Posts from April 2012

We begin a new worship series this Sunday called Farm to Table.  We hope these three weeks will provide a framework for celebrating how far we’ve come and discerning God’s unfolding call for our community’s future.  Worship will be rooted in the Gospel of John chapter 15 and the poetry of Wendell Berry.  Wendell Berry is a Kentucky poet and farmer.  He gave the Jefferson Lecture earlier this month for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Here is a link…

“Today may I find the grace to let go of resentments of others and self-condemnation over past mistakes. Today may I not try to change, or improve, anybody but myself. Today may I act toward others as though this will be my last day on earth. Today may I be unafraid. May I enjoy what is beautiful, and may I believe that as I give to the world, the world will give to me.   Full of faith, full of…

We conclude our worship series, Faith & $, this Sunday with focus on Give. The series is rooted in Acts 4:32-35 and in a sermon called “The Use of Money” by John Wesley.  Wesley writes, having, first, gained all you can, and, secondly saved all you can, then give all you can. We continue to live into the question of how Christ’s resurrection motivated such a unified, generous community in Acts.   And, conversely, how did the practice of sharing communal…

Above is a “word cloud” created from John Wesley’s sermon “The Use of Money”.  The size of the word is related to the number of times it occurs in the document.  Take time to stare at this word cloud.  Notice the 2 largest words.  Why do you suppose “God” and “May” would be the words that occur most often in a sermon about money?  If you were to create a “word cloud” of your bank statement which included 12 months…

For the early church depicted in the book of Acts, the resurrection of Christ is less a creedal article of individual faith and hope than a creative force of community formation and fellowship.  This week we again hear Acts 4.32.-35 along with this phrase from a sermon called “The Use of Money” by John Wesley:  “having, first, gained all you can, and secondly saved all you can, then give all you can.”  We’ll ask:  How did Christ’s resurrection motivate such…

We begin a new worship series this Sunday.  Here’s a brief video about the series…   [vimeo http://vimeo.com/40164131]

Happy Easter!  Throughout the season of resurrection we’re invited to remember the angel’s words from Mark’s gospel:  Jesus was crucified. He has risen!  He is not here.  Go and see. We begin a new worship series this Sunday in which we will explore faith and finances.  The series will be rooted in Acts and in a sermon called “The Use of Money” by John Wesley.  Wesley writes, Having, first, gained all you can, and, secondly saved all you can, then…

” ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’  As Christ speaks those words, he too is in the wilderness.  He speaks them when all is lost.  He speaks them when there is nothing even he can hear except for the croak of his own voice and when as far as even he can see there is no God to hear him.  And in a way his words are a love song, the greatest love song of them all.…

Tonight at The Table we will share 2 meals – a simple supper , and then communion. ” ‘To eat this particular meal together is to meet at the level of our most basic humanness, which involves our need not just for food but for each other.  I need you to help fill my emptiness just as you need me to help fill yours.  As for the emptiness that’s still left over, well, we’re in it together, or it in…

We enter Holy Week together, having spent the last 6 weeks standing in the tragic gap with Jesus where he was Broken Open in so many different ways. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “this world is a great sculptor’s shop.  We are the statues, and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.”  It is in meeting singular individuals like Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Bayard Rustin, Oscar…