Matthew 2:1-12

The hard part of faith isn’t scrounging up grace — the hard part is recognizing grace when it’s right in front of our faces. The hard part is recognizing and accepting and receiving grace when it’s moonwalking across our lives.

John 1:1-14

We will only be able to worship this tiny, fragile baby Jesus, when we dwell in his presence with those who are vulnerable.

Isaiah 65:17-25

God has shown up in our lives through Sunday school teachers, and friends, and winter jackets, and Thanksgiving pies. Now we get the opportunity to continue this great circle of sharing

Job 19:23-27a

Before any social or material change to his circumstances, and before anything concretely changes in his life, Job’s redemption comes in the form of an authentic articulation of his inner life.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Once we shake up the etch-a-sketch, and we accept the reality of our circumstances, that’s when we get to have fun. Try drawing a new image, in a new style, with a different story. You can use that image you drew to give inspiration to the next; our dreaming was practice for the new dreams ahead of us.

Romans 5:1-5

God is so big, that even our faith—our very salvation—is an act of God... It is the faith of Jesus Christ which brings us into righteousness and peace.

Acts 2:1-21

The Spirit pours out flames upon each of us, not for the sake of growing our finances, or for the sake of larger membership, but for the sake of our neighbors. We’re not a cargo freighter at sea; we’re a dinghy on a lake, and when we open our sail, can easily catch the wind of the Spirit.

EASTER SUNDAY ∙ John 20:1-18

There is a constellation of hope, and love, and joy in this place. It won’t make us unshakably certain, or unmovable strong. But it will make us alive — united in Christ, starstruck by the God of resurrections.

Luke 3

Baptism was the start of Jesus’ ministry among us, stirring him to a life of radical peace, hospitality, healing, and hope. We see, flowing from Jesus’ baptism a life that was marked by relationships with the poor, sick, and morally disreputable. And that same baptism is wrapped around our waists, too, leading us back to the love and grace of our Creator.

Luke 1:46-55 & Matthew 2:1-12

The magi are all the wrong people, looking in all the wrong places. And yet, these wrong people, in the wrong places, were woven into the story of redemption, the people God chose to meet at the front door of life. We see time and time again that is “who” and “where” God fashions the sacred into the world.

John 11

All Saints' Day is when we break the silence on grief—pull the cork out of the bottle together—and acknowledge that to be alive, means to have a relationship to death. Life, and death, are always talking to each other.

Mark 5:21-43

What is God calling you to interrupt? What injustices are holding this planet back from God’s love? What conversations need to happen to interrupt bias or social scripts or structural obstacles? And how can you pull on the hem of Jesus’ garment, reaching out in courage?

Mark 4:35-41 and Romans 4:13, 18-25

Life is fragile. Even when it feels so settled, so unshakeable, so predictable. We’re always in that boat on the Sea of Galilee, waves undulating beneath us, sails blowing about in some fashion.

Ephesians 4:1-6, 25-32

Our own purposes and agendas and neuroses and wound-licking will never, ever, ever compare to unity in that Spirit. We will never be fed by our own grievances or resentment or apathy; but as we are united in the Spirit, plunged into deeper, mature ministry, we will find our souls transfixed. 

John 20:1-16, 18

Look into the empty tomb and be changed by it. Listen to the voice of love beckoning to you. In doing so, you might find the living God.

John 1:1-5, 10-14

We start Lent with the joy and hope of sticking around, praying that we might catch a better glimpse of that light of God in our midst.

Luke 1:5-23

Zechariah and Elizabeth show us that it is time to let go of old stories that are hurting us, to let go of wounds from a thousand years ago if we can, to listen, and to say “yes” to deliverance.

Psalm 78:1-7

The same love of God and fellowship of the Holy Spirit that was in this church one hundred years ago is still here, beckoning us to action. And we are writing our life together as one great liturgy that spans across seasons and pastors and hurts and traumas and arguments.

Matthew 13:1-23

The most important thing might be to start telling a story. To start making meaning from the discouragement and disappointments of our lives, when the world was all wrong. And to do this in a way that tells of God’s love, protection, and providence. We are invited to tell a story about how God’s presence and grace made things alright, even when they were all wrong.

Exodus 5-8

God never, ever, ever drives us out into the wilderness to die. And we have a whole book filled to the brim with stories about the wilderness. Our Bibles are full of stories where people encounter the goodness, holiness, presence of God in real and special ways.