We are a culture that is obsessed with connections.  And most of it has to do with that little thing we carry around called a smartphone.  That phone is our connection to the world.  It is our connection to family and friends.  It is our connection to information.  It is our connection to music.  It is our connection to social media.  Because of this, we are constantly after better connections, faster connections, cheaper connections, more powerful connections.  For most of our younger people, they cannot conceive of living even one day without a wi-fi connection.

Many of you here today have heard the apostle John referred to as “the apostle of love.”  Why is John called the apostle of love?  Does that mean that the other apostles were somehow deficient where love was concerned?  Not at all!  It’s just that in the books of the Bible that John wrote, love comes up quite often.  For example, in John’s gospel he has a very interesting way of referring to himself.  Four times in his Gospel, John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

Have you ever thought about what you want inscribed on your headstone some day? It’s not a thought we likely relish. No one really likes thinking about such a thing. If you’ve ever walked through a graveyard and looked at some of the inscriptions on headstones it’s clear many people have given it a lot of thought. Here are some of the more clever inscriptions I have heard about.

Have you ever stopped to consider how many times it is recorded in Scripture that Jesus ate with people.   Jesus went to dinner at Matthew’s house.  He went to dinner at Simon the Pharisee’s house.  He had dinner at the home of a man known as Simon the Leper.  On the Saturday before Palm Sunday he had dinner with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany.  This is just to mention a few.  The Pharisees once came to Jesus’ disciples and asked, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? (Matthew 9:11) 

Our lent worship services today are led by Pastor Nathan Berg from Eastside Lutheran in Madison. Pastor Berg is preaching for our last Wednesday Lent service this year on our theme “Baptized into His Death”.