(Sunday, September 3rd At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16:21-25

Sermon: When the Enemy is Us by Pastor Mark Harper

“God’s absolute power is identical with absolute self-giving.” - Hans Urs von Balthasar

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

(Sunday, August 27th At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Romans 12:1-8 and Revelations 5:11-14

Sermon: Congregational Hymn Sing from the “Glory of God” Hymnal

“I don’t have a clue what kinds of sounds moles, voles, or earthworms make, but according to Revelation they’re in the choir too – ‘every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea ….’ Is a weeping willow a creature? How about a mountain, or river? I guess it depends on your definition. If a creature is anything made by God, the sky is the limit. Stars, oceans, willows, lava rocks: they’re all in the choir. They all get to sing, the same way the hills sing in the Psalms, while the trees of the field clap their hands.” - Barbara Brown Taylor, “Every Singing Creature”

Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash

(Sunday, August 20th At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Isaiah 56:1,6-8 and Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon: The God of Boundary Crossers by Pastor Mark Harper

“…distinctions (among people) all reveal the unlimited beauty of One who is the source of each of us, so this rich diversity is the very holy ground where God speaks. Bigotry doesn’t happen when we notice other people’s differences.

It happens when we believe or act as if those differences make another less worthy of love or opportunity or compassion or respect.

We need to learn to dance together.” - John Pavlovitz, A Bigger Table

Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash

(Sunday, August 13th At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Romans 10:5-13 and Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon: The Church of the Busted Boat by Pastor Mark Harper

“God bless the busted boat that brings us back.”

-Jason Isbell, “New South Wales”

(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”

(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

(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

(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