You can choose to watch all of this Sunday's worship service in a series of linked videos, one after the other by clicking this link. Just press the button that says "PLAY ALL" and sit back and relax. Otherwise, proceed as normal through the sections.

​Worship with 1 Click​

​You can choose to watch all of this Sunday's worship service in a series of linked videos, one after the other by clicking this link. Just press the button that says "PLAY ALL" and sit back and relax. Otherwise, proceed as normal through the sections.

We are nearing that time where we thought, surely, surely, life would begin to return to normal.

And yet, it is not.
 
Recall our stories from creation all the way through the Word. Alpha and Omega. Nothing ever returns to “the old ways.” A new thing is continually created.
 
Change is a big part of our story. For some, the hope for a Messiah included an idea that an old normal of David the King might return. But from the beginning, Jesus was change: arriving as a baby on the road; an immigrant; returning and watching, waiting for the time; gathering his disciples who were common men and women; miracles beginning with water into wine and ending with raising Lazarus from the dead; he listened to women and was changed; he became a servant and washed feet as he had learned from a woman. Jesus lived in the moment.
 
Maybe that is our calling today. Stop waiting. Be alive in this moment.  
 
“If comparison is the thief of joy then Lord, help me to not compare my life today to my life 6 months ago. Help me find the joy in THIS life, and in THIS day and to know that it is from you, and it is enough. Amen.”    -Nadia Bolz-Weber

NOTE: If you'd like to try watching all of this Sunday's worship service in a series of linked videos, one after the other (with text included), you can begin by clicking this link. Just press the button that says "PLAY ALL" and sit back and relax. Otherwise, proceed as normal through the sections.

The summer has come. Instead of a time of travel and visiting, we have become a people of careful discernment of where and when we go…anywhere.
 
What’s next? We are becoming anxious as to what will be coming in the autumn. Decisions about school and work are coming that might seem to be ill-informed. Who do we trust with the lives of our children, our friends, our parents, all those who cannot work from home.
 
Our patterns of being for this summer have changed and are continually changing
 
The time of political conventions, will be structured very differently. Politics, polity: how we choose to structure how we live with each other. What are our values? How do we look strongly at the way we do things, and see if it is truly just. How do we set up our communities to have housing and health care for all? How do we decide where the money goes?
 
As we worship, can we bring this all to God? Of course we can. Maybe worship will bring a break from anxiety. Maybe the Spirit will inspire creative responses to our prayers. Maybe the Word will open our hearts to new ways of being. All shall be well.
 
When the time is right, offer yourself a moment to stop and worship, with those of all time and place, who are called to consider our beings with all creation. May we be seeds scattered here and there, who land and grow, as beauty breaking through.
 
Create for yourself a place that invites a stillness and honest praise.
Trust that God is here.

​NOTE: If you'd like to try watching all of this Sunday's worship service in a series of linked videos, one after the other (with text included), you can begin by clicking this link. Just press the button that says "PLAY ALL" and sit back and relax. Otherwise, proceed as normal through the sections.

This is the day the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.           
            Let us rejoice? Rejoice?
            We may be weary, tired.
            Our burdens may seem too heavy.
            Our normal ways of being, with family and friends, with work and recreation,
            are not open to us.
​ 
            Yet, this time of Sabbath, this time of stopping,
            this time of gathering with all creation of all time and space,
            is open to us now,
            whenever “now” is for you.
 
            Begin by imagining who might be here with you.
            …a great cloud of witnesses…a gentle voice of a child…a mighty mountain or a soft breeze…
            Gather those things that might set your space as a sign or symbol of a holy place.
 
This week, have your communion bread and wine or juice set in a near place so that you may go and get it
before our thanksgiving together, bringing it to your table as we eat and drink together while singing of our thankfulness…
 
We have experienced and seen many things this week. We bring all that with us as we stop and consider:
            how is the Triune God calling us and guiding us to new ways of hope in the midst of weariness?
            Is the darkness a tomb, or is it a womb of birthing?
            What new thing is on the way to creation?