"Palm Sunday" - March 28th, 2021

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"Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of the donkey."

Zechariah 9:9

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Message of Stewardship

from Claudia Tumaliuan

Like so many of you, this week I will be dying Easter eggs. Oh, that is just one of my favorite parts about the Holy Week time!

You know, I have a very weird relationship with eggs. Fun fact about me: my family has a farm. Well, not my family - my uncle!

When I was little I would go to Iowaand I would spend like a week at their farm and my job was to gather Easter eggs. And as a city kid, that's weird. Why, you ask? Here's why. You have to distract the rooster because apparently they’re dangerous, I don't know if that's true. Then you had to throw feed to get the chickens out of the chicken apartment or they called it a coop. And then when all the chickens came out, then you ran real fast and went inside to gather the eggs.

And each time we went inside there was always a weird number of eggs. One day every hen had laid an egg. The next day maybe nobody laid an egg. One chicken even laid three eggs one day. I was sure that she was going to lay three eggs the next day. She didn’t.

You know, your offering is a lot like that. It doesn't matter when you give or how much you give. You could give today. Tomorrow. Saturday. Right at noon! And it all is gathered up. And it all goes back to providing for our church family. Keeping the lights on.

My uncle on his farm, they use the eggs to feed their family and we literally do the same thing with your offering. So no matter what you give or when you give, it's all appreciated.

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"Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who were following were shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!'"

Mark 11:7-10

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Pastor Michael's Sermon - March 28th, 2021

In 1974, my grandmother surprised me and my brother by telling us that she was going to be taking us to the next Rose Parade. I've lived in California my whole life,

but I had never actually been to the Rose Parade, just watched it every year on television. And I think she told us a whole year earlier because well, my grandmother was not about to camp on the sidewalk overnight to see the parade

and so we were getting tickets and sitting in the bleachers.

She had this idea that we would buy the tickets together. She would buy half of the ticket and we would buy the other half of the ticket. So she told us very early in the year so that we would have enough time to earn the money for our half of the tickets.

Now our half of the ticket wasn't really much money, but at the time my brother and I were 10 and 9, so we needed some time to raise our half.

Anyway, we did raise the money and I remember the whole year being so excited that we were getting to go to the parade.

Well, in April of that year Hank Aaron beat Babe Ruth's home run record by hitting his 715th home run. And if you were alive back then, you probably remember it because it was huge news. Hank Aaron was pretty much all that was on the television until about a month later when the Watergate hearings began.

Hank Aaron was so popular that it was announced that he would be the Grand

Marshall of the next Rose Parade on January 1st, 1975, the very parade that we were going to! Well if we weren't excited before we were really excited now.

So finally the day arrived we spent New Year's Eve at my grandmother's house in Lakewood and we had to go to bed very early because we had to get up at the crack of dawn to go to the parade. And that morning we drove to Pasadena and we found our place in the bleachers and I remember it was very cold.

I have a lot of good memories of that day. I remember being surprised how much more vivid the colors were on the floats in person rather than on television. The bands were exciting. I loved seeing the horses! But for me and I think for most of the crowd, the most thrilling moment was when that convertible slowly went by carrying Hank Aaron. There was this man that we had heard so much about, this man who people considered a hero and he was already being looked at as a legend. He was right in front of us and as he went by everyone was yelling out to him and waving banners.

You know at that time inflation was terrible and we were still fighting in Vietnam

and Nixon had resigned in disgrace just a few months before. Hank Aaron represented something positive. Someone who in the midst of all of our troubles could lift us all up.

When I read this story about Christ entering into Jerusalem, when I think about the Palm Sunday story, I'm often reminded of that day that Hank Aaron went by with everyone cheering for him. But of course, there are big differences in the two stories. Our cheers for Hank Aaron were cheers of adoration. Now, of course in Jesus case yes, there was surely adoration. People were spreading their cloaks.

They were waving the leaves and shouting, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” But there's something else that they shouted that makes the words of those around Christ go beyond simply adoration.

They shouted, “Hosanna!”

