In this episode, Rev. Katie Faison helps us reflect on the significance of Easter and the lessons learned during Lent. We emphasize the importance of love, forgiveness, and acceptance in our lives. The discussion delves into the contrast between the Palm Sunday crowd's adoration and the Good Friday mob's hostility, prompting us to consider how we can embody Jesus' message of love and compassion towards others.
1 John 3:1-7
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
- where all generations worship, grow, and serve together.
- where women and men have equal opportunities for leadership.
- where traditional worship is engaged with excellence.
- and where diverse approaches to Christian faith and theology all find themselves at home under the lordship of Christ.
Want to learn more about Central? Visit our website at centralbaptistnewnan.org or give us a call at 770-683-0610.
[00:00:09]
Katie Faison:
Renewed, changed, better on this side of Easter. And much like the weeks leading up to Christmas, the last 7 weeks, we have given it our all. We have planned great music. And it felt really good. But are we changed? If we were to take a really good look at ourselves, To be honest, I didn't do very well at setting myself up for change this Lent. I did not give up anything. I did not add anything to my daily routine. I went into Lent like it was another church season to check off my very full calendar. But I believe change came for me this year during holy week. On Palm Sunday, we were just as excited as the crowds were on that 1st Palm Sunday.
Hosanna, Hosanna, we shouted right alongside them. And then on Friday, we mourned Christ's death together. And most years, it's just a routine. Shelved for joy on Palm Sunday, mourn Christ's death on Good Friday. And because of our busy lives, many of us don't even get a chance to and we miss what happens in between. On Easter Sunday, my family and I sat around the table discussing how we had never truly thought about how the Palm Sunday crowd is the same crowd that 5 days later, crucifies Jesus. I mean, we know it, but we never really thought about that.
The Palm Sunday crowd is there for the Passover Festival, God's chosen ones. They believe Jesus is going to be their king, and that he is there to save them, to overthrow the government and the imperial army, and they are so for Jesus. And by Friday of that week, they're so mad at Jesus to charge him and murder him on a cross. The same crowd. Let me say it again. The same crowd on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Our lesson text today comes from first John. The truth of the gospel and false doctrine. Their faith was vulnerable, and he knew it. He did not they did not have generations before them who had worked through issues of faith and practice, and the faith communities were being weakened.
Let's hear these words, John writes to these new believers. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, the sin is lawlessness, but you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Is righteous. In these verses, John is encouraging the readers to know how much God loves them. He goes on to talk about how children of God do not sin, and it sounds like John is saying that if we were true children of God, we wouldn't sin. But we know that's not possible because we're human and we're not God. John is saying, we, children of God, will not sin when Jesus returns. In him, we will be purified. But until then, we should try not to sin. When we sin, we go from being the Palm Sunday crowd to the Good Friday mob, or might I even suggest we in 2024 go from being Easter people we have had generations before us to figure out a lot.
And although we haven't figured out everything, we know that when we sin, we are making choices that betray Jesus' love for us. A few weeks ago, Matt talked about how Jesus' circle has always been wider than ours, and is always expanding to include everyone. Matt said, Jesus was here to invite the outsiders, families who were there for the festival. And when Jesus didn't give them what they wanted, they turned on him. The Good Friday mob who crucified Jesus were also the insiders, God's chosen ones. The insiders that day were willing to condemn Jesus, to murder Jesus in order to prove or preach what they believed to be the truth.
And their truth that day was that Jesus was not the Messiah. Jesus proved them wrong. Jesus conquered death. Today, we Christians are the our Messiah, the one who died and rose again for all who believed for us. So how can we be sure to never be the Palm Sunday crowd who turns on one another and betrays Jesus, another. This year, our lectionary text for Palm Sunday and Easter came from Mark's gospel. But if you were to read Mark's gospel and Luke's account of the passion of Christ side by side, you would see in Luke's account, Jesus says these words just before he dies, Father, forgive them or a t shirt, or a coffee mug, something that you might see at Hobby Lobby.
