Scripture: 2 Timothy 1: 1-14
Your career doesn’t define you. Your relationship doesn’t define you. Your talent doesn’t define you. This movie is a reminder that human beings are complex. They can’t be boiled down to one trait or talent. Even though you might feel like your intelligence or beauty or sense of humor is the only thing special about you, you’re wrong. There are so many interesting things about you. Keep shining!
Scripture: 1 Timothy 6: 6-19
You shouldn’t feel pressured to do what is expected of you. Everyone in Encanto was trying hard to please Alma, but it was only making them miserable. As soon as they start listening to their own hearts instead of doing what they thought they were supposed to do, they ended up happier.
Scripture: 1 Timothy 2: 1-7
This movie shows that we will never be good enough for certain people. Instead of letting that get you down, let it inspire you. Since some people are never going to be happy with you, work toward making yourself happy. Stop caring so much about everyone else’s opinions because they shouldn’t be shaping the direction of your life. You should be making your own decisions. What makes you happy might not be what your family members – or society – think will make you happy. So do your own thing! The people who really love you will support you, regardless.
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Scripture: I Timothy 1: 12-17
You don’t always have to be the problem solver, and you don’t have to be strong all the time. Emotional vulnerability is not a weakness. It’s okay to admit you’re struggling. You’re not letting anybody down by being honest about the way you’re feeling. If anything, your authenticity will bring you closer together. Lies will only push you apart. When you’re struggling, you’re allowed to ask for help. You don’t have to do it all alone.
Scripture: Revelation 21: 22-26 “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
When we begin to broaden our experience of lands and peoples in our travel, or in our own towns and cities, we may move through a personal crisis if the plurality of religious thought and practice has not come into close view in our lives before. And yet, if we continue to reflect and open, what feels so different may not be as far from us as we first imagined. The light we seek and life-sustaining river that runs through the “Kin-dom” of God is full of common themes across religions: peaceful coexistence, food and shelter, love and compassion for those suffering and oppressed. How can deeper reflection about our own hesitation to connect to the wider human family free us to explore more possibilities for a better world?
Scripture: Philippians 4:4-9 “Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” (The Message)
Every journey has its setbacks and disappointments. The Apostle Paul certainly had his share of them. A man on a quest for God’s will, Paul is the consummate example of someone who saw in new ways, ate with strangers, included the outsiders, and knew the blessings of God’s light in the world. But he ultimately landed in jail because of his willingness to follow the quest. What does Paul teach us about how to respond when in the course of our journey, things don’t go as expected?
Sermon: “When You’re the Guest
14 August 2022
10th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture: Luke 14:1, 7-14
Synopsis: Dining with others is an intimate and sacred occurrence. When we embark on a quest, we are often graciously invited to dine with the host community. Jesus tells a story of guests at a dinner party who seek out the best seats at the table. Jesus reminds us that, as those on a journey far from home, we especially don’t know everything about those who will also be joining the party. We lose out on the relationships of the community when we travel with an egocentric attitude.. Who will we meet when we sit at the “end of the table” of our hosts? What might we learn about the community, and the world, if we follow Jesus’ advice, traveling and arrive with humble intentions to spend time with those who are not considered most important or influential? What other opportunities might we miss if we fail to learn the customs of our hosts?
Sermon: “Seeing Through the Eyes of Jesus”
7 August 2022
9th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture: John 4: 7-40
Synopsis: Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well invites us to seek out and open ourselves to new encounters, new people who are not like ourselves, new relationships with people not of our tribe. Jesus often crossed paths with others not from his “tribe.” He did not shy away, but most often sought out these opportunities. He met and saw people in their daily lives and locales, and engaged with them at the point of their deepest yearning. When we seek out and open to new encounters, new people, new relationships, we allow ourselves a spiritual rendezvous with humanity. And in this act, we discover more spiritual depth within us than we previously imagined. How can we shift our perception, redefining “strangers” as “friends we have not yet met?” This is an invitation to be curious and welcoming to our interfaith brothers and sisters. It changed her life!
Sermon: “Seeing With the Eyes of Amos”
31 July 2022
8th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture: Amos 8:1-12
Synopsis: Once we begin to journey, a quest implies that we will see new things in new ways. Our first challenge to see in a different way is issued by the prophet Amos, and it’s a hard scripture to hear. God is asking the prophet Amos what he sees. Amos at first sees a basket of summer fruit, but God asks Amos, who then asks us, to look deeper. Amos is asking us to see what is underneath our wealth, our comfort, our excess. He’s asking us to see who is suffering, who is hurting, who is wasting away like the basket of summer fruit in our text. Yet, with God, our seeing is always undergirded with hope–hope that with God all things are possible; hope that there are possibilities and solutions, just as in the end, God promises to Amos restoration for Israel. This is a “roll up your sleeves and get to work” kind of invitation. From seeing to visioning, to questing for justice.
Scripture: — Exodus 13: 17-21 “The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”
Leaving Egypt was not a pleasure excursion for the Hebrew people. But the story of their pilgrimage in the desert in the Book of Exodus reminds us that traveling, moving, leaving home, is part of our Judeo-Christian tradition. The author of Exodus explains that the people were led not by the shortest route, but by the (seemingly) safest route. The route through the wilderness was one in which battles would be far less against another nation, but more about their internal battles of identity and strength as a newly-freed people journeying together. How do we set our course on this Quest? If we are open to the invitation for deeper reflection, the journey can be more important than the destination. We affirm this week that the first step out the door is the one that counts the most, because without it, the journey won’t happen.
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