Worship at First Presbyterian Church of Marion, Illinois

John 6:35-59            Jesus is again challenged for what he says. It seems impossible that this man, the son of the carpenter, could be or should be talking about being the bread of life, being a gift of God, being a miracle of God like the manna in the wilderness. While the people in this passage take Jesus literally, and get confused…

John 4:46-54 [5:1-18]            These two passages speak to each other. They are perhaps more powerful together than apart because of the contrast in the two stories. The first story has an official of the empire who comes to Jesus to heal his son. This time, I saw that it was the next day when the servants came to tell the official…

John 4:1-42            There is a huge tension at the start of this passage that resumes at the end of the passage. Jesus and the Samaritan woman- Jesus and the woman he is not related to – Jesus and the Samaritan. Why does Jesus talk to her? Why does Jesus make a request of her?…

John 3:1-21            Our connotation of sneaking isn’t positive. That’s something dishonest people do, people who are trying to hide something, people who are ashamed of what they are doing. That’s a lot of baggage that we bring to the first part of this passage.            Nicodemus comes under cover of darkness, to check Jesus out. Perhaps it makes him more anonymous,…

John 2: 13-25            Not long after turning water into wine at Cana, Jesus heads to Jerusalem ahead of the Passover. When Jesus gets to the temple, he finds the ‘lobby’ full of vendors. There’s a coffee bar, an ATM with high service charges, a t-shirt vendor, someone selling snowglobes, and a couple of food vendors. Jesus doesn’t like this. He clears…

           In John’s gospel, Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding. We talk about Cana, we use the passage to reflect the snark of Jesus addressing his mother, the oddity of having Christians make teetotalling a doctrine of faithfulness, and the amazed wonder of the steward about the quality of the wine.            What happens in Jesus’ first miracle is the…

John 1:35-51            John is gathered with his own disciples. He’s sort of successful. He’s well known, sometimes too well known, and has people who follow him. When Jesus walks by, John points him out, “Here is the Lamb of God!” which his disciples hear, and then go follow Jesus. Jesus invites them to come and see what he is all about.…

Granger leads worship.

John 1:1-18       The first three weeks of Advent had us moving from exile to the valley of dry bones, and then to Isaiah’s language of seeking God. The people are the ones moving in all these passages. God moves the people around, trying to get them to be more faithful, to be better followers, to be more closely the people of…

Isaiah 55:1-13 Full music service on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/ljoVXi-dS1Y