 by Steve Houghton, lay preacher
Lord we ask you to open our minds and open our hearts to recognize your message in what we hear and share. Amen Good Morning. Please be seated If you were raising children or if you were a child in the 1980’s you might remember a Jim Henson muppet television show called Fraggle Rock. I will confess that it was one of my favorite television shows and I could be found watching it in rapt attention even if the kids were not in the room. One of the characters of Fraggle Rock was Marjorie the Trash Heap. Marjorie was in fact a sentient trash heap who had great wisdom. Whenever the Fraggles found themselves in need of words of wisdom they headed off to Marjorie in spite of the danger from the Groggs who farmed the land where she was located. A trash heap with great wisdom. An interesting image to hold in mind. Not everything is as it might appear. So what the heck does Marjorie have to do with the woman at the well? One of the things I do when I am reading scripture and I reach a place where there is an important character without a name is to give the character a name to allow me to personalize the message God might be trying to send me. Sometimes there are several unnamed characters so naming them gives me an opportunity to better identify the actions and attributes of the people in the story. So I am going to name the woman at the well Marjorie. I hope you will understand why I chose that name by the time I finish. Bear with me. One other side track I’d like to take as I begin is to call your attention to astronomy. If you have done any star gazing you will know that when looking for the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, or Subaru depending on how you recognize the star cluster, you can best see them with the naked eye by gazing to the side of the location of the cluster. When you do that the cluster becomes clear and the individual stars stand out. It’s a neat trick and one I have found helpful on many occasions for various reasons. Okay, back to a more obvious treatment of this morning’s gospel. We most often hear of Marjorie being disparaged as being a sex worker or at the very least a woman of loose morals. Five husbands and the current one is not her husband. Dr. Lucy Peppiat, theologian and pastor in England, has a different view of who Marjorie was. In Marjorie’s day, women could not get a divorce, only men could ask for and be granted a divorce. So it is not unreasonable to conclude that Marjorie could have originally been married first to a less than honorable man who decided that he could find better else where in town and divorced her. If this happened more than once the next man to marry Marjorie would likely be lower on the social ladder. By the time she was heading into her fourth and fifth marriage she would be pretty well marked as too old, barren or just not fit for marriage. Her sixth benefactor likely didn’t marry her but just took her on as a concubine with no rights and certainly no standing. That would certainly be consistent with Jesus’ assessment that she had been married five times and was now living with a man who was not her husband. Marjorie’s social standing was further marked by the fact that she was coming to the well at mid-day, the hottest part of the day, and a time when only she was likely to be at the well. At this time of day she would not have to endure the stares and comments of the other women of town who went out for water early, in the cool of the day. The half mile walk between the village and the well carrying a jug of water in the heat of the day was not a trek most people would undertake willingly. I think it is fair to say that Marjorie was toughened by the experiences of her life. Her early conversation with Jesus shows this. Marjorie sees Jesus at the well as she approaches but expects he will not bother with her because she is only a woman. Hoping he will just ignore her she reaches the well. “Give me a drink of water” Jesus seemingly orders. At his words and his accent, Marjorie recognizes he is not from the area and is a Jew. Now the chip on her shoulder grows a little larger and she responds “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” Pretty defiant for a woman who has no husband. Jesus then lets Marjorie know that if she knew who she was talking to he would give her living water. I am sure Marjorie looked around the well and seeing no other water source asks Jesus what the heck he is talking about since he has nothing to draw water with, the well is very deep and is he claiming to be greater than Jacob who discovered and passed down this well. Jesus replies that the water he has to offer will quench her thirst forever. I am sure that Marjorie made a cynical face and said in essence, well give me that water so I don’t have to come back here. See all this time Marjorie is looking at Jesus straight on and can’t see God’s light shining faintly from him. Jesus now goes on with his ability to see her past life. Marjorie is surprised but at that time, in that region, there were many who claimed to be prophets and would use tricks of pretending to know people’s past in order to secure credibility. She fires back a religious challenge that goes to the root of one of the sore spots between the Jewish tradition and the Samaritan tradition; that the Jewish tradition believes a person must worship at the temple in Jerusalem whereas the Samaritan tradition believes the place to worship is in Samaria. When Jesus responds with a foretelling of the role of the Messiah, Marjorie begins to look at him slightly to the side so that she begins to see God’s light shining from him. You see at this point she understands that not only is Jesus a Jew who would normally look down on her as a Samaritan but he understands that she is low in the eyes of even the Samaritans and still he is willing to engage with her on even footing. Now her wisdom begins to step forward and she asks if Jesus is in fact the Messiah to which he replies that he is. The disciples arrive back at this point and engage with Jesus but Marjorie drops her water jug and heads back to town where she describes her encounter with him. Now I think the text implies that folks gave credence to her report because of the prophecy of her life but I am not so sure. I think that the townsfolk see Marjorie, who normally will not engage with anyone, now is running through the town engaging with everyone to tell them her discovery. There has to be something to what she says to have caused such an incredible change