Further Up and Further In

Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Debbie: Well, thank you, Maggie. And good morning, everyone. I was telling a few people when I walked in, this is the first time in almost a decade-- that I've started a worship service with good morning instead of good evening. And I'm so grateful that we're here in this moment.

And before I get started, I did kind of want to shout out a few thank yous to people, because it has taken a team to get us here. And it's been about a year process of prayer and thoughtfulness and following God's call, sort of a move to a morning service. So we've had a church kind of search team, a team that's been working on this space. And Dana Weber, who's an architect, has been like amazing. And Lori Larson, whose career has been in commercial real estate, has helped us do all the negotiating and the lease stuff. Shane Harjes, our treasurer, has guided us on this. And then our whole board has been involved in the process.

But in particular—and I'm going to miss some names, so for that, I apologize, because it has taken just a village to make this place work. As you can see, we're still in some construction. But we have had people here over the last week doing cleaning and all sorts of prepping for this. And the Baakers were here, and Ellen, and Marta, and Bradley's been doing our coffee and all of that. We've had Chris Pope. And there's just been lots of people here that have been helping, literally dust pews and wipe pews and vacuum and get the nursery ready.

And I know I'm missing people, but I think I need to say that there has been someone who has just stood out above all, because this person has not only been here, like day after day, day long, but also she, together with Bradley, the beautiful signage. I mean, how amazing is the signage? And I just want to thank Maggie Keller, because Maggie, you have stepped up. And truly, the heart and soul and the commitment. And she's brought along her kids. Grace and Jack have been helping the last couple of days. So it has been a village. And I'm sorry if I've missed you somewhere in there, but I'm grateful. We're all grateful. And thank you for being here on this Sunday morning.

I knew this morning when I woke up that-- so there's been a lot of moving parts. You can imagine all the pieces. And I shared this with a couple of people earlier. But I knew when I woke up this morning, I might be in a little bit of trouble, because I got up and I'm like, wow, I am really tired. Maybe I'm a little overwhelmed. My eyes are blurry. Like, I can't see that well. And I'm trying to get ready and do things. And then five, ten minutes in, I realize I'm actually wearing my husband's glasses and not mine. And that's why I couldn't see. This is the truth. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I got to start over. I got to start over. But I've got my glasses on. I'm ready to roll.

And here we are starting on this Sunday morning. And guess what? It's the beginning of Lent. That 40 days as we walk up to Easter, the 40 days that represent the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness. And that began just this past Wednesday on Ash Wednesday. Some of you might have gone to an Ash Wednesday service, had those ashes put on your forehead, heard those words from ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We were made from dust. And to dust, we will return.

And it's a story. It's a story of creation. It's a story that makes us all part of the same human family. It connects us in this beautiful way during Lent. And as we walk to the cross together over the next weeks, because that's what we'll be doing, it's an invitation to all of us for some spiritual honesty, some speaking truth in this life that is so beautiful and sometimes really hard, but that we hold it together. And we have hope. And where we'll land on Easter Sunday.

When Lent comes around every year, we step into the part of Jesus, this story that is kind of a hard part. And if we think about our own life, that part can feel hard too, right? It's the messy and the hard, the suffering, some of the misery, whether it's in the story of Jesus or the story of our own life. The truth is, those are the spaces that we meet Jesus in. I had this conversation with some friends around the table the other night who had been through some painful losses. They wouldn't wish that, those losses on anybody, but they also wouldn't change who they are because of their experience of God during that time.

And so that it is in this Lenten season where we meet Jesus, and Lent asks us the question of what it means that Jesus is the Christ. And at the same time, it asks us to reflect on ourselves, our own state, as well as the state of the world around us. So that's what we'll be doing in the next week. It's self-examination, it's discipleship. And as we go through the cross, as we walk to the cross, to the resurrection, we're gonna be asking ourselves questions that Jesus forced, questions that Jesus asked, and that is what we'll hear in the text tonight.

And surprise, surprise friends, but we are back in the book of Mark. Now for you who are new, and you don't even have to be that new, you may be going, what? What do you mean you're back in the book of Mark? Well, here's the thing. In September of 2023, we decided we were gonna walk step by step through the book of Mark. God, here we are right now in March of 2025, and we took some breaks for some Advent series. This last fall, we did the False White Gospel by Jim Wallis, and we just finished up—because we thought it was timely with what was going on in the world—an eight-week series on the ways of Jesus.

