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together today. And as part of this Lenton journey that we're taking together, we have a wonderful opportunity every Wednesday during Lent at 6 o'clock in the fellowship hall to join together for a Lenton soup dinner followed by a Lenton midweek service at 700 p.m. And as I was telling the 8:30 service, I'm unable to go to that because I work until 7.

However, um I did come across it online and watched it later and it is beautiful. It's a wonderful time to spend with Jesus in our community um with that Lenton service even online after the fact. Today we also have an opportunity to continue our celebration of Pastor Jan joining us here as our interim pastor with some cake and some wonderful nuts together, sweet and salty, healthy and not as healthy.

So, we hope you will join together and continue introducing yourself to Pastor Jan and uh be lenient on your expectation of him learning all your names because we only had to learn one and he has to learn us all. Um but uh enjoy this time together as we celebrate this next step as a community uh in our transition time. Um let us before we begin our prelude, let us uh speak together the words of our mission statement which is found at the top of the first page of our worship bulletin.

We share God's grace by welcoming all people, >> growing together in faith and joining God's work in our community. >> And now let us begin worship with our prelude. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory.

Glory. I invite you to stand as you're able and join me for the confession. And I confess as we begin to worship that the cake is really good, folks.

So, you'll enjoy it. We are gathered to worship in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another. Most merciful God, we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.

We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

For the sake of your son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name. Amen.

In the mercy of Almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us and for his sake, God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Amen. The words of my soul singing. Sing for my soul.

My soul is ground for my soul. I will sing to the I will sing to I will single I will sing. I'll sing when I'm free.

sing through eternity. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. >> And also with you.

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. >> The Lord be with you.

and also with you. >> Let us pray together. Oh God, our leader and guide, in the waters of baptism, you bring us to new birth to live as your children.

strengthen our faith in your promise that by your spirit we may lift up your life to all the world through your son Jesus Christ our savior and lord who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit one god now and forever amen please be seated if there were children that I could see I'd invite you forward but Good. Good for you. I'll be right there.

I'm so glad you're here. Are you glad you're here? >> Yep.

And you know, you've heard it enough. The words are coming out of my mouth. But it's really God who said, "I want when my children to know whenever they come to a holy house like this, I'm glad they're here.

God is here with us. I can't see God, but I'm convinced God is among us." Welcome. Well, we've already begun to to sort of get a sense this is a very special day for us because we're going to hear Jesus, our master, say some some of the the most famous words that everybody seems to know, but he's saying it to somebody who should have known a whole lot more, but got confused.

And it made me think, do you have a mom or dad? Do you have a mom or dad? Okay.

Do you have a mom or dad? Yeah. I have a mom and dad, but they're dead now.

But guess what? That makes us real. We are here.

We have a family, and we're real. Well, Jesus understands that. But this one, you'll listen to this the report from somebody who knew about it who will say there once a man came to Jesus in the dark because he didn't want anybody to see that he was there.

He was kind of ashamed that he would even be there. And he's curious because he's saying, "Jesus, I hear you talking about this family of God. So how What is this about?

And Jesus said, to be part of that family, you have to be born again. Think about that. You have to be born again.

So that man wasn't as old as me, I'm sure. But he says, "So wait a minute. Does that mean I have to get back in my mother's tummy again?" And I thought to myself, if I had if that's how you got to be born again, my mother would have been really upset.

But no, that's not right, is it? How then? See, you were born the child of a mother and dad.

And you were born the child of a mother and dad. And I was born the child of a mother and dad. That put me in a family.

Put you in a family. Put you in a family. And God said, "That's the way I wanted it to be, but I also want you to be part of another family." That's what we call the family of God.

Family of God is bigger than any of us in this place. The family of God is bigger than this congregation. It's the family of God grows all the way across time for thousands of years and thousands of places.

So, how do you get born again to be part of this family? Jesus gave us a very special way to be adopted into God's family. And you may not have thought about it, but it's that wherever you were baptized with a little bit of water, that's the way Jesus planned for us to become part of the second family, the bigger family, the family of God.

So that when I say you are a child of your parents, you are. And I say you are a child of God, you've had two births. One that brought you in and made you real.

The second one is even bigger that will never go away. You became a child of God. All of us.

That's the one thing we all share. That's the power that Jesus has made possible for us to become children of God. You don't have to get big.

You don't have to learn anything. You don't have to be super smart. You don't have to be super rich.

It's God's gift that made you God's child. Let's pray. Dear God, >> thank you.

>> Thank you. >> You made me. >> You made me.

You gave me parents. >> You gave me parents. >> You called me >> You called me >> to be your child.

>> And in baptism >> And in baptism >> you made it possible. >> You made it possible >> for me to be part of your family. >> for me to be part of your family.

