The story of Jesus' Ascension has an interesting feature to it...the angels in the story pointed them away from the supernatural event...what is going here? The Disciples look up in excitement but are called to shift their gaze to where Jesus called them. We also take some time to celebrate the ways our church is reaching out from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth.

This service celebrates Len's 8 years of ministry as the Associate Minister at Mantua Center Christian Church. Therebie wonderful music by Adam Petrosino and Jan Green. Pastor Len shares a good word from Colossians 3 and helps us see how we aren't a "normal" church!

We all love the Disney film story-arc of character transformation...Ariel, the Beast, Mad Madam Mim...fun, romantic, and inspiring! How does the story of Jesus' transfiguration compare? What is transfiguration for?

We were blessed in worship Sunday to baptized someone in the river! The scripture and the occasion remind us that we are precious in God's sight.

This week in our nation there was quite the conversation around Emma Lazarus' poem emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty. An immigration official added some edits to it and it gathered lots of controversy. When we encounter a difficult passage in the Bible, do we want to send it to the editors room too?

Who was the Lost Son in the story? Were there Lost Sons (plural?) or just the prodigal? These are legitimate questions after a re-reading of the story with the amazing insights of Dr. Amy-Jill Levine from her book "Short Stories by Jesus.". Phenomenal, deep insights are considered to think about hard, family dynamics and what it might mean to hold the door open for reconciliation.

Zacchaeus was ready and willing to hear a tough word....would you? Would the church? Oftentimes when we're confronted with a uncomfortable truth we get in fight or flight mode. How can we learn from the example of Zacchaeus?

Our scripture today takes a look at the story of the unique healing of the blind man at Bethsaida. Jesus uses saliva and he has to do it twice to help make the man see clearly! What is happening here? As we study the story in context, we see that this story is told amongst other stories where the disciples clearly have spiritual blind spots. What spiritual blind spots might you have?

The scripture story today is full of strange things that inspire and challenge us as people of faith. Jesus the healer, friends making holes in the roof, and the strangeness doesn't end there.

The Holy Spirit can move and inspire in ways that we might not recognize or expect...and people of faith have responded in different ways to that. Some respond by refusing to believe it, trying to stop it, or ridiculing it (see Numbers 11 & Acts 2). Others are more willing and open to receive and recognize the Spirit's movement. Which are we?

I also tell a story about something a church pastor got extremely upset about and wrote to the editor about it...the church has a long way to go still in being open to the Spirit's leading....