THIS Saturday, March 13, from 9 am till 5pm.

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Someone once asked me at a Spiritual Retreat: Why was it necessary for Jesus to die? And why such a violent death? If God is God, why can’t God just forgive us? That is a good question. Maybe we should look at it again as we prepare for Easter. This is a question many have tried to answer through the ages. Each of the Gospel writers answers this question differently in an effort to make sense of Jesus’ death and resurrection and the implications for us as Jesus’ followers. In the Letter to the Romans the apostle Paul even supplies us with not one, but six different possible theories of how it is that Christ’s death saves us.

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On Sunday March 21, we will have worship at 5pm!
(There will be NO 11am worship that day, since Sunset Blvd will be closed for the marathon.)

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Holy God, bless the efforts of those involved in search and rescue operations. Give strength and courage to those who may still be trapped. Bring comfort to those who have been displaced or lost loved ones. Bring peace to those whose lives have been shaken to the core and hope to those who fear they have lost all they have. Amen.

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All you ever wanted to know about the Bible, but were afraid to ask!

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Just a reminder that this Sunday is the Hollywood festival of St. Oscar! Due to folks gathering for the Academy Awards, Hollywood and Highland will be closed as will the Highland exit off the Hollywood Freeway.

It’s always easier to avoid traffic than to get stuck in it! So here are a few suggestions:

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If these words of Jesus are really true: “You’re blessed when your commitment to God’s all-inclusive love provokes persecution” then I should feel really blessed! I would guess that all of us at West Hollywood Church have at one time in our life experienced persecution. If you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, a woman, African-American, Latin-American, or Asian-American, an immigrant, a person committed to peace and non-violence, a person committed to justice for everyone, you’re going to experience persecution. Persecution is the systemic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms of persecution are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, political persecution and persecution based on sexual orientation or identity.

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One way to approach the season of Lent is to reflect prayerfully on our lives lived with God. God accompanies us through all the different seasons of our lives. Part of our journey through Lent is taking a moment to gaze back over the lives we have lived and look for traces of God’s presence in our journey of faith, in the various seasons of our life. One way to do this is to ponder the words of a Scripture text to open ourselves up to the awareness of the presence of God’s Spirit in our pilgrimage through a life of faith. For this purpose I chose for us a text from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

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Last week Dan began our sermon series on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). This Sunday we will look at the first two blessings in verses 3-4: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Usually when the Beatitudes are read, everyone feels all warm and fuzzy. I suspect it is the repeated use of the word “blessed” that evokes these sentimental feelings in us. Truth be told, the Beatitudes are rather unsettling. It seems that Jesus’ values are very different from our values and the world’s values. In fact, from God’s perspective, the world is upside down and needs to be turned the right way around. According to the values of the world, one is considered blessed if you are successful, wealthy, powerful and have a wonderful life. But according to Jesus you are considered blessed if you are poor, mournful, meek and persecuted. How can people possibly feel blessed when they are poor or beaten down, when they cry their hearts out, or are abused or run out of their community? Really, the word “blessed” did not come to mind as I watched the tragedy unfold in Haiti!

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God humbled you with hunger, and then fed you manna, which was unknown to you and your ancestors, to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that flows from the mouth of God. (Deuteronomy 8:3)

It is that time of the year; the “Season of Self-Denial.” For the next six weeks the chances are big that someone is going to ask you: “What are you giving up for Lent?” When I opened up my Facebook account last Thursday, the morning after Ash Wednesday, countless postings popped up proclaiming everything that’s being given up for Lent. “I’m giving up chocolate,” “I’m giving up coffee,” or my favorite one “I’m giving up Facebook.” The list of things being given up seems to be endless.

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