Remember the early TV show Mission Impossible? Remember how the mission was communicated on reel to reel tape, then self-destructed? The actors were equipped with disguises and fancy devices while attempting to accomplish the mission. And it always turned out. It always did. But “not without a lot of twists and turns and action and…
Pastor Beth begins her sermon with a very loving story concerning her own family. She goes on to talk about John’s gospel, 6:1-21, revealing the mystery of God when Jesus fed the 5000 followers with only five barley loves and two fishes. God is generous. That the feeding happened is what matters; not how it…
We’ve all seen and heard the phrase “God’s Work, Our Hands”, but what does this really mean? Bishop Hanson stated, “We do God’s work not because God needs us to do so, but because our neighbor does”. In Pastor Eric’s sermon today, he reminds us that doing God’s work has three elements: Divine Play, Divine Hospitality,…
What do Prophets and Semi-colons have in common? They are little used and poorly understood – now and in Jesus’s day. Pastor Beth connects stories of the prophet Amos with a current day prophet, Amy Bleuel, of Project Semi-Colon. Amy lost her father to suicide ten years ago and wanted to honor her father with…
In Mark 6:1-13, Jesus calls his twelve disciples and starts to send them out, two by two, with nothing but the clothes on their body, the sandals on their feet and a staff because God’s Grace will take care of them. Pastor Eric spoke of how God’s Love comes down on us abundantly. God’s Love…
In today’s Gospel Lesson (Mark 4: 21-45), Jesus healed a hemmorhaging woman and Jairus’ daughter. For the sermon, Pastor Beth wrote a dramatic reading which was shared by two women in the congregation–Amy B. and Joyce B. In Pastor Beth’s creative interpretation of these stories, we dig a little deeper and see how, although life…
The Gospel lesson in Mark 4 is essentially about “crossing to the other side”. Jesus was traveling to the “other side” in a boat with his disciples. As Jesus slept, the storm brewed, and the disciples woke him for help. Jesus rebuked the wind and there was calm. Jesus asked, “Have you no faith?” Whether…
Mark 4:26-34 is the mustard seed parable gospel. Pastor Beth pointed out that we hear hopeful images in all our readings today. She spoke of the Redwood trees in California that have a shallow root system but the roots spread out widely and intermingle with other Redwood tree roots to support each other. We need…
Today’s sermon, as Pastor Beth described it, was “fraught with F words”. And each scripture reading and the Gospel were portrayed as examples of “keeping it honest and real”. The first reading from Genesis shows the fall of Adam and Eve, each finding fault with someone else, fearing being honest with themselves, with each other…
On this, Holy Trinity Sunday, Pastor Eric gave us many images of the trinity. There is the familiar “Father, Son and Holy Ghost”. But what about “Creator, Liberator and Advocator”, or “Baker of the Bread, the Breadstick, and the Server”? We all have powerful images of God and we use those things around us as…