Sunday, September 25, 2016
Empty and Lost
Sunday, October 2: Our focus today is on the first two Beatitudes Jesus teaches … for the poor in spirit and those who mourn.
╬ “ Empty and Lost ” The Beatitudes have this extraordinary character of paradox. We are blessed when we are “poor in spirit?” What does it mean to be poor “in spirit,” and how can that be understood as blessing? In the same way, how are we to receive and embrace the idea of blessing when we are grieving? And yet, Jesus says these things clearly and directly, inviting us to go deeper … to discover that only empty vessels may be filled; to engage a deeper of notion of the goodness of God: present in healing and redeeming power in the very places of our loss and emptiness. Blessed are we when famished in spirit and mourning loss. It is here that the inflowing of God begins. The Beatitudes.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Mount and Plain
Sunday, September 18: We begin our new series focusing on the Beatitudes!
╬ “Mount and Plain” In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus ascends the mountain to deliver his most profound teaching about blessing. In the Gospel According to Luke, he leads his followers out on a wide, level plain. The differences in the Gospel accounts have a lot to say about the Gospel writers and intended audiences, about the context and situations in which the teachings are recounted. But the truth of the message – the core of Jesus’ teaching – comes through with paradigm-shattering clarity. He’s teaching us how to live God’s way in a world that struggles with the will and ways of God. We begin with the contexts and uniqueness of “the sermon on the mount” and the “sermon on the plain” … the Beatitudes.
Rally Day … Day of Service -claimed-gathered-sent
WORSHIP on Sunday, September 11 …
Rally Day … Day of Service!
What an exciting Sunday! And the perfect day to complete our series focusing on the people of God as The Body of Christ.
The God who claims us has gathered and gifted us and is sending us to the world God loves. What a blessing to make our way together!
Sunday, September 4, 2016
The Power Beneath
Worship this Sunday, September 4 …
We continue our focus on the Body of Christ as we explore the way we are called to see all of life through the image of the cross.
"The Power Beneath" - The radical reversals of Jesus ministry and life is centered in how the Cross is seen and understood. The kind of power Jesus demonstrates and lives out is hidden beneath -- or discovered in "weakness" -- not from "on top" or over someone. The call to follow Jesus and deny oneself means to let go of trying to be "Number 1" in our lives and our community.
Pr. Paul Blom will preach and celebrate the Eucharist. Reggie Kikta will preside in worship.
Blessings to all,
- Pastor Brad Highum
We continue our focus on the Body of Christ as we explore the way we are called to see all of life through the image of the cross.
"The Power Beneath" - The radical reversals of Jesus ministry and life is centered in how the Cross is seen and understood. The kind of power Jesus demonstrates and lives out is hidden beneath -- or discovered in "weakness" -- not from "on top" or over someone. The call to follow Jesus and deny oneself means to let go of trying to be "Number 1" in our lives and our community.
Pr. Paul Blom will preach and celebrate the Eucharist. Reggie Kikta will preside in worship.
Blessings to all,
- Pastor Brad Highum
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.
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