Epiphany Sermon Series begins today: REST ASSURED

This short new year sermon series will pave the road to Pastor Jessie’s sabbatical. This will invite us all into a season of renewal as we explore the seven types of rest every person needs—physical, mental, emotional, social, sensory, creative, and spiritual. Together, we will reflect on God’s rhythm of restoration and consider how rest is not a luxury but a vital practice for wholeness. Each week will open space for honest reflection, gentle challenge, and hopeful imagination as we learn to receive the kind of rest that restores our lives and deepens our life together as a church.

This series is inspired by Sacred Rest: by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith

This first Sunday we will focus on physical rest and sensory rest. In such a fast paced world that is overloaded with input and content, how do we find this kind of rest? How do we make room with intention for this kind of rest on a regular basis?

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On Epiphany, we celebrate a God who leads—guiding seekers through signs, Scripture, and Spirit into spaces of revelation and renewal. In Matthew’s telling of the Magi, a star awakens curiosity, ancient words point the way, and divine wisdom redirects the journey. This story reminds us that faith is not about having the whole map, but about trusting the light God gives for the next step. Epiphany proclaims that God still meets us where we are and draws us toward deeper truth and unexpected grace.

This worship service invites all ages to follow that light together. Through the story of the Magi and the practice of receiving Star Words, we will reflect on how God continues to guide our lives—sometimes clearly, sometimes gently, always faithfully. As the Magi were led to worship and left transformed, we too are invited into a journey of restoration, attentiveness, and hope, discovering how Christ’s light still shines for us and through us in the world today.

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Throughout Advent, we’ve looked through the lens of the sacred and have experienced time, people, places, others, and ourselves as God’s holy love reflected and incarnate in the world. Because of the experience of God’s action of love toward us, we are called also to act, the “sacred doing” of alleviating suffering wherever it is found. We dedicate ourselves in this New Year to sacred acts of justice and mercy, bringing grace to a hurting world, reflecting the sacred in all we do.

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Christmas Eve is a night that already feels sacred. We gather by candlelight to sing familiar carols, hear the ancient story once more, and remember that love still enters the world. This year, we will linger with the deeper truth of Christmas: not a tidy or sentimental story, but a holy one rooted in real bodies, real struggle, and real hope. The birth of Jesus was not a “silent night,” but a vulnerable, human moment where God chose to come close—into the mess, the pain, and the beauty of ordinary life.

This service invites us to reimagine what is sacred—not as something far away or earned, but as something already present within and among us. Through story, reflection, music, and candlelight, we will hear the good news that God’s love is not reserved for the perfect or put-together, but is born for all, exactly as we are. This is a night to rest, to breathe, and to remember our worth. Come as you are, and join us as we celebrate Emmanuel—God with us—until every soul feels its worth.

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As we gather on this final Sunday of Advent before Christmas Eve, we continue our journey through the series Reflecting the Sacred by turning our attention to Sacred People. Throughout Advent we have been invited to notice how the holy often reveals itself not in grand spectacle, but in everyday life. This week, we look closely at Mary and Joseph—two ordinary people whose lives are interrupted by God’s call. Their fears, questions, and courageous trust remind us that God’s story does not unfold through abstract ideas or distant ideals, but through real people navigating real circumstances with open hearts.

In worship, we will reflect on how the sacred still takes shape in human lives today. As we listen, sing, pray, and wait together, we are invited to recognize our own lives as potential vessels of grace. Just as Mary and Joseph bore God’s love into the world through faithfulness in the midst of uncertainty, we, too, are called to reflect the sacred in our choices, relationships, and acts of love. This service prepares us to approach Christmas not simply as a celebration of what once happened, but as a reminder that God continues to be born into the world through ordinary people—people like us.

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