Let My Love Open the Door
Link to Service Today, our readings evoke the beautiful imagery of the Good Shepherd, both through our Call to Worship which echoes the language of Psalm 23 and from our reading in the passage from 1 John. We know that this idea of a Good Shepherd was one that would have truly resonated with […]
The Emmaus Moment
Link to Service Luke 24:13-35 We Had Hoped… “And their eyes were opened and they recognized him in the breaking of the bread.” Luke’s reading today is a favorite among the Resurrection Stories of Jesus. There were about ten encounters with Jesus after the Resurrection. Of course, they became important over time to believers. […]
Easter Morning
Link to Service There is an historic village in Salem, North Carolina. Every Easter morning, in the early hours of this day, thousands of people, many of them tourists who have come especially for this event, make their way towards the courtyard in front of a 200-year-old church, founded by the Moravians, one of the […]
Judge not, Lest…
Link to Service John 8:2-112 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to […]
Let Them Come to Me
Link to Service I have been thinking a lot about this passage from Matthew in recent weeks. Even though it is a simple passage, I think it invites us to think about what Jesus was trying to teach in that moment and scholars emphasize two essential ideas. The first is that no one, not […]
Has Everyone Been Fed?
Link to Service As Jesus and his disciples head to a deserted place, perhaps seeking peace and quiet, many from the surrounding towns follow them and instead of turning them away, Jesus expresses compassion and begins to offer some wisdom to those who have gathered. As the day unfolds, some of his disciples begin to […]
Reflections
Link to Service Luke 7:36-50 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition A Sinful Woman Forgiven 36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus[a] to eat with him, and when he went into the Pharisee’s house he reclined to dine. 37 And a woman in the city who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, […]
God Loves a Surprise
Link to Service In John’s Gospel, this morning, we read, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.” In this reading, we have about the miracle Jesus performs at the wedding at Cana. In John’s account, this is the first […]
Teaching Wisdom
Link to Service “…for righteousness” seemed less concrete, for I believed and I do believe that Jesus came to announce the kingdom to those who are poor, particularly in a material sense, to those whose basic needs are not being met. So where does that leave the rest of us, who are well fed and […]
Walking in Peace
Link to Service INVITATION TO PRAYER It has become a prayer practice in some churches to give people a star word on Epiphany Sunday… We trust that God uses multiple ways to guide and speak to us. These words offer us a way to actively seek and reflect upon God’s presence among us, both in […]