All who believed were together and had all things in common;  they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.  
~Acts 2:44
 
My cup overflows.
~Psalm 23:5
 
Many, maybe most of us shape our lives around what we know, what we understand. We are accustomed to having a pretty good sense of reality—even if it is only our reality and not all reality. We sort inputs and collect facts and form something of a coherent sense of the world.
 
What to do with Jesus’ John?
 
“Very truly,” he begins his remarks in John 10. That’s code for “Pay attention, this is important.” And then he speaks in a dizzying and confusing set of images that seem to obscure more than they make clear. Thieves climb into the sheepfold, the shepherd by the gate, thanks to the gatekeeper. Jesus the good shepherd…and the gate, apparently. Figures of speech, John tells us…that the disciples did not understand.
 
No surprise there.
 
Trying to decipher this too completely may be a fool’s errand. “If you understand, it is not God,” Augustine wrote. And we understand…kind of. God is bigger than we are. And yet, we know the gist, don’t we. When we are among this flock, cups overflow, bread and goods and plenty are shared. Gates, fences, thieves, metaphors. The gospel today affirms the psalmist’s sense that with this Eastering God we have a Good Shepherd who provides what we need.
 
Enter into worship.
Readings: Acts 2:42-47 † Psalm 23:1-6 † 1 Peter 2:19-25 † John 10:1-10
 
About the Art: Koenig, Peter. I am the Gate, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58540 [retrieved April 13, 2026]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

​Were not our hearts burning within us?
~Luke 24:32
 
The gospel today brings us that familiar story from Luke of the two disciples on the road trying to make sense of a dizzying series of events. Disappointment, confusion, and despair are their companions on the road when they are suddenly joined by another who turns out to be the risen Christ. At first, it seems this “stranger” is the one out of touch: “Haven't you been watching the news? Do you not know who are leaders are and what they’re up to? Do you not see how finished we are? ...
 
Then everything shifts! The scales fall from our eyes. We look for Jesus where he isn’t, and it turns out he’s right in front of us, leading us back to what saves us. “Were not our hearts burning within us?”
 
What is it that makes for life? What is worth dying for, or better, living for? How do our expectations of how things go with this God line up with the story as it has been handed down to us? These questions accompany us today as they did in the story of these faith seekers in Luke. And we have everything they did: Personal testimony, the scriptures, the breaking of the bread—everything you need to pull you back to the center of life? Life in its fullness. In a word: resurrection!
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Acts 2:14a, 36-41 † Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 † 1 Peter 1:17-23 † Luke 24:13-35
 
About the Art: Koenig, Peter. Road to Emmaus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58540 [retrieved April 13, 2026]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

“Fear not; I know that you all are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, just as he said.”
~Matthew 28:5-6

How is it that new and renewed life can somehow not be good news? And yet, at every step along the way there seems to be resistance to it. Systems of power and control and those who guard them jealously show up prominently in Matthew’s story. So does our own personal “stuff.”

They are no match, it turns out, for the holy earthquakes that break open our tombs and our hearts to what can be. Do you believe this? Are you willing to dare to hope for what could be among us and in our communities as light dawns on our story? Are you willing to at least entertain the possibility that the grace of forgiveness and unconditional love can actually lead us to something new? Can lead you to something new? Are you willing to consider what needs to be reborn in you, what might be made new?

Something grows. A sprout of possibility. We are becoming awake. All it takes is a word.

Enter into worship. 

Readings: Acts 10:34-43 or Jeremiah 31:1-6 † Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 † Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43 † Matthew 28:1-10 or John 20:1-18
 
About the Art: Koenig, Peter. Mary Meets Jesus After the Resurrection, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58538 [retrieved March 24, 2026]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Creator of All.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and I make the dry tree sprout buds.
I the Ageless God have spoken;
I will make it so.
– Ezekiel 17:24
 
Rejoice heavenly powers!
—Exsultet
 
Water. Light. The Deep. The Cosmic. What do these things, both elemental and mysterious, have to say to us as we both stretch to “be still and know that God is God,” and, live actively as beloved people of God in our present context? Both our shared context and our personal context, and how they interconnect. Creation. Resurrection. Life, death, life. Is everything just a circular, repetitive cycle? Or are we gently but persistently spiraling outward? Unfolding, becoming, as we both labor and consent? Creative tensions. Both/Ands. Paradoxes that we both wrestle with and relax into. As we trust. As we watch. As we hope. Together.
 
Enter into worship. Saturday evening at 7:43pm in the Garden.

Please note this liturgy will not be livestreamed. 
 
Readings: Genesis 1:1–2, 26–27; 2:1–4 † Daniel (LXX) 3:52–60 † Genesis 21:2, 8–21 † Psalm 27:5–7, 10–14 † Genesis 21:2, 8–21 † Psalm 27:5–7, 10–14 † Exodus 14:26–29; 15:20–21  † Exodus 15:1–3, 11, 13, 17–18 † Joshua 2:1–14; 6:15–17, 22–23  † Wisdom 5:1–5; 6:6–7  † Judges 4:1–10, 23  † Judges 5:1, 4–7, 12, 24, 31  † 2 Kings 11:1–4, 10–12  † Psalm 9:1–2, 7–11, 13–14  † Judith 8:9–10, 32–34; 13:3–14, 17–18 † Judith 16:1–6, 13  † Acts 16:13–15 † John 20:1-18
 
About the Image: DeWitt, Sydney. Joy, Beauty, Wonder, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59758 [retrieved April 1, 2026]. Original source: Donated by Sydney DeWitt.

​Holy God, Holy and mighty, Holy immortal One, have mercy on us. Holy God, Holy and mighty, Holy immortal One, have mercy on us.
—Solemn Intercessions
 
Our Three Days service continues tonight at the cross. Good Friday is a day where we give ourselves to the suffering and injustice of the world, and of us, and remember it is not the end. The church prays for the world—the whole world.  It is a day where we take a close look at suffering and power—its use and misuse and we pray. We pray, and we remember that God with us—the Immanuel—remains with us through the worst that the world can give us, and the worst that we can do. God with us—Immanuel—remains with us and loves us in death, even as in life.
 
Readings: Psalm 27 † Hebrews 12:1–4 † John 18:1-19:42
 
Enter into worship, 7:00pm.
 
About the Art: Moyers, Mike. What Wondrous Love is This, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57146 [retrieved March 30, 2026]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  --John 13:34
 
Three holy days enfold us now in gathering friends and breaking bread,
in cross and font and life renewed: in Christ, God’s first-born from the dead.
 
The mystery hid from ages past is here revealed in word and sign,
for Jesus’ story is our own: new life through death is God’s design.
 
Christ lifted high upon the tree, before you every knee shall bend
and every tongue in praise proclaim: “You are the Holy One. Amen.”
 
The Three Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Easter Vigil invite us into the fullness of this saving story of the Christ. Come and see what God can do.
 
Enter into worship, 7:00pm.
 
Readings, Maundy Thursday: Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14 † Psalm 116:1–2, 12-19 † 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 † John 13:1-17, 31b-35
 
About the Art: Walsh, George. Eucharist detail, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58694 [retrieved March 30, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tullow_Church_of_the_Most_Holy_Rosary_South_Transept_Window_Mysteries_of_Light_and_Pope_John_Paul_II_Detail_Eucharist_2013_09_06.jpg.​