It would read, love them anyway. Luke 23:34. That is what Jesus is saying. The Palm Sunday crowd celebrated me as their warrior, but when I wouldn't fight for them, they crucified me. Loved them, anyway. The Palm Sunday crowd questioned me, trying to trick me into saying things. But when I wouldn't say what they wanted to hear, they told blatant lies about me and handed me over to the The Good Friday mob left me and ran home to hide and pretend like it all never happened. Lord, love them anyway. If Jesus is our king of kings, lord of lords, who we came to celebrate with all that we had last week, why do we find it so hard to follow his example and love them anyway?
We were willing to be loved by God, to be children of God, to be forgiven by God, to accept Christ's death on the cross for our sins. We're willing to be the insiders and we're still trying to get Jesus to coddle us. We argue about who loves Jesus the right way? Who is worshiping him the right way, who can preach the gospel and who can't, whose sin is greater, who loves others more. You cannot possibly be a Christian because your definition of love is not the same as mine. But if those of us on the inside can't love one another, how will we ever begin to expand our circle enough to accept those who Jesus has already invited in?
My friend and colleague, Reverend Jess Wilbanks, many of you probably know her because she is a member here at Central, and she teaches our ladies bible study on Tuesday. And on more than one occasion, she has referenced the idea of closed versus open handed theology. When we get into a discussion about how to interpret the bible or interpret our own beliefs about how God works in the Close handed. All Christians agree on these things. They are non negotiable. Open handed. Christian denominations have various traditions and beliefs, but these things wouldn't decide whether you were a Christian or not. Things such as sacraments, baptism, confirmation, ordination, communion, anointing, marriage, burial, scripture interpretation, creation, second coming, predestination, or free will, all of these things, open handed things are things Christians have differing opinions about, over these things so much so that it leads to a lot of hate in our world.
It leads to people criticizing and putting down To love does not mean to condemn others who don't see it your way. It is our responsibility to show God's love in the world, and we should start with the ones who already claim to be children of God. Jesus says, father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Maybe we should define them. On Good Friday, warriors, Christ's closest friends and family, they were all there. And when Christ says father forgives the forgive them, he means all of them. We face a lot to not get angry, to be sad because of other people's choices. I'm preaching to myself more than any person in this room today.
But one of the things that gets me most worked up is when I feel people are condemning others to prove themselves or their ideas right or worthy. I think that there is a fine line between advocating for what you believe and condemning others while you do it. Teenagers play some kind of teen sport. Emma, our oldest daughter, has been playing lacrosse. This is her 3rd season most shocking places that I have experienced hate by putting others down in order to cheer for your team. And I don't mean heckling coaches or refs like crowds do when the call or the play was not right.
And unfortunately, in girls lacrosse, crowds are not big enough for a visitor and team, which can get a bit annoying if the opposing team is winning and you have to endure all the cheering. But those things are normal and expected. What I mean are the adults in the stands that feels like they have to put the other team down, or make fun of players, or say ugly things to the parents of the teenagers on the field. I'm shocked every time I experience it. I just don't understand the need to hate their player. And we're not talking about professional sports or college sports, not that that really changes a lot, but we're talking So why can we not just cheer for our team instead of against the other team?
And why are we teaching our children that this kind of behavior is okay? Maybe some of you have heard this ongoing controversial debate about whether or not women should preach the gospel. I do have to give credit where secret while I'm at it. Maybe it was this church who raised me, or simply my own ignorance, but it was not until I went to seminary that I even realized that this was the debate in the world. Clearly, I believe that women can preach the gospel, and I would be happy to have a 1 on 1 conversation or even a civil debate about that subject with anyone. And I will definitely advocate for any woman who feels called to the ministry. But what I hope and pray that I will never do A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw the question Of course, I had to read every comment, and boy, did I wanna make a comment on each one, whether they're for or against women preachers.
But I have a rule for myself. I can't get involved in debates on public pages, So after some careful thought and consideration, I decided to advocate for our church and myself, and I've hosted something like, Central Baptist On the flip side, I've been in several situations in the past few years where Christian a Christian organization or another child of God has held a discussion or preached about a controversial subject such as women in ministry. And I left sad and frustrated. And the interesting thing was, most of these experiences were with people or organizations whose theology children of God putting down other children of God in order to prove their idea worthy or right.
