The God of the Cosmos, the One from Whom all things have come and for whom all things were made, has a plan for this creation. That is the original story we see in the scriptures, one of order from chaos. “Let there be light!” The story of God with us is a story of God’s wooing humankind toward justice, peace, beauty, love, and joy. God could have done this work solo, but God has chosen to hitch God’s wagon to you, my friends! We are co-laborers with the Great God of the Universe to pronounce the good news about Jesus to the world. Let’s gather this week to relish the honor and get a handle on the work we’ve been called to do. We will also have an opportunity to hear more about our stewardship campaign for 2026, “Partners in Good News.”

This week in worship, we conclude our “Straight Outta Control” series with a reflection on money. The fact is that we spend an enormous amount of time and energy thinking about money, regardless of whether we have a lot of it or a little of it. Economic realities are one of the largest controlling factors of our lives. Looking again at the story of Joseph and the parables of Jesus, we realize that those realities aren’t to be escaped from, but navigated faithfully and the two roads that are offered to us lead either to the illusion of control and isolation or to participation with God and restoration. Jesus offers us more than an “us versus them,” and instead an “us and them” in which all God’s children are provided for. We will also introduce our stewardship campaign “Partners in Good News” during this week’s worship service.

Faith invites us to see aging not as decline, but as a deepening. As our bodies refuse our direct orders – “Stop hurting, knee!” – or they simply take on a life of their own – “How am I in pain from sleeping?” – the illusion of control slips through the tightest of grasps. In Joseph’s final breath and in Jesus’ words to Peter, we glimpse the offer of a holy paradox: as our strength fades, our trust in God’s faithfulness can grow in its place. On this third Sunday of our “Straight Outta Control” series and All Saints’ Sunday, we remember that the saints before us have shown us how to live and how to die in faith.

Have you ever had an emotion spring up that surprised you? All of the sudden you were at a 10 on the anger scale and had no idea how you arrived there? It happens quite often that we are out of control of our emotions. We don’t actually get a say in what we feel. As we continue our “Straight Outta Control” sermon series, we are going to talk about the every day experience of feeling out of control of our emotions and what forces in our world - in the form of AI and news and social media algorithms - conspire to wrest even more control from our hands without our knowing consent. Where is the good news of Jesus in this? Well, as we will see in our gospel reading for the week, we might not get to decide how we feel, but are offered the opportunity to take our emotions to Christ and to Christ’s community (our church!). It’s there in community that we learn what our emotions have to teach us and how to decide to act, or not, on those emotions in ways that help us to love God and God’s world. I’ll hope to see you Sunday!

We live our lives mostly out of control. It’s one of life’s great frustrations for most people, especially those of us with just enough means to convince ourselves that we are in control. In this series, we will explore stories of being out of control: out of control of what happens in our lives, of our emotions, of our aging and death, and of our money. There is a grace in being out of control. We fall, as in love, over and over again into the hands of a loving God who charts a path, offers us partnership, and invites us to see the world and be not afraid. Join us for a series that is completely out of control.

Reverend Pastor Kimberly Mendoza leads our sermon today. So often, we talk about the call from God to “go”, but what happens when God calls us to stay? Our world has widened (for better or for worse) with the advancement of technology and transportation. It is easier to leave or move on to the next best place. This Sunday, we will take a look at the book of Jeremiah and the the cleansing of the 10 lepers to understand a faithful response to God’s call to be still.

This week, we celebrate “World Communion Sunday” (a 100 year old Pittsburgh creation - ask Pastor Jake about it later!) as we also wrap our month of Peace and Global Witness Offerings. If our earnest desire is for peace to come and for our communion in faith and love to be truly global, how do even begin? This is the question begged by the prophetic expectations on Jesus’ life - that this One will shine a light into the darkness of our world and guide us into peace. It’s possible that the answer to that question takes a thousand forms, and that all of them might be right. In Romans, we find the Apostle Paul responding to a very specific situation about who does what on which day of the week and who eats what in front of whom (See? We aren’t the first ones to find ridiculous things to argue about!). In the process, he offers a perspective so simple and fundamental that it might otherwise go unspoken: be mindful of your neighbor. So what makes for peace for the world? I’m not sure, but in our life it has to begin by making space for the people who are actually next to us. I’ll save you a spot at the communion table this week!

The good news is good, really good. It’s the proclamation of sins forgiven and a world of justice and purpose, but it does not land softly! Jesus calls us to follow, not just with our words, but with our lives. And sometimes that means confronting what we’d rather avoid: our divided loyalties, our lostness, our comfort with injustice. In this series, we’ll walk through stories that expose the cost of discipleship and the grace that meets us anyway. This isn’t only a feel-good faith, though it is that! It’s a faith where we follow a Savior who tells the truth, heals what’s broken, and turns the world right-side up. Thanks be to God? Thanks be to God!

Admitting fault never comes easily. We would rather justify ourselves, minimize mistakes, or point elsewhere. Yet Jesus’ parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin insist on a good, yet difficult truth: to be found, we must admit something is lost. We aren’t always in the right. The good news is that in Christ our faults become occasions for grace, and our return is not met with shame but with celebration. Join us for the second Sunday of our September series “Good News Ain’t Easy”!

What if the real sickness of our age isn’t poverty, but affluenza - the endless chase for more? In our last sermon of our September series “Good News Ain’t Easy,” Jesus tells of a rich man, a poor man, and a chasm no one could cross. The bad news? Wealth disparities have created a rift in the common life of our people. The good news? Jesus’ invitation into Sabbath and Jubilee is good news for all - for the poor who are lifted up and for the rich who are freed from wealth’s grip. In Christ, both are healed, both made whole.