But right now, we're back in Mark, and this is gonna take us, it actually landed perfectly right up to Easter, and we'll finish up with the gospel of Mark. So last time we heard from Mark's gospel was in August of 2024. And a reminder, it's the earliest gospel. The first account written 40 years after Jesus' work, it's a combination of history, and history remembered, history interpreted, and Mark's, a big portion of Mark's book is all about Jesus, his ministry, his healing, his miracles, and what it means to be a disciple. But right now, we're in the part of the book where we're just gonna head on to the cross. So tonight, we're looking at Mark chapter 11 verses 27 through 33, and I wanna say this. Just for some context, at the beginning of chapter 11, it's when Jesus and his disciples come into Jerusalem, and it's what we know as Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry. And they go into the temple, and it's late at night, and they head back out of the city. And then the next day, they come back to Jerusalem, and on the way in, they see a fig tree with many leaves, but no fruit, and Jae preached on that in August. That was the last time we heard from Mark.

Jesus and his disciples, they go into the temple. Jesus upturns all the tables of the money changers, and he calls the temple as being full of den of robbers. That evening, he and his disciples, they leave the city one more time, and here's where we pick up the text, Mark 11:27-33:

Again, they came to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him, and they said, "By what authority are you doing these things? "Who gave you the authority to do them?" And Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question, "answer me, and I will tell you what authority, "by what authority I do these things. "Did the baptism of John come from heaven, "or was it of human origin? "Answer me." They argued with one another. What should we say? If we say from heaven, they will say, "Well, why did you not believe him?" But shall we say of human origin, they were afraid of the crowd, because for all regarded John as truly a prophet. So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority "I am doing these things."

Mark once again brings us back to Jerusalem, another step on the path to the cross. There's lots of coming and going prior to this passage, but from here on out, all the action's gonna happen right in Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples, they're in the seat of all their religious and political authority. And it's very significant, and it's a turning point in the story of Jesus. So he's confronted, you see that by the religious authorities, and they challenge his authority. By what authority do you do these things? You sorta hear them saying, "Who does he think he is?"

This is nothing new for Jesus. Because over and over again in his ministry, he heard that question asked. Throughout Mark's gospel, people were amazed by Jesus' authority. In the scribes, the religious people, they were terrified by it. Their focus was far more on how does he have the right to teach and heal the way he does, versus the content of his miraculous healings and his teachings. Earlier in Mark, Jesus heals and he forgives a paralytic, and he's called the blasphemer. And another time he heals on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees are watching him, ready to accuse him. And another time he casts out demons, and the religious call him that he is possessed by the ruler of the demons. None of this is new to Jesus.

And how does Jesus respond? He stands the question on his head. And here's the thing, his question is politically loaded: Was the source of John's ministry divine? Or was it human? Was it a work inspired by God? Or just the delusion of a kind of a wild-eyed madman? Was his execution a justified act? Or was it a symbol of Romans' broken reign?

Now one thing I'll remind you of is three chapters earlier, Jesus predicts that these same religious leaders, that they're gonna be the ones that are gonna reject him and incite his death. And three chapters later from when we are, these are the same leaders who take clubs and swords and get Jesus arrested. But this group, they quickly realize that they are in kind of a, what's the word, Maggie? Conundrum, conundrum. It politically backfires on them. Because either way they answer this, it isn't palatable politically for them.

If they answer that John's work was of divine origin, it really points to them, their lack of faithfulness, their lack of ability or willingness to answer God's call in the way they live their life. If they point to a human origin, the crowds will become hostile. Because the crowd saw John as doing God's work in the world. Because the crowds, they knew the answer to the question. They knew that John's mission was God-ordained. And struggling to find just the right political spin, they don't even answer. They give a non-answer, they said, "I don't know." Because if they were to give certain answers, they might implicate themselves in the horrible execution of John the Baptist.

Furthermore, by not answering, they seem unwilling to open themselves up to the possibility of Jesus's true authority. But here's what I love about the text. Because it is a little complicated in some ways as you peel it back. What I love about this text is that this question of did the baptism of John come from heaven or human origin, Jesus puts a spotlight on John the Baptist. And in doing so, what he's doing is he's pointing to authentic spiritual leadership. John was powerful. He was an influential leader. He was well-loved by everybody. And we know from earlier in Mark that people from the whole Judean countryside, from all of Jerusalem would come out to see John.

But here's the difference between John and the political leaders that we're looking at in this text. It was never about John. John's head never got big. It was never about John because John always pointed to something beyond him, to an authority beyond him. He pointed to Jesus, the one that would be coming after him. He highlighted the essential element of spiritual authority. It's about God. It's not about the leader. So what Jesus's question does is it reminds all those temple leaders of what true spiritual leadership looks like. It comes from God, not human authority. Jesus is holding a bar up and they're falling short. He's holding a mirror up, and I don't think they're willing to look because they're not gonna wanna see what they might see when he holds that mirror up.

