From Foreside Community Church: Recent Episodes
From Foreside Community Church
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:8-16
In a hungry and dry time, the prophet Elijah visits a widow who is sure she has only a crumb to sustain her. How are we invited to be transformed by the invitation to share what we have, when it is so tempting in trying times to turn inward?
The post The Crumb appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-6
The Holy City described by John of Patmos shows us a map of interconnectedness and belonging which will have no end… and contrasts against the symbols and structures of empire which threaten our common life. We give thanks for all the pathways between us created by the saints of our lives and the grace of God.
The post Glory Forever appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Psalm 46
We welcome new life and gifts to our community through baptism and affirmation of faith. As we do so, we are reminded that Jesus taught us to pray daily for God’s care in “times of trial.” The Psalmist lets us know there may be raging waters, but the sure presence of God and beloved community may yet transform those rough seas to the living water we need.
The post Times and Trials appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35
As we consider forgiveness, we hear a difficult parable from Jesus. Can we indeed forgive as we have been forgiven? How does God invite us to choose which economy we live in: one of boundless grace, or of mounting debts and accountability?
We are joined by special guest, artist Frederick Ndabaramiye, who gives testimony on his survival through violence in his home country of Rwanda, perseverance and adaptation in the face of disability and adversity, and hope and witness for others. You can also read Frederick’s written remarks here.
The post What We Owe Each Other appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 6:24-34
As Jesus teaches to pray for daily bread, he connects his ancestors story of abundant care from God, but also the invitation to reflect on what we need, and the abundance of what may be shared.
The post The Bread We Need appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-12
Both Jesus and the prophet Isaiah imagine a world in which earth mirrors heaven. How do we balance this hope and promise with the harsh realities of the world as it is? The answer may lie in the possibility that heaven may be in the reaching for it.
The post Reconciling Earth and Heaven appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 18:1-5, 10-14
Jesus gathers children to him, and to the center of life. As he does so, he teaches a way of prayer in which all of creation is adopted into the family and lineage of God. When we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, how does the fact that we are all invited to know and call God parent change our prayer and our lives?
The post Of Parents and Power appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 6:5-13
As we begin our exploration of the prayer taught to us by Jesus, we pause to wonder what prayer is, and the gifts we carry that allow us to participate in it.
The post Teach Us to Pray appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2:4
Guest preacher John Kipp helps us remember that God created and called the creation good. How are we called to shape our attention to similarly see the goodness of the creation of which we are a part?
The post Attention and Appreciation appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: James 1:17-27
The letter of James invites us to be “doers of the word.” This means that we will have to practice embodying our faith/ What should we practice in the year to come?
The post What We Do: Practice appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20
When there is so much that can tempt us to shield ourselves and those we love from pain, or change, or conflict… how do we instead follow God’s path which invites us to radical connection, community, and even vulnerability?
The post Armor and Chains appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: John 6:51-58, Proverbs 9:1-6
Jesus tells followers to eat and drink from his body and blood. The disciples say, “This teaching is too dificult,” and we might agree. But is there in this strange meal an inviation to know Christ and one another more deeply? How have God—and others—fed us in ways that carry the very essence of their being and love?
The post Making a Meal of Wisdom and Love appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33, Ephesians 4:25-5:2
The end of the story between King David and his son, Absalom, is one of tragedy after a history of violence and retribution which was never faced. Can we learn what they could not: to face righteous anger, hurt, and injustice so that there might be healing, rather than the death of love and relationship?
The post The Long Walk: Healing After Rupture appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15, John 6:24-35
Jesus offers living bread where God is cenetered in beloved community. How can we nurture this blessing and gift?.
The post The Holiness of Today’s Bread appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scriptures: Ephesians 3:14-21, John 6:1-15
There is a lot that we can hunger for in our lives: food, safety, control. Jesus feeds people with God’s blessing and what he finds among them, yet they—and we—are convinced that the simplest answer is to make Jesus king. How do we instead understand his invitation to place God in the center of our lives, connecting all our gifts in ways we cannot imagine, rather than at the head of the table?
The post Power: Of Kings and Bread appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: John 12:20-33
Jesus invites his followers to think of their lives as seeds… something that must crack open and die to grow into new life. We are all tempted to remain in one form, one place, one identity… How can we experience this invitation to growth as blessing and resurrection, not only for ourselves, but for our communities?
The post Planted appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scriptures: Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-21
Jesus tells a retells a strange story from the book of Numbers to explain his idea of the cross. In this Lent, what does the cross mean to us… and how does that meaning shape our commitment to the one who came to “save the world, and not condemn it”?
