This Sunday’s Worship: October 29
(Sunday, October 29th At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: I Corinthians 13 and Matthew 22:34-40
Sermon: The Map Is Not The Ground by Pastor Mark Harper
“Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear each other’s faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light that fire in the hearts of others. And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us.” -Dorothy Day
Photo by GeoJango Maps on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: October 22
(Sunday, October 22nd At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Psalm 121 and Matthew 22:15-22
Sermon: Render What? by Rev. Carolyn Tilley
Photo by Vaishakh Pillai on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: October 15
(Sunday, October 15th At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Philippians 4:1-9 and Matthew 22:1-14
Sermon: The Wedding Crasher by Pastor Mark Harper
“ … God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; God will swallow up death forever.” - Isaiah 25:7-8
Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: October 8
(Sunday, October 8th At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Mark 8:34-35 and Philippians 3:4b-14
Sermon: What Do You Really Want? by Pastor Mark Harper
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” -Jesus (Mark 8:36)
Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: October 1
(Sunday, October 1st At 11 AM, Hybrid World Communion Sunday Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Philippians 2:1-13 and Matthew 21:23-32
Sermon: Show Us Your Papers by Pastor Mark Harper
“We are called to be obedient to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, who loves the whole world and who invites us to be stewards of the earth and servants of his people, to be co-workers in the new Creation.” - “Peacemaking: The Believers’ Calling,” The United Presbyterian Church in the USA, 1980
This Sunday’s Worship: September 24
(Sunday, September 24th At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 and 4:1-11 and Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon: It’s Not Fair by Pastor Mark Harper
“What you do in the Lord is not in vain.” -N.T. Wright
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: September 17
(Sunday, September 17th At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Romans 14:1-12 and Matthew 18:21-35
Sermon: A Hard Road to Freedom by Pastor Mark Harper
“The great temptation is to cling in anger to our enemies and then define ourselves as being offended and wounded by them. Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also us. It is the way to the freedom of the children of God.” -Henri Nouwen
Photo by Kristina V on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: September 10
(Sunday, September 10th At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Romans 13:8-12 and Matthew 18:15-20
Sermon: All God’s People (Dang it!) by Pastor Mark Harper
“We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and dear God – please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.” -Dorothy Day
Photo by Mayur Gala on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: September 3
(Sunday, September 3rd At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16:21-25
Sermon: When the Enemy is Us by Pastor Mark Harper
“God’s absolute power is identical with absolute self-giving.” - Hans Urs von Balthasar
This Sunday’s Worship: August 27
(Sunday, August 27th At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Romans 12:1-8 and Revelations 5:11-14
Sermon: Congregational Hymn Sing from the “Glory of God” Hymnal
“I don’t have a clue what kinds of sounds moles, voles, or earthworms make, but according to Revelation they’re in the choir too – ‘every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea ….’ Is a weeping willow a creature? How about a mountain, or river? I guess it depends on your definition. If a creature is anything made by God, the sky is the limit. Stars, oceans, willows, lava rocks: they’re all in the choir. They all get to sing, the same way the hills sing in the Psalms, while the trees of the field clap their hands.” - Barbara Brown Taylor, “Every Singing Creature”
Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: August 20
(Sunday, August 20th At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Isaiah 56:1,6-8 and Matthew 15:21-28
Sermon: The God of Boundary Crossers by Pastor Mark Harper
“…distinctions (among people) all reveal the unlimited beauty of One who is the source of each of us, so this rich diversity is the very holy ground where God speaks. Bigotry doesn’t happen when we notice other people’s differences.
It happens when we believe or act as if those differences make another less worthy of love or opportunity or compassion or respect.
We need to learn to dance together.” - John Pavlovitz, A Bigger Table
Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: august 6th
(Sunday, August 6th At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Psalm 145 v. 8-9 and v. 14-18 and Matthew 14; 13-21
Sermon: Tale of Two Banquets by Pastor Mark Harper
And so new life was born in the dark of that pit of hell. And so the midwife died before dawn, still bathed in blood. Let us be midwives! Let us be midwives! Even if we lay down our own lives to do so.”
