Grace and Peace to you! Our service will be in voice and text. If you'd like a copy of the worship service, bulletins are in the red book holder in the rear of the sanctuary. Welcome to First United Church of Christ and Conference Center, Second Life. We are the first member of a Christian mainline denomination to be granted official standing as a Real Life church in Second Life. We are a church in good standing with the Eastern Association of the Southern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ. "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here." If you have a question about the United Church of Christ, here or in real life, or wish to speak with someone about this ministry, or want to become a member of our group, please be in touch with any minister or staff member. One of the blessings and responsibilities that comes with our being a real church with real standing in our denomination is that we, like all United Church of Christ churches, support the work of the wider denomination not only with prayer but financially as well. There is a donation bowl near the door of the Sanctuary. We greatly appreciate any offering you can make to support this ministry. Also, before or after worship please feel welcome to invite friends to dance and socialize at any of our club facilities here at First UCC, or just enjoy a stroll around the island. Worship music will be in the media player. If you don't know how to turn on media in your viewer, please say something, someone will be able to help you, I'm sure! Links for each song will be provided just in case you have issues with media, so you can watch in your own browser. Thank you for not touching the viewer--it is quite ticklish and doesn't enjoy being poked. Gathering Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka38hhjaTaE Lessons from God's Word: Hebrews 5:5-10 Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. John 12:20-33 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say —‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God! Sermon: “Passiontide” Veronica (Vee) Johhannsen Today, the Fifth Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of a period in the Church year that is traditionally know as “Passiontide.” It is a time when we walk with Jesus to the very foot of the cross where he will be so brutally killed. It is a time when we see most poignantly the humanity of this Jesus whom we follow as he struggles with the sorrow, grief and, yes, fear of what lies immediately ahead of him. Yet we also see a person of extraordinary strength and courage as he comes to grips with what lies ahead. Fear is a very potent adversary. To one degree or another, we have all felt it and been paralyzed by its icy grip. Perhaps more so in the last year than any other in our recent memory. The author of Hebrews lays out for us a very moving scene of Jesus’ wrestling with his future, offering intense prayers and supplications, moaning loudly and weeping openly to God to save him from death. Think back on a time when your mind and body were frozen by fear and you may have an inkling of the emotional turmoil Jesus felt as his journey took him closer to the cross. Jesus sees the horror lying ahead of him, yet continues each day’s labor of teaching and healing. He isn’t courting the suffering that lies before him but he faces it without any misunderstanding of what it will involve. He knows his body will suffer more pain than any human can endure. He knows he will feel the full extent of human cruelty…. for crucifixion is about as cruel as it gets. He knows he will suffer in his mind the full extent of every misery, sorrow and humiliation that we as humans can inflict on each other. He will be ridiculed, hated, shamed, spit on and despised. Does he also see the great spiritual suffering that lies ahead with the same clarity that he sees his physical and emotional suffering? Can the one who has walked so closely with God all the days of his life, even begin to sense the despair of feeling abandoned by God at the very moment of his greatest need, at the moment of his greatest personal weakness? Perhaps being abandoned as he was, for our sake, is the greatest loss Christ will know. When we suffer in body, mind, or spirit we find, in Jesus, a God who has the most intimate knowledge of the depths of our pain, grief, shame, despair, loss and loneliness. Jesus knows about the inevitability of suffering. It is part of what it is to be human and frankly, it sucks. Maybe we have come to an intellectual understanding that God has experienced the pain and suffering we face. But have we internalized this in the deepest part of our psyche? In other words, do we have a gut understanding that God really knows how much my life hurts? How your life hurts? Jesus lived with the knowledge of what was to come for a long time. Arguably, from the start of his ministry when the voice from above was first heard when Our Lord arose from the waters of the Jordan at his Baptism. Christ is that part of God who knows that sometimes it takes enormous courage and determination to live, day by day, one day at a time, one step at a time with a weight that drags our hearts low and a burden that feels like a cross on our shoulder. Christ knows the despair that leads to the temptation to throw in the towel when it all just seems too much to bear. Those times when we long for a way out. An easy way out. He knows how hard it is to draw on our last ounce of strength just to get through another bleak day. He knows what its like to be overwhelmed by demands and the pressure of responsibility. Our Gospel text begins this morning when a few Greeks came to visit Jesus. What do they seek from him? Is it knowledge, a wise teaching or healing from an illness or a blessing on some endeavor? Do they want