2 Corinthians 6:1-13, The Message | "Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”

Mark 3:20-35 | Tending a new creation may involve the creation or expansion of our concepts of “family.” In the scripture Jesus confirms that kinship in God’s Realm can go beyond bloodlines. We can re-create family in so many ways, whether we grew up with a family of origin that offered us support or did not. Who is our kin? All those who seek to live together in love!

Mark 4:26-34 | How does something as small as a mustard seed grow into something so large that birds can find rest and protection? Sometimes it’s hard to believe that change and growth is happening in us when everything looks the same. What kind of growth is this? How does the Spirit work in us and what is our role?

2 Corinthians 4:5-12; Mark 2:23-3:6 | Jesus taught about keeping the Sabbath that focuses less on rules, and more about what gives us life and light. What practices of Sabbath will we engage in this summer that will refresh our spirits?

God of the Sabbath, you lift the burdens from our shoulders. You entrust your treasure to our clay. Sabbath in us a nourishing rest, so that withered bodies and spirits can be restored. Amen.

John 3:1-17; Romans 8:12-17 | Nicodemus and Jesus have a conversation about what it means to be born from above, and Nicodemus struggles to understand the heavenly things Jesus is talking about. Jesus proclaims that we are filled with God’s spirit and we are invited to live into it.

Ezekiel 37:1-10; Acts 2:1-21 | When the Spirit arrived, the disciples went from being afraid of being seen to speaking boldly about God’s power. Ezekiel prophesied, and the dry bones were given flesh and life. The Spirit of God evokes change in us: from death to life, from isolation to community. We ask the congregation to consider what processes at RUMC changes lives? Theirs and others?

Pastor Lara and her mother discuss Jesus' Priestly Prayer in John 17.

Prayer is an essential and natural part of life. Prayer connects us to God and allows that connection to make a difference in our lives. Today we focus on our relationship with God, what God’s role is in prayer.

Today we focus on what it means to enter into a relationship with God, specifically on what our role is in that relationship.