This Sunday’s Worship: august 6th
(Sunday, August 6th At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Psalm 145 v. 8-9 and v. 14-18 and Matthew 14; 13-21
Sermon: Tale of Two Banquets by Pastor Mark Harper
And so new life was born in the dark of that pit of hell. And so the midwife died before dawn, still bathed in blood. Let us be midwives! Let us be midwives! Even if we lay down our own lives to do so.”
--Sadako Kurihara, Let Us Be Midwives! An Untold Story of the Atomic Bombing”
This Sunday’s Worship: July 30th
(Sunday, July 30 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Romans 8:18-27 and Matthew 13:31-33
Sermon: Bird Sanctuary by Pastor Mark Harper
“(God) also showed me a tiny thing in the palm of my hand, the size of a hazelnut. I looked at this with the eye of my soul and thought: ‘What is this?’ And this is the answer that came to me: ‘It is all that is made.’ I was astonished that it managed to survive: it was so small that I thought it might disintegrate. And in my mind I heard this answer: ‘It lives on and will live on forever because God loves it.’” -Julian of Norwich, 14th Century
Photo by Jacques LE HENAFF on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: July 23rd
(Sunday, July 23 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Genesis 28:10-19 and 2 Timothy 4:1-8
Sermon: The Best of Your Service by Rev. Eugene Eastman
“Blessed are you who have reached a new age – even if it doesn’t seem to fit. It may feel too big. Too reductive. Too limiting. It may be marked by a life you barely recognize. The kids who have all moved out or settled somewhere far away. The work that no longer sets the daily hum. The life partner who is gone and friends you’ve outlived. The body that doesn’t allow for the hobby you love anymore. The monthly check that doesn’t provide the flexibility you’d hoped for … God, give us the eyes to notice the ways life can still be beautiful and rich and full in the midst of so much that has been lost. Remind us that you are not done with us yet.” - Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have
This Sunday’s Worship: July 16th
(Sunday, July 16 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Luke 6:20-38 and Jeremiah 6:13-16
Sermon: His Eye is on the Sparrow by Matt Kaiser
“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests – look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.” - Eugene Peterson, The Message, Luke 6:26
Photo by Jacques LE HENAFF on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: July 9th
(Sunday, July 9 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Zechariah 9:9-12 and Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Sermon: Love and Liberation by Rev. David Ensign
“Sometimes I feel lost,” said the boy. “Me too,” said the mole, “but we love you, and love brings you home.” - Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse
This Sunday’s Worship: July 2nd
(Sunday, July 2 At 10 AM, Hybrid Communion Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Psalm 89:1-4 and Matthew 11:2-6
Sermon: Sighs and Wonders by Pastor Mark Harper
“ ‘Isn’t love enough?’ (Jesus) asks John. ‘No,’ John answers angrily. ‘The tree is rotten. God called me and gave me the ax, which I then placed at the roots of the tree. I did my duty. Now you do yours: Take the ax and strike!’ ‘If I were fire, I would burn,’ Jesus says. ‘If I were a woodcutter, I would strike; but I am a heart, and I love.’” - Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: June 25th
(Sunday, June 25 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Matthew 10:40-42 and John 11:1-6, 17-27
Sermon: Unbinding Mary by Pastor Mark Harper
“Like it or not, the gospel is a story unleashed. Even Jesus had trouble keeping a lid on it … And that makes some people nervous. That makes me nervous. Because it means every Christian gets a testimony, every Christian gets a ‘gospel according to …’ whether you’re Desmond Tutu or Tim Tebow.” -Rachel Held Evans, Inspired
This Sunday’s Worship: June 18th
(Sunday, June 18 At 110AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Isaiah 35 and John 11:1-3,17,32-44
Sermon: Lazarus Unbound by Pastor Mark Harper
“Ain’t gonna let nobody, turn us round,
Lord, turn us round, turn us round,
gonna let nobody, turn us round,
just keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’,
on to freedom land.”
