News (Page 8)

Worship Update – March 2022

At our March Session meeting (3/9/2022), we had some significant discussion around masking and not masking, that probably reflects the congregation as a whole. There are some who will come back if we made masking optional, and some who would stay away longer. Depending on the individual risk factors, people will make individual decisions about masking, as they have been doing already…

March 6, 2022 – Where Life and Death Meet – The 1st Sunday in Lent

John 11:1-44 Raising Lazarus, Jesus as the resurrection and life. This passage is all about life and death. John is the only one who tells this story. As we hear this story, we may hear tales of another death and resurrection. This story does some things out of order – Mary is identified as the one who washes Jesus’s feet, but that…

Lenten Community Services 2022

Lent is upon us and we are gathering once more for the Lenten Community Services. We will gather at 6:30 pm on Tuesdays as noted below, and then noon on Good Friday. We will be observing the gathering guidelines of each host congregation, and streaming will be via the host congregation’s usual practice. Join us…

February 27, 2022 – To Believe, or not – Transfiguration of Our Lord

John 9:1-41 This healing happens. It is an oddly messy type of healing, from the spit and the mud on the eyes to the fallout in the community. His parents don’t want anything to do with exploring why this happened with the temple leaders, and the man who is healed doesn’t know who Jesus is. There’s this odd conversation between…

February 20, 2022 – What is impossible? – Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

John 7:37-52 One of the oddities of the people of God is what we get stuck on. In this passage, the people of God are more stuck on the idea that the Messiah, the prophet, is from Galilee, than the proclamation that those who come to Jesus shall have their thirst met, and that out of them will flow streams of…

February 13, 2022 – Bread of Life – Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

John 6:35-59 Jesus is again challenged for what he says. It seems impossible that this man, the son of the carpenter, could be or should be talking about being the bread of life, being a gift of God, being a miracle of God like the manna in the wilderness. While the people in this passage take Jesus literally, and get confused…

February 6, 2022 – When we let God work – Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

John 4:46-54 [5:1-18] These two passages speak to each other. They are perhaps more powerful together than apart because of the contrast in the two stories. The first story has an official of the empire who comes to Jesus to heal his son. This time, I saw that it was the next day when the servants came to tell the official…

January 30, 2022 – Who we’re willing to ask – Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

John 4:1-42 There is a huge tension at the start of this passage that resumes at the end of the passage. Jesus and the Samaritan woman- Jesus and the woman he is not related to – Jesus and the Samaritan. Why does Jesus talk to her? Why does Jesus make a request of her?…

January 23, 2022 – Sneaking Out – Third Sunday after Epiphany

John 3:1-21 Our connotation of sneaking isn’t positive. That’s something dishonest people do, people who are trying to hide something, people who are ashamed of what they are doing. That’s a lot of baggage that we bring to the first part of this passage. Nicodemus comes under cover of darkness, to check Jesus out. Perhaps it makes him more anonymous,…

January 16, 2022 – What sign is enough for us? – Second Sunday after Epiphany

John 2: 13-25 Not long after turning water into wine at Cana, Jesus heads to Jerusalem ahead of the Passover. When Jesus gets to the temple, he finds the ‘lobby’ full of vendors. There’s a coffee bar, an ATM with high service charges, a t-shirt vendor, someone selling snowglobes, and a couple of food vendors. Jesus doesn’t like this. He clears…