Now, although Hosanna is often thought to be an alternative for “Hooray!” it's really not the case. Hosanna is believed to come from two Greek words one meaning save us and the other meaning please. So when the people entering Jerusalem were shouting Hosanna, they were shouting to be saved.

But from what were they shouting to be saved? From what were they shouting to be saved? Well, there's two answers to that. First of all, they wanted to be saved from oppression. They wanted salvation from the Romans. The Israelites believed that this one who came in the name of the Lord could drive the Romans out.

But as I said when we hear the story of all the people shouting Hosanna, we also can't help but hear another type of cry for help.

When they shout save us, please, indeed they also shout for their own salvation. Their own personal salvation. As we read this story, we can't help but hear hosanna as a cry for personal salvation because we know that Christ is

indeed the one who can lead us to our salvation.

Although this story took place centuries ago, it is still relevant today. Even now people of this world continue to shout hosanna. We may not use that very word, but we still shout save us, please. What is it that compels us to shout hosanna today? What is it in this world and in our lives that invites us to shout save us, please!

When I watch the news, I see so many things for which we shout hosanna.

Right now there is an overwhelming number of young people, children who are being detained at our border and they are being held in facilities that were not designed for such large numbers, and the conditions of the facilities, the

accommodations, the beds are not satisfactory. And these young people are being held for longer periods than the law even allows now.

I don't care what political party you tend to vote for. This problem is bad under this administration and it was bad under the last administration. We've got to find a better solution. So we shout hosanna, save us, please.

And the problem actually extends farther than that.

It extends to the reason for their wanting to come to this country in the first place. Many are trying to escape suffering and oppression taking place in their own country. So for all of those around the world who suffer everyday from oppression,

we shout hosanna, save us, please.

There are over a half a million people in our country and 150 million people in our world who are experiencing homelessness. In a country as wealthy as ours and in a world that needs to be taking care of one another, these numbers are staggering and heartbreaking.

For our sisters and brothers who yearn to have a roof over their heads and food to eat, we shout hosanna, save us, please.

For a humanity that struggles with accepting difference, for a society that sees color as something that divides, for a systematic structure that allows race to be a cause for injustice. And for a culture that turns its back on all of it. We shout hosanna, save us, please.

This weekend ten people were shot overnight in Virginia Beach. Two of them died. Less than two weeks ago, eight people were shot and killed, six of them being Asian. A man went into three different spas in Atlanta, methodically shooting his victims. And then this past week in Boulder, Colorado, a man shot and killed 10 people who were simply shopping at a grocery store.

He began killing in the parking lot and then he made his way into the store.

He continued taking lives one by one with an assault-style weapon that he had purchased only six days earlier. These mass shootings have become woefully common in our country.

Now some will say guns don't kill people, people kill people and that's where the problem lies. It can be pointed out very often that it is shown that it is mental illness that causes these shooters to act out. But the truth is there is mental illness all over the world and yet these mass shootings are a uniquely American problem.

We are a culture where many have lifted up weaponry to a place of idolatry. And yes, the Constitution does allow for citizens to bear arms, but I am sure that those who created that document could never have envisioned the type of assault weapons we possess today. Except in times of war, I have heard no legitimate reason for anyone needing to possess assault weaponry.

We are long past the time for our leaders to do something about this uniquely American tragedy. The cost of not doing so is too high. For all the victims of all the shootings and for our country in need of new priorities, we shout hosanna, save us, please.

So even today we shout hosanna as a country.

We shout Hosanna as a people, as a world, and we shout hosanna as individuals.

We ask to be saved from circumstances.

We ask to be saved from indifference.

We ask to be saved from ourselves.

And I believe that just as Christ heard the cries of the people as he entered Jerusalem, he still hears our cries today. Christ hears our cries and responds to our hearts. While we are here on this Earth, we can still do our part to better those things from which we asked to be saved, and in doing so we will know that our work is not being done alone because Christ walks with us. Works with us. For he has heard our cry. Hosanna!

Let's pray.

