Today, we continued our Lenten journey. The principle lessons to take away from the readings are “the temptation of Christ” – an odd but fitting lesson and general temptation of creation. We are invited in Lent to pause and ask (1) in what do we hope? (2) What prevents us from finding or recognizing our […]
Blessings to you at the beginning of Lent. Our transition from the Epiphany season to our Lenten journey began in earnest yesterday with a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper and we served 97 people; a fabulous community gathering. Today in worship we began our Lenten journey in earnest. We heard the story of why we are […]
In worship, we heartily bid farewell to the Alleluias and observed the Transfiguration of Jesus. Our lessons shared the story of Elijah and Elisha as leadership transferred from the elder to the younger. We also heard Paul tell the believers in Corinth about the necessity of our sharing God’s message to the world. The question […]
Our scripture today walked us through a narrative that St. John’s can appreciate: by remembering our history we know that God is constant and with us, even when we don’t recognize God’s presence. Because we are able to recollect that truth we get to live fully in the responsibility that follows our relationship with God: […]
Our worship was filled with stories that point to our call as believers and how we are supposed to act and share the impact of our mutual relationship with God, from God to us and our return to God. We are given authority to share our understanding of our relationship, what scripture has to say […]
Our scripture led us on a journey of listening for God’s call and responding to the call. We saw our typical human responses – immediate response; skipping our response because it didn’t feel right; and finally responding after being called many times. We thought about how hard it can be to hear God in the […]
In worship today we heard stories of listening as it impacts our faith. Samuel (meaning God has heard) listens to Eli’s counsel to invite God to speak to him (Samuel). We realized that Eli was effective in leading Samuel, almost in spite of his waning faith and awareness of God. Jesus also listened to Nathanael […]
Good afternoon friends and welcome to 2018 in the midst of the first snow of the year. I hope you have been safe and warm as the Arctic weather has blown through Southside Virginia. The conditions were dicey enough that we felt it more prudent to cancel worship and be safe. The roads were okay […]
Merry Christmas! A joyous evening and a time to welcome friends and neighbors as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. A joy-filled time to witness to the simplicity of the birth of Jesus and the shepherds. Tonight was a reminder that the true Christmas miracle is that the God of creation meets us in creation […]
In worship we closed our Advent journey with a refreshing of the promises given by God to God’s chosen people. God has promised, since before Abraham, through the sin-filled life of David, to the life of Blessed Mary, and now to our age. God’s promises include being able to do what we doubt as possible […]