The post No More Crosses: To See What Saved Us appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Exodus 20:1-17
The Ten Commandments have a long and storied history in our culture and imagination… but we often miss the law that lands in the center of them, and might transform our relationship with God, and with one another.
The post Rest: The Law Between the Lines appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
A new name broadens blessing and belonging for Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants… how might we be challenged to release our old “names” and ways of being so that we might be renamed as a more inclusive and blessing people?
The post Renamed on the Way appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17
After the flood, God makes a promise (and a rainbow) of protection over all creation. Can we, as part of that creation take up that promise for each other, and for all the earth?
The post Dust and Promises appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Ash Wednesday invites us into Lent, not as a self-improvement plan, but as witness to how God draws near to us as we are… and how that grace still transforms us. We are dust, we say this night… but we are also God’s.
The post Ash Wednesday – What Is Not Crushed appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Mark 1:29-39
Jesus brings healing home. Is this a troubling story in which God “cures” certain people, and not others? Or is this an invitation to think about the richness of healing, and how we can offer it to one another, and share it with the wider world?
The post The Healing Given appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Mark 1:21-28
As Jesus teaches in a holy gathering, he is met by an unholy spirit which has bound up a man. How often are we caught up in debates about what or who belongs where… when the deeper and more pressing question is, “What is the healing that is required?” For individuals? For the community?
The post The Authority in Healing appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Psalm 62:5-12
The Psalmist tells us of God’s promises heard twice: in words and in silence. How can we participate in God’s call to be present and to care for others when they are in those wordless and silent places of grief and change?
The post In Silence: Spoken Twice appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20
God calls Samuel in the night, but Samuel is confused and assumes it is his teacher, Eli. How do we listen for God’s calling beyond our human leaders: when they are imperfect, or even when their beloved and inspiring memory tempts us to turn away from the call?
The post Who’s Calling? appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Luke 2:22-40A bleary-eyed holy family is greeted by wise elders, who offer them news of challenge and of great hope. We give thanks for the chance to pass on “the song” of God’s promise from one generation to the next… just as we most need it: in the beginning.
The post What Anna Said appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: John 1:1-14We are told, in this silent night, that God came as light… and that light helps us to see the whole world differently, and helps us see even the one who shines in the light, and the mystery that cannot be seen. How can we hold light for one another in this season, ... Read more
The post Lightness and Being appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
All our ancient texts invite us to see the fulfillment of God’s promises in an infant on Christmas Eve. What gifts arrive with a life so vulnerable and full of possibilities? And what will that life—that Christ—ask of us?
The post A Child of Grace and Truth appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Luke 1:26-38An angel delivers news to Mary, and Mary’s yes into uncertainty and vulnerability makes room for God. How can we do the same?
The post Love that Is Not Afraid appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Luke 1:39-55As the Music Ministries lead us in worship, we listen to Mary’s song of glory to God, and to the child who is coming to fulfill God’s promises and turn things upside down.
The post Justice and Joy appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11The prophets tell us of a time when all will be welcomed to the fullness of home… when all the paths that lead to love will feel short and easy to find. How do we find these paths through life now, and even better, prepare the way for others deeper into the welcome ... Read more
The post The Long or Short Way ‘Round appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Mark 13:24-37Jesus tells of a “revealing:” the world remade so fully that even the stars are shifted in their orbits. In times of disorientation, when the ways we navigate our lives are broken, how do we find our way to the heart of God? In this Advent season, we watch and wait trusting in ... Read more
The post The Shifting Stars – Advent Hope appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46Jesus invites us to find the very presence of God in the face of the thirsty and hungry… and hence, into building God’s coming reign through “the next right thing.”
The post The Thirsty King appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Amos 5:18-24The prophet Amos challenges us to ask, what is changed in our worship? If we are not changed, are not invited to live out God’s justice, is it worship? How does that justice which rolls down like waters shape and reshape us through all the years?
The post The Work that Works On Us appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12As Jesus declares blessing over categories of folk who have known sorrow and challenge, we see in the saints of our lives the gift of those who find in their own pain or grief the calling to deeper love, connection, and hope.
The post Saints, Blessed and Broken appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 22:34-46In the wake of the recent shooting in Maine, we struggle with how to remember what is core to our experience and our purpose, so we return to Jesus’s Greatest Commandment(s). As we seek to more fully love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, how are we also being challenged to love ... Read more
The post The Mirror: Beyond the Frame appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Philippians 4:1-9Remembering the diversity of leadership of the early church, we are all called to rejoice in gifts and talents that cannot be contained by a binary as we welcome Maine TransNet to share their work with us.
