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Grief and Gratitude: Introduction
Description
The Cross Series (Lent, 2022)
The Grief and Gratitude series is based on a podcast series on the Allender podcast.
Grief and Gratitude
3-5-22
Rod Hugen
In high school bible class, I was invited to pick out a life verse. I had difficulty memorizing things, so I told the teacher I was picking John 11:35, the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.” I could memorize that! My teacher laughed and was a good sport but then he assigned me a long verse and gave me after-school detention. I do not remember the long verse but I do remember “Jesus wept, “a powerful and transformative verse.
Consider this: Jesus, God-made flesh, wept. The God of the universe cried and shed tears and sobbed! The interesting meaning of the word “wept,” however, kind of messed me up. It means Jesus snorted (like a horse). That is a strange word to describe weeping. I wanted to believe Jesus was crying out because Lazarus died and along with the crowds felt helpless. But this was not why he wept. Jesus was loved and known by Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. They believed He could have healed Lazarus if he had come on time…but because he had delayed coming, now Lazarus was dead. People were mourning and trying to minister to Mary and Martha, not knowing what to say. “Just get over it?” “Move on?” (When someone experiences loss and grieves, just go sit with them and say nothing. You give them the greatest gift of Jesus’s presence.) Read More
Pastors Eric, Mark, Susan, Daniel, and other Village leaders open the Scriptures as the witness to God’s kingdom breaking into our lives. Scripture gives us more than abstract ideas. It is the Word of God, given to form us, confront us, comfort us, and teach us how to follow Jesus.
Each episode invites us to listen and respond. We are learning to understand the Bible more faithfully; we are also learning how to live as God’s renewed people.
Week by week, our pastors and leaders talk about the practices of Christian discipleship, including prayer, fasting, generosity, Scripture memory, worship, and life together. These practices belong to a whole life formed around Jesus.
The podcast also speaks to ordinary places where faith is lived; our relationships, finances, habits, struggles, joys, and decisions. The gospel speaks to what we believe. It also teaches us how to live in the present age as people who belong to the kingdom of God.
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