This week in our short Advent sermon series, we think together about a more popular, but also solemn Christmas song called “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”. We use imagery from texts normally read during Lent and Easter: the story of Jesus raising Lazarus and the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of God bringing an entire valley of dry bones back to life. How do such images connect to this season of Advent and Christmas? How do they connect to what we light our Advent candles for this week: the theme of PEACE? How does God’s coming into our world somehow answer our weariness and longing? We will explore these things together, and hope you will join us!
11/28/2021: Songs of Waiting WEEK 1 (ADVENT 1)
We are entering into the season of Advent; the four weeks before Christmas where we intentionally set our hearts and minds on the journey towards God entering the world as one of us; as a child born for us. Our Advent sermon series will be called “SONGS OF WAITING”. It will use our Narrative Lectionary scriptures to explore how ancient and beloved hymns of Advent and carols of Christmas teach us about one of our faith’s greatest mysteries: a God who comes to be one of us and walk among us in the flesh. The song we will combine with our scripture meditation this week is “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”, one of the church’s best known Advent hymns. It has a solemn tone and reminds us that this season is joyous, but also hard and bittersweet for so many of us. Our stories contain light and darkness and God came into the world to experience a full life of both. God knows what it is to be human.
Join in reflection with us in this beautiful season!
11/21/2021: The Bible as Story: God’s Word Still at Work
This week is Christ the King Sunday! Did you know that today is the last Sunday of the Church year? Sort of like our New Year’s Eve! Each Church year begins with welcoming Advent time; where we wait for the coming of Jesus, God-With-Us, Emmanuel. This day in the church is traditionally called Christ the King Sunday because it reminds believers that, through every time and change, God is the one who is sovereign and unchanging and in control. Let us remember God’s faithfulness in all that we have been through in the last year and look to the future with hope and confidence!
We spend this Sunday meditating on Isaiah 9, a scripture that usually falls on Christmas Eve! Are we rushing into the holidays, as culture and retail stores would urge us to do? Not necessarily. We are ready for Advent waiting and the journey to the birth of the Christ Child, and yet we are centering our waiting in the hope of a God who comes to meet the deepest needs of the world in the darkest place with the promise of a helpless baby. God has not forgotten about us. God always remembers and always acts, but usually in ways that surprise and amaze us.
Join us this Sunday in this reflection.
11/14/2021: The Bible as Story: Justice of the Prophets
This week, we zoom ahead in the Hebrew Scriptures to prophetic books; specifically the book of Amos. Amos is best known for his unswerving critique of the people’s worship because it did not play out in real life as justice towards all people. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King quoted Amos saying “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (5:24). What is justice to us? Does our own definition of justice (or our country’s) line up with God’s definition? Why is justice so important to the God we serve? Is it really more important than worship? Let’s think through these things together as a community seeking to continue our growth….
11/7/2021: The Bible as Story: Humanity Never Satisfied
This week is All Saints Day, and ironically as we move back into our Narrative Lectionary journey through Old Testament stories, we find ourselves exploring a very unflattering story of our ancestors, the Israelites. They have just been freed from centuries of slavery in the grandest and most dramatic way, but as soon as they realize how uncertain the future looks, the complaining begins! The fear and blame takes over. How does God respond to this? How will they make through this time of transition? How will we? Lots to learn from this story and we hope you will join us in the reflection.