Neli ML

  Fourth Sunday of Eater 2023 The Good Shepherd Sunday Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:19-25, John 10:1-10 Rev. Betsey Moe   “By Name” I had a teacher in high school who was especially gifted with knowing names. His name was Sam Adams, and he would stroll down the hall, which was crowded between classes, and wave and call students by their names, as many as were in his line of sight.   He made everybody feel like a somebody. Mr. Adams was a math teacher, and a good one. But he was more than a math teacher because he understood us to be more than math students. We weren’t objects to be taught; we were subjects, real people with stories and abilities of our own. Mr. Adams knew that if we trusted that he cared about us , we would care about the math. And it worked; student math scores soared in Mr. Adams’ class. Because we were known, we flourished. In today’s scripture lesson from John, we hear about a shepherd who knows his sheep “by name.” Knowing sheep by name was act

  Third Sunday of Easter Luke 24,13-35 Rev. Neli Miranda   The Easter proclamation The Lord is risen! broke with the power and dominion of death in the world and wrested the destructive, abusive power from the religious leaders and the imperial authority over the people. In raising Jesus up from the dead, God revealed a living power that transformed suffering and death into life. However, the first disciples were so overwhelmed by the power of death that they struggled to recognize the newness of life, Jesus’ resurrection. On Easter morning, Mary Magdalene and the other women were so overwhelmed by grief that they did not understand the sign of the removed stone at the tomb. And the other disciples were so confused and frightened that they did not receive the announcement of Jesus’ resurrection and locked themselves in for fear of suffering Jesus’ fate. How dark and confusing some days may become that we cannot see, hear, and feel the presence of the Risen One! Today, Luk

  Second Sunday of Easter 2023 John 20:19-31 Rev. Neli Miranda   The last two chapters of John’s Gospel (20 and 21) tell us how the first community of disciples lived, understood, and responded to Jesus’ resurrection.   Mary Magdalene, Peter, the beloved disciple, and Thomas, each show us different human paths on how to respond and embrace the transformation that God brings us through Jesus’ resurrection.   The first thing we notice in John’s account is that no one in the community expected Jesus’s resurrection. No one had understood his previous announcements… it was the love, devotion and service of Mary Magdalene and the other women that brought the great announcement of life to the community, for where there is love and service, there is life and light!     Mary’s devotion led her to be the first person to see the Risen Jesus on Easter morning and after her encounter with Jesus, she was sent to announce the great news. She is recognized as the first apostle of the g

  Easter Sunday 2023 John 20:1-18 Rev. Neli Miranda “I have seen the Lord!” Mary Magdalene proclaims on Easter Morning. Her proclamation comes after experiencing a journey that begins very early, “While it was still dark…” Through these words, John wants to tell us of the darkness of Mary’s desolation. Her beloved Rabbi has been brutally murdered and it seems that it is all over. She devoutly has followed Jesus to the foot of the cross and to the place where he was buried. This morning, her journey begins very early to finalize the burial ritual of Jesus’ corpse, to say a final goodbye, and to imagine how life moves forward now that her beloved Rabbi is gone.   She embodies that deep, overwhelming human feeling at the loss of a beloved one when the only consolation is to grieve through carrying out different actions that seek to find meaning in loss. Her affliction increases when she finds that the stone had been removed from Jesus’ tomb. Grave robbery was a known problem in

  Palm Sunday 2023 Matthew 21:1-11 & Matthew 27:11-54 Rev. Neli Miranda   Welcome to Jerusalem… the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! The city of Jerusalem was founded by King David in 1000 BCE, and he made it the capital of the joint Kingdom of Israel. Years later, King Solomon built a magnificent temple there where all the people of Israel came to worship God. Jerusalem then was considered God’s dwelling place and was called “The City of God”, “The Holy City”.  But, over time, despite being a consecrated place to worship God, Jerusalem became a center of economic and political power from where the powerful oppressed the people. The prophets denounced the corruption in Jerusalem and how the monarchy and religious leaders used religion to control and oppress people and how the innocent and God’s messengers suffered in their hands. Human corruption had turned a sacred place into an oppressive human system. No wonder, at the entrance of Jerusalem, we