Pastor Jessie was away for a good portion of this past week at a preaching conference, and COA is blessed that our own Clerk of Session and wonderful church leader Lawrie Gardner was willing to preach and lead the worship service today. She is truly gifted and called in her ministry with COA. Her sermon is called “New Beginnings for Disciples”, and as we consider what disciples do this Fall, it is a welcome and hopeful message.

Link to readable sermon PDF

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ALL OF YOUR PLEDGES IN THIS STEWARDSHIP SEASON. Our official campaign this year is finished, but we are still welcoming estimates of giving in the coming month, and we hope you will consider how you are able to support this faith community, of which you are a vital part!!

This Sunday, we dive back into our regular Fall sermon series: “What Disciples Do”. We consider each week how our lives are meant to be transformed and shaped by following Jesus, and what that practically looks like in our everyday. This Sunday is special because it is our annual observance of All Saints day, and we remember those who have gone before us, but we also remember that every single one of us is a “saint”. Our definition of “saint” is similar to that of a “disciple”–a sinner who has been forgiven and lives in the love of Christ.

Our theme this week reminds us that disciples live by faith. That said, I can think of few aspects of life that require more of our faith than the issue of death and dying; losing people we love and wondering about what is next. Where are they and what happens to them? What becomes of their stories and what legacies do they leave behind? What about us? How do we live in joy and faith and not in fear of death? These questions are questions of faith and are at the forefront of the scriptures we will think about today. Jesus is not afraid of our hard questions; it is all a part of living by faith.

Link to readable sermon PDF

This is the final week of our official stewardship campaign, collecting pledges for 2023. We have been so blessed by the generosity of this church and we pray a prayer of gratitude in this service.

This week, the theme in these movements of God’s people comes to the final movement of MISSION. We have experienced the grief and struggle of EXILE times; the joy and expectations and sometimes disappointments of RETURN, and now we are sent back out into the world as God’s hands and feet for MISSION. God does not wait until we have it all together or until we feel ready. Our God is a God on the move; and we are, as our Presbyterian saying goes “the Church Reformed and always Reforming“! God gives us a mission and a purpose and good work to do right now; right where we are, just as we are. This may be scary, but it is also a crucial part of our future with hope. This is why the Church exists! Thanks be to God!

Link to readable sermon PDF

As we continue to think about the idea of a future with hope in these uncertain times, we remember the central story of our Bible when God’s people also longed for a future with hope; when everything they had built their identity around seemed to be shaken or even gone in the experience of exile. And yet this week, we consider what it is like to return home. CAN you really go home again? When you get back what you have been missing (like in person worship after pandemic for instance), can everything just go “back to normal”? Can we? Will we ever be the same? What does God want from us (and FOR us) now? These are the kinds of questions we are blessed to consider as a community this week. We hope you will join us and listen for how God might speak to you and your life in these important conversations.

Link to readable sermon PDF

Last week was the introduction to our special Stewardship series “A Future With Hope” where we thought together about the cycles and rhythms and movements of life; the ups and downs and how we react to those. Our framework for this thinking is the scriptural theme of exile; a difficult but central piece of the identity of ancient Israel and their descendants as the people of God. This week, we think more about times when perhaps we experienced exile; maybe not physically from our homeland, but all of us went through being pulled apart by years of pandemic and the effects of that still reverberate in communities like ours. We also have all experienced being pushed apart by societal divisions and those who would profit from those divisions. Maybe personally we have each experienced times of feeling not at home in our bodies, our relationships or our life circumstances. Exile may actually hit closer to home than we think. And so how do we get through it? And more so, what is God trying to do within it? What role does the church play, and why are communities of faith a crucial part of God’s plan for a future with hope? Let’s explore this together!

Link to readable sermon PDF