January 25, 2015 Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 Mark 1: 14-24 Rev. Catherine Purves I’m really not that popular. But every so often I’ll be sitting in my office here at church and the phone will ring. The phone seems to ring most when Adele, our church secretary, isn’t here to answer it, so I answer it myself. In the middle of this call, my cell phone starts to ring. I look down to…
January 18, 2015 1 Samuel 3:1-20 Rebecca DePoe Most second year seminary students participate in a field education internship to help them discern their call to ministry. As part of my field education internship, every month here at Bellevue I learn how to do a different part of the worship service. Leading different parts of the worship service helps me discern my call to pastoral ministry because it lets me explore a wide variety…
Some Confusion Over Baptism January 11, 2015 Acts 19: 1-7 Mark 1: 9-11 Rev. Catherine Purves Baptism is a confusing thing. Ironically, it is the one Sacrament that unites all Christians, but it is also something that divides us because of our different understandings of the Sacrament. To those who were not raised in the church, baptism must seem like a strange and rather archaic ritual. For people who can simply turn on…
Epiphany January 4, 2015 Isaiah 60: 1-4a, 6b Matthew 2: 1-12 Rev. Catherine Purves By now I expect that we have given all the gifts that we had planned to give this Christmas. Sometimes it takes a while to get them all distributed. Our granddaughter, Isla, got her presents in installments this year, because it was too much for her to handle all at once. And we needed to wait until after New…
December 28, 2014 Isaiah 62: 6-7, 10-12 Matthew 1: 18-25 Rev. Dr. Andrew Purves Theme: “Yahweh saves” by being “God with us:” Jesus is Emmanuel. Welcome to flat Sunday. Many of the poinsettias have gone. The Christmas trees look a bit wilted. It is mostly now all over – secretly some of us sigh, “Thank goodness!” It’s back to work tomorrow. Somewhere around 33 or 34 years ago, when I was minister in…