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In Pentecost, we celebrate that we, the people, have been given an Advocate to accompany us. An Advocate! Sounds like a Law and Order episode!

Legal thrillers, in book, film, or TV series, belong to a whole genre in which lawyers find themselves advocating for justice on behalf of people who are suffering at the hands of the wealthy, the powerful, the criminal, or a corrupt justice system.

The Gospel reading for the Day of Pentecost, Sunday, June 5, includes the specific note in which Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come as the Advocate, St. John 14.25-27. Imagine that gospel story as a legal thriller in which Jesus gives up his life to win the case for his client – all of humanity! – and God sends the Holy Spirit to continue to advocate for peace and grace on behalf of those whose case has been won.

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is poured out in wind and fire, on water, and on bread and wine. The Holy Spirit abides in us and among us. When God sends forth God’s own Spirit, all living things are created and the earth itself is renewed. The Day of Pentecost invites us to consider what it means to be dilled with the Spirit, the very breath of Yahweh, and how we can be co-renewers of creation.

We give thanks that God speaks to each of us, no matter our ethnic origin, our national language, or our life pathway. When different faith traditions speak with a united voice, [for instance on climate and environment change, with every one honoring each other’s voice and uniqueness!] – this is a Pentecost-inspired moment and an advocacy-necessary movement. Thus filled with the Spirit of Truth, we go out from worship to proclaim the saving power of Christ’s love and the freedom of God’s grace with all the world.

Alleluia!
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people, and kindle in us the fire of your love.
Alleluia!

Pastor Genszler

Assembly goers and Pastors this season will notice a familiar pattern in the Scripture readings. These readings give the Church an opportunity to hear the Gospel of John. The first three Sundays allow us to dwell on the appearance of the risen Christ, while the rest of the season takes us back before his resurrection with reflections as a kind of afterthought.

The familiar pattern of the Gospel readings this year is supplemented by a first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. The stories from Acts are particularly dramatic and thus worth our paying attention, because they portray specific vignettes of the resurrection in the life of the Church’s first witnesses.

Sunday, 1 May St. John 21.1-19 Easter III
The risen Christ appears again to his disciples by the sea where they were first called. After the echoes of the fishing and feeding miracles, Jesus gives a final reminder of the cost of a disciple’s love and obedience.

Sunday, 8 May St. John 10.22-30 Easter IV
Jesus responds to questions about his identity with the remarkable claim that he and the Father are one. Those who understand this are his sheep: they hear his voice, they follow, and they will never be snatched from his hand.

Sunday, 15 May St. John 13.31-35 Easter V
After washing the disciples’ feet, predicting his betrayal, and then revealing his betraying, Jesus speaks of his glorification on the cross. This deep complicated love of Jesus, even to death on the cross, will be the distinctive mark of Jesus’ community.

Sunday, 22 May St. John 14.23-29 Easter VI
As Jesus talks of returning to the Father, he promises to send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will teach Jesus’ followers and remind them of all that Jesus taught. Even more, those in whom God makes a home will experience a peace that overcomes fear.

Sunday, 29 May St. John 17.20-26 Easter VII
Jesus prays in his “High Priestly Prayer” that the life of his followers will be characterized by an intimate unity of identity with God. So identified with God means to share in God’s mission: proclaim the Word in speech and in deed that will bring others into this unity and identity.

Reading, listening, preaching, and acting throughout this season will be a long, slow, unfolding narrative: a gradual turning of the gemstones of the gospel in the light of the risen Christ… Not everything has to be said on Easter Sunday! Let the facets of that diamond sparkle in turn all seven weeks of Easter!

Pastor Genszler

The Three Days [Tri Duum] of Our Lord represent the pinnacle of worship in the Christian community. The events of these Three Days stand not only at the very heart of our faith, but also represent some of the richest and most profound rituals of any Christian liturgy.

These three services are filled with words: word s surrounding the Absolution and Foot Washing of Maundy [Mandatum] Thursday, the Bidding Prayer and Reproaches of Good [GOD’s] Friday, and the vivid pictures of the readings for [The Great Vigil of] Easter.

