February 14, 2016
Stetson Memorial UMC
First Sunday of
Lent
“The Way”
Adapted Sermon
Series
by Marcia McPhee
“The Wandering Way”
All Scripture is
from the AMP Bible
Luke 1:46-49
Luke 4:1-2
Luke 15:11-32
“I Am A-Maze-D. . . ”
Prayer for the
Spirit’s leading. . .
A
reading from the Gospel of Luke, chapter four, verses one and two. . . listen
to the Word’s of Life from God to you and me, pilgrims on a journey. . .
Have
you ever walk through a maze? I have done several of them and boy are they
confusing. You think you have it figured out and then you wind up at a dead
end. So you back track to see if you can figure out where you went wrong. It is
so good to get to the end of it because all the confusion has left and all you
see is the exit. Ok. . . spoiler alert. .
. if you keep you left hand on the wall. . . and keep following it. . . you
find your way out. . .
Life
itself can feel like a maze. You twist and turn trying the best you can to find
your way through life and then it happens. You hit a dead end. Speak of some of those dead ends we come up
against. You may think to yourself “how am I going to get out of this maze?
When am I going to find the end? Where is the exit door? Am I lost forever
never to return to the land of the living”?
We
have begun our Lenten pilgrimage to the cross. During this journey we will
bring Marcia McPhee with us as we look at her sermon series “The Way”. We are
going to be looking at the different “ways” or paths that we take in life. My
prayer is that as we journey together we will help each other and those in our lives
find our way.
We
began it last Wednesday as we realized that Ash Wednesday is “the way back”. .
. we are taking a u-turn so to speak. . . back towards God. . . back to the
relationship that God intended from the very beginning. In Ash Wednesday we are
called to “repentance” which means to turn around and head in a new direction.
But
there are times that we take “the
wandering way”. . . As Marcia McPhee would put it. . . we walk through that
maze and search for the way out. . . the way to the right path instead of
hitting those walls of a wrong turn. How can we turn around and leave this
wandering way? How can we know the way is wrong before we even begin?
I
think part of the answer is in what Jesus did in the desert from the Luke piece
this morning. Jesus was lead by the Spirit and wandered in the desert. He
became hungry. . . as would everyone who was wandering for days on end. . . when we wander we to get hungry. . . hungry
for something that will lead us out. . . hungry for that which is missing that
caused us to wandering the first place. . . The first thing He was tempted with was his
hunger. . . the next was His ego and the last was His faith in God. But every
time He was tempted He answered with the Word of God. It is in the Word of God
we find our strength to keep on “the way”. . . it is through the Word of God
that we are filled. . . it is in the relationship with God we find our reason
for living. . . it is the faith in God that will bring us back from the maze
into His amazing love and light. . .
So.
. . how sure can we be that God would accept us back after we have wandered? Have we wander too far and can’t come back?
Is God so mad at us that He will not even look at us and turn His back? Are all
who wander lost for good? Have you ever heard the story of the prodigal son.
. . you know the one who wandered off on his own? Let me paraphrase the story
for you. . . paraphrase the prodigal son
story. . .
Is
there a way home. . . can we make a u-turn. . . can we get out of the maze we
are in? Yes. . . praise God YES! He is there watching and waiting for our
figure on the horizon. He is waiting for us to come home. He is ready to put
the robe of righteousness through Christ Jesus on us to warm us from the bitter
cold of wandering. He wants to put the signet ring. . . the seal of the Holy
Spirit. . . upon us that is sealed by the blood of our Risen Lord, Jesus
Christ.
Are you in need of making
a u-turn in your life? Are you needing a way to get out of the maze and become
a-maze-d by the power and love of our awesome God? Come. . . find your way home.
. . come and satisfy your wanderings hunger. . . come to the foot of Calvary
and live. . .
Amen
======
February 14, 2016
Stetson Memorial UMC
First Sunday of Lent
“The Way”
Adapted Sermon Series
by Marcia McPhee
“The Wandering Way”
All Scripture is from the AMP Bible
Luke 1:46-49
Luke 4:1-2
Luke 15:11-32
sermon, “I Am A-Maze-D…”
text:
video:
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon
blog
meditation
blog
“God’s
Whisper” blog
Children’s
Message from Mystery Box
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
1st
Sunday in Lent
February
14, 2016
&
Ash Wednesday service
Joel
2:12-17a
Matthew
6:1-6, 16-21
centering song,
“Surely the Presence”
Opening Words
Greeting
Lenten Prayer
Hymn, “In the
Garden”
Prayer of
Confession
Words of Assurance
Invitation to
Communion
Prayer after
Communion
Invitation to
receive ashes
Distribution of
Ashes
Lenten poem:
”Journeying to Jerusalem”
sermon,
“The Math of Lent 2.0”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
closing hymn,
“It
Is Well with My Soul”
Closing
Prayer
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
Ash
Wednesday
February
10, 2016
All
of my poems, photographs, and videos are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000,
2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,
2014, 2015, 2016. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss (raymondafoss@gmail.com) for
usage. See all 41,040+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
Poetry Where You Live.
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