him to be their king, a re they working with the zealots to liberate Israel and their own country from Roman occupation? Everyone wants something from Jesus, is there anyone who comes to him to ask what he needs, to offer him a word of comfort, to pray for him? Christ knows what it’s like to put one foot in front of the other and keep going when others are depending on you while your own needs are unmet and unrecognized by those around you. He is well aware of the burdens we bear in secret. He knows the difficulty of living with the unrealistic expectations of those who demand so much of us. Jesus carries on, bearing his enormous burden, pushed to the limit of endurance all the time knowing that no one understands him, no one cares enough to even ask how he is doing. Jesus bears all of this and suffers daily and yet he journeys ever closer to the cross of his own free will. By his own choice. We are also called to make a decision today. To make some choices as Lent moves into Passiontide. Will we avail ourselves of Scripture readings, devotionals, gatherings and personal time of prayer and meditation to walk with Jesus every day over the next two weeks, every step of the way as he walks to the cross? We can always choose to just go so far…. .to walk with Jesus part of the way. We can gather again on Palm Sunday and sing Hosanna and show up on Easter Day and sing Alleluia. We don’t have to walk with him to Jerusalem this week. We don’t have to experience Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday following Palm Sunday, Holy Week. We don’t have to have to experience the Lord washing our feet on Thursday, or try and fail to keep vigil with him on Thursday night as he prays for deliverance and then pray ultimately that God’s will be done. We don’t have to join the crowd on Friday and scream, “crucify him.” We don’t have to sit next to the fire with Peter and deny Christ. We don’t have to bear witness to our Lord, cry “Why have your forsaken me” and breath his last breath. We can choose to avoid all those heart wrenching painful moments. Yes, we can make that choice. But if we do, we’d be choosing to miss the incredible and mysterious core concept of our faith, the very heart of Christianity which is that God’s love cannot be vanquished even when abused, even when spurned, even when betrayed, even when it is nailed to a cross by others and yes, by us at times. It is a love so strong that it will embrace even those who have made the choice to crucify him. And friends, if we look into our hearts and are honest, we must realize that we have all made that choice in some way or another at some time in our lives. The other choice we can make is to walk alongside Jesus for the whole journey, We can accompany him day by day. We can enter into his story, knowing that somehow it’s our story too. “Whoever serves me must follow me” says Jesus “and where I am, there will my servant be also”. So if we are to enter into the full joy of the resurrection, then we will also have to enter into the full agony of Gethsemane and Golgotha. When Jesus commits himself to the road that leads to the cross, he commits himself to identifying fully with the pain and suffering of this world. “It is for this reason I’ve come to this hour. Father glorify your name”. That’s when God’s voice is heard saying “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again”. When we have the courage to confront the reality of suffering in this world and in our own lives, whatever its cause, we may not find the answer to the age old question, “Why is there so much pain in this world and in my own life?”…. but we will find ourselves face to face with God who suffered and hear him say. “I know what you’re going through. That is why I came into this world.” But of course, there is another core truth to our Faith. We believe that we have a God who suffers as we suffer, who bleeds as we bleed, and dies as those we love die and as we will die someday. We also have a God that brings new life from what has been killed. God is glorified in that part of herself that is in the living, suffering and dying Jesus, but that’s not the end of the story. God is glorified in the raising of Jesus to new life, the final triumph of love over death. But before that new life can be born and bear fruit, the old life, like the grain of wheat, has to fall to the ground, be buried in the darkness of the earth and cracked open for new life to sprout from it. So it is with us. We can cling to our old lives, afraid of what might happen if we say yes to God’s invitation to new life. Or like Jesus at Gethsemane we can say, “Your will be done,” turn and face pain, turn and face the change and let go into the new eternal life found in the risen Christ. This Passiontide let’s enter fully into the mystery of the suffering of Jesus so that we can truly enter into the joy of his resurrection. Amen As we listen to this music in preparation for prayer, please lift up your intercessions, supplications and thanksgivings by typing them in local chat. Music in Preparation for Prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ylnx0NA9X4 We have come to our time in worship where we lift our joys and our concerns to the God who understands our suffering and the suffering of those we love. Please type your prayer requests into local chat. Prayers of God's people: As we pray together, you may wish to respond to others with words like, "Lord, hear our prayer," or with any other words the Spirit leads to you use. The Lord's Prayer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen. Closing Music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ch6eXkQWU8 Dismissal: The Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord make her face shine upon us and give us Peace, now and forevermore. Amen!