First Presbyterian Church Of Baton Rouge

Delight is a word full of pleasure, surprise and laughter. Delight can make you belly laugh or even feel for a moment that you’ve tasted heaven. If we knew God’s delight, what would change in us?

God had simply had enough of the corruption and the resulting affliction and pain of his people. He realized, “They can’t do this on their own. They can’t clean this up. They can’t fix themselves. I’m coming down. I’m coming down there myself.” And so God suited up for battle. He took off his fancy royal robe and for a moment his mighty arm was bared. Then he put on his armor. But the LORD’s warrior gear was donned in order to save. His helmet was not metal, but made of salvation. His breastplate was made not of iron but righteousness. He was coming to squash resistance to his rule of love and get his people back on the right footing. “A Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from their transgressions” (59: 20).

Found. That’s a strong word to those of us in exile. God seeks your company. He knows where you are. And he wants to bring you home. But you’ve got to be willing to let him find you. We can be exiled so long that we don’t even want to be found. We just want to stay diminished and alone. That’s a spiritual hazard. God’s view of you is this: You are Sought Out. I came to seek and save the lost. So get the point of why I came to you as Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. The goal of life is to get found! I seek you and I see you. Won’t you come to me?

What do we learn from Naomi about being a faithful mother? Be Hopeful. Be thoughtful. Be vulnerable. Be grateful.

Do you ever say to yourself, “I don’t count among the LORD’s people. I’m not sure he accepts me. I don’t think the future looks good for me”? To YOU, the LORD says, “Don’t say that anymore!"

What do you look like from a God’s-eye view? What is God’s opinion of you? What is God’s desire for you? These are all identity questions. In fact, they’re the ones that really matter. God sees truly. God sees all the way through. God sees me as I am. His view is the only one that matters because he is the Creator. He is the one who alone sees according to Reality. Because God is Reality and Truth. God’s opinion is the one opinion that gives me my identity. Because it’s the only opinion, the only view of me, that actually matches what is truly so.

There’s no going back. Jesus is risen. Death is defeated. One man has shown himself to be Lord of life and death, Lord of all the cosmos. Once you know that, you can’t return to the old game of living just for yourself. You can’t think again that the point of your life is about being the you you dreamed up for yourself. It’s about shaping your life to love Jesus by knowing him for who he is and then loving his little ones in his name.

Mary turned round and saw Jesus. He spoke her name. And her tears were turned. He speaks your name as well, deeply into your heart. Jesus is the great turner of the tears. Jesus lives again. Arise!

Jesus plunged farther, died deeper, was crushed finer than we can imagine on Holy Saturday. This quiet service reflects on five psalms that sustained Jesus in this time.

Interactive Service of Shadows: Participate at Home! Wherever you are, you can take an active part in our annual Holy Thursday Service of Shadows. Here’s what to do: secure four candles, a lighter, bread, and a cup of juice/wine. Watch and listen as we move through the story of the passion. Wait for the signal to light and/or extinguish candles, and for the time when we can all take communion in our homes, yet spiritually together!

Joseph just wanted to honor his slain master. He just wanted the cruel shame to end. So he was willing to sacrifice politically, socially, personally to give Jesus a proper burial. And what a difference it has made! If Jesus had been dumped in a mass grave, there would have been no empty tomb to point out on Easter. If he had been discarded in an unfindable place, the resurrection would have seemed like a mere fabrication. But the world saw Joseph take Jesus to his home address. They saw the Lord laid in a tomb with a stone rolled over it. They beheld the Roman soldiers guarding it. So Joseph’s gift became an essential, everlasting witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He was buried in Joseph’s tomb. On Sunday, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. Jesus really died. A lost cause. He also really rose. The triumph of love.

Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin council. For political reasons he had to keep his loyalty to Jesus hidden. So why did he risk his position to approach Pilate? Only love could have made him do it. All he cared about was honoring Jesus in his burial. Too late to speak. Too late to stop them. Lord, I tried to work quietly behind the scenes. But I was only protecting myself. For what? Without you, nothing I have matters. This world is dead to me. These positions a joke. I know I could not save you anyway, There were too many of them, But I ache to have tried harder. No more hiding! I will get you off that cross. Gently, with dignity that befits a king. I will save your body from the dogs and the gawkers. You shall have my burial place. I will tend your tattered form With all my love and care, With all the power at my disposal. Too late, I know, to save you But not too late to let them know I am yours, and I will love you forever.

The key to surviving the uncertainty of these days? The net that holds us when huge crevices in our future keep opening up? The way we face illness, death and life in a new era? We look to that man on the cross and know him to be the Son of God who is with us always. We cry out to his Spirit to come through our locked doors and besieged city with ample supplies of love and grace to get us through. We reach toward him as we reach toward each other. We offer the hand of grace to Christ with his cross in every way we care for each other.

That King of the Jews had something. A light. A peace. A trust. Even beaten to a pulp he radiated beauty, He seemed more a man then than I’ll ever be. Authority from above he claimed. From above but flowing from within. What is truth? I had mocked him. But he was unfazed. “My kingdom is not of this world. I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” His voice rang with truth. How I wish I could hear it again? Would I hear the truth if I heard him? Did I do the right thing?

Oh Lord, the words said that I can never get back!

Judas fascinates us. He's an enigma. He meets a horrible fate. He's a key player in Passion Week. What motivated Judas?

If you knew that Jesus would be crucified within the week, what would you want to say to him? What would you give him that might ease his way? A word? A gift? A service? What would you do to give him the comfort that he was loved by you? These are the questions that stirred inside the woman we know as Mary of Bethany.

For several years now, on the Thursday before Easter, we finish our service and go into the church garden. We stand by the tomb and sing the question, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” The event happened two millennia ago in a land far across the sea. It occurred amidst people who spoke a language very few of us today can understand. How could we possibly have been there? But still we sing the answer, “Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.” The distant story moves us still. Convicts us. Gathers us up. Changes us. Because it’s not just ancient history. The unbroken witness of the people who belong to Jesus is that we are included in his passion and resurrection!