Jesus says, in today’s Gospel of Mark, “Concern yourself with divine things rather than human things.” He turned to Peter and said, “Remember, you are made for divine things.” In his sermon, Pastor Eric asked us to think about what exactly these divine things are. The Gospel teaches us that divine things include…denying your self,…
A Place of Grace
Sermons (Page 53)
Mark 1:9-15 recounts Satan’s tempting of Jesus in the wilderness. Pastor Eric told us that he was going to confess some things to us. But first he had to tell us a joke to center us. And he did. The theme for today is ‘we are the tempted beloved’. Fighting, stealing and telling a lie…
Lent is a journey with Jesus and a mirror of our life. It’s a journey marked with the cross of Christ. Marked with ashes. What a strange thing we mark ourselves with…ashes. These ashes remind us where we are going and that we would be dust without God. Pastor Beth asked us two questions and…
We believe that we are the church, the body of Christ. What body part are you? Pastor Beth stated that she never really understood the Transfiguration. This part of Jesus’s life goes beyond understanding because with Jesus there’s always more than we can figure out. Jesus can’t be contained. We may not always know what…
On this fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Pastor Eric shared his vision of God’s intimate, immediate kiss of grace. His idea began with a “Thursday Church” exercise of writing words that represented gifts from God on strips of paper and forming them into a chain. Some of the gifts noted were compassion, family, mercy, and growth. During this morning’s children’s…
When Jesus’s was baptized the heavens opened up. When he was teaching in the synagogue for the first time he commanded an unclean spirit out of a person. Life as we know it totally changed when Jesus started his ministry. God was showing his power through his son. Jesus told his disciples that they would…
The first chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark tells of Jesus calling out to others to leave what they are doing and follow him. On this 3rd Sunday after Epiphany, Pastor Eric shared some of the different ways that Jesus has called out to him throughout his life, beginning as a child at Camano…
God was absurdly un-strategic when he entered the world. People expected to find him as a King in a palace, or at least born into a wealthy, well-connected family. Instead, he was born in a barn to a dirt-poor father and mother who were bewildered and exhausted. Then the family moves to the small unremarkable…
Today at St. Mark it was all about the water. During Pastor Eric’s children’s sermon, he gave the kids each a small tree branch, had them dip it in the font and go out into the congregation and share the water with swooping sprinkles…in essence to remember our baptism. It’s all about the water. We…
On this Second Sunday of Christmas, one of our St. Mark youth, Lisha, shared the Gospel of Matthew 5:13-16. In part, it says…“Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your father in heaven.” God’s grace frees us to care, and to do good works.…