Holy God, we thank you for the gift of your son. May we feel his presence as we begin our walk through Holy Week. Remembering his death and glorious resurrection.

It's in your son's name we pray.

Amen.

"Being in God's Honor" - March 21st, 2021

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"Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever."

1 Peter 4:9-11

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Message of Stewardship

from Amanda Swann

As a high school theater teacher, when we are putting on a production it is all hands on deck. Everyone has to contribute, the performers, the technicians, the production committees, even the audience when it's time for the show. To have it be the most meaningful and impactful experience, we can't do it alone. We have to pool our resources and put on a show together.

In our church, our church family is called to contribute. We are each called to give of our resources, our time, our funds. When we pull together our resources, we can have a greater impact on our community and on our world. So as we move forward doing the work of the Lord, let us think about pooling our resources in a joyful way.

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"Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the father will honor."

John 12:26

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Pastor Michael's Sermon - March 21st, 2021

You know, I don't talk about politics too much when I'm preaching, unless it's about social justice or the environment or racial issues. Well, maybe, maybe I do talk a little bit about politics if you consider those issues political. I guess what I meant to say is that I don't talk about political figures a lot.

But today I wanted to talk about a former president. No, not that one. And really this has little to nothing to do with politics.

Today I want to lift up former President Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter is a pretty amazing human being. You know back in the early to mid 60's, he was a vocal supporter for civil rights, even though it kind of harmed his political career in Georgia, but beyond that, what is really amazing about Carter is the light that shone from him after his time in politics.

After being president, he created the Carter Center. And according to the Stennis Center for Public Service, the Carter Center does many things, and the former president is still working for the center. Their work has helped to ensure fairness in elections in over a hundred countries all over the world. The center does work in Africa offering Health Care in thousands of communities and villages. And throughout the world, the center has fought for human rights and helped in world conflicts. Now, this is part of the reason that in 2002 Jimmy Carter was given the Nobel Peace Prize.

He still teaches bible study in Plains, Georgia and people come from all around to be a part of his group.

Now, these are all amazing ministries. However, in interviews that I've heard and read, what seems to be closest to the heart of Jimmy Carter is Habitat for Humanity. He has worked for years for this organization and even at the age of 96, he continues to work with Habitat for Humanity. And that includes hands-on house building.

He once told CNN, “I'll stop when I have to but I won't stop until I have to.”

And when he was one time working on a house and a photographer wanted to take a picture of him holding a hammer, he said, “Sure, but as long as I'm holding the hammer, it's going to be hitting a nail.” Sounds like something Rick Hall would say.

Jimmy Carter told reporters, “One of the best ways to practice my faith as a Christian is to participate in Habitat every year.”

In today's scripture, Christ says, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the father will honor.”

I am sure God honors Jimmy Carter

because Carter's work is a glowing example of how to follow Christ, how to be a servant to Christ.

As people of faith, it is our aim to be in God's honor and as Christians we do this by following Christ, by serving Christ.

We've talked a lot about the many ways that we can follow Christ, but bottom line it always comes down to following his teachings, living his message, and caring for each other.

Being in God's honor comes in part by knowing the ministries of Christ

and making those ministries our own.

Being in God's honor always involves a light that shines outward, a caring

and compassionate heart that sees the world around it as an extension of God.

This is the image of one who is following Christ. The image of one who is living in the light. But this image of one goes beyond us simply as individuals, this image of a shining light that sees the world as an extension of God and yearns to minister to it is the image of what a church should be. The image of what our church should be.

It's true that even with our doors closed, we've been able to continue some of our ministries. Others however have had to be placed on hold. But soon we will be returning to in-person worship and we will have an opportunity to resume some other ministries and we can begin some new ministries.

Now you may have already heard but I'm going to tell you our current timeline for returning to in-person worship.

Coming up in a couple of weeks, we will be taking our walk through Holy Week and that will be online.

On Saturday the 27th of this month, at 3:00PM, we will be doing Bless the Pets on Zoom. That's this Saturday! Sharing our animal friends and catching up with one another.

