Second Sunday of Christmas January 3, 2021 Rejection, Alienation and the Healing Embrace of God
we experienced some technical difficulties that interrupted our livestream. the video below to the left contains the sermon. below to the right is the pastoral prayer & celebration of communion.
First Sunday of Christmas Simeon and the Revelation of God
Christmas Eve Service of Lessons and Carols
Excited to feature our Music Director Emma Latendresse, her husband Bill as the song-leader and soloist, & Anna Collins as guest instrumentalist. Pastor Darin's Christmas Eve Sermon - Jesus Wasn't Born in a Stable, Finding Joy in a Sad and Strange Christmas Season Special visit by Santa Claus reading Twas the Night before Christmas.
Dec 20, 2020 Advent 4 Worship Service Mary's Story - Companionship and Community in Troubling Times
Dec 13, 2020 Advent 3 Worship Service John's Story - Discouragement & Discovering Life's Purpose
Dec 6, 2020 Advent 2 Worship Service with Celebration of the Lord's Table Isaiah's Story - Darkness & Active Waiting for the Peace of God
Nov 29, 2020 - Advent 1 Sarah's Story - Delay, Disappointment & Daring to Hope
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Thanksgiving Morning Prayer Service Attending to Your Flocks
We've brought back the Thanksgiving morning prayer service. Don Water delivers a message of hope and encouragement - Attending to Your Flocks Emma and Bill Latendress lead us in singing some of our traditional Thanksgiving favorites - We Gather Together, For the Beauty of the Earth and more...
Previous Sermon Series In the Wilderness Stories of Struggle, Survival and Transformation
In the Wilderness - Faith Embodied
Luke 3 In our final sermon of the series John the Baptist shows us the importance of a faith that goes beyond opinion and is embodied in our actions. Specifically actions that draw us into mutual relationships with the vulnerable in our society and which ensure that the impoverished are provided for.
Sunday Nov 15, 2020 In the Wilderness 5 - The Voice of God Through our Anxieties
Matt 4 We are used to hearing this story described as Jesus tempted in the desert. But what if it was the story of Jesus subject to the same fears and anxieties that we feel, in the wilderness? What if this were a story about Jesus struggling, and succeeding to hear the encouraging and also demanding voice of God helping us through our anxieties to remain faithful? That is what we explore in this weeks sermon
Sunday Nov 8, 2020 In the Wilderness 4 - Finding Safe Space
Our Scripture this week is 1 Kings 17. Elijah is sent into the wilderness after delivering a message of God's displeasure to King Ahab. There will be a famine because of Ahab's idolatry and corruption. Ahab has made God's creation unsafe, life untenable. Elijah must go into the wilderness to find safe space. Then into a foreign land making a relationship of mutual care with a widow and her son. We watch God create safe space for the vulnerable.
Sunday Nov 1, 2020 In the Wilderness 3 - When Fear is Our Guide
Exodus 32 - In the Wilderness 3 - When Fear is Our Guide Moses leaves the Israelites for 40 days to travel up the mountain to receive the 10 Commandments. But the Israelites are afraid. And in their fear they choose to put their trust in idols.
Sunday October 25, 2020 In the Wilderness 2 - This is Not What I Expected
Exodus 16: 1-30 Today's story takes place after God has liberated the Hebrew's from their enslavement in Egypt. They follow God into the wilderness, but then experience hunger and grow afraid. This is not what they expected to be the result of their trust in God. In the wilderness we are surprised by the God we did not expect. In the wilderness we learn that our faith in God does not always make us feel safe and secure. Sometimes we feel more vulnerable when we decide to journey with God and try to remain faithful to God in trying times. But this story also claims that God is paying attention & is ready to care for us in the wilderness.
Sunday Oct 18, 2020 In the Wilderness 1 - There Aren't Always Happy Endings
Genesis 16:1-9 In today's story we re-tell the well known story of Hagar who is the slave of Sarai and Abram. But we focus on an aspect of the story that is often glossed over. She escapes, what must have been the unimaginably painful experience of enslavement and makes here way to the wilderness. In the wilderness, she meets God. But God sends her back to her enslavers. Sometimes there aren't happy endings. So Hagar's testimony is that God does not always rescue us from cruelty, however, God does empower us to survive.
Sunday October 11, 2020 You, Who Are Weary
Matthew 11:28-30 - This stand alone sermon serves as a bit of an introduction to our current series, In the Wilderness. In this sermon we hear Jesus invite the weary and heavily burdened to come to him for rest. We learn that Jesus offers this lesson because John the Baptist, his cousin and mentor, is having a really tough time in prison. So tough that he questions whether Jesus, whom he devoted his life to supporting, was really the Messiah after all. So Jesus speaks to us in our bitterest disappointments and deepest darkest doubts, offering his healing, restoring presence.
Sunday June 21, 2020 - Jehosheba's Great Risk
Hope in Chaos, Hope from Chaos - Bold Women of the First Testament Sermon 3 2 Kings 11:1-3 Summary - When Athaliah conspires to murder the royal family, including the little one's in order to claim the throne for herself, Jehosheba resists denial, faces fear, and pushes through self doubt to take a bold and risky action in hopes of preserving a chance at a new beginning for the kingdom by kidnapping her nephew and hiding him in the Temple. Jehosheba shows us courageous discipleship and the importance of sacred disobedience.
Sunday June 14, 2020 - Five Bold Sisters Demand Inclusion
Hope in Chaos, Hope from Chaos - Bold Women of the First Testament Sermon 2 Five Bold Sisters Demand a Share and a Place Number 27: 1-11 Summary - Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah are by law excluded from receiving an inheritance from the now deceased Father. They go to Moses and challene the law, which is in effect, to challenge God to include them in community and the covenant in a material way. We address with the sister's example of demanding material inclusion in the community common responses to Black Lives Matter, such as 'All Lives Matter,' & 'I Don't See Color,' both of which erase historic racism, systemic racism and exclude African-Americans from our compassion and community.
Sunday June 7, 2020 - Jochebed Names Her Baby, Good
Hope in Chaos, Hope from Chaos - Bold Women of the First Testament Sermon 1 Blessing, Jochebed Names Her Baby Good Exodus 2: 1-10 Summary - Pharaoh names all the male Hebrew babies a threat to Egypt and orders them killed. But Jochebed has a baby boy in defiance of the Pharaoh and calls him fine, names him Tov, Good. We recall in this sermon all those from George Floyd to Emmit Till and beyond who are named a threat and proclaim that they and all our African-American sibling in Christ are Tov, Good.