July 5, 2015 2 Corinthians 12: 7b-10 Mark 6: 6b-13 Rev. Catherine Purves It’s ironic, in a way, that these should be the two set texts for this weekend when we are celebrating the Fourth of July. While we have been remembering our Independence Day as a nation, our readings remind us of our dependence upon God. With parades and fireworks we have celebrated our strength and pride, but our readings state quite…
June 28, 2015 Mark 5: 21-43 Rev. Catherine Purves When people come to the church to ask for help – and that happens quite a lot – one of the things that we can do for them is offer them some food from our Food Pantry. We don’t have bags of food ready to go. Everything is laid out on shelves, sorted according to the type of food it is. I grab a…
June 21, 2015 1 Samuel 17 2 Corinthians 6: 1-2 Mark 4: 35-41 Rev. Catherine Purves You know that I love being here with you at Bellevue U.P. Church, but in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I’m really looking forward to my vacation. On July 24th, Andrew and I will be going to another place that we love, the coast of North Carolina. If you don’t count Scotland,…
June 14, 2015 2 Corinthians 4: 16 – 5: 1, 6-7 Mark 4: 26-34 Rev. Catherine Purves “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Our daughter, Laura, and her fiancé, Barnaby, love camping. This is not the kind of camping where you take a sleeping bag out in your backyard or…
June 7, 2015 Mark 3: 20-35 Rev. Catherine Purves Who is it that you assume you will be able to count on? Who will stand by you, no matter what? Who has your back when things go wrong? Most of us would probably say, our families, those closest to us, our blood relations. Next, we might say our church family, those who share our beliefs, the people who worship with us and…