And I think the word authority, that can be a hard one. Because in our culture, we sort of tie a lot of things to that, right? Like who's the boss of you? Who has authority over you? That doesn't sit well with us, especially as adults, I think. But that's not the kind of authority we're talking about. When I was younger, right, authority in my lives were my parents, my teachers, my coaches. Then they were my bosses, things like that. And fortunately for me overall, I had authority in my life that instead of powering down on me, came under me, and lifted me up, and my husband Steve and I talked about that a lot as we were raising our kids that are now in their 30s, that we have to hold that authority sort of sacredly. Like you could really do damage if the authority you have in people's lives is not held with humility, with love, with justice, all of those things. And while we certainly, and you could talk to my kids after and didn't do it perfectly, it is something we talked about and we tried to live out.

It made me think about, we have, so we have three kids and our youngest is Kate, and you have heard the story before a few years ago, but I felt like in this context it was worth repeating those moments of who's the boss and authority, and when Kate was about nine years old, and she's our feisty one, and man, did we love that, but she was spirited and she had a season that she was just a little bit sassy, respect was something we held up in our family, and my husband, this is important context everyone, family of nine, born in an 11 year period, they ran that family like you did not dare ever step out of line or talk back, and when Kate was about nine years old, Sam and Annie and I were sort of standing over in the living room and then next to us in the hallway was Kate and Steve and this little nine year old girl with her backwards baseball hat and her pony tail was sassing off to Steve and he looked down and her said, “Kate, you do not talk to me like that,” and that little girl put a finger in his face and just said, “And you don't talk to me like that!” While my husband looked over at me and went, “What do I do?” Her older siblings were shaking their head going, “Kate, don't go there, do not go there, Kate.”

But it's a funny thing, this whole idea around authority, but Jesus is going bigger here friends. Are we living our lives like John, always pointing to an authority beyond ourselves? Not a power-down, but something that's foundational to who we are and how we live and how we love, not just our people but all people. We are, I'm in a small group, I'm in several small groups, and one that met just this last Monday, we just started reading a book from the Episcopal priest, Mariann Budde, some of you guys might remember her if you've been following the news, she gave the sermon at Trump's inaugural church service, but she wrote a book and I would encourage everyone to get it, it is so, so good. And in her book, well her book is called How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in the Life of Faith.

And in the first chapter, Budde talks about deciding to go, and as you can imagine, I'm resonating as we're reading this, these decisions to go, because it's so much a part of our story as a faith community, and she says this, that “when we are the ones to feel the summons to go, to that experience, it sears our consciousness, marking a definitive moment in the story of our lives,” and I think that happens. I think true, authentic authority, it comes to us in the mystery of the divine, it's not necessarily completely logical or tangible, but it is something that we know deep down in our soul that we need to step into. That is important to do.

And this move we've made has got me thinking a lot about that, and over this past year plus, trust me, I've been doing, along with my team and our board and the leadership in this church, a lot of thinking and praying and listening to God and deciding do we go, it's made me think about the leadership of our community, it's made me think a lot about my own leadership. But this deciding to go, deciding to be brave, deciding to step into things has really been the story of the table, because over and over again, we've done that. And those of you that I've had conversations with, this is nothing new, this has been hard, and it's been really exciting, and there's been uncertainty. But never have any of us wavered from God's faithfulness. Never have we wavered from this is the next right step for this community.

And what I know and what I've learned over many years is that, gosh, it's barely ever the easiest route, because I promise you for me, at 65 years old, who isn't gonna be around forever, it would've been a heck of a lot easier for me to just guide us, lead us, and just stay in Bethlehem. Gosh, you guys, it was so easy and so clean and so well set up and it was affordable and all these things, but it wasn't where God was calling us. And there's never a choice but to listen to where God is stepping, calling us into, to where we need to step into. It makes sense that there'd be hesitation in the decision to go because going involves leaving a place, leaving things that are familiar, going to the unfamiliar, leaving relationships. And it always seems to be a call for something that we might not quite know what exactly is the destination, and I don't mean physically, but what exactly is gonna evolve or come out of this?

