The Order of Worship

Music Ministry Team:  Kristin Petty, Dwight Huntley, Matthew Leone, Rene Vazquez

Worship Team:  Sarah Haas, Marc Hayden

Technology Team:  Michael Kendall, Mark Raker, Jerry Weissinger

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Key Notes from the reading & sermon:

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Then and now, it is hard to accept that the one announced at his nativity as “a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11) dies on a Roman cross. Execution is a strange way to save. But, how more clearly and powerfully can be revealed the depth and breadth of Divine, saving and forgiving grace than a God who comes to us as a helpless infant and walks a path of healing and reconciling love even if that path leads to an unjust and undeserved death? This love is so pure and self-giving that even in the throes of an agonizing death, the Incarnate One proclaims, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” and then makes this statement real by promising a crucified criminal, “today you will be with me in Paradise”.

Questions for Reflection:

• St. Paul reflects on the crucifixion with these words: “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). How do you put the meaning of the crucifixion into your own words?

• One of Luke’s themes is the way Jesus reaches out to those on the margins, those on the outside looking in. How does this passage reinforce this theme? Can you relate to being on the margins?

• Carla Swafford Works in her commentary on this passage writes: “Paradise is God’s creation restored—when God has rectified the world. In Luke’s Gospel, God’s kingdom has invaded ‘today’. Today this criminal experiences God’s kingdom because he sees who Jesus really is. Jesus is salvation. Jesus is restoration, and in him this criminal places hope.” How, even now, do you experience the restoration and hope of Paradise?

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