Snyder's Church NB
The Pastor's Desk Image

 
MARCH 12, 2025 
 
GIVING UP!
 
Dear Snyder's Church Family and Friends,
 
It is a beautiful yet windy Wednesday afternoon as I am writing this information for the website/email article that Lisa sends out this evening. This coming Sunday is the Second Sunday In Lent
and our Scripture is St. Luke 13: 31 - 35
and our theme is "And I Tell You!"
We will sing "This Is The Day"; "What A Day That Will Be";
"His Name Is Wonderful" plus other music selected for the Service with our choir assisting and providing a special anthem for us.
Jeff continues the Easter Story as we understand many of the influential persons in the Easter Story.
 
I recently learned something that every year Fat [Shrove] Tuesday comes to an abrupt end at midnight. New Orleans Police shut down the Mardi Gras festivities promptly at 12 am in reverence for Ash Wednesday. The stroke of midnight is the moment Bourbon Street revelers must give it up.
 
We always think of "giving up" something for Lent. Some people give up a meal. Others give up sweets, or alcohol, or television. If you want to face a real Lenten Challenge try giving up your cell phone.
Whatever it takes should be a time to get us in the true Lenten spirit.
 
In a book "Things Seen and Unseen", a journal for preachers many years ago Kimberly Long wrote that she was just simply giving up!
Ever feel like that?
 
Just giving up? Just Give Up was the Pharisee's advice to Jesus in the Gospel lesson for this Sunday. Herod is after you they said. Herod has you marked for death. Get out of town quickly. Give up Your mission here.
 
When Jesus hears this warning, he surprises those Pharisees by both disregarding and embracing their message. Jesus dismisses the threat of Herod with a flip and a quip. Herod is nothing but a "sly fox."
Jesus quips, forever plotting but powerless against God's mission in the world. Jesus has His own schedule, His own agenda, His own mission to fulfill, and the time frame has already been divinely determined.
 
But Jesus also asserts He will give up. He will give Himself up. He will travel to Jerusalem and meet head on the traumatic tradition of that city encapsulated in this phrase "Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it." V. 34. Jesus will give up everything, His very life, in order to fulfill His eternal mission of salvation!
 
Let me put it as clearly as I can: Jesus will "give it up" in order that we might "get it all!"
 
Join us this week at Snyder's Church for a blessing that will help you in your Lenten journey.
Know that God loves you and so do we.
May you truly be blessed today and may you truly be a blessing to others in Christ's name.
See you in Church! 
Pastor Bill