--Sadako Kurihara, Let Us Be Midwives! An Untold Story of the Atomic Bombing”
This Sunday’s Worship: July 30th
(Sunday, July 30 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Romans 8:18-27 and Matthew 13:31-33
Sermon: Bird Sanctuary by Pastor Mark Harper
“(God) also showed me a tiny thing in the palm of my hand, the size of a hazelnut. I looked at this with the eye of my soul and thought: ‘What is this?’ And this is the answer that came to me: ‘It is all that is made.’ I was astonished that it managed to survive: it was so small that I thought it might disintegrate. And in my mind I heard this answer: ‘It lives on and will live on forever because God loves it.’” -Julian of Norwich, 14th Century
Photo by Jacques LE HENAFF on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: July 23rd
(Sunday, July 23 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Genesis 28:10-19 and 2 Timothy 4:1-8
Sermon: The Best of Your Service by Rev. Eugene Eastman
“Blessed are you who have reached a new age – even if it doesn’t seem to fit. It may feel too big. Too reductive. Too limiting. It may be marked by a life you barely recognize. The kids who have all moved out or settled somewhere far away. The work that no longer sets the daily hum. The life partner who is gone and friends you’ve outlived. The body that doesn’t allow for the hobby you love anymore. The monthly check that doesn’t provide the flexibility you’d hoped for … God, give us the eyes to notice the ways life can still be beautiful and rich and full in the midst of so much that has been lost. Remind us that you are not done with us yet.” - Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have
This Sunday’s Worship: July 16th
(Sunday, July 16 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Luke 6:20-38 and Jeremiah 6:13-16
Sermon: His Eye is on the Sparrow by Matt Kaiser
“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests – look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.” - Eugene Peterson, The Message, Luke 6:26
Photo by Jacques LE HENAFF on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: July 9th
(Sunday, July 9 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Zechariah 9:9-12 and Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Sermon: Love and Liberation by Rev. David Ensign
“Sometimes I feel lost,” said the boy. “Me too,” said the mole, “but we love you, and love brings you home.” - Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse
This Sunday’s Worship: July 2nd
(Sunday, July 2 At 10 AM, Hybrid Communion Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Psalm 89:1-4 and Matthew 11:2-6
Sermon: Sighs and Wonders by Pastor Mark Harper
“ ‘Isn’t love enough?’ (Jesus) asks John. ‘No,’ John answers angrily. ‘The tree is rotten. God called me and gave me the ax, which I then placed at the roots of the tree. I did my duty. Now you do yours: Take the ax and strike!’ ‘If I were fire, I would burn,’ Jesus says. ‘If I were a woodcutter, I would strike; but I am a heart, and I love.’” - Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash
This Sunday’s Worship: June 25th
(Sunday, June 25 At 10 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Matthew 10:40-42 and John 11:1-6, 17-27
Sermon: Unbinding Mary by Pastor Mark Harper
“Like it or not, the gospel is a story unleashed. Even Jesus had trouble keeping a lid on it … And that makes some people nervous. That makes me nervous. Because it means every Christian gets a testimony, every Christian gets a ‘gospel according to …’ whether you’re Desmond Tutu or Tim Tebow.” -Rachel Held Evans, Inspired
This Sunday’s Worship: June 18th
(Sunday, June 18 At 110AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)
Scripture: Isaiah 35 and John 11:1-3,17,32-44
Sermon: Lazarus Unbound by Pastor Mark Harper
“Ain’t gonna let nobody, turn us round,
Lord, turn us round, turn us round,
gonna let nobody, turn us round,
just keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’,
on to freedom land.”
-Freedom Song of the Civil Rights Movement
Photo by Oladimeji Odunsi on Unsplash