The post The Mirror: Seeing Oneness appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Philippians 3:4b-14As we look to the image of Christ as a mirror that shows us who we can be, sometimes the hardest challenge is letting go the image of ourselves we had in the past. In a time in which ancient tensions are exploding in new violence, how can we release the past to ... Read more
The post The Mirror: Old Images appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Philippians 2:1-13An ancient hymn in the letter to the Philippians invites us to see in Jesus’s self-giving love a reflection of God’s loving vision of what we are, and what we can be…
The post The Mirror: Seeing Clearly in Christ appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16Jesus tells a parable of workers in a vineyard and wages that strain our understanding of “fairness,” maybe until it breaks and we question how we connect labor and life… and discover God’s justice.
The post A Never-Too-Late God appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Psalm 98:1-6, Romans 8:31-38Our traditions offer us a part in the music of life: ancient songs which carry the memory of both pain and liberation, and new songs which inspire us to see new life and transformation. As we begin a fall of deepening our welcome and care for our LGBTQ+ siblings, how can ... Read more
The post Deep Memories and New Songs appeared first on Foreside Community Church.
Scripture: Matthew 18:15-20Jesus shares ways of living in the tensions of community… are these only for emergencies? Or might we be called into a changing community that can engage those tensions and find creativity?
Scripture: Romans 12:9-21
A letter to the early church offers and inspiring—then challenging—instruction on how to hold together in community after rupture and conflict, and maybe after we have been… wild things.
Scripture: Romans 12:1-8Living in beloved community, with all of its tensions, differences, and challenges… changes us. Rather than the sameness of “conforming” to our own default assumptions, the Holy Spirit teaches us transformation.
Scripture: Romans 10:5-15The letter to the Romans wonders at how Christ is best proclaimed and understood. Today, we might wonder… are there better ways than words?
Scripture: Matthew 14:13-21As Jesus is found in the midst of hungry people in the wilderness. Like his followers, we may be tempted to use scarcity as a reason to break community… but instead… Jesus breaks bread. How can we join him?
Scripture: Romans 8:26-39As the Apostle Paul assures the church in Rome that our prayers are received and woven into God’s hope for good, we wonder a bit about how prayer works… for others we pray for, and for ourselves. And we sit with the quiet of prayers that feel unanswered, and the hope that may ... Read more
Scripture: Matthew 10:24-39Jesus warns his disciples of some of the costs of following him. Along the way, he sounds unkind to family, but he may be inviting us to see all those—related and unrelated—who nurture and nourish God’s call to us, and encourage us to risk ourselves in the struggle for a more just world.
Scripture: Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-6As Abraham and Sarah receive unexpected news and blessing of new life… Sarah laughs. As daily visitations from God, as new expressions of life and love come to us, do we laugh, or do we fear? This Pride month, as there are many signs that some are turning to fear, how can ... Read more
Scripture: Matthew 9:35-10:8We celebrate with graduates and students at the conclusion of the school year. As Jesus “graduates” disciples into his ministry, he sends them with an important “why” behind everything they do, with particular things to do, and with places to go. How can we, like those first disciples be moved by Jesus’s compassion ... Read more
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2:4aWhat can the first creation story of Genesis help us understand about the interdependence and interconnectedness of all life? On the sometimes mysterious holy day of Trinity Sunday, how might that web and community of life help us to understand God’s pattern of community, connection, and care?
Scripture: Acts 2:1-21As we welcome new members and celebrate baptism, Pentecost invites us into the wondrous and challenging work of listening—in many languages—to the power of God in each other’s lives.
Scripture: Acts 1:6-14
We tell the story of Jesus’s Ascension into heaven… maybe because the disciples, and we, need to be reminded to look down… to find Jesus present in our lives in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture: John 14:15-21
As Jesus says farewell to his disciples, he tells them that God’s abiding presence will remain with them… a presence and love as of a parent to a child. We give thanks for those who have mothered us into life in many ways, and for the ways that care has shown us God, and shown us how to care for others.
Scripture: John 14:1-14
As Jesus says farewell to his disciples, he invites them to take up his Way, an embodied life and love deep in the heart of God.
