Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Advent is about the “coming days.” God’s people have always lived in great expectation, but that expectation finds specific,...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Even after Israel had experienced the vagaries of kings, the people still longed for a true king to set things right. He would have...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! November begins with All Saints Day and ends in or near Advent, when we anticipate Christ’s coming again. It is fitting, then, that...

Introduction & Welcome  Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Widows are visible everywhere in today’s readings. Jesus denounces those scribes who pray impressive prayers but devour widows’...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good!  Rooted in the past and growing into the future, the church must always be reformed in order to live out the love of Christ in an...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Can we pray the way Bartimaeus prays? People try to hush him up because by addressing Jesus as “Son of David” he is making a...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Today’s gospel starts with disciples obsessing over who will be closest to Jesus, leading to Jesus teaching his followers about...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! The rich man who comes to ask Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life is a good man, sincere in his asking. Mark’s gospel is...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Today’s gospel combines a saying that makes many of us uncomfortable with a story we find comforting. Jesus’ saying on divorce is...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Someone who isn’t part of Jesus’ own circle is casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and the disciples want him stopped. They appeal to...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Today we hear James warn against selfish ambition, while the disciples quarrel over which one of them is the greatest. Jesus tells...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Three weeks ago we heard Peter’s confession of faith as told in John’s gospel. This week we hear Mark’s version, when Peter says,...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! James tells us to stop showing favoritism in the assembly, treating the rich visitor with more honor than the poor one. Jesus...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Jesus protests against human customs being given the weight of divine law, while the essence of God’s law is ignored. True...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! In today’s gospel many people take offense at Jesus’ invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood; even many of Jesus’ disciples...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Wisdom prepares a feast, sets her table, and invites all to come and eat her bread and drink her wine. The first chapter of John’s...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Jesus says that the bread he gives for the life of the world is his flesh, and whoever eats this bread has eternal life now and will...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Apparently not satisfied by Jesus’ feeding of thousands, some who were there press him for a sign of his power; perhaps it is daily...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Today is the first of five Sundays with gospel readings from John 6, the first four of which focus on Jesus as bread of life. Today...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Mark’s gospel makes clear how great is the press of the crowd, with its countless needs to be met, on Jesus and his disciples. Yet...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! When Amos reports his vision of God judging Israel for its mistreatment of the poor, he becomes a threat to the power of the priests...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Jesus does great deeds of power and gives his disciples authority over demons. Yet none of this power is unilateral; it all must be...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! A woman finds healing by touching Jesus’ cloak, and a girl is restored to life when he takes her by the hand. In both cases a...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! We often use that phrase; “God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good”, and that’s what today’s readings strike me as...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! The mustard seed becomes a great shrub that shelters the birds, recalling ancient images of the tree of life. We’d expect a cedar or...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! A house divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus makes this observation in light of charges that he is possessed. He is possessed,...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time!  and all the time! God is good! When we say God is the triune God, we are saying something about who God is beyond, before, and after the universe: that there is...

Introduction & Welcome  Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! Fifty days after Easter, we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Crossing all boundaries that would separate...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! The gospel for Easter’s seventh Sunday is always taken from the long prayer Jesus prays for his followers in John’s gospel on the...

Introduction & Welcome Welcome to worship today, God’s gift to us because God is good! all the time! and all the time! God is good! This Sunday’s image of the life the risen Christ shares with us is the image of friendship. We are called to serve others as Jesus...