A Cup of Eau Claire

Luke 23:54-56, 24:1-12  54 It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.  55 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid.  56 Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.  2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,  3 but when they went in, they did not find the body.  4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,  7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day r...

The text for Good Friday is the Passion narrative. We heard 5 student storytellers perform John's version, John 18:1-19:42.  image: Crucifixion by Graham Sutherland  I once had a student who had been violently raped, at knifepoint, as a child. Her wounds were deep and big. Because she was a child,       and because her attacker threatened  to kill her if she told anyone, she kept her silence and fed her wounds, which became bigger and deeper over the years. When she came to college, she heard a professor tell this story we just heard. She heard Jesus feeling abandoned, alone, abused, rejected, broken, beaten, humiliated, crying out from the cross to no one who would rescue him.  She wept. When she finally found words to put around those wounds, she told me, “I never thought anyone could understand what I was feeling, what I carry with me. I never thought anyone could love me if they knew how damage...

Sacred Meals Exodus 12:1-14 1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitte...

Our reading for tonight comes from 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, it’s one of my favorites because it shows that no one can be perfect, but we can all contribute to the kingdom of God with the gifts we have. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,  9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,  10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. Hi, I am Amber Cody, a lot of you know me, I am the social media correspondent for LSA, I’m going to tell you my testimony tonight! A testimony is your story of how God has bee n...

Psalm 102  1 Hear my prayer, O  Lord ; let my cry come to you. 2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call. 3 For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. 4 My heart is stricken and withered like grass; I am too wasted to eat my bread. 5 Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my skin. 6 I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places. 7 I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on the housetop. 8 All day long my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse. 9 For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink, 10 because of your indignation and anger; for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside. 11 My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. 12 But you, O  Lord , are enthroned forever; your name endures to all generations. 13 You will rise up and have compassion on Zion...

 Psalm 143  1 Hear my prayer, O  Lord ; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness. 2 Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. 3 For the enemy has pursued me, crushing my life to the ground, making me sit in darkness like those long dead. 4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. 5 I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds, I meditate on the works of your hands. 6 I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.  7 Answer me quickly, O  Lord ; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit. 8 Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. 9 Save me, O  Lord , from my enemies; I have fled to you for refuge. 10 Teach me to do your will, for y...