We welcome Pastor Shelly Bryan Wee to Salt House! Pastor Shelly currently serves as Assistant to the Bishop of the Northwest Washington Synod (ELCA). She has been intimately involved in our process of becoming an independent congregation (you may recognize her from our April 29th meeting where we voted on all the things). Shelly will be sharing a word on VOCATION while Pastor Sara is on VACATION : )

Salt House is BRAND NEW...well, sort of. Today, we celebrate our first Sunday as an independent, recognized congregation of the ELCA. And it's an important day as we say THANK YOU to all the folks from Trinity Lutheran Church who graciously said the costly "yes" which allowed the space for Salt House to be born.

At Jesus' resurrection, his most transcendent moment, the moment that set him apart from the rest of humankind, he remained recognizably one of us. He came back wearing skin. He did not leave his body behind. You see, the Jesus story is one that includes our bodies as deeply spiritual - yet this is contrary to what we often hear from Christian pulpits. How can we reclaim the sacred ordinariness of the skin we live in?

When we collaborate with all we have, including our money, we're invited into a posture of open-handedness that affirms the desire to say YES to what God has in store for us.

The mystery and gift of Holy Communion. Pastor Sara shares how we collaborate with God, opening our hands and hearts to receive grace, even and especially when we want to keep our hands closed.

When we talk about living in the Spirit, we learn to recognize the animating force that moves through all things.

Today we kick off our COLLABORATE series. And the process of saying "yes, and..." together starts with a very specific and unusual act: saying "no." Pastor Sara orients us in how following Jesus in the "yes" begins with know what to say "no" to.

Star Wars Sunday sermon by Tim Clemensen