╬ “Fruit of the Spirit” God has been praised as the one who “meets us where we are, but refuses to leave us there.” God gathers us and forms us as the Body of Christ in the world, but then does not simply send us out to make it or break it on our own. Rather, this God of grace and creativity fills us with gifts of the Spirit: capacities, talents, strengths and abilities that serve us in service to the Kingdom work of God. The gifts of God are called the “fruit of the Spirit” because they are intended to bear fruit in fulfilling the unifying, healing vision of God. Each one of us is blessed with these spiritual gifts in unique ways, for the sake of the world, and to the glory of God, giver of all gifts!
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Fruit of the Spirit
Sunday, August 28 … we continue our focus on the Body of Christ as we explore the way God blesses us with Spiritual gifts.
╬ “Fruit of the Spirit” God has been praised as the one who “meets us where we are, but refuses to leave us there.” God gathers us and forms us as the Body of Christ in the world, but then does not simply send us out to make it or break it on our own. Rather, this God of grace and creativity fills us with gifts of the Spirit: capacities, talents, strengths and abilities that serve us in service to the Kingdom work of God. The gifts of God are called the “fruit of the Spirit” because they are intended to bear fruit in fulfilling the unifying, healing vision of God. Each one of us is blessed with these spiritual gifts in unique ways, for the sake of the world, and to the glory of God, giver of all gifts!
╬ “Fruit of the Spirit” God has been praised as the one who “meets us where we are, but refuses to leave us there.” God gathers us and forms us as the Body of Christ in the world, but then does not simply send us out to make it or break it on our own. Rather, this God of grace and creativity fills us with gifts of the Spirit: capacities, talents, strengths and abilities that serve us in service to the Kingdom work of God. The gifts of God are called the “fruit of the Spirit” because they are intended to bear fruit in fulfilling the unifying, healing vision of God. Each one of us is blessed with these spiritual gifts in unique ways, for the sake of the world, and to the glory of God, giver of all gifts!
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Formed in Communion
On August 21, we continue our focus on the Body of Christ: “Formed in Communion”
╬ “One Bread, One Body” Our sacraments not only shape us individually as people of God, but form us collectively as the Body of Christ in the world today. The apostle Paul proclaims the unity that God calls us into. And he says God’s table is where that formation takes place. “We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:17) We sing this in our worship together: “One Bread, one Body, one Lord of all!” When we share in the bread of life and the wine of forgiveness, we become the hands and feet, the heads and hearts, the bone and sinew of that Body, living into God’s vision of a world redeemed, restored.
Here is a bulletin cover image.
╬ “One Bread, One Body” Our sacraments not only shape us individually as people of God, but form us collectively as the Body of Christ in the world today. The apostle Paul proclaims the unity that God calls us into. And he says God’s table is where that formation takes place. “We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:17) We sing this in our worship together: “One Bread, one Body, one Lord of all!” When we share in the bread of life and the wine of forgiveness, we become the hands and feet, the heads and hearts, the bone and sinew of that Body, living into God’s vision of a world redeemed, restored. 
Here is a bulletin cover image.
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Sunday, August 14, 2016
One Body - Many Members
“One Body, Many Members.” August 14, 2016
╬ “One Body, One Lord of All!” The analogy of the people of God as a “body” – literally the “body of Christ” in the world today – is insightful in helping us to understand our interrelatedness. It celebrates the diversity of Spiritual gifts that are manifest in persons, and magnified in the people, as a whole. It lifts up individual talents and capacities even as it emphasizes the exponential power of these many members acting as one cohesive body. It is central to Jesus teaching on the nature of discipleship. It is underscores all of Paul’s teaching to Christian communities on how to live out their shared calling in Christ. Above all, it fulfills God’s mandate for unity, “the uniting of all things in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10) It is enshrined in our American identity: “E Pluribus Unum” … from many, one!
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Body of Christ: “Formed in Communion”
August 21, 2016
Friends of Jesus
“One Body, Many Members.” August 7, 2016
╬ “Friends of Jesus!”
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