Love does not mean to condemn others who do not see it your way. That's what the Good Friday mob did. We have to do better. Standing up for a colleague at work, watching a presidential debate, scrolling through Facebook, learning about the latest crisis on the news, or hanging out with your family and friends, we have to remember that Christ loves all of them anyway. The world is watching, and nothing we experience is worse than the Good Friday Mob
Renewed, changed, better on this side of Easter. And much like the weeks leading up to Christmas, the last 7 weeks, we have given it our all. We have planned great music. And it felt really good. But are we changed? If we were to take a really good look at ourselves, To be honest, I didn't do very well at setting myself up for change this Lent. I did not give up anything. I did not add anything to my daily routine. I went into Lent like it was another church season to check off my very full calendar. But I believe change came for me this year during holy week. On Palm Sunday, we were just as excited as the crowds were on that 1st Palm Sunday.
Hosanna, Hosanna, we shouted right alongside them. And then on Friday, we mourned Christ's death together. And most years, it's just a routine. Shelved for joy on Palm Sunday, mourn Christ's death on Good Friday. And because of our busy lives, many of us don't even get a chance to and we miss what happens in between. On Easter Sunday, my family and I sat around the table discussing how we had never truly thought about how the Palm Sunday crowd is the same crowd that 5 days later, crucifies Jesus. I mean, we know it, but we never really thought about that.
The Palm Sunday crowd is there for the Passover Festival, God's chosen ones. They believe Jesus is going to be their king, and that he is there to save them, to overthrow the government and the imperial army, and they are so for Jesus. And by Friday of that week, they're so mad at Jesus to charge him and murder him on a cross. The same crowd. Let me say it again. The same crowd on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Our lesson text today comes from first John. The truth of the gospel and false doctrine. Their faith was vulnerable, and he knew it. He did not they did not have generations before them who had worked through issues of faith and practice, and the faith communities were being weakened.
Let's hear these words, John writes to these new believers. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, the sin is lawlessness, but you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Is righteous. In these verses, John is encouraging the readers to know how much God loves them. He goes on to talk about how children of God do not sin, and it sounds like John is saying that if we were true children of God, we wouldn't sin. But we know that's not possible because we're human and we're not God. John is saying, we, children of God, will not sin when Jesus returns. In him, we will be purified. But until then, we should try not to sin. When we sin, we go from being the Palm Sunday crowd to the Good Friday mob, or might I even suggest we in 2024 go from being Easter people we have had generations before us to figure out a lot.
And although we haven't figured out everything, we know that when we sin, we are making choices that betray Jesus' love for us. A few weeks ago, Matt talked about how Jesus' circle has always been wider than ours, and is always expanding to include everyone. Matt said, Jesus was here to invite the outsiders, families who were there for the festival. And when Jesus didn't give them what they wanted, they turned on him. The Good Friday mob who crucified Jesus were also the insiders, God's chosen ones. The insiders that day were willing to condemn Jesus, to murder Jesus in order to prove or preach what they believed to be the truth.
And their truth that day was that Jesus was not the Messiah. Jesus proved them wrong. Jesus conquered death. Today, we Christians are the our Messiah, the one who died and rose again for all who believed for us. So how can we be sure to never be the Palm Sunday crowd who turns on one another and betrays Jesus, another. This year, our lectionary text for Palm Sunday and Easter came from Mark's gospel. But if you were to read Mark's gospel and Luke's account of the passion of Christ side by side, you would see in Luke's account, Jesus says these words just before he dies, Father, forgive them or a t shirt, or a coffee mug, something that you might see at Hobby Lobby.
It would read, love them anyway. Luke 23:34. That is what Jesus is saying. The Palm Sunday crowd celebrated me as their warrior, but when I wouldn't fight for them, they crucified me. Loved them, anyway. The Palm Sunday crowd questioned me, trying to trick me into saying things. But when I wouldn't say what they wanted to hear, they told blatant lies about me and handed me over to the The Good Friday mob left me and ran home to hide and pretend like it all never happened. Lord, love them anyway. If Jesus is our king of kings, lord of lords, who we came to celebrate with all that we had last week, why do we find it so hard to follow his example and love them anyway?