>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Amen.

>> Amen. >> Thank you so much for coming. Good morning.

Our first lesson is a reading from the book of Genesis. The Lord said to Abraham, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

>> We now go to the song. to the help. I lift up my eyes to the lies.

Where is my maker of heaven and earth of Israel? will tri your right hand. will not all forever.

Ever to a reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans. What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift, but as something else or something due.

But to one who does not work, but trusts him who justifies the ungodly. Such faith is reckoned as righteousness. For the promise that he would inherit the earth did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if it is the adherence of the law, you are to be the heirs. Faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath.

But where there is no law, neither is there transgression. For this reason, the promise depends on faith in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherence of the law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The Holy Gospel according to St.

John the 3 chapter. >> Glory to you, Lord. >> Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.

He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person." Jesus answered him, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit.

What is born of the flesh is flesh. And what is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, you must be born from above.

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. The Gospel of the Lord. >> Praise to you, Christ.

Mark Jackson was fatally shot inside a 711 at the corner of West 39th Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan on February the 12th. He was a father of three who had only recently fallen on hard times. His heartbroken family said Mark was known to regularly hold open the door for change at the 711.

According to the locals, when a fight over turf broke out between Jackson, age 43, and a rival panhandler about 10:25 a.m. on February the 12th, his rival pulled a gun and fatally shot him in the neck inside the store. He was trying to rebuild his life.

Sometimes that in and of itself can be a struggle. The victim's 44 year old brother said he's just a guy who's fallen on hard times. A relationship didn't work out and he was trying to find his way.

Jackson had been homeless off and on for only about a year before being shot. his family said. After Jackson and his girlfriend split up, he moved out of their Bronx apartment and began sleeping in city shelters and with friends on couches.

That apparently led Jackson to resort to holding the door at the 71 for spare change. But that was a coveted position and pan handlers wared over control of the spot. Customers told the New York Daily News he died at the scene and his killer has not yet been caught.

The New York Daily News report this week was a tragic end to one of the countless numbers of people who have lost their way in this life and as Jackson's brother said was simply trying to find a way. Was that true of this couple reported to us from today's Old Testament reading? I don't know.

only God knew some 4,000 years ago when the encounter occurred. That encounter takes us back to the beginnings of recorded biblical history to an ancient land of the Chaldes it was called. We got there through the same throne room that we passed last week to the time of the great King David to the time of the ancient oral traditions were being committed to writing to listen with King David and his people to the stories of their origins and our origins.

Last Sunday we heard the story of their origins and ours. A story of creation and then the story of creation going to arrive. Now, the ancient storyteller moves us forward through a great expanse of time to the historical moment when a god he does not yet know comes to a wandering nomad named Abram.

And for reasons known only to this god, Abram is given a command and a promise. Go is the command and I will make is the promise. Amazingly the storyteller relates in short stunning summary.

Abram went as the Lord had told him. That's great. Abram appears to be a man of amazing faith.

He's obviously the spotlight figure here. The message seems clear. Follow Abram's example.

Have great faith. Take great risks. There's a great opportunity out there waiting for those who have the courage to go and to take it.

At least that's how television and social media might play out that drama today. It would certainly make great copy for a campaign ad. Except we missed a simple factual statement.

The storyteller casually dropped as the story developed. It was actually the conclusion to the preceding chapter that we didn't hear there. After the story of the Tower of Babel, we're given this long narration of genealogy.

We follow one generation after another down through the shadowy pages of dateless history to that tragic moment when the light begins to break and the shadowy pages fade away and ancient history sets the stage for this encounter we heard today. Few personal details were offered as the narrator ran down one generation after another. Just a simple summary at the end.

Terara was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Heron. Abram and Nahor took wives, the narrator recorded, and the name of Abram's wife was Sari. Now Sarah was barren.

He said she had no child. What the family tree of Abram has progressed generation after generation after generation down to him. But that progression will now come to an end.

It will end in baronness. The storyteller makes no inference about the cause of the end that is coming to this extended family. There's no hint of a curse.

There's no hint of a reason for punishment. It's a simple report that this family and with it the whole human family of Genesis 1 through 11 will have played out its future. There is no foreseeable future.

It's Genesis 3 all over again. It's the story of New York City panhandler Mark Jackson and countless others. It's a family line so full of promise and potential that is approaching an abrupt sad ending.

There is no human power then. There is no human power today to invent or to create a future that has closed. This is the context in which God suddenly speaks again in Genesis 12:1.

God the creator speaks the creative word once again into the context of barrenness and a potential future begins. Those gathered with King David in the room that day know what gradually dawns on us. This is Genesis 2 all over again.

