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A sermon on John 3:1-17 by Pastor David Jacobson
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A sermon on Matthew 4:1-11 by Pastor David Jacobson



A few years ago I learned that there is a Japanese TV show that’s been running for 30 years called “My First Errand.” Apparently, it’s common for Japanese parents to send their kids out on a first errand at a very young age. Kids as young as five or six are sent across town, sometimes via public transportation, with instructions about what they are to do and bring home. The TV show has hidden cameras placed along the route to track the kids’ progress. According to a 2015 article in the Atlantic about this show, the goal of this practice is to demonstrate “[n]ot self-sufficiency, in fact, but ‘group reliance,’… ‘[Japanese] kids learn early on that, ideally, any member of the community can be called on to serve or help others.’”



I think that sometimes, God will do this type of thing with his kids. God will give us a clear task, not to foster self-sufficiency, but to demonstrate God-sufficiency. God might be out of sight, but that doesn’t mean that God is far off.



The scripture says that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.”



Jesus had just been anointed by the Spirit of God at his baptism. He had just heard a voice from heaven speak, “this is my Son with whom I am well pleased.”  



Jesus had had a powerful experience of God, to say the least. Sometimes people who have experienced God in a powerful way make the mistake of thinking that times of comfort and ease are ahead. After all, you can’t have a more powerful friend than God. Shouldn’t life be smooth sailing?



That isn’t frequently the case, though, is it? It’s very common that on the other side of a life-changing encounter with God, someone will find that they are facing profound new temptations. But we shouldn’t be surprised that an advance of the kingdom of God is often met with a counter-attack from the kingdom of darkness, if you will. 



When Jesus begins his ministry, he will be on the front lines of the battle between those two kingdoms, facing the attacks of the enemy all day, every day. And so, it seems that in preparation, the Spirit of God leads him into the wilderness to face the core temptations that would come his way. 



But Jesus’ temptation is also more than that. Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy 8:2–3, Moses reminds the people about their years in the desert. He says, “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart…. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, … in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Sound familiar?)



Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness. Jesus spends 40 days. It’s a representative amount. Jesus fast represents Israel’s time in the wilderness. He’ll face the same temptations.



Let’s look more closely at the temptations that Jesus faced.



First: Hunger



It says that “He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.” And the devil said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”



The hunger must have been awful after 40 days in the wilderness. When Israel got hungry in the wilderness, they grumbled at God. Would Jesus require instant gratification at the end of his fast? Or would he trust God to provide?



Jesus answered the devil, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” He is remembering the words of Deuteronomy 8. I think Jesus understands exactly what is going on. His job is to succeed where Israel had failed.



The temptation for instant gratification is one of the greatest that we face. Unfortunately it’s also something that our culture va

An Ash Wednesday message from Pastor David Jacobson







Since this is a service where we do a lot of confessing– I have a confession to make. I hope this don’t scandalize anyone… I hope you don’t think less of me. Over the past few months, I’ve let my car get really messy. In retrospect I see how it happened, but along the way I hardly realized it was happening. Just a couple months ago I had vacuumed the whole thing out and it was squeaky clean. But I’ve picked up a few bad habits. First, I frequently take a can of soda with me when I get in the car. Ok, no big deal. But then, 90% of the time, I forget to take the empty can out as I exit the car. Add to that the fact that I have kids who will frequently want to take a snack in the car. We then forget to take the empty packaging out of the car. So one piece of trash at a time, my car gets messy. And of course I can’t handle having a little trash bag, so the empty soda can goes on the floor of the passenger seat. Sorry passenger. I’m not typically ready at a moment’s notice for passengers. Yes, I have a long way to go.



But today I cleaned up. I finally decided to deal with the mess that I’d made for myself.



Similarly, I’ve got all types of stuff in my basement. Things that we used to use years ago but no longer do. Even some things that we’ve never used. And so we’re in the process of cleaning out our basement. And of course we’re rummaging around for the things that are important, but forgotten, or things might have value to others, say, for a rummage sale.