Scripture: Acts 2:14a, 36-41
As the early followers of the Way of Jesus begin their public ministry, Peter preaches to the citizens of Jerusalem. His speech is convicting, but also told from his own experience of having failed along the way… in the complexity of our modern lives, how do we take hope when we have failed previously? On this Earth Day weekend, with all the systems which trap us in patterns of wounding the earth, how can we begin again, living more wholly with each other and all creation?
Scripture: John 20:19-29
The Rev. James Gertmenian joins us, inviting us into “Upper Room Stories” in the unsettled times after Jesus’s resurrection. Into these times, Jesus comes to offer peace… but a new and different peace that makes a claim on all of us who receive it.
Scripture: Luke 24:13-35
As we welcome new members into our midst through the rite of Confirmation on Easter Sunday, we visit with two disciples on the road who meet the newly risen Jesus. How will we journey together on the paths of life so that we may find Jesus with us, too?
Scripture: Psalm 118:19-29, Matthew 21:1-11
As Jesus enters Jerusalem to cheers and shouts, we wonder at what can fall down and fall apart so quickly in our longing for God’s presence. And yet, the psalmist reminds us that God can build on, maybe especially, that which has fallen down. How can we view those “cracks in our foundations” as opportunities for new strength?
Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14
The prophet Ezekiel sees a vision of bones coming to life… in a particular place. In times in which we are feeling lifeless, we are invited to remember how God can yet breathe life: into us, into connected community, and into community connected to home and place.
Scripture: John 9:1-41
The story of Jesus and a man who was born blind invite us to ask what might be healed beyond sight in Jesus’s healing works. The story also asks us to consider who we make invisible, and how disability has too long been used as a way of erasing and excluding.
Scripture: John 4:5-26
Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well. After so many years laboring to draw up what will sustain her life amid isolation and pain, can she, can we, believe that God has drawn near to share—and teach us to share—water of life that will nurture us all?
Scripture: John 3:1-17
A man named Nicodemus visits Jesus at night, because he is changing his mind, and maybe he doesn’t want anyone to see him change. Jesus describes rebirth in the Spirit as a flow of air or water… how can we be faithful people accustomed to changing, adapting, and growing in faith?
Scripture: Romans 5:12-19
As we begin in Lent to retell the story of how Christ’s love reaches beyond those walls we have created between ourselves and God, we begin with Paul’s retelling of Genesis, through which the church has often viewed sin. How can we retell this ancient story of how “things fall apart” in a way that may help us to more fully and wholly live?
Scripture: Matthew 17:1-9
The story of Jesus’s transfiguration invites us to know that in Christ God has come not to glory in dazzling visions, but to touch us, our lives, and our pain.
Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
God presents the people of Israel with a choice: to walk in paths of life, or paths of death. Yet, many times we shrink back from choosing… why? How does God’s grace allow us to be brave and choose to walk towards life, even when we miss a step?
Scripture: Matthew 5:13-20
The Sermon on the Mount continues with a challenge to those who try to follow Jesus: be in the world, but change it, rather than being changed by it. When we sometimes feel small in the face of the sorrows of the world, is there encouragement for us in finding ourselves to be “salt?”
Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12
Jesus begins his sermon from a mountainside by proclaiming blessings on people who would be unexpected by the times they lived in. How can we join them today?
Scripture: Matthew 4:12-23
The Rev. Charles Erb joins us, offering stories of how disciples have been called through the years. Often by the lakeside, often by church camps, always by Jesus.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
The apostle Paul writes to a divided and dividing church in Corinth, hoping to retell the story of God’s beloved community, and hoping to remind us all that we are all saints when we are united in God’s mutual care for us and calling to us.
Scripture: Matthew 3:13-17
As Jesus is baptized in a vision of the Holy Spirit, we might wonder: is this special blessing because of all Jesus will do, or because of all Jesus has been? How can we value the belovedness of each person more than their activity? Can we slow our busy lives enough to make space for God’s blessing to flow through us?.
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25
In our Advent and Christmas stories, angels appear in unsettled times with songs of glory and the reminder to, “Be not afraid.” We are called to echo back that song of fearlessness in loving action…
Scripture: Matthew 3:1-12
John the Baptist comes proclaiming one who is to come. So often we have heard that cry as one that is coming to judge our spiritual “housekeeping.” Maybe, instead, the invitation is simply to find room for the Holy to be born in us… just as “In the Bleak Midwinter” invites us to imagine the stable—those places which may be messy in our lives—as the place holy enough to contain the Christ-child.
Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5The carol by Christina Rosetti, In the Bleak Midwinter, begins with the world frozen, solid, and unchangeable. Yet Christ will come to this landscape. The prophet Isaiah invites us to imagine the earth itself reshaped according to God’s purpose and care. How can we hold onto a hope that might yet melt all ... Read more
Scripture: John 6:25-355,000 people who have been miraculously fed go seeking Jesus for the recipe for this miracle. Yet Jesus reminds us all that God’s miracle is in the gathering community in which the sharing of daily bread can sustain all.
Scripture: Isaiah 65:17-25FCC member, The Rev. Joan Murray, joins us and shares in the transformative message of the prophet Isaiah. How do we make our ourselves more open and receptive to God’s change?
Scripture: Galatians 3:23-29As we welcome new members and bsptize children into the life of the church, we listen for the sound of an ancient creed woven into the letter to the Galatians. Here, we find an invitation to a community of belonging before believing. How can baptism move us closer to oneness with each other, ... Read more
Scripture: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 How do we listen to Wisdom? As Proverbs invites us to hear her at the crossroads of life, and in the workings of creation, how can we challenge ourselves—and our faith—not to reject transformation and growth, but to incorporate them into a greater wisdom?
How do we make sense of our Bible? It is available almost everywhere, but too often we find that there are those who read out of it words that harm abundant life. The prophet Isaiah and a writer of the early church invite us to find in scripture that which gives life and builds up. ... Read more
We spend time thinking about the meaning and power of the holy meal we share in communion, and hear from an ancient church where the meal has gone awry. How does the broken bread—and the Christ who shares it with us—teach us to share not just the table’s gifts… but all of life?
Scripture: Colossians 1:11-20An ancient letter invites the church to find oneness in Christ, a presence that has been and is in all creation. How does this cosmic story of God’s connection touch the human stories we tell about Jesus, the stories and challenges of our own lives? Can we find in one another that which ... Read more
Scripture: Exodus 3:1-15When asking the question, “Who is God?” we are often tempted to stop at our “first impression.” Yet reading our scriptures thoughtfully, we might encounter God first at the burning bush with Moses. How might our faith be challenged by a God who first demanded liberation for oppressed people?
Scripture: Luke 15:1-10Some religious leaders are certain who Jesus should and shouldn’t be associated with. Jesus responds by telling of a God who is always searching for us. How are we searching for God in these times? In the questions and mysteries of our lives, how are we encountering that God who longs to find ... Read more
Scripture: Jeremiah 18:1-11, Psalm 139God shows the prophet Jeremiah a vision of a potter at work. Like the people of that time, we can often fear the pattern of shaping, and re-shaping… un-forming, and re-forming. Yet we are promised by the psalmist the love of God which has dreamed a form for us before we ... Read more
Scripture: Luke 14:1, 7-14At a dinner party, Jesus takes note of those who are striving for position and power. He teaches those gathered—and us, through the years—that welcome and generosity should not be used for self-serving aims, but to liberate us from systems and structures which would declare who is “worthy” of welcome.
The prophet Isaiah speaks to a people sure that they are following the “rules” on the sabbath as they have received them from God, but perhaps not the invitation to deeper understanding and living. How can we align our intentions, and not just our actions, for the coming of a more just world?
An ancient preacher tells us of the generations of faithful witnesses that have gone before us, encouraging us to face the challenges and changes of our own time as we look to the joyful victory of God’s love.
In teaching about money, Jesus reminds his followers “be not afraid,” and to be careful how they store up in the face of abundance. Sometimes this is easier said than done… how do we work to build generosity that can call us beyond our fears?
Jesus invites disciples to see God’s glory in love that gives and is transformed by loving. Pastor Geoff writes a letter on the edge of life changes full of love… and transformation.
The psalmist of today’s most famous psalm finds peace not through avoiding shadows, but by being accompanied by the shepherd through them. On a day where we give thanks for the parenting love of others, we wonder at how God as shepherd and mother might show us the power of this presence with us.
We give thanks for the ministry of Laura Rodas with our children for the last 11 years. As we do, we think back on the teachers in our lives who have shown us the risen Christ, and our call to share that same gift with others.
