The Rev. Alissa Newton
text: Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Matthew 5:21-37

"If all I have to do is not kill you, well I can do that and go on my way, do what I need to do. But if what I'm actually charged with is loving you, taking care of you, being in touch with this baseline reality that we belong to each other and that is how we enter into relationship with God? Then suddenly just not killing you doesn't seem like I'm fulfilling the assignment, does it?"

The Rev. Meghan Mullarkey
Text: Isaiah 58:1-9a, [9b-12] and Matthew 5:13-20

Note: The sound improves a couple of minutes in!

"And instead of living into our God given power, our God given light, we get caught up on where we are on the ladder and we begin to believe what the ladder tells us about who we are, our position in society, and our worth. 

And some people may be in quotations better positioned than others, but no one wins, because almost everyone can find someone above them and someone below them, this way of living is always a trap. "

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The Rev. Alissa Newton
text: Matthew 5: 1-12

"You've heard this list before. It's one of the most comforting and familiar texts in our scripture. I think what we don't often get is that what Jesus is doing here is building a world. He is giving a thesis statement for the world that he holds in his body and is living into reality, in his life."

The Rev. Meghan Mullarkey
Texts: Isaiah 9:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, Matthew 4:12-23, Psalm 27:1, 5-13

"If you have ever repented you may remember feeling shame, dread or guilt at what you have brought before God.  You may have found that you discovered a part yourself that you have been subconsciously working so hard not to see and the discovery feels painful.   But seeing these parts of ourselves is not the repentance in and of itself.  This first part, is just recognizing what was already there inside of you, or maybe inside of a history you are a part of.  Repentance is actually the exciting part, the next part - that is filled with hope for what we are turning away from and excitement for what we are turning towards.  "  Listen now!

The Rev. Alissa Newton
text: John 1:29-42

"There is grief in loving a child – there just is – because they change so quickly. There is also deep joy in accompanying a human being in the process of becoming herself, bit by bit and day by day. Some days are hard. Some are transcendent. Grief and love often walk hand in hand. Children are not the only humans who change over time.
The first thing that strikes me as important in our gospel today, is not what John says, but what he does ... John makes room for transformational change. He lets go of what has been true for him in favor of what is true for the world."

The Rev. Dan Morrow
text: Matthew 3:13-17

"This is the basic problem with basing our own self-worth, or the self-worth of others, on anything besides the compassionate and all-encompassing love of God. Values based on anything else are by virtue of the fact of their finitude ultimately divisive. In other words, God’s infinite love for you and for me and for all creation is the only thing big enough to define everything and hold everything together in love. Every other thing that seeks to define is too small."

The Rev. Meghan Mullarkey

Text:  Philippians 2:5-11 & Luke 2:15-21

"I have imagined God wondering, “what if I sent my son to come to earth as a baby?  As a baby to a poor family, born in one of the lowest place a human can be born, a manger, would this reveal to humanity the kind of power that will bring peace on earth?  The kind of power that could heal a world.  If accepted, if understood, if only they would turn and see a new way of living and being and moving. "

James Wyatt

Text: John 1:1-14

 “From the very beginning of all things, there has been light—‘the true light, which enlightens everyone’—shining in the darkness. That light came into the world when the Word became flesh, and the darkness did not overcome it. And that light is shining still, right there before the face of God, and the darkness still has not managed to overcome it.” 

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