January 29, 2017

1 Corinthians 1:18-31
This Sunday is Laity Sunday. Our scripture picks up right where we left off last week in Paul’s 1st letter to the church in Corinth.  Paul is addressing some of the church’s conflicts, and he invites each of them to “consider your own call.”  This will be our theme, and the sermon time will be a facilitated time for all of us to share.

January 22, 2017

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

This Sunday, we journey into Paul’s 1st letter to the church in Corinth.  They are experiencing growing pains and an identity crisis, and Paul speaks into those conflicts.  He writes that the people should be “united in the same mind and the same purpose.”  And I wonder what this unity means for us and what it requires of us—especially when ideas are being espoused and things are being done in the name of Christianity which seem absolutely antithetical to the Christian message.  We will consider: What is the message of the cross? What is its power?  What is the process of being saved? (Just a few light questions. . . . J)

January 15, 2017

Isaiah 42:1-9

This Sunday, we pay tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. and other prophets who provide us an important legacy for our spiritual journeys.  This week, as we remember the work and challenge of Martin Luther King, Jr., we will consider how we might call our best selves forward, how we might become faithful servants who bring light and justice to all peoples, how we might live into a faithful resistance to anything that calls us to sacrifice our deepest values.

January 8, 2017

Matthew 3:13-17    

“Blessed Are You Who Bear the Light” by Jan Richardson
Blessed are you
 who bear the light
 in unbearable times,
 who testify
 to its endurance
 amid the unendurable,
 who bear witness
 to its persistence
 when everything seems
 in shadow
 and grief.

Blessed are you
 in whom
 the light lives,
 in whom
 the brightness blazes—
your heart
 a chapel,
 an altar where
 in the deepest night
 can be seen
 the fire that
 shines forth in you
 in unaccountable faith
 in stubborn hope
 in love that illumines
 every broken thing
 it finds.