So between my car and my basement, I’m thinking a lot about the ways that we make messes in our lives. At a spiritual level, we make messes in our lives. We make bad decisions. We choose to do the wrong thing. And it doesn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but just like my trash piled up one piece at a time, our bad decisions pile up one decision at a time. At some point, we have to look at the pile and say, “wow, I’ve got one big mess on my hands.”



Lent is a time for us to purge the junk that has accumulated in our lives, as well as to find some of the treasures that we’ve forgotten or neglected. Lent, of course, is the season of the church year that runs from today until Easter. And just like lots of us go and clean out our basements and closets ahead of the rummage sale, we need to do some soul clean out work ahead of Easter.



We need to deal with those things that are separating us from God. That’s what this whole service is about. It’s not a cheery service because we’re getting serious about turning from our sins. 



At the same time, Lent isn’t just about throwing out the spiritual trash in our lives. It’s also about filling our lives treasures that we might have been neglecting– with things that glorify God and cultivate a deeper relationship with God. Jesus highlights three very specific practices for his disciples that are meant to draw us into closer relationship with God. 



The first is almsgiving, which is simply giving money to the poor. Giving money to the poor means that we won’t have that money later. And so even as God is using us to provide for someone’s needs, we learn to trust that God will provide us with the grace we need to be content with less.



The second practice that Jesus teaches on is prayer. Praying cultivates dependence on God. It’s a giving over to God those situations that we either can’t or shouldn’t control, and trusting God for the result. 



Giving money to the poor. Praying. So far so good, right? And then there’s the third one…. The one that I’m pretty sure only applies to people that don’t like food as much as I do: fasting. 



Fasting is simply choosing to not eat in order to seek a deeper relationship with God. We make ourselves feel physical hunger so that we have to turn to spiritual food for nourishment. And then our prayers take on an earnest desperation: “Fill me, God. Stay

A sermon on Matthew 17:1-9 by Pastor David Jacobson



Over the years, we’ve enjoyed reading the stories of Beatrix Potter with our kids. She’s the author and illustrator of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” and many other children’s stories. All of her tales take place in the Lake District in the northwest of England, which is somewhere that Katie and I happened to have traveled a few years back when she could catch a break from residency. 



You’ve probably heard of Peter Rabbit, but I’m guessing not as many of you have heard of the “Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.” They just don’t make names like that anymore, do they? It’s about a girl named Lucie who lives in a farmhouse. Lucie loses her handkerchief and goes searching for it. She sees some white on the mountains in the distance, and she decides that it must be her handkerchief. The mountain she went to was named Cat Bells.



The first time I read this story with Caleb, I read that, and I was immediately transported back to a moment in my life when I was absolutely awestruck. I was taken in my mind’s eye back to a reall glory sighting.  



When we’d visited the lake district, Katie and I had hiked to the top of Cat Bells. It was a rather nasty day– windy and rainy– but I didn’t mind because we were on an adventure. The hike took us up a ridge with a Lake on our left and a sheep-filled valley with our Farmhouse B&B on our right. After a relatively steady climb, mixed with periods of getting to scramble up a few rocky parts, we were rewarded the most satisfying summit I’ve experienced, despite the weather. Other summits that I’ve experienced have had things preventing a panoramic view. But on this summit (thanks to deforestation!) there were no trees or other obstructions. The summit itself was even small enough that you could look in any direction and see the ground at the foot of the mountain.) But even better than that, in the distance there was a break in the clouds. And these fantastic rays of sun shone down into the valley. I was in awe. The scene in itself was incredible, but it also pointed to the fact that the time was coming soon that the wind and the rain would stop, and bright sun would soon cover the whole landscape. 



Have you ever had a moment like that– a moment where you’re just full of awe and wonder? Words always fail to describe the experience of it. In fact, these moments can simply leave you speechless. It is as if reality– true reality– has burst into the mundane and the uncomfortable. We might even say that it’s as if the veil between heaven and earth has become thin, and we’re able to see what is usually hidden from us.



