In the book of Isaiah we are told that God’s ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. In Proverbs we are told not to lean on our own understanding and to trust God with all of our heart. Walk a path during this Lenten journey that is barely recognizable to the world—a path marked by grace, compassion, and abundance—a way other than our own.

Holy Week and Easter are all about reflecting on God's divine path for us. Through love and justice, God is calling us to live our lives more fully and intentionally, and to become more committed to loving our neighbors as ourselves. During Holy Week, we will reflect on how following the path of Christ provides a powerful way of cultivating the life God wants us to live and offers a glimpse of the possibilities that can be born when we take a chance on the alternate paths God shows us, rather than accepting our own paths of stagnation or disappointment. During this important week in our faith, we will open our hearts to our guide who provides a way when there is no way and fill us with joy in the promise and assurance of resurrection and new life. 

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the disciples are looking for new ways to live into their call to follow Jesus. During this sermon series, we look to the scripture for the fundamentals of what it means to live a life of faith. In doing so, we can see that faith allows us to believe when we cannot see, to turn to our community in times of need, to serve our community and God through generosity and spiritual practices, and to be open to the presence of Christ who visits at unexpected times and in unexpected ways.

"Appearances can be deceiving, and it can be difficult to see the deeper substance without closer examination. For Christian believers, it is necessary to examine our surroundings carefully in order to perceive how God might be showing up in them. Power, faith, transformation, and salvation often appear in ways we do not expect. God's work is radical, unusual, and often surprising, working behind the scenes and beneath the surface.

This series, drawn from Paul's second letter to the church in Corinth, focuses on the various ways that members of the Christian community are called to look closely and deeply at where, when, and how God works beyond our expectations."

It is easy to the view the prophets of the Hebrew Bible as marginal characters in strange circumstances distant from our contemporary times. But there are tremendous lessons to be garnered from watching the way prophets responded to their everyday situations. The prophets were known for the ways they critiqued the systems and figures of power and privilege in their time and space. The ongoing life of the church demands prophetic address that both attends to personal need and empowers communal action in the service of justice and righteousness in the world. The work of the prophet is not based on status or talent, but on presence and availability to the call of God. This four-week series will investigate how that call is carried out in everyday ways that make a profound difference.

The metaphor of the bread of life is a popular image. Bread is a basic staple food, filling and made of simple ingredients. It is plentiful and readily available. In calling himself the bread of life, Jesus speaks to his identification with the needs and interests of the everyday per. son. It is also a profoundly sacrificial theme; Jesus invites us to consume him, to eat and drink of his life. But Jesus does not originate this imagery. In the writings of Proverbs, we find an invitation to eat and drink from the table of holy wisdom. This consumption is more than metaphorical. It means internalizing the ways, the thoughts, the imagination, the disciplines of righteous life. This series explores the idea of how our own lives are transformed from the invitation to partake of life-giving realities. The four passages lift up important teachings that can deepen our understanding of how life in God feeds our souls.

The gospel of Mark tells us the story of Jesus telling the crowd to 'take up their cross." The Gospel of Mark goes on to give us some suggestions about how we can do that. This series gives us insight to how to be faithful followers of Jesus in our in our every day lives. **Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship may be good first readings***                                                                

This series is about living with a sense of abundance, not scarcity. We're taught to hoard what we have, that more is better, and that we're only good if we are working to have. But that sense of scarcity does not compute in God's economy, where there is more than enough for everyone and where our lives are enriched by living generously and in God's abundance. 

Everyone has a different understanding of home and the places where we belong. Some people may find home not in physical spaces but instead by belonging to a community that accepts the entirety of who they are and who God created them to be. Advent and Christmas are about the story of God's homecoming. During this season, we consider how we can make a dwelling place for God and, in turn, create dwelling places for ourselves, where we can find hope, peace, love and joy.