This is the pro the first the primal story of creation all over again. Remember Genesis 2, the world there is a waterless barren desert able to produce absolutely nothing. There is no one to till it.

Then announced the primal storyteller, the Lord God formed and the future began. Creation is the story of a future where there was no future. Genesis 12 is the recreation story of a future where there was no future.

The good news today, folks, God invites to a future people who have no future. The good news is that baroness is the arena of God's lifegiving activity. It had been so since the creation story of Genesis 2.

The brokenness of Genesis 3 repeated again and again and again through those first 11 chapters of Genesis is the theme of my life and of your life and the life of all humankind. The spotlight is not really on Abraham. I was name change will later be given by God.

Now all that we've assumed it to be in all of Hebrew scripture there are no human heroes. They are all ordinary people who find themselves with extraordinary opportunities which they did not create which they cannot create. The only hero in all of holy scripture is God.

A God. Scripture reminds us whose actions, whose plans and purposes don't depend upon any potential whatsoever. And those to whom God's awesome, lifecreating, world forming, future framing, almighty word comes.

In Genesis 2, God creates. In Genesis 12, God creates a new. God takes a family with no future and through them creates a future for humankind.

The future which Abram and Sri receive, which the nation of Israel receives nearly a thousand years later, which we receive today in the sacrament of holy baptism is not an achievement, not an accomplishment for anyone. It is always God's marvelous, wondrous, amazing gift of grace. Think about it.

Baroness is the story of humankind. It was Abram's family story in Hebrew scripture again and again. Think of Rebecca in Genesis 25, of Rachel in Genesis 29, of Hannah in 1st Samuel 1.

The God who creates this world is the God who recreates a family without a future. This ancient story is not just about the forming of the present day nation of Israel. It's really the creator's intent to reform creation, to transform this world.

It's pure speculation to ask if this is the only family that God called, but it's unmistakably clear that this family responded obedient to the command, though not without numerous failings and stumbling along the way. But it's that promise that stands at the center of everything. I will make God Almighty promises.

It's that promise that stands between a family with no future in Genesis 11:30 and the responsive family with a future that God provided in Genesis 12:4 again and again throughout history. The Lord God invites to a future people who have no future. And history records again and again those who have trusted the promise maker to be the promise keeper and ventured forth how soever timidly into the future toward which God Almighty calls.

St. Paul pointed back to this moment in Jewish history in the letter that he wrote to the church at Rome, finding there the good news of God's continuous work of bringing life out of death. In the presence of the God in whom Abraham believed, he wrote, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

God invites to a future people who have no future. We don't know what prompted Abram's response. We are simply told that he did what God told him to do.

It's a different story in this third chapter of John's gospel. Now, it's no wandering nomad without a future, but it's a religious leader. some 1,800 years later of status and standing among a pious group of Jewish leaders called Pharisees of Jesus day.

God came to Abram in Genesis 12. Nicodemus came to Jesus in John 3. Jesus early ministry apparently caused Nicodemus to wonder about him.

What he has heard and what he has seen drove him under the cover of darkness to this conversation with Jesus. Nicodemus sought information. Jesus spoke divine truth straight to his soul.

Abram's encounter with the Lord God Almighty sent Abram in motion. Abram went as the Lord God told him. We heard in Genesis.

Nicodemus encounter with Jesus, God Almighty in the flesh ended in disbelief. How can these things be? Each heard the good news of God's grace, God's promise, God's intent.

Abram heard God's divine intent that he and the nation that would come forth from him and Sarahi would be the means by which God's blessings would reach all people. Through Nicodemus, we heard the good news of our salvation. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have everlasting life.

Indeed, Jesus declared to Nicodemus, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. The risen Lord Jesus provided each of us in the sacrament of holy baptism the future that God intends for each of us and through us for this congregation. If you've experienced deadin moments of your life if you are open to God's intent for you then hear good news.

Your life can be different through you and this congregation as God did so long ago in Abram. God intends blessings for all God's children everywhere. Go.

God cares and God promises. and I will make of you a blessing. Amen.

All mercy for me are thirsty for God. All who are mercy of God for the of God. All who are thirsting for truth.

All truth beauty. All are thirsting for justice. with the whole church.

Let us confess our faith using the words of the apostles creed. >> I believe >> I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ's only son of the Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontious Pilot was crucified died and was buried.

>> He descended to the dead. >> On the third day he rose again. >> He ascended into he >> is seated at the right hand of the father >> and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, >> the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, >> the forgiveness of sins, >> the resurrection of the body, >> and the life everlasting. >> Amen. >> Reconcile, reconciled by God's mercy, and sustained by God's presence, let us pray for the world and its needs.

