The Rev. Alissa Newton
text: Luke 19:1-10

"I will never connect to the people who I don’t think are good, without a place to learn how to do it. Church, when we do it right, is a place where we get to practice belonging to everyone, where we agree to do our best to live as if it is possible to love everyone, even though nobody is good, not even us."

The Rev. Meghan Mullarkey
Text: Luke 18:9-14

"Is there a way to re-train our brains to begin by seeing the humanity of both of these people?  To look at the Pharisee and the tax collector and first see God’s love for them and God’s image reflecting off of them. So that we are not tempted by the binary, that we refuse to rank people at all because ranking is not how the Kingdom of God works.  Remember we start at the lowest place, we identify with the lowest ranking people in society, thee first will be last and the last will be first.  We go to the last place and we find God’s love just as abundant and his grace just as free."  

The Rev. Whitney DeVine
Text: Luke 18:1-8

"Over the years I have changed on the continuum of 'do I give to a need' vs 'do I need to give?'"

Alissa speaks to us about how she thinks about pledging financial support to St. Columba's and invites you to consider giving as well. 

Micah Kurtz
text: Luke 17:11-19

"God is no capricious deity requiring gratitude as payment for grace."

In this weeks from the Associate Vicar, Meghan discusses the richness of Allhallowtide in our church tradition and all the opportunities you have to participate in it. 

"Allhallowtide has something to teach us and reveal to us about our relationship to death. I believe that as a church we can be blessed by marking these days together. We can face our fears and our grief, we can face each other and know we are not alone, and we can take comfort that those who have gone before us are with God and continually shaping us and our church." 

The Rev. Meghan Mullarkey

Text: Luke 17:5-10

"And then Jesus says you, my disciples, when you live into your faith, you are like a slave.  Your faith does not elevate you above other people, but just the opposite, this faith in God leads you to the lowest place, every time."  Listen to hear more. 

The Rev. Meghan Mullarkey

Texts: Luke 16:1-13

" This manager, soon to be not a manger, realizes that he is soon going to need these people that at one point not that long ago, he saw as dispensable.  These people are a resource he needs to carefully manage.

Has this ever happened to you?  Whether it be a person, water, trees, soil, nurses, teachers, childcare workers, grocery store workers, nursery care works or farm workers?  For me, I have had a moment of revelation with all of the above things at different points in my life.  This moment, just like for the manager, is a deep and somewhat terrifying realization, where God’s economy is revealed in our own understanding of our vulnerabilities, this thing I thought was dispensable or I hadn’t thought about much at all, I desperately need to survive in this world and I realize that I better start acting like it. "  Listen to all whole sermon to hear more!

The Rev. Alissa Newton
text: Luke 15:1-10

"Tax collectors and sinners were people who, according to the culture and society that Jesus belonged to, should have been ashamed of themselves. They were the people who made bad choices, whose very presence was enough to disgust the righteous. And Jesus isn’t just spending time with these people, according to the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is treating them like people who don’t need to be ashamed. Eating, drinking, welcoming – it sounds like fun. Jesus is offering these people his time, his welcome, and his company at table – which is no small thing. I daresay he is enjoying them. Breaking bread with another person is, as we know, an act of relational belonging."

The Rev. Meghan Mullarkey

Text: Luke 14:25-33

"Maybe many of us can’t fully do this, but with much of Jesus’ visions for God’s kingdom on earth, I believe it is an invitation to glimpse God. If you, like me, sitting here today, cannot fathom a world where your family is not set a part as something different, something special, something secure, I think Beck’s term is helpful here, how can we work to widen our circle of affections? "  Listen to hear more!