Our world will never be transformed from a place of endless conflict and worry through greater control, but by communities who move toward the rupture, joining God in co-crating the just, equitable, and loving alternative.

We resist prayer to the same degree that we resist relationship. As a herald of hope to a world in turmoil, Jesus calls us the Church to a deeper embrace of both; each strengthening the other. Prayer is not a static set of words to parrot, but an invitation into loving and honest dialogue wherein we gain new sight for God’s activity in the world and within our own hearts.

Revisiting the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we are drawn once more into the simplicity and endless mystery of this story which Jesus chose to tell (and to whom). May the blessed actions of the outsider lead us to lament and rethink more than simply our conditional definitions of belonging on earth, but the ways that we allow fear, self-interest, and need for retribution to extend that distorted view even into the afterlife.

It was a thrill to have our friend Ericka Graham join as our guest preacher this weekend, inviting us into a dense and evocative story.

Across the sea, Jesus approaches a man with a grave affliction; an encounter revealed to be more than merely an exorcism. Jesus guides us ever to the margins, rejecting the hollow power of empire, liberating the oppressed, and empowering us all to bear witness to God’s restorative goodness.

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came rushing down as wind and fire, reversing the “curse” of Babel, and calling all of humanity to the truth that we are made to exist in diverse and inter-reliant community. As lines of demarcation and othering, “US” and “THEM” continue to be drawn, and immigrant communities terrorized across the country, followers of Christ must be a part of proclaiming justice and choosing the vital messiness of embrace.

Two strangers encounter one another along the road. By all religious and social custom they are not to interact, and yet they depart as siblings in Christ. To understand why is to understand who we are as those who claim to follow Jesus in a world of man-made borders.

In our first worship gathering since Resurrection Sunday, we reflect upon the conversion of a murderous zealot into one of the most influential figures in the early Church; Paul/Saul reminding us that the journey of renewal is ever unfolding.

Resurrection is far more than an abstract promise of distant reward, it is a new way of seeing and being in the world today. At a time in which many “Christian” voices are anything but Christ-like, may the light of Jesus’ new day transform judgement and condemnation into ever-expanding embrace. There’s a seat for ALL at the table of grace. Halleluiah, He is risen indeed!

Given what little we know about Jesus’ precise activities preceding his unjust imprisonment, punishment, and death, we ought to take special note of the practices in which he engaged and especially those he repeated in his final hours. Through two consecutive stories of foot washing, the author of the stars embodied the humble servant, that we might do the same.

Jesus tells a story of a fruitless fig tree, and later encounters one along the roadside. In one case, we witness God’s boundless mercy, and in the other, see how the “performance” of fruitfulness ends in a withering curse. In this Lenten season, might we all give up the act?

This week marks the beginning of our yearly pilgrimage through the “desert” of Lent. Jesus wasn’t the first biblical figure to spend forty days in the wilderness. Join us in considering Elijah’s fearful exile, and the multifaceted care God brings in the midst of his trial.

To begin 2025, we are looking to Jesus’ parables as a lens through which we might better see and live into God’s Kingdom in the messy here and now; not a distant destination, but a present, parallel reality which we have a hand in cultivating.

We live amid a culture that glorifies and covets exclusivity, who’s in and who’s out. When all that the expected guests can muster are excuses for their absence, whom might the gracious host invite in their place? Spoiler alert, it’s everyone.

To begin 2025, we are utilizing a series of Jesus’ parables as a lens through which we might better see and live into God’s Kingdom in the messy here and now; not a distant destination, but a present, parallel reality which we have a hand in cultivating. In this third entry, we look to the familiar story of a wounded stranger on the roadside and consider the responses of those who happen to be passing by.

To kick off the New Year we’ll be considering a series of Jesus’ parables, and how they invite us to see and live into God’s Kingdom in the messy here and now; not a distant destination, but a parallel reality that is always breaking through in glimmers and one which we have a hand in creating. In this second week, we look to mustard leaves and yeast to consider the explosive and surprising manner in which God brings certain things into growth.

To kick off the New Year we’ll be looking to a series of Jesus’ parables as an invitation to see and live into God’s Kingdom in the messy here and now; not a distant destination, but a parallel reality that is always breaking through in glimmers and one which we have a hand in creating.

For the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we look to the elusive text of Revelation and discover an unlikely vision of Christmas hope. In our time of intense conflict and anxiety, how might the presence of an unexpected visitor to the manger help us to receive anew the gift of Christ’s coming as a warning to the powerful and hope to the hopeless?

During what can easily become the noisiest, most chaotic time of year, how might we embrace an intentional quiet to center our attention on the enchanted power of God’s Incarnation? Considering an often overlooked portion of the Christmas story, we witness how the gift of holy silence prepared the hearts of a faithful couple to receive the new thing that God was preparing.

The season of Advent arrives once again to shake us from our spiritual slumber; to hear and respond to the desert call of our newborn King. Will our hearts prepare him room?

The corrupt systems of worldly power would like nothing more than for you to believe that the “other” is your enemy rather than your sibling. In a time of ceaseless division and upheaval, empathy is critical to develop if these fractures are ever to be mended. As Jesus arrives to meet friends in the midst of grief, what does his response reveal about the heart of God?

Reflecting upon several core values we hope to embody as a community, we consider generosity through the encounter of Jesus and a disgraced tax collector. Zacchaeus’ greed brought no satisfaction, only distance from relationship, until Jesus calls him by name into the unexpected possibility of reconciliation.