June 30, 2013, The Rev. Doyt Conn preaching
This morning I’d like to focus on and then fuse the message from the Gospel with the wisdom from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The hope is to gain a bit of insight into how we were made to live naturally in the kingdom of God. The key word to follow today is freedom.
June 23, 2013, The Rev Kate Wesch preaching
Elijah has really been through the ringer when today’s reading from I Kings begins.
To bring us up to date:
“He is headed into the wilderness because the evil Queen Jezebel had a contract out on his life and he was scared to death of her. He had good reason to be. He had just staged a contest on Mount Carmel between himself –one lonely prophet of Yahweh – and 450 of the prophets of Baal, whom Jezebel worshipped. The contest was to see whose god was really God, and Elijah won.
While Baal was nowhere to be found, Yahweh sent a blast of fire from heaven that no one present could deny, and Elijah marked the victory by killing every last one of the losers.
When Jezebel heard it she sent a message to Elijah, letting him know that he was about to be the next loser, and he knew her well enough to start running right then.
June 2, 2013, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching
Love is the framework of God. And while it is a framework that does not answer all of our questions or give us everything we want, it is the framework that can sustain our yearnings without crumbling; that can magnify our joys without indulgence; that can lift our hearts beyond the weight of idols. It is the framework that inspires us to love our family, to love our learning, to love our church.
May 26, 2013, The Rev Kate Wesch preaching
She thought about it for a minute, and then predictably asked, “What’s the Holy Spirit?” Excellent question. Now, how on earth do I explain the Holy Spirit to a toddler? “The Holy Spirit is a very special gift from Jesus. The Holy Spirit is always with us. It’s like we are carrying around a small piece of God everywhere we go. It reminds us that God loves us.” “God loves us,” she repeated and then eagerly made plans to wear her bright red “Wonder Woman” t-shirt to church.
May 19, 2013, The Rev. Doyt Conn preaching
The story we hear in the book of Acts today is one we hear every Pentecost. It is the story of the arrival of the Holy Spirit in a manner that changes all people, including Parthians, Medes and Elamites, as well as people from Mesopotamia, Pontus, and Pamphylia; but also Greeks and Palestinians, Russians and people from Georgia, Romania and Kazakhstan, and maybe, just maybe, people from a little parish in Seattle called Epiphany.
You may recall that 19 of us just returned from pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Our time there coincided with the Eastern Orthodox Holy Week. Jerusalem was packed with people from all over the world, on a journey to see the Holy Fire come out of the tomb from which Jesus rose victorious.
May 12, 2013, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching
I am back from the Holy Land as you can see. It is good to be home! The last time you saw me I was standing here with other pilgrims being commissioned by you for this sacred journey. I am happy to report that I have returned with all 18… which means I’m still a 100% on bringing pilgrims back from the Holy Land. That’s pretty good; actually that is sort of the bare minimum. Israel, as any of our pilgrims will tell you, is a safe and fascinating place. The real blessing is that they didn’t ditch me there.
April 28, 2013, Charissa Bradstreet preaching
We often hear at Epiphany that, “In the kingdom of heaven, relationship is primary; all else is secondary.” Relationship is primary. It’s an extraordinary statement, placing relationship above right thinking and right acting. It seems to suggest in fact that when we make relationship primary, that is how we know we are thinking and acting in a way that is congruent with the heart of God and the kingdom of heaven.
April 7, 2013, The Rev Kate Wesch preaching
How often do you think about your breathing? Is it only when it is compromised by allergies, or a cold, or endless coughing that keeps you up in the middle of the night? Maybe it’s when you sit down for meditation or prayer. As you sit in stillness, listening for that still, small voice, letting your thoughts flow in and out, you feel your chest rise and fall…..rise and fall.
February 17, 2013, The Rev Kate Wesch preaching
Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. About 100 of us gathered here in this place to meditate on how God sees us, what it means to enter a season of penitence and fasting, and to spend some moments embracing our mortality. The ashes smeared on our foreheads in the sign of the cross are such a visceral, earthy and outward sign of that mortality.