Then of course the following day, we will have a special Palm Sunday service that you can watch wherever you're watching this service today.

Our Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services will be on April 1st and 2nd at 7:00PM and these will be on Zoom, so they will be interactive and then of course April 4th, we will have a glorious service of Easter Sunday which again you can watch wherever you're watching this service today.

Also, let me tell you this Easter Sunday the big wooden cross is going to be placed right here in the Little Brown Church and I invite you to stop by any time and place a flower on it. We've got a lot coming up for Holy Week, but let me get back to the subject of in-person worship. Shortly after the Holy Week events are over, as long as Los Angeles county is still above the purple tier, I will be calling a meeting of our church officers, our executive board, elders, our deacons, and our church staff and we will be deciding when we will be returning to in-person worship.

I'm very excited to get back into our buildings together, of course so that we can see one another but also so that we can get back to building our ministries. Not only have we been separated from our brothers and sisters within our church, but we have also been separated from those to whom we minister for over a year.

Our food pantry has been closed for weeks. But on April 13th, it will be reopening with those running it already vaccinated. This is an important ministry, and I'm so excited that it's going to be operating again soon. Kevin Lewin and the rest of our elders are always coming up with new forms of ministry that can be a part of our work.

I invite each of you as we slowly return to a sense of normalcy, to birth your own ideas for new ministries for our church. And the ideas don't have to be complicated! When we began our ministry of collecting socks for the people of Hope of the Valley, all that was involved in setting that up was placing a large basket in both of our church buildings. And then you all brought thousands of pairs of socks with you to worship over the past few years.

I would love to get to the point where anyone could go to our website and click on a button that says Ministries and find a page filled with all sorts of outreach that our church is doing and ways that anyone could help just by signing up.

Begin thinking now. What am I good at? What can I contribute? What do I see a need for in this world?

If we are all doing this, think of the change that we could make, think of the impact that we could have. Soon we will be back to in-person worship and I know some of you will be slower to coming back but I feel that we are getting so close to that point.

Let us come back with hearts that are even more deeply committed to service.

Let us come back following Christ even more closely.

Jimmy Carter once said, “It's a decision only you can decide. What kind of a person so far in my life have I chosen to be? Every person can be a complete success in the eyes of God.”

So I ask you, what kind of a church so far have we chosen to be? Well, I think we've chosen to be a pretty great church, but I think we can also do more, allowing us to be even more of a success in the eyes of God.

Let's pray.

Holy One, lead us, guide us to where you would have us do your work. On this Earth, let us be your hands and your heart. It's in your son's holy name we pray.

Amen.

"Clothed in Faith" - March 14th, 2021

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Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith you will receive.”

Matthew 21:21-22

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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Ephesians 2:8-10

Pastor Michael's Sermon

March 14th, 2021

If you Google who invented Penicillin, the name Alexander Fleming will immediately come up. Fleming told the world how he had actually invented Penicillin by accident and that's pretty much the story that you may have heard. However, there's a little bit more to the story than that.

It's true, one day Alexander Fleming had neglected to clean a container in his laboratory and when he left it unclean a huge ball of green mold formed and it had the power to kill bacteria. But on that day, Fleming was not jumping up and down and yelling “Eureka!” As a matter of fact, instead, he just looked at the mold as basically useless. Apparently, he didn't take any notes about what had happened and he didn't look into it any further.

But apparently within the scientific world I guess people talk, because Fleming had told several people about how this mold had appeared that could kill bacteria, and some of the people thought it would be worth looking into its possibilities. But it wasn't easy because, as I said, Fleming hadn't taken any notes and he didn't have any interest into looking deeper into the mold so to speak.

Ten years later, there were some scientists at Cambridge who became very interested in the possibilities of this mold and they got began working to try to recreate it. But they had a whole lot of trouble trying to make just the right kind of mold and even when they came close, they struggled with pulling the Penicillin part out of the mold that could kill the bacteria. They worked for years trying to figure out how to pull out enough Penicillin for it to be good for anyone who might need it to be part of their treatment.