These liturgies, led with grace, strength, and wide pastoral and lay leadership, are sine qua none, some of the most powerful and meaningful services of the year.

We will have been prepared for the different scenes of Holy Week by witnessing the remaining Sundays in Lent, especially the stories from the Gospel.

Sunday, 3 April, Lent V, takes us away from Luke and brings the only reading for the season from John’s gospel, the story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus with costly perfume. Both chronologically and thematically, this reading takes us right up to the events that will unfold in The Three Days.

Each Sunday thus far in Lent, even the Prayer of the Day offers the preacher and the people a succinct framing of the theme of the liturgy. The prayers for this season have brought rich imagery for repentance and grace:

parched stony ground and the promised land,
gathering arms and sheltering mercy,
saving love and second chances,
garments of grace and an overloaded table, and
a wilderness out of which surges an ever-flowing stream.

Now we are ready for Easter.

Since the first century, the primary day for us to assemble around word and sacrament has been Sunday, because every Sunday is understood as the day of resurrection.

The Proper Preface to the Eucharistic prayer for the Sundays of Easter says of Christ “who on this day overcame death and the grave, and by his glorious resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.”

May that blessed declaration be intimately ours this Easter season!

A Blessed Easter,
Pastor Genszler

Preaching and Listening are the jobs always connected to the call and grace of Baptism.

Especially so in the season of LENT.

The Invitation to Lent, spoken in the Ash Wednesday liturgy, opens with these words: “Today with the whole church we enter the time of remembering Jesus’ Passover from death to life, and our life in Christ is renewed.”

In the liturgy of Holy Baptism, before the candidate for baptism is dunked into the water, a sort of preparation takes place:
a) the candidate is asked to renounce evil and all the ways of death that defy God;
b) the candidate is asked to confess the faith of the whole church; and
c) the candidate, through taking on the Christian disciplines of prayer, fasting, and works of service, the catechumen (the candidate) is formed in the way of Jesus.

Preaching by the Pastor and listening by the Assembly in the season Lent takes a cue from that ordering of the Christian faith and life embodied in Baptism.

The Gospel texts for the season provide a chance to remind Preacher and Assembly that the call to repentance and baptismal renewal isn’t a retreat from the world but rather an engagement with the often messy reality of the world.

Sunday, 6 March St. Luke 4.1-13 Lent I
We too live in a wilderness where evil is ever before us. Yet we too have the Spirit of God and are called to worship only the Lord God. The gospel speaks the good news that Jesus is with us in all our times of testing.

Sunday, 13 March St. Luke 13.31-35 Lent II
We art like helpless chicks: a fox is lurking: and Christ is our mother hen. Lent is a time to cast out demons and to await the third day when Christ finishes his work of salvation. We give to Jesus Christ the divine “name of the Lord.”

Sunday, 20 March St. Luke 13.1-9 Lent III
Soon Jesus himself, like some Galileans, will die at the hand of Pilate. Although the passage includes the commonplace religious idea that God punishes sinners, Luke’s rendition of the fig tree stresses divine mercy instead. We are granted yet another year to be nurtured and fertilized.

Sunday, 27 March St. Luke 15 Lent IV
Jesus tells a parable about a son who ponders his father’s love only after he has spurned it. The older brother believes it is his obedience that has earned his place in the father’s home. We are the two sons: each of us is the foolish runaway who wastes what God has provided, and each of us is the smug good guy who condemns the outsider. The description of the celebrative feast symbolizes the communal nature of forgiveness and life in faith.

The gospel texts throughout the season are full of judgment, calls to repentance, and the abundant grace that welcomes us home to God.

Renounce? Believe? Pray! Fast! Do works of service! A Blessed Lent.

Pastor Genszler

This year the Time after Epiphany is a full eight Sundays.

The Sunday following January 6, The Epiphany, is the Baptism of Our Lord. Following Baptism of Our Lord, seven more Sundays, including the Transfiguration of Our Lord, provides ample time to explore themes of baptismal living and the many ways God becomes manifest in our daily lives.

