he told her, it was those words that stuck with her. “Love, love, love. Just love everyone.”

Jesus told his disciples, “You know the way to the place I am going.”

Family and friends, you know the way to the place Jesus was going. Roger taught you well. The directions are simple. Love, love, love. Just love everyone.

Amen.