We were willing to be loved by God, to be children of God, to be forgiven by God, to accept Christ's death on the cross for our sins. We're willing to be the insiders and we're still trying to get Jesus to coddle us. We argue about who loves Jesus the right way? Who is worshiping him the right way, who can preach the gospel and who can't, whose sin is greater, who loves others more. You cannot possibly be a Christian because your definition of love is not the same as mine. But if those of us on the inside can't love one another, how will we ever begin to expand our circle enough to accept those who Jesus has already invited in?
My friend and colleague, Reverend Jess Wilbanks, many of you probably know her because she is a member here at Central, and she teaches our ladies bible study on Tuesday. And on more than one occasion, she has referenced the idea of closed versus open handed theology. When we get into a discussion about how to interpret the bible or interpret our own beliefs about how God works in the Close handed. All Christians agree on these things. They are non negotiable. Open handed. Christian denominations have various traditions and beliefs, but these things wouldn't decide whether you were a Christian or not. Things such as sacraments, baptism, confirmation, ordination, communion, anointing, marriage, burial, scripture interpretation, creation, second coming, predestination, or free will, all of these things, open handed things are things Christians have differing opinions about, over these things so much so that it leads to a lot of hate in our world.
It leads to people criticizing and putting down To love does not mean to condemn others who don't see it your way. It is our responsibility to show God's love in the world, and we should start with the ones who already claim to be children of God. Jesus says, father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Maybe we should define them. On Good Friday, warriors, Christ's closest friends and family, they were all there. And when Christ says father forgives the forgive them, he means all of them. We face a lot to not get angry, to be sad because of other people's choices. I'm preaching to myself more than any person in this room today.
But one of the things that gets me most worked up is when I feel people are condemning others to prove themselves or their ideas right or worthy. I think that there is a fine line between advocating for what you believe and condemning others while you do it. Teenagers play some kind of teen sport. Emma, our oldest daughter, has been playing lacrosse. This is her 3rd season most shocking places that I have experienced hate by putting others down in order to cheer for your team. And I don't mean heckling coaches or refs like crowds do when the call or the play was not right.
And unfortunately, in girls lacrosse, crowds are not big enough for a visitor and team, which can get a bit annoying if the opposing team is winning and you have to endure all the cheering. But those things are normal and expected. What I mean are the adults in the stands that feels like they have to put the other team down, or make fun of players, or say ugly things to the parents of the teenagers on the field. I'm shocked every time I experience it. I just don't understand the need to hate their player. And we're not talking about professional sports or college sports, not that that really changes a lot, but we're talking So why can we not just cheer for our team instead of against the other team?
And why are we teaching our children that this kind of behavior is okay? Maybe some of you have heard this ongoing controversial debate about whether or not women should preach the gospel. I do have to give credit where secret while I'm at it. Maybe it was this church who raised me, or simply my own ignorance, but it was not until I went to seminary that I even realized that this was the debate in the world. Clearly, I believe that women can preach the gospel, and I would be happy to have a 1 on 1 conversation or even a civil debate about that subject with anyone. And I will definitely advocate for any woman who feels called to the ministry. But what I hope and pray that I will never do A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw the question Of course, I had to read every comment, and boy, did I wanna make a comment on each one, whether they're for or against women preachers.
But I have a rule for myself. I can't get involved in debates on public pages, So after some careful thought and consideration, I decided to advocate for our church and myself, and I've hosted something like, Central Baptist On the flip side, I've been in several situations in the past few years where Christian a Christian organization or another child of God has held a discussion or preached about a controversial subject such as women in ministry. And I left sad and frustrated. And the interesting thing was, most of these experiences were with people or organizations whose theology children of God putting down other children of God in order to prove their idea worthy or right.
Love does not mean to condemn others who do not see it your way. That's what the Good Friday mob did. We have to do better. Standing up for a colleague at work, watching a presidential debate, scrolling through Facebook, learning about the latest crisis on the news, or hanging out with your family and friends, we have to remember that Christ loves all of them anyway. The world is watching, and nothing we experience is worse than the Good Friday Mob
