Will Vaus

  As you probably know, Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. The album appeared first in 1970, followed by a live musical performed on Broadway in 1971, and a film version in 1973. It was very much a work of the times, building off the enthusiasm of the hippie and Jesus movements. I can remember my brother playing the album in his room; the catchy tunes and lyrics were hard to resist. In the title song, Judas sings: Every time I look at you I don’t understand Why you let the things you did get so out of hand You’d have managed better if you’d had it planned Why’d you choose such a backward time and such a strange land? If you’d come today you would have reached a whole nation Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication Don’t you get me wrong - I only wanna know Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ Who are you? What have you sacrificed? Jesus Christ Superstar Do you think you’re what they say you are? The song has some great questions. ...

Listen for God’s word to you from Galatians 4:21-31… Tell me, you who want to be under the law,   are you not aware of what the law says?   For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman   and the other by the free woman.   His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh,   but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise. These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.  Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.   But the Jerusalem that is above   is free, and she is our mother.   For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman,      you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud,      you who were never in labor; because more are the...

Most parents, at some time or another, have had the experience of thinking they have lost their child. It happened to us when our children were small. We were in the Disney Store at the mall. As we got ready to leave the store, we suddenly realized our middle son, Jon, was not with us. He was probably 5 years old or younger at the time. We looked all around the store. He was nowhere to be found. Then we stepped outside the store and looked in every direction. Finally, we saw him, one store down, standing with a security guard. What a relief!   Well, I think almost every parent can identify. And the story we are going to read today from the Gospel of Luke is a story about two parents losing their son and finding him again. But the story is also about so much more. Listen for God’s word to you from Luke 2:41-52…   Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.   And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival.   ...