This is our final week of our mini-series exploring what the larger Church ought to be like in the world. What clues do we get from our Biblical story about what God intended for people of faith as they organized into communities and movements worldwide? This week, we get really real: in a world filled with crippling poverty, gruesome wars, toxic division, and fear-fueled discrimination, what should the church be like? This feels like an urgent question, but one that can make us freeze in inaction. We do not have to have all the answers. In fact, Jesus Himself warned us that none of us can know everything about what is to come. Predictions about end times are futile and not what we are expected to do. What we ARE expected to do as Christians is to be ready—ready for God’s Kingdom to break into what we have gotten used to as worldly life and change everything as we know it! Being ready means paying attention and staying alert; responding to God’s presence in all the hard and hurting places. People get ready, Jesus is coming! Thanks be to God!
11/12/2023: Church is like that: Like a Tender Mother and Urging Father
This week in our short series, we are continuing with our zoomed out view of Church beyond COA. What should communities of faith be like? What message are we sending to the world by the ways that we behave together and the dreams that we pursue? This week, we continue to examine Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church and we see two metaphors in one short passage: Paul compares himself as a leader among them to both a “nursing mother” and an “urging and encouraging father”. These two things may seem to be in conflict, but how DO we challenge each other and give each other courage using the gifts and strengths we’ve got? How can many different ways of expressing our faith all point to the same God and the same calling? One thing we know: as the African proverb once said “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. We are in this together.
11/5/2023: Church is Like That
This Sunday, we begin another short mini series:
FALL SERMON SERIES: Church is Like That: Exploring Our Witness Through 1 Thessalonians
Using one of Paul’s epistles to the church at Thessalonica (a Biblical book we seldom hear from), we will consider what our witness can be to the world. What are we like in their eyes? What are we like in God’s eyes? Are we communicating what we intend to say about what Jesus means to us? Join us in this ongoing journey of inner and outer transformation.
Because this Sunday is also All Saints Sunday, we will focus on 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 , where Paul reassures the early persecuted church about an unshakable assurance of life in Jesus. All Saints is a good day for us to reflect on areas of life where we have felt grief and loss; to remember all of those who have gone on before us, but to also do as Paul says and grieve with hope! What does that look like?
10/29/2023: Reformation Sunday / Dialogue Sermon
This week is Reformation Sunday. 506 years ago, Martin Luther made public his 95 Theses, calling the Church to account for abuses of power and ways in which it needed to be TRANSFORMED. We are living once again in an era of Reformation and Transformation of the church as we know it. We have been thinking together as a community about what values ground us as we journey together into an unknown future for our faith. And this week, Pastor Jessie is out of town, but she pre-recorded a dialogue sermon with Rev. Jennifer Barchi, a staff person of Baltimore Presbytery who has guided COA’s Session through months of discernment. Together, they discuss where we go from here, and how we can use our holy imaginations to live into what makes us who we are, and all that we are called to be together.
There is no PDF to read, but please watch and share thoughts with Pastor Jessie and Session Elders.
10/22/2023: We treasure….listening to understand each person’s unique journey of faith
It is the final Sunday of stewardship and that means Pledge Sunday! If you have not already pledged what you estimate you can give back to the COA community’s 2024 budget, please do so now!
This final week of our sermon series wraps up with our final two values combined into one. COA’s culture is one which really treasures listening to understand. Why? Because that is how we embrace everyone’s unique journey of faith! Because we say we value gathering as an eclectic, imperfect group of people who builds the church culture together, we know that our church is formed by each person’s understanding of God and their questions, doubts, passions and callings. Because we say we value trusting one another to value COA, we allow ourselves to be shaped and formed by each other, and we can only do that if we share openly with each other and listen actively to each other. This is a messy work in progress, but we are on the Way!