Scripture: Luke 14:1, 7-14
Jesus attends a dinner and notices the temptation to seek places of honor and power close to the head of the table. How might we, even as the church, have been a part of the same sorts of temptations? How can we be a church that gives up our seat at the table, and goes to find the hungry who have not yet been invited?

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Scripture: Isaiah 58:9b-14
The prophet Isaiah invites us to look to the foundations of our spiritual practices: is it enough to personally keep the sabbath? Or should we strive to create a community in which all are seen as created in the image of God and worthy of rest?

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Scripture: Luke 12:49-56
The Rev. Kate Dalton joins us in worship and asks us, “How do we take the Bible seriously?” and, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” As we read a story of a Jesus who says that he has come to “bring division,” how do we engage, rather than avoid, the tensions and conflicts of our own faith and understanding of scripture in ways that might bring us deeper into life and right action?

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Scripture: Hebrews 1-3, 8-16
What we now call the Letter to the Hebrews began as a sermon to a people setting off on a new way, reinterpreting scripture and story through a new lens of faith. So we hear of Abraham and Sarah leaving home for an uncertain future in God’s promise. It is a promise that they trust in, but maybe also a story of recognizing their present moment or circumstances as insufficient. In the midst of challenging times, how can we be a people confident in naming injustice, poverty, pain and setting out on a path to renewal… even if we don’t know where we’re going?

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Scripture: Luke 12:13-21
What are we “invested” in? As Jesus tells a story about a man with a lot of stuff, but apparently no one to share it with, we might ask how we “store up” connection and community which yield life, rather than the hungers of isolation.

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Scripture: Galatians 5:1, 13-25
As we prepare for our annual traditions in which we use the word “freedom” an awful lot, what might that word mean for the people of the church? The Apostle Paul’s answer might invite us to move beyond the freedom “from,” or freedom “to,” but towards freedom “for” the flourishing and life of all.

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Scripture: Luke 8:26-39
Jesus meets a man who has been living cast out by his community, named by the demons that have plagued him. In freeing him, Jesus helps us to see that the man’s state may have had as much to do with the fear and order of those that cast him out as it did the internal struggle he faced. How can we take on the work of being beloved community which does not constrain or cast out others when they challenge our own status quo?

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Scripture: John 16:12-15, Psalm 8

In many places in our scripture and tradition we have been tempted to view creation as a hierarchy of power over. As Jesus prays for his disciples, and as we ponder the mysteries of the Trinity, how might we be freed for great love and life by remembering that we are strengthened by power in, rooted in community and mutuality?

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Scripture: Acts 2: 1-21
Though we often are fascinated by the “live translation” of the Pentecost story in which the disciples suddenly can be understood by diverse peoples, we sometimes miss the content of their speech: the mighty acts of God which they witnessed in their lives with Jesus. In seeking belonging and understanding, how can we share our deepest values and experiences of the Holy Spirit… and what new languages might we find together when we learn to speak this way?

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Scripture: John 17:20-26
Jesus prays before he parts with his disciples. As we pray over those who are graduating, we share in his prayer… that those who go out into the world from our community may show who they are, who we are, and who God is in the unity of their love.

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