What does this new reality of knowing that the living God is in our midst mean for our lives, the world, and those in need – al the things we pray for each Sunday? The stories we hear during this time are anything but normal. Jesus inaugurates his public ministry using the revolutionary language of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has set me to proclaim release to the captive and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” St. Luke 4.18-19.

How do we unite our prayer with Jesus’ own stated mission? This would be a good time to lift up Town and Country ministries and organizations working for justice. Can we name specific Upper Bucks community partners, and bless God for their work? Our intercessory prayers are crafted around the counter-cultural Beatitudes, which are proclaimed during this Epiphany season. St. Luke 6.17-26

Sunday, 6 February St. Luke 5.1-11 Epiphany V
Jesus’ teaching of God’s word has begun to draw great crowds. For Simon, James, and John, his teaching inspires hospitality, then obedience, and then risk. After Jesus’ creative power is revealed, fear and amazement lead these three fishermen to leave everything behind to become apostles.

Sunday, 13 February St. Luke 6.17-26 Epiphany VI

After choosing his twelve apostles, Jesus teaches a crowd of followers about the nature and demands of discipleship. He begins his great “Weals and Woes” sermon with surprising statements about who is truly blessed in the eyes of God.

Sunday, 20 February St. Luke 6.27-38 Epiphany VII
Jesus continues to address a crowd of his disciples. He invites his followers to shower radical love, blessing,forgiveness, g enerosity, and trust – even on enemies and outsiders. Living in harmony with God’s intent brings the reward of overflowing blessing.

Sunday, 27 February St. Luke 9.28-36 [37-43] The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The conversation about Jesus’ suffering and death is enclosed in a dazzling foreshadowing of the resurrection. God affirms Jesus’ identity, the disciples are stunned speechless, and Jesus resumes his mission with a demonstration of his power over evil.

The Epiphany is now closed. Witnesses to the glory of God reflect that glory in the world. It was true of Moses. It was doubtless true for Peter, James, and John. We pray that it will be true of all of us who see God’s glory in the Word and in the Supper, and who are now being “transformed into the same image” by God’s Spirit.

Pastor Genszler

The Epiphany commemorates the arrival of The Magi who came from afar to pay homage to the Christ Child. Yet the Christ Child is born to us every day and our Epiphany is continuous.

The Sundays after the Epiphany give us time to unpack the full meaning of the gift we have received at Christmas. What begins in mystery starts to be revealed in sign and wonders until the light reaches every human being.

The light does not overwhelm or crush the darkness; it helps us perceive what we could not see before. It pulls back the veil of our fear and the limits of our understanding such that we perceive the living God in our midst, and see ourselves as God’s children.

We are “born again”, baptized into Jesus Christ, and called like those first disciples to follow in the way of the cross.

While most people have put away their decorations by this point, these Sundays actually build on the momentum of Christmas: the living God is in our midst!

Sunday, 9 January St. Luke 3.15-17, 21-22
The reading opens with questions about the identity of the Messiah. John the Baptist insists that he is not the Messiah; instead he points ahead to one who is coming. And, whether the voice of God was heard by all or only by Jesus, God settles the matter: Jesus is God’s beloved Son.

Sunday, 16 January St. John 2.1-11
Turning water into wine at the wedding of Cana is described as the first of Jesus’ signs. Through many such epiphanies, Jesus reveals that he bears God’s creative power and joyful presence into the world.

Sunday, 23 January St. Luke 4.14-21
Near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, he visits his hometown of Nazareth. In the words of Isaiah, he
states and claims his identity, purpose, and mission.

Sunday, 30 January St. Luke 4.21-30
People in Jesus’ hometown are initially pleased when he says that God will free the oppressed. Their pleasure turns into rage when he reminds them that God’s prophetic mission typically pushes beyond human boundaries, so that mercy and healing are extended to those regarded as outsiders.

The time after the Epiphany gives a perfect opportunity to receive new insights about ourselves and the God we serve.

