March 30 2025
Learning for Life: 9:30 Forgiveness
JOIN our Worship Service: 11:00 am
Listen to the sermon: Joel Russell-MacLean
Watch the recent Worship Service
“Pictures of Salvation”
- Throughout these Lenten Days and Nights (lyrics & melody, audio, meditation)
- O Come to the Altar (live with lyrics)
- Once Again (video with lyrics, melody)
- Jesus Loves Even Me (duet with lyrics, congregation)
- O Boundless Salvation (video, author, meditation)
- Man of Sorrows (with lyrics)
Joel Russell-MacLean
Why does Luke’s Gospel feel so friendly?
Perhaps the wide cast of characters? Luke shares the stories of many women who encountered Jesus. He introduced us to the shepherds who came to the manger to see Jesus as an infant. Luke describes life-changing moments in the lives of poor people, rich individuals, and outcasts.
Perhaps it is the stories of Jesus as a child, found only in Luke.
Perhaps it’s because Luke shares some of the most treasured stories Jesus shared, such as the Good Samaritan and the return of the Prodigal Son.
I asked my youngest child how Luke was different from the other gospels. She answered thoughtfully but simply,
“Luke cares”
In Luke’s gospel, while Jesus and his suffering remain larger than anything else, he is joined by an increasingly large and diverse crowd. They were drawn to Jesus by the conviction that God was at work in Jesus’ words and deeds in a way they had never experienced before. Sometimes, what he said or asked of people was hard. But everyone who drew close, no matter the cost to themselves, described it as encountering God’s love.
The season of Epiphany is a season in which we remember and celebrate God revealed to humanity in Jesus. God came and lived among us, caring for us in the midst of all our hardship and sin and work and pain.