Today is All Saints Sunday, and we remember and recognized those saints we have lost in the past year and prior. In His "Sermon on the Mount", Jesus illustrates the kind of people we are called to be as "children of God."
We often presume we are the heroes of our story; we are the ones who do good, who respond to God and Jesus in positive ways. In many ways, that is true. But when we look deeply and are truly honest, we know that each of us has times when we might put ourselves or our desires first, rather than those of our Creator. There are times we use our resources to feed our own appetites rather than honor God. And yet, in Jesus there are both forgiveness and a call to be better.
Scripture tells of Joshua being called to lead the freed Israelits to the Promised Land. Joshua declares, "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." That commitment invites us to place not only our words, but our whole lives in God's hands — to offer ourselves in whatever way God can use us.
The God of Covenant and Commandment gave the Israelites laws so that they might live in harmony with one another. Today we still hear the call to shake off the burdens of this life, to connect to Creator and earth in a web of relationship, seeking grace and balance in all that we do.
Today is World Communion Sunday. On this Special Sunday, United Methodists join Christians around the world at the table of Holy Communion. We may speak different languages, worship in different ways, and come from different cultures and backgrounds, but the bread and cup remind us that we are one in Christ. We want to be a generous community, and today we celebrate that with our own crowded table, the Lord’s table, celebrated across time and space.
We all have been through troubles and injustice. God is not the cause, but He can make good things come out of the bad. Rev. Ron Bartlow's sermon is taken from the story of Joseph as told in Genesis 39:1-23.
The call "to go" invites us out into the unknown, which can be anxiety-producing. But if we can accept and choose a sense of adventure in that call, it changes from fearful anxiety to expectant eagerness. God called to Abram and set him on a journey, not with full clarity, but with full trust. He promised blessing, and with it, purpose.
By day or night, in fire or flood, along highway or byway, God is ever present with us. His grace continually sustains us all along our pilgrim journeys. Today, let us experience the way His presence arcs through our universe, like a rainbow hanging in the sky; a momentary illumination of His ever-present wonder. Rev. Ron Bartlow's sermon "Flood? or Promise?" is taken from the story of Noah as told in Genesis.
In September through November, our worship services follow the “narrative lectionary,” working our way through the larger story of the Old and New Testaments. Today, we reflect on stories of Creation as told in Genesis 1:1–2:4a and John 1:1-5.
The greatest challenge of any adaptive change is the change it asks of us. Jonah is an example of this, unwilling to give up his strong grip of religious nationalism or his conviction that "truth" is more important than God's compassion. But, God's love is wider than our comfort, patient with our resistance, and persistent in drawing us toward a mercy big enough for others.