December 20, 2015 Luke 1:46-56 Rebecca DePoe Last month, the teens and I worked through a unit of Sunday School lessons on justice. We spent some time thinking about what justice is. And how God’s justice is different from the world’s justice. For our last lesson in the unit, we discussed why God wants us to participate in God’s justice for the world. Towards the end of our lesson, one of the teens asked…
3rd Advent December13, 2015 Luke 3: 7-18 Philippians 4: 4-7 Rev. Catherine Purves “You brood of vipers!” What a way to start a sermon. I would have never thought of that. “You brood of vipers!” Looks like I’ve got your attention. But is that any way to speak to people who have come to the waters for baptism? Is that any way to speak to those who just wanted to see and hear…
December 6, 2015 Luke 1: 57-80 Rev. Catherine Purves It truly is a coincidence that on the very week that our second granddaughter was born, our Advent Scripture text is about a birth. It is also a complete coincidence that, there was some drama over the naming of our new granddaughter, just as there was for John the Baptist and his parents. For months we have been asking regularly about what the baby’s…
1st Advent November 29, 2015 Luke 21: 25-36 Rev. Catherine Purves Andrew and I just finished binge watching a new series on Amazon. Perhaps you’ve heard of it: The Man in the High Castle. I was hooked almost immediately, because the premise of the series was so intriguing. The setting for the story is post -World War II America in the early 1960’s. But this is an America that is totally different, because…
November 22, 2015 Christ the King Revelation 1: 4b-7 John 18: 33-37 Rev. Catherine Purves Who’s in charge? When you find yourself in a situation of danger or chaos or threat, that’s what you want to know. Someone has to be in charge. Whether we’re talking about the scene of a horrible traffic accident, or a battlefield, an operating room, or a classroom, or a country under terrorist attack, the immediate need and…