(Sunday, February 13 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-10 and Luke 5:1-11

Sermon: “Bigger Fish” by Pastor Mark Harper

“If you are trying to look clean, neat, and avoid casting your nets in troubled waters, you will catch no fish.” Israelmore Ayivor

(Sunday, February 6 At 11 AM, Communion Sunday, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8 and Luke 5:1-11

Sermon: “Borrowed Boats” by Pastor Mark Harper

“Out of the house of slavery, rough troubled waters, into the wilderness a new people is born; you are God’s own … We are here to proclaim God’s reign.” Liturgies from Below, Claudio Carvalhaes

(Sunday, January 30 At 11 AM, Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 and Jeremiah 1:4-10

Sermon: “Putting Words in Our Mouths” by Pastor Mark Harper

“I have called you by name, you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1

“It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. The Creator gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we will use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity.” Cesar Chavez

(Sunday, January 23 At 11 AM, Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 and Luke 4:14-30

Sermon: “Rolling it Up and Rolling it Out“ by Pastor Mark Harper

“He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” John 1:10-11

(Sunday, January 16 At 11 AM, Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Amos 5:21-24 and Luke 10:25-37

Sermon: Readings from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Good Samaritan Parable

“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream,” August 28, 1963

(Sunday, January 9 At 11 AM, Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Isaiah 43:1-7 and Mark 1:4-11

Sermon: "Immersion" by Rev. Mark Harper

“The struggle for justice, dignity, power, and community means that we must move from sympathy to solidarity. Sympathy feels bad about a situation. Solidarity joins in as a co-laborer to change the situation. Sympathy calls for love without risk. Solidarity calls for risk as love. Sympathy centers the comfort and timetable of those who benefit from a system of difference. Solidarity calls for a revolution of value in a system in which we build a loving and just common life together.” Dante Stewart, Sojourners Magazine

(Sunday, January 2 At 11 AM, Communion Sunday, Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Isaiah 60:4-6 and Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon: "Worship is Dangerous" by Rev. Mark Harper

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu

(Sunday, December 26 At 11 AM, Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96:1-6, 11-13; Isaiah 52:7-10; Titus 3:4-7; John 1:1-14

Reading: “No Room at the Inn” by Thomas Merton

“When God is going to do something wonderful, God always starts with a hardship; when God is going to do something amazing, God starts with an impossibility.” Anne Lamott

(Sunday, December 24 At 5 PM, Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols, Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2:8-16, Matthew 2:1-12, Luke 2:1-7

This service will be a series of monologues and carols around the birth of Jesus Christ, including our Christmas Pageant.

(Sunday, December 19 At 11 AM, Fourth Sunday of Advent, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Psalm 121 and Luke 1:39-45

Sermon: "Head for the Hills" by Rev. Mark Harper

“[This is] what it means to be alive in the adventure of Jesus. We present ourselves to God – our bodies, our stories, our futures, our possibilities, even our limitations. ‘Here I am,’ we say with Mary, ‘the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me according to your will.’” Richard Rohr

(Sunday, December 12 At 11 AM, Third Sunday of Advent, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Zephaniah 3:14-15,19-20 and Luke 3:7-18

Sermon: "Shall We Gather at the River?" by Rev. Mark Harper

“You took my joy – I want it back.” Lucinda Williams

“Now is the time of your grief; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away.” Jesus (John 16:22)

(Sunday, December 5 At 11 AM, Second Sunday of Advent, Communion Sunday, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 3:1-6

Sermon Preview: "Listening for God in All the Wrong Places" by Rev. Mark Harper

“The poor ones are socially insignificant, but not so to God.” Gustavo Gutierrez

(Sunday, November 28 At 11 AM, First Sunday of Advent, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Isaiah 43:1-3 and Luke 21:25-36

Sermon Preview: "Believing in Spite of the Evidence" by Rev. Mark Harper

“A prison cell like this is a good analogy for Advent. One waits, hopes, does this or that – ultimately negligible things – the door is locked and can only be opened from the outside.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Tegel Prison, November 21, 1943

(Sunday, November 21 At 11 AM, Reign of Christ Sunday, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46 and John 18:33-37

Sermon Preview: "Following Jesus Into Court" by Rev. Mark Harper

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

(Sunday, November 14 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Psalm 24:1-6 and 1 Kings 21:1-21, 27-29

Sermon Preview: "The Earth is the Lord’s" by Rev. Mark Harper

“We don’t own the land that we live on … It’s impossible to own the land that sacredly lives and breathes beneath our feet or to own the sky that holds the clouds and sun and moon over us. We build our homes over land that was never meant to be owned, and we forget. We pull out our checkbooks and we pile up our debt because we are consumers. We are entitled. We miss out on the reality that the water and the ground, this Earth that is capable of such rich relationship, have always been teaching us.” Kaitlin Curtice

(Sunday, November 7 At 11 AM, All Souls Sunday, Communion, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Hebrews 11:29-34,12:1-2 and Genesis 28:10-17

Sermon Preview: "Choosing Our Ancestors" by Rev. Mark Harper

“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying: Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10

(Sunday, October 31 At 11 AM, Reformation Sunday, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Ephesians 5:15-20 and Exodus 15:19-21

Sermon Preview: "Music for the Movement" by Rev. Mark Harper

“Won’t you help to sing these songs of freedom? ‘Cause all I ever had: Redemption songs. Redemption songs.” - Bob Marley

“How could we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” - Psalm 137:4

(Sunday, October 24 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: Mark 3:31-35 and Exodus 1:8-11,15-22

Sermon Preview: "Birthing a Movement" by Rev. Mark Harper

“It’s the heat that drives the light.
It’s the fire it ignites.
It’s not the waking, it’s the rising …

Power has been cried by those stronger than me
Straight into the face that tells you to rattle your chains
If you love bein’ free.”

Hozier, featuring Mavis Staples, “Nina Cried Power”

(Sunday, October 17 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: James 1:19-25 and Exodus 3:1-12

Hymns: Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah; Goodness Is Stronger than Evil; The Church of Christ Cannot Be Bound

Sermon Preview:

Sermon: "Paying Attention" by Rev. Mark Harper

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” — Mary Oliver

(Sunday, October 10 At 11 AM, Hybrid Worship: In-Person and Live-Streamed On Zoom)

Scripture: John 1:1-5 and Genesis 1:1-5

Sermon: "Shaped By Story" by Rev. Mark Harper

For the remainder of the church year, I want to try something a little different, at least for me. I will be drawing on foundational passages from both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament to help us try and listen for the ways God introduces the idea of new, alternative life and a Beloved Community into creation as well as into the lives of those who are paying attention (and maybe even some who are not!). The Bible is complicated, but I think I hear an ongoing hum throughout that is inviting a new song and a new way of life in resistance to the death-dealing Powers of our world. I hope that the passages we listen to together will inspire you to think about others that tell the same story and might speak to you even more powerfully.