Scripture: John 20:19-31 The disciples find themselves locked in an upper room in fear and uncertainty. One of them, Thomas, longs to touch the risen Jesus, facing the reality of the pain of what has been. On the other side of the touch comes a great unlocking, sending the disciples and Jesus’s ministry into the ... Read more
Scripture: Luke 24:1-12 In the Gospel of Luke, the good news of Easter is an empty tomb with Jesus no where to be found. When faithful women try to share the news, it is considered “an idle tale.” What signs of resurrection are we too quick to call “idle”, impractical or unreasonable? How can we ... Read more
Jesus enters Jerusalem and shows us the uncertain and unsettled ways in a life can change in a week. Through his journey, and the ways in which our ancestors invite us to retell it each year, how might we learn to face that uncertain and painful path… trusting that God’s power and presence transform the ... Read more
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
The Apostle Paul, in a time of conflict, writes of the hope of a new creation in which all are reconciled to one another and to God. How do we join that “ministry of reconciliation?” Could the answer be in finding the possibility of resurrection in each of us?
Scripture: John 12:1-8 Mary, a dear friend of Jesus, pours out a gift of anointing upon him one night at dinner. In an intimate story of touch, an invitation unfolds: to know the holiness, honor, fragility, and sorrow that is carried in the experience of the body. And then, a question arises: how does this story of the richness of human touch, love, and relationship with Jesus call us to reach out to others in the same way?
Scripture: Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
To practice ways of “re-telling” stories to deepen our understanding, we explore the parable that has been known as “The Prodigal Son”… by recognizing that Jesus taught it to speak to “The Proper Son.” What greater generosity might be there within this story for that lesser known character, for us, for the world we live in… if we could challenge our inner stories of a parent—or a god—without enough love to go around?
Scripture: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Abraham boldly sets out to a new life, with a new name, in a new place… he does so grounded in the promise of God. How do we ground ourselves… find ourselves… in promises that can make us brave enough to step out towards a new, more whole, more loving, life and world?
Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35 In a challenging parable, Jesus calls us to a forgiveness that does not “keep score,” and that challenges us to accept our own forgiveness in ways that may break apart structures of indebtedness and move us towards generosity and grace.
Scripture: Luke 9:28-36**** In a week in which there are “wars and rumors of wars,” the story of Jesus’s transfiguration on the top of a mountain calls to mind glory-filled moments of wonder… moments that are often fleeting and stand in contrast to the world we meet down the mountain. How can we carry the love and wonder of God with us to bridge the gap between the world as it is, and the world as it can be… and will be… in the fulfillment of God’s love and peace?
Scripture: John 15:1-11
Jesus invites the disciples (and us!) to join their life to his, and says that joy will be complete. Yet he does this at the last supper, just before a time we would assume joy would be far from his mind. How do the challenges of life invite us into more full “abiding” with one another… and into the fullness of joy?
Scripture: Job 38:1-18 What is our right relationship to the creation around us? God answers Job’s complaint of injustice and suffering with a puzzling, challenging, and poetic reply. It is not an easy thing to hear. Yet, there may be an invitation to Job, and to us, to find ourselves in the scale and scope of all creation, and woven into a web of connection with it. That same connection we feel in the church as the body of Christ may connect us with everything that is… and call us into mutual care with all creatures.
Scripture: James 1:27-2:8
The letter of James calls out the early church for creating divisions between the rich and poor as they gather for worship and the keeping of the feast. We strive to care for those in need around us, but we may find ways in which we need to improve our welcome, caring for the wholeness of each person… that all may enjoy the fullness of life abundant in community.
Scripture: Matthew 22: 15-22
Confronted by a trick question about the entanglements of money, Jesus pulls another trick: reminding those who who can hear that all gifts flow from God. How are we called, then, to the gifts which have been entrusted to us?
Note: Please excuse the audio from this week’s sermon! Snow storms bring the need for improvisation!
Scripture: Isaiah 58:3-12 In a time of turmoil, we are often tempted to look for easy, direct answers, like a tv detective solving a crime. Isaiah writes to his people, encouraging them to look at the whole picture, to see how the community may create a larger justice. We strive for the same, as we hear from “My Sister’s Keeper,” one of our Outreach partners who provides community and support for women transitioning from jail or prison.
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:1-10 Our ancestors in faith wove the church together across differences, but also constructed a new and shared identity of belonging. There are so many barriers of injustice—both real and metaphorical—we have constructed between ourselves… in our lives, in our cities and neighborhoods, in our access to basic rights. How can we build of ourselves that spiritual home the early church envisioned in the unity of Christ?
Scripture: Exodus 20:1-2; 23:6-12 As we explore a series of calls to the church, including this week, “Embrace Diversity,” we listen for how our ancestors incorporated and engaged difference—rather than erasing it—to find themselves a people of God on the journey together. In a time in which so many are feeling stressed and anxious, how can we resist the urge to withdraw, and rather listen to the full variety of experiences and backgrounds?