Faithful one, you renew us by grace as you have inspired faith through the work of the church artist and hymnwriters throughout the ages. Give your church the means to praise your beauty today. Hear us, oh God.

>> Your mercy is great. >> Living one, you delight in this world. The sun and moon, the wind and the water declare your goodness.

Preserve this earth and protect conservationists, scientists, and all who labor in service to creation. Hear us, oh God. >> Your mercy is great.

>> Ruling one, you bless us to be a blessing. Open the hearts of all leaders to seek the flourishing of each of every person and lend your help to all who wait for justice, deliverance and peace. Hear us, oh God.

>> Your mercy is great, >> compassionate one. You send you send your son to save. Declare your words of acceptance to any who feel condemned and lift up those brought low by hatred and exclusion.

tend to all who are struggling with illness or loss, especially those we lift before you now, whether silently or aloud. Hear us, oh God. >> Your mercy is great.

>> Guiding one, you watch over our going out and coming in. Bless newcomers and new members in this assembly and accompany those who have recently left this community to journey elsewhere. >> Hear us, oh God.

>> Your mercy is great. >> Eternal one, you neither slumber nor sleep. Be our keeper of life and in death.

Thank you for our beloved who have died and for your promise which saves this whole world by your love. Hear us, oh God. >> Your mercy is great.

>> Receive our prayers, oh God, through Jesus Christ, our strength and salvation. >> Amen. >> The peace of the Lord be with you always.

>> And also with you. As you're comfortable, share a sign of God's peace with others. >> Peace be with you.

My I see Well, my soul is well soul. is well The adore Christ. The Glor.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. My with my soul.

Isel My shall be sign the shall the Lord shall be well my soul. My soul is well my soul. My heart blessed.

We may drink the bread. >> Let us pray together. Oh God, maker of heaven and earth, your steadfast love embraces all creation.

You send rain and sunshine to nourish the earth and bring forth its bounty. Through these gifts of bread and wine, draw us into the death and life of your son who calls us to bear witness to his saving work. We ask this in Jesus name.

Amen. >> The Lord be with you. >> And also with you.

>> Lift up your hearts. >> We lift them up to the Lord. >> Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

>> It is right to our thanks and praise. >> It is indeed right and our duty and our joy that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to you, Almighty and merciful God. Through our Savior Jesus Christ, you called your people to cleanse their hearts and prepare with joy for the pascal feast that renewed in the gift of baptism, we may come to the fullness of your grace.

And so with all the choirs of angels, with the church on earth and the hosts of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hym. Holy Lord God of heaven and earth of your gloryana in the highest of the in the highest. Holy God, the beginning and the end, the giver of life.

Blessed are you for the birth of creation. Blessed are you in the darkness and in the light. Blessed are you for your promise to our people.

Blessed are you in the prophet's hopes and dreams. Blessed are you for Mary's openness to your will. Blessed are you for your son Jesus, the word made flesh.

In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat. This is my body given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.

Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people, for the forgiveness of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me. Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.

>> Christ died. >> Christ is risen. >> Christ will come again.

>> With this bread and cup, we remember your word dwelling among us full of grace and truth. We remember our new birth in his death and resurrection. We look with hope for his coming again.

Holy God, we long for your spirit. Come among us. Bless this meal.

May your word take flesh in us. Awaken your people. Fill us with your light.

Bring the gift of peace on earth. >> Holy Spirit. >> All praise and glory are yours.

Holy one of Israel. Word of God incarnate. power of the most high, one God now and forever.

Amen. >> Lord, remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Come to the table.

Feast on God's goodness and mercy. >> Amen. Body of Christ given for world Take away.

Blessed is the Lord of all Holy sh to me. Christ is the lamb. Ever God is the world.

Glorious the Bless you. Bless the Lord. Gloral.

grace. >> Amen. Let us pray together.

God of our salvation, we give you thanks for this meal that restores our souls, >> us and strengthens us for the journey through the body and blood of your son. May we become Christ's body in the world, bearing witness to your love for all creation through Jesus Christ, our savior and lord. Amen.

At this time, we have the holy privilege of extending this table of eukarist to several who cannot join us and are homebound. If you're delivering those, please come. Let's pray.

Gracious God, loving all your family with a mother's tender care, as you sent the angel to feed Elijah with heavenly food, assist us in this ministry on which we set forth. In your love and care, nourish and strengthen those to whom we bring this sacrament, that through the body and blood of your son, we all may know the comfort of your abiding presence. Amen.

receive the blessing of the Holy Trinity. God who calls all things into existence, Jesus Christ who redeems us, and the Holy Spirit whose breath sustains creation. Bless you now and always.

Amen. Suresus is what glory of salvation of This is my song. Sales are Lord, I amior to my soul.

This is the song. Thank God.