HopeGateWay

Focusing upon growth Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill, HopeGateWay’s lead pastor challenges us “to be transparent and honest with someone in your life about your struggles and our dreams, your desires to be different.”

“What sustains your kinship? What are the languages of care your kin show you?” Questions that Ophelia Hu Kinney asks in the first message of the six-part sermon series entitled, “Kindling Kinship.”

Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill, HopeGateWay’s lead pastor, in her sermon for Pentecost Sunday, asked, “May we seek to build a community and a world where all are valued and seen as worthy…May the Spirit flame in us and may we feel her fire enlivening for the work of today and the hope of tomorrow.”

The story of the encounter of Jesus and Zacchaeus is really one of reparation and transformation suggests Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill, HopeGateWay’s lead pastor. “Transformation might not repair the whole world,” she adds, “but it’s a small step.”

“Can I be rooted and grounded in the divine?” asks Rev. Littlefield Grenfell as she continues “The God Who Riots” series. “Maybe while tending the messiness of a wild meadow…we will recognize ourselves in the others who do so as radical protestors who welcome diversity of life and hope and love.”

“The last and least are the first and the greatest in the radical, rioting religion of Jesus,” said Rev. Jane Field, Executive Director of the Maine Council of Churches, in her sermon for April 23, 2023, at HopeGateWay. “Did Jesus ask his followers to be doormats” she asked. “Absolutely not.” Jesus’ way “leads to liberation and freedom.” Rev. Field’s message is the first in “The God Who Riots” series.

“Christ is Risen! Indeed!” Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill, HopeGateWay’s lead pastor, led the community with that joyou exclamation on Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023. Hearing together the Gospel story (John 20:1-18) of Jesus’ resurrection, all were invited to not hold onto the Jesus of the past, bur rather, let him be free to transform our lives, and the world, anew.

“Who do you need to tell that you’re here?” That’s a question that Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill, HopeGateWay’s lead pastor, asks in her March 26, 2023 sermon in the “Good Enough” series. Connecting with Mary Magdalene, Rev. Ewing-Merrill invites the community to think about “What do you need to be fully present even if you don’t feel like you have what it takes to do that?”

Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill has a conversation with Masey Kaplan of the Loose Ends project. Kaplan and Jennifer Simonic, both avid knitters, realized that they had a shared experience: Friends would often ask them to finish blankets, sweaters, or other projects left undone by deceased loved ones. In just six months there are now over 7,000 volunteers, in 38 countries, “who want to do something nice for a stranger,” Kaplan says. To learn more about Loose Ends visit https://www.looseendsproject.org/

Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill, HopeGateWay's lead pastor introduces the journey of A Good Enough Lent and cites Dr. Kate Bowler's book, Good Enough as a guide for the lenten sermon series and study group.