By being faithful, a friend and a servant, comes the weaving of Spirit’s story in our lives.

In this story, it is eunuchs and gentiles and people from another country. Who is it for us? Listen here and then, continue the story. #Acts8 #wideningthecircle #poeticgeography #believersbaptism #toallthenations #hereiamlord

Peter went from the guy who couldn’t figure out how to let Jesus wash his feet to the guy who could preach to a large crowd and have 3,000 people convert. And the Holy Spirit is still here on earth, moving, inspiring, directing, encouraging, comforting, leading in new ways. So friends, what about our lives?

Don’t just listen to this week’s message. Participate! We join with the disciples in the Upper Room, in prayer and contemplation. Together, we read Scripture in the Lectio Davina style, savoring the Words of God that catch our attention.

We are so grateful to Joseph Helfrich for kindly allowing us to play his beautiful song, “Teresa’s Prayer” with our sermon podcast.  Listen as it wraps the story of the Road to Emmaus: a story about the journey from confusion to confidence, doubt to faith and pain to joy. A story in which we are the travelers who realize Jesus is alive and with us and has been with us all along.

A shared reading of Mark 11:1-10 and a message about the humble reality of our great calling to serve others.

We are so grateful to Joseph Helfrich for kindly allowing us to play his beautiful song, “Teresa’s Prayer” with our sermon podcast. Listen as it wraps our shared reading of Luke 9:28-43a and a message about finding hidden holiness all around us.

We know the story in Luke 5. On the seas where you and I do our work, we've all come up against those times when there is nothing to show for our labor. Then the One who rules over the waters of life tells us to go deeper, to venture out into some new territory, into the deep waters of hope and faith and miracles.

Jesus lets them know that grace and mercy is for all. The privileges will not simply be for a select group of people. And with that, Jesus is pushed to the very edge of the cliff by the crowd. He reminded them that God's sense of community was bigger than theirs. He offended them when he told them he was not theirs to contain. He does this by citing God's long history of prioritizing the outsider, the foreigner, the stranger... In other words, God has always been in the business of working on the margins. How will we be part of that witness? Challenged to be pushed to the edge.

It's a unique image of a communal Bible reading experience that takes a diverse group of people on a journey. Fast forward to Jesus reading in the synagogue, the inaugural act of his ministry, choosing to reveal his life and work through the beloved and well worn words of scripture. It's not as if the Son of God is incapable of penning a new and shiny mission statement; he is the Incarnate Word himself. But he doesn't improvise; he opens the book and makes the old words of the tradition his own. How does the word of God speak to us today?