Tag: Lent

Pastor’s Notes 3/15/2024

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

In the commentary from our Lenten Devotional by A Sanctified Art this week, Dr. Terence Lester teaches us:

In Matthew 18:15-22, Jesus teaches about community and repair. Peter, eager to learn, asks him a follow up question. Jesus gives an expansive answer, emphasizing the abundance of forgiveness. This story shows the importance of asking questions and expanding our faith, especially when we’re comfortable not having all the answers and we’re open to seeing the world in more nuanced ways.

Jesus’ response to Peter’s question about forgiveness highlights the ambiguous math of grace. Peter learns about abundant grace. It’s about letting go of rigid limits and embracing the limitless possibilities of forgiveness and repair.

If I have learned anything about faith, it is that I always seem to have more questions than I do answers. In fact, my questions tend to lead to more questions. The good news is that I am comfortable with the mystery of belief.

For faith to truly work, we must always be open to learning something new. The best way to learn is through asking questions and then staying open to whatever answers we receive.

Peter continuously asks questions and seeks deeper understanding. In this text, it is the topic of forgiveness that causes him challenge. May we keep our hearts open to the possibilities God presents to us and may we learn something about ourselves and our relationship with the Holy.

See you Sunday.
Brett

Pastor’s Notes 3/8/2024

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

As the authors from A Sanctified write in the sermon preparation material for this week, there are a few texts many preachers dread, and Matthew 16:21-23 might be one of them. To go from Jesus praising Peter as the rock of the church to declaring, “Get behind me, Satan!” certainly feels like whiplash.

One idea that surfaced in their theme-planning discussions is how this interaction between Jesus and Peter shows us the intimacy and trust that they shared. Jesus rebukes Peter because he loves him deeply, and because he has high expectations for him as the “rock” of the church. Perhaps we are even witnessing Jesus’ grief as he declares, “Get behind me.” This is an idea that many of us could empathize greatly with Peter on. Who doesn’t want to avoid pain and suffering?

Ultimately, this week’s text shows us that growing in our faith inherently comes with challenges and complexity. In the midst of grief and hardship, can we stay rooted in our convictions while also loosening our grip on control? If we are in a stage of deconstructing our faith, can we move through that season with an open heart and open hands?

I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday as we continue to wander the Lenten journey with Peter finding his place as a follower of Jesus. May we also, better understand our purpose and calling as the body of Christ.

Brett

Pastor’s Notes 3/1/2024

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

Greetings Sun City Christian Church.

It is good to be back home from vacation and praising God together with you sin this season of Lent. Our theme for this season is “Wandering Heart: figuring out faith with Peter.” With the help and wisdom of A Sanctified Art worship resources, we are focusing on the life and faith of one of Jesus’ most famous disciples.

In Peter, we see a person who is both steadfast and unsteady, a dear friend and a betrayer, a follower and a wanderer. In Peter, we often see ourselves. By following Peter’s journey, we watch the story of Jesus unfold through the eyes of a very normal human trying to figure it all out- just like us.

The goal of this series is to affirm that faith is a constant journey of steadfast pursuit, one that ebbs and flows. That wandering is exploration, not necessarily distance from God. We want to affirm the ways Peter keeps going: he drops his nets, he walks on water, he runs to the empty tomb, he swims to shore to meet the risen Christ. He keeps searching and yearning and loving, even after missteps or mistakes.

Ultimately, in Peter’s story, we are reminded that God loves imperfect people—in fact, time and again, that’s precisely who God claims and calls. This Lent, we will look for ourselves in the stepping stones of Peter’s story. We will reflect on the stages of our own faith journeys as well as who and what has shaped us along the way. As we wander, let us tune our hearts to sing God’s grace. May we rest in streams of mercy, never ceasing.

