Pastor Beth is a potter, and in one of her attempts at making a bowl it collapsed and she thought it was a total failure. With help she was able to resurrect it and the “scars” from the collapse ended up making it a beautiful and unique piece. She likened our lives to this bowl.…
This was the 13th Sunday after Pentecost and John 6:56-69 tells us the rest of the story of those who did not understand Jesus’s invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Pastor Eric compared today’s gospel to Paul Harvey’s radio comments always having many parts to them and in today’s text, there is…
When standing in the redwood forest, one is reminded that the world is a big place. And that in this world, there are things much bigger than us. In today’s sermon, Pastor Eric reminds us that death happens and that it is bigger than us. But love is greater than death. The gift the Lord…
In John 6:35, 41-51 Jesus said to the people He had fed that He was the bread of life. What does that mean? Retired Pastor David Nelson reminded us that we at St Mark seldom experience hunger. We may diet and try to avoid eating carbs, but we do not experience hunger. Bread is a central theme…
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…