But here’s the thing, the sense of the glory of God that I got several years ago from the view on the top of a storybook mountain is dwarfed by the awe-inspiring sight of what the disciples saw on the mountain of transfiguration. On that day, in a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus’ appearance is changed. The word in the original greek that means “transfigured” is the same word that we get our word “metamorphosis” from. This is more than a few rays of sunlight falling on Jesus’ white clothes. Something incredible happened. And in the words of second Peter, this is not a cleverly devised myth. Rather, it is was a historical event that Peter, James, and John got to witness. 



The experience of Jesus’ face shining like the sun is impossible to capture fully in words. But the scene really just begins there. Beside Jesus, Moses and Elijah appear– two great heroes of the faith who had profound experiences of God’s glory on mount Sinai. And Peter… Peter just can’t help himself. He tries to put his feelings into words– “This is great! Let’s pitch some tents for the three of you!” Whenever I think of Peter saying that, I picture the Donkey from Shrek, played by Eddie Murphy, saying, “We can stay up late swapping manly stories, and in the

A sermon on Matthew 5:21-37 by Pastor David Jacobson



Katie, my wife, will tell you that I’m not exactly Mr. Handy Man. But from time to time, with the help of my Dad, I’ve taken on some pretty sizable renovation projects, particularly in our previous house on Stratford Rd. in Academy Heights. Our basement bathroom was original to the house, which was built in 1950. The shower walls were made of sheet metal, so it sounded like a thunderstorm whenever you showered. And if that weren’t bad enough they were this queasy green color, that someone had apparently decided was so trendy that they thought that they would paint the bathroom walls AND ceiling in the same color.



That bathroom desperately needed a renovation. And so my Dad and I started the hard, but rewarding work of demolition and reconstruction. It took us quite a while, but the end product was a new bathroom that was as beautiful as it was functional. 



My sermon topic today is the “renovation of the heart.” That phrase, and a lot of what I have to share today, come from “Dallas Willard,” whose books have challenged and grown me as much as any I’ve read.



What I’d like to do today is first to persuade you that you need a renovation of your heart. Then I will try to show briefly 1) what that renovation would look like once it happened, 2) the importance of actually making a decision to have a renovation done, and 3) the actual means through which the renovation will take place. 



So first, I want to convince you, in love, that you need a renovation of your heart. If your heart is pure and free from sin, then you may disregard this section of my message. Otherwise, I urge you to continue listening. 



Four times in the reading for today, Jesus says, “you have heard it said… but I say to you.” Sadly, I can’t talk in depth about each of these statements today. But I do want to simply point out that each time, Jesus takes a prohibition about some external behavior prescribed in the Old Testament law and he turns it inward and takes it deeper.



You’ve heard it said “don’t murder”… but I say to you “Don’t be angry or [insult others]”You’ve heard it said “don’t commit adultery”… but I say to you “don’t lust”You’ve heard it said “When a man divorces his wife, he should give her a certificate of divorce,” but I say [to paraphrase] the marriage bond cannot be broken easily, so “Don’t divorce for cheap reasons.”You’ve heard it said “don’t swear falsely” but I say “don’t swear at all”– basically be a person who means what they say and says what they mean.



In every case, Jesus seems to be saying, “this isn’t just about external behaviors, it’s about intentions. It’s about the heart.”



But here’s where the really tricky part comes in. Mere human will is never enough to get our hearts to the right place. I can’t will myself into not being angry with someone. I can’t will myself into not lusting. We can control our external behavior to a degree, and thank goodness for that, but we can’t control what comes out of our hearts. 



What all of our experience teaches us is that when we aim to will ourselves into acting like Jesus said we should, we fail. That gritted-teeth method of forcing ourselves into right behavior is what Jesus called “the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” earlier in Matthew chapter 5. The scribes and Pharisees were very exacting at holding to the letter of the law. But Jesus scolded them, saying, “You are like whitewashed tombs. They look beautiful on the outside. But inside they are full of dead bones and all kinds of filth. In the same way you look righteous to people. But inside you are full of pretense and rebellion.” In other words, “People look at the outward appearance [and you look impressive indeed], but the Lord looks at the heart [and there finds you lacking].”



Jesus said to his disciples, “unless your

A sermon on 1 Corinthians 2: 1-12 and Matthew 5:13-20 by Rev. Carroll Gunkel
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