But here's what we do know. We always know the way. It's risky and it's costly, yet somehow we know deep inside that all this sacrifice, because there's personal sacrifice here, friends, there's communal sacrifice and moving to this space, but what we do know is that it's necessary to fulfill something, a destiny, a call, beyond anything that we could see, that we might hope for, that we could imagine. We, those of you who've been here a long time, know that to be true because we've seen the work that God has done in this community, how God has healed lives, healed broken relationships, how God has held us and carried us and called us to step into situations that have been uncomfortable and have stretched us, but the fullness of the life that has come out of that has like blown us away.

Mariann Budde says this, and Patti, you can throw this slide up:

The journey begins long before we take the first step, with an inner stirring, a precipitating event, or an invitation that catches us by surprise. We feel summoned beyond the borders of the life. We know it, as we know it. There's almost always resistance, if not from ourselves, and from those who want us to stay where we are, complete readiness is rare.

Look around. But here's where I've landed. Here's our motivation. We are moved by a spiritual conviction and the authority of Christ. We are moved by a spiritual conviction and the authority of Christ, and that is, and will continue to be, the story of The Table. In 2017, we left the big church that gave us life, that created us, and we planted into the city. We had felt that call for three years before we actually did it. We prayed about it, we talked about it, and all of a sudden, there were doors open and conversations happening, and we stepped in in faith, because we did not know who was gonna come with, and our whole journey of becoming as a community, what that would look like, but we did it. And God did amazing things through the love of this community. And when that place, all of a sudden, didn't feel right, in 2020, we had opportunities that came up out of the blue to move our community once again. We were going again. We made the decision to go again over to Bethlehem Lutheran, the middle of COVID.

And amazing things continued to happen, and here we are at a new place, with a new time, with the same mission and vision that we've always had. We're the same people, as far as our love of each other and our love of God. And we've done a lot of life together at the table. We're family. And many of us have been on this journey together from the very beginning. And for some, it's been seasons of being here, and for others, you're newer to the community. Some of you have come back. We've celebrated, and we've worshiped, and we've played, and we've served, and we've grieved, and we've stood together over and over again, in really, really hard times, and really, really beautiful times. And we've had weddings, and babies, and baptisms, and we've had sickness, and illness, and death.

And all those things, all those lives are part of our story. It's what ties us together, because undergirding that entire story is Jesus Christ. That's what ties us together. And as a community that comes together to practice the ways of Jesus by creating space for all to belong and all to be loved, we will continue on like that. We will continue to do that. Because the one thing that's never happened is God's faithfulness has never wavered.

I think it's a good time, deciding to go, this move into this new space, this time of starting Lent, because it is a time to draw closer to Jesus. It is a time to reflect, to pause, to maybe do something a little different, to start a new rhythm in your life. Well, this is certainly starting a new rhythm in your life, getting up and going to church in the morning. But it's our connection to each other and to Jesus that brings us here. And I'm so grateful that we can be in this next chapter no matter what it looks like together.

I'm gonna end my sermon with a short quote. So much of my presence here has been pastoral care, so I know a lot of stories. It's a privilege. It's sacred, it's holy, and there was someone, part of this faith community from the beginning who's no longer with us, Chris Nielsen, and one of the things, he had a favorite quote that has meant a lot to me, and I think it's the perfect thing to end our service with. And it's a C.S. Lewis quote, and it goes like this: "I am home at last. This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land I've been looking for my whole life, though I never knew it until now. Come further up, come further in." That's our invitation to you all. Amen.

Cody: Greetings friends, I'm Cody Sanders, Interim Pastor at the table. I came in a little late this morning, not because I forgot to set my clock forward. I have a better excuse than that. But when I came into this space so full of all of you, it felt like coming home. Seeing people that I've been seeing for months now, seeing people I've never seen before, and a space filled with love and belonging. It's so good to be here with you.

Two things before the blessing. One, we have coffee and donuts here through this little door in this big side room. One of the gifts of this morning service is that we get to hang out with one another and have coffee and enjoy one another. Invite folks to lunch with you. If you're going to lunch afterwards, it's a good time to just continue being in community with one another.

Second thing, on your pews, you'll see these little half sheets of paper. Take those home with you. We are in the season of Lent where many of you may have come from traditions that gave up something for Lent. Instead of doing that exactly, what we're encouraging you to do each week is give up something for something else. And each of those things that you're invited to give up and add to your life are all focused on relationship and building community with one another in a time when we need it most.

So take those sheets home with you before you leave today. Join for donuts and coffee and fellowship here in the side. And now I invite you into a posture to receive this closing blessing:

No matter who you are or what you've done,
who you love or what you've lost,
where you've gone or where you've stayed,
there will always be a seat for you at the table
because you are a beloved child of God.
And beloved, you belong. Amen.