{"id":14623,"date":"2017-03-31T10:29:35","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T14:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=14623"},"modified":"2017-04-14T15:28:33","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T19:28:33","slug":"gods-gonna-trouble-the-water-on-palm-sunday-4917","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=14623","title":{"rendered":"God’s Gonna Trouble the Water on Palm Sunday! (4\/9\/17)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Journey to Hope (from cantata book cover)<\/p><\/div>\n

Both services on Palm Sunday will be led by our choirs, and their message will begin with the announcement that\u00a0 “God is gonna trouble the Water.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The services will feature a cantata called “A Journey to Hope<\/span><\/strong>.”\u00a0 So how can “trouble the water”\u00a0 be a picture of hope???<\/p>\n

The Bible relates several accounts of where water was “troubled” to give hope and healing to those who had faith.\u00a0 Water can be many things.\u00a0 Water can represent nourishment, or refreshment, or cleansing. Sometimes it represents barriers and obstacles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gospel of John (5:1-8) records an incident where disabled people lay around a pool waiting for the waters to be stirred (or “troubled”).\u00a0 The first one in was healed.\u00a0 In this account, there was one paralyzed man who would never be the first one in.\u00a0 But Jesus came to him and shook things up…<\/p>\n

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Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.\u00a0 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.\u00a0 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie \u2014 the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.\u00a0 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.\u00a0 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?<\/span>“<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred<\/span>. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.<\/span>”\u00a0 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Through many uses of water, God has promised hope.\u00a0 By surrounding us with water,\u00a0 by sprinkling us with water,\u00a0 by parting the water to grant us passage, God intervenes in\u00a0 our lives.\u00a0 Here are a few examples from the Bible…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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