Christmas Eve Message
December 24, 2017 (5PM Service) — Rev. Paula Norbert Over 800 years ago in a small town in Italy, a man named Francis wanted to re-create the experience of the first Christmas. He felt that people at his time had lost the true spirit of the birth of Christ, and so he gathered with a small […]
And a Child Shall Lead Them
December 24, 2017 (10AM Service) — Rev. Paula Norbert Beautiful words we hear today from Isaiah, this prophet- poet, speaking about a child “born for us” who shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, and prince of peace. Early in Advent, we read from Isaiah the passage we call the peaceable kingdom where Isaiah prophesies […]
Love’s Presence Among Us
December 10, 2017 — Rev. Paula Norbert We have arrived at the second Sunday in Advent and today we celebrate Love. As so many have done before us, we remember the stories of the birth of Jesus, only told by Gospel writers Matthew and Luke; we read these stories to remember the promises of old […]
Walk in the Light
December 3, 2017 — Rev. Paula Norbert Today is the first Sunday in Advent…and we are invited to prepare our hearts and minds once again for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. We read again from the great prophet Isaiah where he speaks of the coming of the Messiah, the long expected one, the one […]
What Then Must We Do?
November 26, 2017 — Rev. Paula Norbert “Whenever you did this to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” In this often-quoted passage from Matthew, we are invited to think and think hard about the concrete ways we live out the message of Christ in our lives. If we listen […]
Counting Our Blessings
November 19, 2017 — Rev. Paula Norbert We gather here this week before Thanksgiving to take time out of our week to come together, to worship and give thanks to God, and to find time to be mindful of the many blessings of our lives. As you may all know, Thanksgiving is a uniquely American […]
Remembering With Love
November 12, 2017 — Rev. Paula Norbert Reading: Luke 19:1-10 We hear another wonderful and familiar story today in Luke’s Gospel about Zacchaeus and it’s one that many children have been drawn to over the years. You may even remember the simple children’s song about him climbing the tree. Children really like this story, because like […]
Inspired to Serve
In today’s Gospel from Matthew, we have the opportunity to listen in as Jesus shares words of wisdom with the crowd gathered that day. It is clear that he is trying to present a vision of what it means to be holy people, what it means to really follow the word of God. He cautions […]
Being Presence
October 22, 2017 — Rev. Paula Norbert Readings: Exodus, 1 Thessalonians In our first reading from Exodus today, we hear of Moses and the Israelite people still on their journey to freedom, fearful and unsure of what is to come. God, with the help of Moses, is attempting to cultivate a covenantal relationship with the […]
Miracles from Heaven
October 15, 2017 — Rev. Paula Norbert Readings: Luke 11, Phil 4 Today in our reading from Luke, we revisit the time when Jesus modeled how to pray for his disciples. Along with that prayer, which is perhaps the first common prayer we all learned as children, he invites them to persevere in asking God for […]