How many of us have heard the warning – play with fire and you will get burned? This morning, our reading from the book of James reminds us that the tongue is a fire – and it can consume us. On the one hand, fire brings warmth, safety, clean drinking water and cooked food. But…
I recently discovered some of the works and thoughts of the Russian writer, novelist and philosohper Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He was an Orthodox Christian with a deep faith, a faith which had “a strong emphasis on giving Christian love a social application”. But what I really have treasured have been two quotes that I have found in…
Jesus – was he “just a carpenter”. How do you allow others to define you?
How many of you today have felt that you have just received a huge new learning, something that has truly transformed your life, and you share it at home — and no one is listening?
Or maybe you have started a new diet and it is really working for you… you are excited about it, and share it with those who know you best… and they just don’t get how important this discovery is for you? You may choose to allow yourself to be defined by what you do. You may choose to be defined by the expectations others have of you.
A few months ago I threw some avocado seeds into my compost bin, and now I’ve discovered I have a beautiful avocado seedling growing in my compost. I’ve very happy about that – but all I did was throw it away! I was expecting to make compost, but now I am very pleased that I…
Welcome to Trinity Sunday, where we celebrate the Oneness of the Three: Father, Son & Holy Spirit Creator, Word & Breath of Life Creator, Redeemer & Sustainer Invisible God, Firstborn of all Creation, & Comforter Omnipotence, Omniscience, & Omnipresence God with us, revealed in us: alive within us. This morning we read from Genesis 1:1-3:…
We all know what it’s like when the lights go off inside our home, and we are left in the pitch black. Can we imagine what it was like before electricity, when a home was lit solely with candles? There was no staying up watching TV. There was no working late on the computer. Imagine,…
Readings: John 3: 16-21 Ephesians 2: 4-10 For God so loved the world… that over two thousand years ago, Jesus came to this earth in human form to show us what this love truly means. Through his life, his teachings and his example, we find a new way, a better way. He gave what we…
Readings: Isaiah 40: 21- 31 Mark 1: 29-39 Isaiah 40:21-31 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants…
Reading: Mark 1: 14-20 …after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” In the first three Sundays of 2018, we have studied two events of Jesus’ early ministry: his…
Readings: 1 Samuel 3: 1-20 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20 John 1: 43-51 Follow Me! Leave everything that you have and that you are doing, and follow me. I want you to imagine, for just a minute, that instead of Philip & Nathanael, that Jesus had called you that day in Galilee. What would you be…