Pastor Genszler

The Season of ADVENT is about waiting for the coming of the Lord. We wait for Christ’s arrival that happened two
thousand years ago and for the arrival that is yet to occur.

We journey toward Bethlehem in the comforting but challenging reality of the “already” and the “not yet.” We travel
with holy anticipation to meet the new born king in the manger.

The mood or tone of Advent is one of longing.

As the body of Christ, we carry different longings. What were the deep longings stirring in the hearts of the original
hearers of Luke’s gospel? What did they expect from the promised Messiah? A conquering king? A mighty warrior?
An Avenger?

The season of Advent unfolds against the backdrop of deliverance from oppression. Yet even today, oppression persists and the long-awaited deliverance tarries, especially for people who live on the margins of society.

The preacher and the assembly are encouraged to remember the people who are struggling during the holiday season
and cannot wait one more minute for Jesus.

Week One. Sunday, 28 November. St. Luke 21.25-36
God will fulfill God’s purposes and already, hidden sign of that fulfillment abound. On that great
day there will be dismay, perplexity, confusion, and terror. But God’s people shall be given strength to
stand boldly and receive God’s promised redemption.

Week Two. Sunday, 5 December. St. Luke 3.1-6
John the Baptist is a herald of Jesus, whose way is prepared by “repentance for the forgiveness of
sins.” As we hear the careful record of human leaders, we sense that spectrum of political and religious
authority that will be challenged by this coming Lord.

Week Three. Sunday, 12 December. St. Luke 3.7-18
John the Baptist heralds the mighty one who is coming. John teaches that preparation for God’s reign is
not a matter of identity, but of bearing fruits of merciful justice, radical generosity, and vocational integrity.

Week Four. Sunday, 19 December. St. Luke 1.39-45
Elizabeth, John’s mother, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, are two women filled with the Holy Spirit
and with faith. In Elizabeth’s inspired greeting and Mary’s song of praise we hear of a saving God who
remembers, scatters, lifts up, and fulfills all things.

Lean heavily into the “already.”

After all, Advent is about hope, and Jesus is with us in the liminal time between the “already” and the “not yet.”
Pastor Genszler

All Saints Sunday has become an important and non-negotiable festival in our Lutheran congregations. Observing this festival’s readings, however, breaks up the narrative of the Common Lectionary Sunday readings through the brief remainder of the liturgical Church Year to the end of November.

But through the story of the raising of Lazarus we experience Jesus accompanying us in our sorrow, and we believe that in Christ the power of death will be defeated. The story from the Gospel of Saint John is most detailed as a proclamation of the power of Christ over death.

Christians can trust that the mercy of God will prevail over their own deaths and the death of those they love. So All Saints’ Sunday begins our November liturgies.

We will pray the readings and prayers this year during 9:30am Holy Eucharist, together with our traditional ceremony for the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed.
All Saints’ Sunday St. John 11.32-44 Sunday, November 7

Saint Mark’s final word for this year is the penultimate Sunday of the year, but already, St. Mark plunges into Advent’s birth pangs. Here Jesus preaches his final sermon of peach in the midst of worldly destruction, similar to the earlier stilling of the storm, a word of peace in the midst of natural destruction.
Lectionary 33 St. Mark 13.1-8 Sunday, November 14

Saint John’s gospel gets the final word this year on Christ The King, actually recalling an incident from the Good Friday Passion of Saint John. Since it is now the second half of the Church Year, the preaching will lift up a discipleship focus rather than an incarnation-Redemption emphasis.
Lectionary 34 St. John 18.33-37 Sunday, November 21

Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate in the Gospel of St. John. Here, the Son of Man, who approaches the throne of the Ancient One, is handing the kingdom over to The One with the appearance of a human, but whose life is eternal, whose kingdom is without boundaries, and whose hands of love encompass al the peoples of the earth.

Amid all the voices of the world, how do we discipline [disciple!] ourselves to listen for the voice of the good shepherd: “I AM the Good Shepherd” St. John 10.

Is this Son of Man person the Immanu-el of Advent?

Pastor Genszler