As we connect the theme phrase, “Praise the mount” from the hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing to our featured text of Matthew 16:23-30, we will think about the proclamations of faith that we are willing to make. It is easy to be hesitant when talking about our faith, but together in our act of worship we will find the comfort necessary for us to find strength in our convictions and proclaim Jesus who we know him to be.

See you Sunday,
Brett

Sermon 4/3/2023 – Palm Sunday

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

Our journey with Jesus through the season of Lent has delivered us to Palm Sunday. I am so grateful for your willingness to try new things and to experience God in different ways. During our journey we worshipped with our senses: touch, taste, sound, sight, and smell. Together we have deepened our relationship with God and each other and in so doing, Christ has been praised.

And so now, we stand outside the gates of Jerusalem, as Jesus approaches humbly on a donkey. It is one of the most surreal stories of our faith as a cheering crowd greets Jesus with a parade of palm branches waving, Hosannas shouted, and cloaked thrown before his path.

The stimulation had to be intense. It was sensory overload, and everything was firing at once. The feel of palm branches clutched in hand and the taste of dirt being kicked up as the mob ran behind, along and before this parade of one. The odor of a sweaty crowd packed along the road together. The shouts of Hosanna ringing in the ears, all get a view of the one being herald as the Messiah.

Nothing had ever happened like this before. A haze of disdain and righteous anger hung in the air as those the religious zealots and political elite fought to disguise their fear and maintain their power. In the days ahead tensions will soon erupt and the cheers will turn to curses, devotion for Jesus will evolve into denial, and faithful hearts will be broken.

But for now, we too join with praise and adoration. Christ has come! Salvation will be ours! Hosanna in the highest. 

Sermon 3/26/2023

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

Throughout the Old Testament, an “aroma” is mentioned as something pleasing to the Lord, especially those from sacrifices made before the Lord.

The very first mention of God smelling the aroma of a burnt offering is found in Genesis 8:21. Scholars argue that the importance of the aroma is about atonement and the people of God acknowledging sin, more than the smells themselves. God was pleased with the sacrifice and Noah’s honoring God’s righteousness requirement and in return gave the promise to never again destroy the earth and everything upon it with a flood.

In Leviticus 1:9, a pleasing aroma is mentioned in connection with the various offerings of Jewish tabernacle worship. It can be argued that here too, that it is the action rather than the actual smoke of the burnt offering that God favors.

The intent behind the offering is what seems to matter most as God desires authentic devotion and acts of love. Jesus demonstrated this shift in understanding that shift our understanding as disciples away from presenting God with burnt offerings and allowing our lives and actions to become the aroma pleasing to God.

Ephesians 5:2 offers what many claim in identifying Jesus death on the cross as the greatest gesture of love imaginable, “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

This Sunday we will conclude our Lenten journey of worshipping through our senses, by highlighting smell. Aromas intended to be pleasing to the Lord will be discovered in Matthew 26:6-13 where a woman anoints Jesus with an expensive jar perfume.

We will explore the ramifications from this story as well as our own faithful actions as disciples of Jesus.

Sermon 3/19/2023

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

“Oh, the things I have seen,” Mildred said laughingly during her speech at her 90th birthday party. She went on to recount life as a child during the great depression. She spoke of witnessing the world change in the face of wars, manufacturing advancement, technology, climate change, and culture shifts.

She waxed eloquently before shifting her conclusion, “But, there are so many things I have yet to see.” Mildred went on to share her desire to see wars and violence end. To see the divisions of people based upon race, gender, and sexual orientation to cease. To see the love of Christ be shared by people who call themselves Christian.

“I want to see more of Christ in you and in me and I sure hope it won’t take us another 90 years to figure out how,” Mildred said as she sat down to a standing ovation from her family, friends and church community.

This Sunday we celebrate our sense of sight. May we too wrestle with the “Christ-like” things we have yet to see as his faithful followers. In the text for Sunday, Matthew 20:29-34, Jesus heals two blind men who cry out, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” Together in worship we explore the things we might see and do together if we lived into a similar request.