This Sunday is incredibly special, as it is the beginning of a new mission focus in our congregation. Our worship, prayers and music today (in honor of Earth Day coming up this Wednesday 4/22) will be focused on the care of God’s creation. The service will also include a special invitation for every person in our community to join us in pledging to be a green congregation; adapting our practices and lifestyles to prioritize environmental stewardship. This is an exciting and groundbreaking day for us, as we join so many other wonderful congregations and organizations doing this good work. We hope you are as excited as we are, and that you will join us in prayer and action!
4/11/2021: How Do we Recognize Jesus Among Us
Christ is Risen!
Did you miss Easter? Maybe you attended a service, but you just can’t connect to the Hope? Maybe it’s hard to recognize in your life today. And if so, you are in good company with Jesus’ disciples on the road to Emmaus after that confusing first Easter morning!! Let’s think together about how we can learn to recognize Jesus with us, even in the hardest of times, and how we can make Jesus more manifest in the lives of others in need.
NOTE: sermon pre-recorded before service and included as a video within worship
EASTER SUNDAY 2021
On this holiest of day that we look forward to every year, we also are mindful that it is our second Easter during global pandemic. It is our second Easter where we are gathering in virtual space only for worship with COA. We have all suffered loss in the last year. It may not feel much like a “normal” Easter. The hope and joy of Easter may feel far away and may not even feel “REAL”. That has been our theme throughout Lent: trying to get a sense of who Jesus is “IRL” (in REAL life), and connect lessons we learn from Him to these lives that are increasingly digital and UN-real. How is Jesus made real in our lives just as they are, even with all that we have gone through of late? Where is the good news even in the midst of all the bad news? I promise you friends, it is there….
Christ is risen…. (He is risen indeed!)
Maundy Thursday 2021 (also Good Friday Service)
This service includes communion along with several readings about Jesus’ suffering on the cross. This year, Pastor Jessie mixed in her message with the readings in a sermon called
I was There: Readings and First-Person Reflections from “Innocent Bystanders” at the Cross.
These include the perspective of characters in the story who maybe don’t always get so much attention, but who, nevertheless, were there in the story, witnessing these events. How can viewing the cross from other angles like this perhaps enlarge our own view of what the cross means in our faith?
3/28/2021: PALM SUNDAY
This week is the culmination of Jesus’ ministry and the beginning of Holy Week. It is His last chance to show the world what He is about–to help us connect the dots. So what does He do? What does it mean? Pay close attention, this is a huge turning point in His story and in ours.