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We are in the second week of our new worship series called Casting Christmas Sunday, December 4.  Each week we will focus on a different character from the Christmas story.  We’ll learn more about the characters and wonder what their stories might have to teach us.  This week we examine how a lead actor plays the role of the protagonist in a play.  In our story this week, Mary is the lead actor. Here is a link. Commentators wrestle especially with the…

It often happens that one member of my family stays up late because he is “wandering and creating.”    This causes me anxiety.  I worry that he does not sleep enough.  I worry that he does not keep a schedule that affords him a “regular life.”  I have concern that what he says and does often sounds “dreamy” and on the border of what is considered “wise behavior for one at his stage of life.” He has a friend and…

Rev. Kristin Stoneking is a United Methodist pastor at CA House, our campus ministry at UC Davis.  Kristin shared the following reflection last Sunday.  We invite you to read Kristin’s reflection as we move into Advent this coming Sunday with attention to John the Baptist.  John went before Jesus.  He prepared the way.  He pointed to one greater than himself.  How will you prepare the way for Jesus this season?  How will you point others to one greater than yourself?…

This past summer we undertook “Project Extreme”.  With the help of many, we improved the look of our facility.  It is a wonder what new paint can do!  The unexpected part of “Project Extreme” came as we decided to strip, sand and refinish the floor in our Fireside room.  We are still not sure if we would have undertaken the job if we knew what pain lay before us.  Lots of pain. It helped that we were together.  It helped…

This week we will read the account of The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 27.45-52. Alexander Shaia writes, “Matthew’s Passion account is directed at the small, beleaguered group of Messianic Jews and is designed to provide very precise guidance.  Throughout this account, Jesus the Christ is the exemplar of remaining emotionally and spiritually present in a time of distress and uncertainty.” (The Hidden Power of the Gospels, 80). “Remaining present” does not equal…

Many years ago I was able to spend time in Kona, Hawaii.  While I was there, the Volcano erupted and I witnessed something I have never forgotten.  I walked out on a fresh lava flow.   It was difficult to breath.  Once I got used to the odor, it was still difficult. My heart continued to race.   I felt disoriented.  The lava was so fresh that the bottom of my shoes melted from the heat.  So fresh that I…

We will continue our journey through the Gospel of Matthew in worship this Sunday.  Worship will focus on the wisdom teachings of Jesus found throughout Matthew in chapters 5 – 25.  We’ll focus in particular on Jesus’ experience in the wilderness and the Sermon on the Mount. Alexander Shaia writes, “…Jesus was led into the wilderness…After fasting for 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus became famished, and in his deep exhaustion, the tempter arrived…and challenged Jesus to make bread from…

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant~ Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every one be blind~ from poem 1139 by Emily Dickinson (“man” changed to “one” by ldh) This poem by Emily Dickinson speaks to the journey towards self knowledge.    Parker Palmer writes of this poem in his book A Hidden Wholeness:  “If soul…

The Clean Edge of Change by Carrie Newcomer begins with these lyrics: First there is the folding in, To gather light and dark to you. The journey down so far that it, Has nowhere else to go but through. I thought if I tried hard enough, With endless motion like a bribe, As if by this the will of God, Could be bent to my version of right. What happens next is nearly weightless, The opening where we stand breathless,…

We continue our four week journey through the Gospel of Matthew in worship this Sunday with reflection on Matthew 2.13-23.  Alexander Shaia writes, After Jesus’s birth, an angel came again to Joseph, telling him to take Mary and the tiny defenseless new baby away from the comfort of their home.  Even more distressing, the angel instructed Joseph that he should take them to Egypt, the country of Jewish slavery, a place of deep danger, of historical alienation and pain…[Eventually] Herod…

We begin a new four-week worship series this Sunday called Temenos.  We’ll make our way through the entire Gospel of Matthew in the coming four weeks, highlighting certain passages in worship and Kitchen Tables each Sunday. The word Temenos comes to us from a Greek verb which means “to cut.”  Temenos is a piece of ground surrounding or adjacent to a temple; a sacred enclosure or precinct” (from Oxford Classical Online Dictionary).  Tradition tells us that the Temenos was marked…

On Sunday we will share our commitments for how we’ll live in the next year as people who are rooted in Grace | growing in faith | reaching in love. Many among us struggle with understanding Grace. Here is one person’s personal struggle with Grace:  Grace by Saving Jane. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb3le1MHsH8&feature=fvwrel]