Listen in as Pastor Jason calls us into this Sunday's Passion Reading according to Luke...

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Grace to you and peace from God, our Creator, and our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. I want to talk this morning about wisdom and as I was thinking about wisdom, a quote kept coming into my mind. “Wisdom is holding two contradictory truths in our mind, simultaneously, hope and despair.”

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Listen to guest preacher, Rev. Jamie's sermon here!

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The Gospel reading for today in Mark paints us a grim picture. Run away to the mountains and don't turn back, don't even stop to stuff some clothes in a bag to take with you. Woe to those of you who are pregnant or nursing. There will be affliction and a time of suffering like has never been seen before...

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Listen to guest, Rev. Stacy Alan's sermon here!

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That was an odd Gospel for Lent. We usually hear the resurrection stories after Easter not in the weeks leading up to it. Well, if you haven’t heard, today begins our 5-week experience with the Year W lectionary. The “W” stands for “women,” and the lectionary text are translated by Dr. Wilda Gafney with a lens towards women’s stories and experiences. So, the translations of the texts are going to feel a little different, and the types of stories we hear during Lent will be different as well. Perhaps this is the point of this experience!

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Grace to you and peace from God, our Creator, and our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. I recently read the book Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps by Jennifer Garvey Berger. Berger writes how that in a world of complexity, we simplify our reality to reduce our stress and move through the world more easily. This is generally a helpful and necessary process EXCEPT when we are making decisions that require us to incorporate complexity...

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There is no easy way around it. Today’s gospel reading is a tall order. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Or, to translate a bit differently from the Greek, “pray for those who insult or hurt you.” Jesus’ words are not standard practice in our world. Far too often, retribution, revenge, hatred, insult, rejection, intimidation, and the like seem to propel us further...

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Grace to you and peace from God, our Creator and our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. Now I am going to bring us back, for a moment, to the high school days. Perhaps, a literature course where you may have had some required readings. If you were like me, you may have skipped some of those readings but one that I still remember is “As I Lay Dying,” by William Faulkner...

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Grace to you and peace from God, our Creator, and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. I want to begin this morning by thinking about how stories are told. Oftentimes, we hear stories in a straightforward, linear pattern. First, this happens, then the next thing, and finally, a conclusion...

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