Finally in 1940, they were able to figure it out and they treated a patient with a certain type of blood poisoning, and it worked! And when they did this, guess who showed back up and took all the credit. That's right. Alexander Fleming.

So yes, in scientific journals and among scientists, it is acknowledged that the real credit when it comes to inventing or discovering Penicillin goes to the team at Cambridge, but in history books and as far as Google is concerned, all the credit goes to Alexander Fleming, who really did nothing but forget to wash a laboratory container. Alexander Fleming boasted and took credit for something that really wasn't his doing.

Today's scripture passage warns against boasting and taking credit for something that is not our doing. But in this case, we're warned against taking credit for our own salvation. It is not by our own hand that we are saved. Yes, we are saved through our faith. You know, faith that we possess, faith that we work on, faith that we build. But that faith is merely our ticket to salvation. And although it is an important ticket and it is a necessary ticket, it is God who punches that ticket and invites us into life everlasting.

Also in today's passage we’re reminded that it is not God's obligation because we are faithful to offer us salvation. We are reminded that it is a gift, that it is by grace that we are saved.

So let us never boast that we are saved because we are so faithful. Let us never boast that we are saved because we earned it. We are saved by the grace of God.

But that's not to say that we still don't need to do our part. Indeed, we need to create that ticket for God to punch. We need to maintain our faith and to do that,

we need to tend to our faith. We need to cultivate our faith so that we're not simply, that is, our faith is not simply a part of who we are. Our faith must be the essence of who we are because that's how we keep it strong. We shouldn't carry our faith with us, but rather we should be clothed within it. We should be living within it, because how strongly we live within our faith, how we clothe ourselves within it, is our protection against all that attempts to chip away at our faith.

So many things can occur in our lives that can challenge our faith if our faith is not strong. Over the years of being a pastor, I have seen many times when people struggle with their faith. Maybe they've lost a loved one, or a relationship has come to an end, or any number of challenges that can take place in life.

When I say struggle with faith, I'm talking about when we question our relationship with God. This is actually pretty common. People will ask, “How could God let this happen?” We've heard this before, all of us have. “If God is of love, how could God allow me to be in so much pain?”

Legitimate questions and questions worth asking ourselves, but as we ask these questions of ourselves, we need to be asking them from a place of faith because when we don't ask these questions from a lens of fully knowing that God is loving

and fully knowing that God is a caregiver, then we leave ourselves open to place blame on God and we can weaken and even destroy our relationship with God. And I've seen this happen.

After a death or some other life changing event, I've seen people completely turn their back on the church, turn their back on their faith, people whom I baptized, people who once had a beautiful relationship with God and what seemed a heart of faith, I've seen turn their back on God and walk away. And really it is so hard to watch because the truth is when we turn our back on God during a time of loss in our lives, we are only adding to that loss. We are widening the hole in our heart and we are excusing the greatest supply of strength that we could possibly ask for.

It has been four months today, Sunday, since Pastor Bill passed away. And over these past months, I have been asked more than a couple of times if my faith has been challenged, if my relationship with God has changed because God called Pastor Bill home at a time that most of us felt was way too soon.

And I tell you each time I've been asked that question, my answer was immediate “No.” My faith never once wavered. My relationship with God remains just as strong. And I'll tell you why.

Because I know that the God that called Pastor Bill home is the same God who

blessed each of us by allowing us to know him. This is the same God who gifted us the opportunity to be shepherded by Pastor Bill. The same God who called him home before any of us were ready is the same God who allowed the lives of those of us who knew him to be brighter because Pastor Bill was part of our walk.

Our relationship with God should never waver based on what is going on in our lives. God does not waver on God's relationship with us.

The God who is with us during our highest of highs is the same God that is with us during our lowest of lows. Let us thank God for all that we have been given and all that we will be given. For we know that through our faith and by God's grace we shall be saved.

Let's pray.

Holy God, we thank you for your presence and for your grace. Help us to keep our faith strong and may our devotion to you never waver. It's in your son's holy name we pray.

Amen.