-Freedom Song of the Civil Rights Movement
Photo by Oladimeji Odunsi on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: June 11th
(Sunday, June 11 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Psalm 50:7-15 and Matthew 9:9-13
Sermon: Where We Sit by Pastor Mark Harper
“Where you stand depends on where you sit.” - Nelson Mandela, Rufus Miles
This Sunday’s Worship: June 4th
(Sunday, June 4 At 10 AM, Hybrid Communion Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Mark 1:35-39 and Matthew 28:16-20
An Invitation to Contemplation
“Renewal cannot come to the church unless its people are on an inward journey.” - Elizabeth O’Connor
This Sunday’s Worship: May 28th
(Sunday, May 28 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Acts 2:1-21
Testimony: The Bagpipe as an Instrument of Lament by Bob Mitchell
Sharing: Where Do We Need the Spirit Now?
Photo by Hisham Zayadneh on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: May 21st
(Sunday, May 21 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34 and Luke 24:36-49
Sermon: Dressed for Discipleship by Pastor Mark Harper
“Shrouds are not a permanent Christian costume.” - Dan Berrigan
Photo by Dušan veverkolog on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: May 14th
(Sunday, May 14 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and Acts 3:1-10
Testimonies: What Has Happened to Us
“From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of council. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.”
-Julia Ward Howe, “Mothers’ Day Proclamation,” 1870
Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: May 7th
(Sunday, May 7 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Psalm 31:1-5 and 1 Peter 2:2-10
Sermon: The Church of Rejected Stones by Pastor Mark Harper
“God’s mark and spirit are upon us. We are not God’s elite or God’s favorite or pampered people, but we are claimed by God for God’s purposes.”
-Yvonne V. Delk
Photo by Tobias Keller on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: April 30
(Sunday, April 30 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Psalm 100 and Acts 2:42-47
Sermon: Awe Came Upon Everyone by Pastor Mark Harper
“Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, insight into a meaning greater than ourselves. The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe.” -Abraham Joshua Heschel
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: April 23
(Sunday, April 23 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Isaiah 51:1-3 and Luke 24:13-35
Sermon: The Road from Emmaus Back to Earth by Pastor Mark Harper
“For far too long, our modern culture has been on an unrelenting campaign to depict any other way of life that doesn’t rely on massive consumption and expenditure of energy as a worthless way to live, but the time has come – and Mother Earth is speaking in no uncertain terms – when that campaign needs to end, when we need to learn to sit again at the feet of our indigenous elders and invoke the spirits of our Ancestors to teach us once more how to be a blessing on the planet.” - Lily Mendoza
This Sunday’s Worship: April 16
(Sunday, April 16 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-9 and John 20:19-31
Sermon: Good News for Those Who Missed It by Pastor Mark Harper
“May we, O God, by grace believe and thus the risen Christ receive, whose raw imprinted hands reached out and beckoned Thomas from his doubt.” -Thomas Troeger, “These Things Did Thomas Count as Real”
This Sunday’s Worship: April 9
(Sunday, April 9 At 11 AM, Hybrid Easter Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Isaiah 25:6-9 and Matthew 28:1-15
Sermon: We Interrupt This Broadcast by Pastor Mark Harper
Blessed are we who stretch out our hands to you in doubt and grief, in sickness of body and mind and spirit, our prayers not fully realized, rejoicing … anyway. For that is what makes us Easter people: carrying forth the realized hope of the Resurrected One, singing our alleluias great and small, while it is still dark. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.” - Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: April 2
(Sunday, April 2 At 11 AM, Hybrid Communion Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Isaiah 50:4-9a and Matthew 21:1-11
Sermon: A Resistance Ride by Pastor Mark Harper
“I’d like us to understand resistance as the way we use our everyday lives to exert energy against the dangerous status quo of our time. But resistance cannot only be about what we are against … we are also choosing something else on the other side. Perhaps we are choosing ourselves; perhaps we are choosing an inclusive love or a more just society. We resist ableism or racism because we know there is a better way – this is the way resistance works, and we must both find and create that better way together.” - Kaitlin Curtice
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash