Gathering Activity: As you prepare for worship this Sunday, turn to Genesis 1, be it with your own Bible, a Pew Bible or even looking it up on your phone (try www.biblegateway.com for various translations). Read through the text and visualize the unfolding of Creation. Imagine the colors, the beauty, the sights, the smells, the sounds. As the canvas takes shape, remind…
Loving Given what happened in Charlottesville VA last week, it was timely to be reminded of the true story of a couple who lived in VA, Richard and Mildred, who fell in love and got married in 1958 and by doing so committed a crime worthy of 1-5 years in the penitentiary. only because the color of their skins were different As…
A link to the trailer for the the film Lion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoIy9Xq8tYs Home, family, belonging These are explored in the film Lion In Calcutta Saroo’s a thousand miles from home. He is lost, hopelessly lost, in a land of strangers who seem to care very little about the fate of a 5-year-old boy. Eventually, trying to help, people ask him his mother’s name…
You can click on the link below to watch the official trailer for the Oscar Winning Best Picture: Moonlight The film covers three time periods – young adolescence, mid-teen and young adult – in the life of black-American Chiron As a child, Chiron lives with his single, drug addicted mother Paula in a crime ridden neighborhood in Miami. Chiron is a shy,…
Acts 1:6-14 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will…
SCRIPTURE Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you…
Psalm 2 Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? The rulers of the earth set themselves, and the leaders take counsel together, against God and those God has anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.” The one who sits in the heavens laughs; God has them in derision. Then God will…
SCRIPTURE Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.…
Both of our Scripture passages concern commandments. First we hear God’s word to the Hebrews as they near the conclusion of their time in the wilderness and prepare to enter the promised land, led by Moses, perhaps 15 centuries before Jesus. Deuteronomy 30:11-20 11Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too…
February 5, 2017 Isaiah 58:1-12 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;…