in her. She has confidence and is engaging with people who could and in the past would criticize and demean her. They rush out to the well to see for themselves and invite Jesus to stay with them for awhile. You see it is not the prophecy that convinces folk but the change in Marjorie that brings them to believe that it is possible that the Messiah is waiting at Jacob’s well. I think it is the same with us. If we look dead on in our encounters with God, with Jesus, with faith, we can miss the light of God shining through the encounter. But if we trust and look a little to side that light might become visible to us. About seven years ago when we first started Emmaus Companions, Charlie and I made the acquaintance of black woman who was living quite literally in the streets of Greenfield. We became friends with Maria but at first she was reluctant to engage with us. Most people passed her by and muttered unkind comments in her direction. It was easy to see her as other being both a woman of color and usually dressed in clean but outlandish clothing. She also did not think very much of herself. When Charlie and I continued to greet her and engage with her she finally let down her guard and we became friends looking forward to each meeting. They were warm and caring encounters that said without words, you are important and I care about you. Maria was like Marjorie in that she had built up an armor to ward people off if they came too close in order to protect herself. When Charlie and I reached out to her no matter how little she thought of herself Maria could accept that she had value in the world. She let down that armor when we showed that we loved her. I suspect that Jesus gave Marjorie love in the same way as he was offering her eternal water. Quite amazing what changes we can effect when we care for others. I believe we have to use our sidelong vision when we encounter one another. We have to seek God’s light shining out of even the most prickly individuals we meet. Lent is a good time to practice this and get good at looking for God’s light everywhere and in everybody. You just don’t know when one of God’s messengers might cross your path and offer a chance to spread good news, hope and love to this crazy world. Amen By Steve Houghton, Lay Preacher
Well good morning. The readings this morning give us a lot of advise about our responsibility for our actions. Jeremiah tells us there is change coming and good things are in store for Israel and part of that will no longer be children suffering for the sins of their parents but “all shall die for their own sins. . .” God is so persistent in holding relationship with us. If you read the whole Hebrew scripture you will see that Israel continuously, and Israel is standing in for all of us, Israel continuously fails to hold up their end of the covenant. Yet God, like the widow in the gospel, persistently says “Okay, how about we try it this way?” God goes on to say “I’d like you to offer me due respect but I would also like you to take care of each other in real ways.” That covenant was offered to the people when they were captives in Egypt and they broke it so many times in the desert. Golden calf, grumbling about food, water, general conditions all during the time in the desert and each time God would consistently come back, sometimes with punishment but always with a new chance. Once in the Promised Land it was the same thing, break the rules, do what you want and always God comes back with a way to mend the tear in the relationship; with a new covenant or a renewal of the old one. This time, though, God uses a new covenant that God writes on the hearts of God’s people and it will be within them, no one will have to teach it to them. You know that voice in the back of your head that speaks up when you are doing something you shouldn’t, yeah that one. That’s God’s voice speaking from your heart. You know what stands out to me in the Letter to Timothy that we just heard? “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.” Sort of has a ring of the current times in my ears. We are walking away from the Covenant once again. God with God’s persistence and adherence to the Covenant waits for the the voice in our hearts to call us back to the relationship even through our itching ears. Again, I think, responsibility is settled on each of us individually for how we respond to returning to that covenant as God promises in Jeremiah. In the gospel we join Jesus heading for the final time to Jerusalem. We are halfway to the culmination of his ministry, “going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.” (Luke 17;11). Jesus’ teaching in this part of Luke almost seems frenetic to me, jumping from one topic to another in rapid succession, as though Jesus is anticipating the final days and wants desperately to get all of his understanding to his followers. Jesus does something sort of out of character for him in first telling us what he is teaching, “their need to pray always” and then giving us the parable of the unscrupulous judge and the persistent widow. Listen up, Jesus seems to say, you need to pray always and here is how important it is. Using the widow and the judge he demonstrates the power of constant prayer. She harangued the judge constantly to the point where she becomes a constant distraction to him and he rules in her favor. Those of you who have or have had children have a very clear understanding of what that looks like. “Mommy can I have a . . .” “Daddy all the kids have a . . . I need one too.” The chorus is repeated over and over and over and over again till we give in or something else more interesting happens. The importance of the needed thing slips away. Might that be part of what Jesus is trying to teach us here? Pray always. That has often been a stumbling block for me and many that I know. How do you carry on in life and still pray always? There are other things you need to think about to get through the day never mind your work life. Is this even a rational thought? As one of the members of our Preaching Guild said during one of our meetings, the repetition of prayer of petition leads to clarification of the real need and can send us in another more productive direction. One of the things that helped me to get my arms around the idea is a book of the writings of Brother Lawerence, a French, Carmelite monk who lived from 1614 to 1691. The book is called Living In The Presence of God and in it Brother Lawrence explains how he prays always in his daily life. It is living life aware of God’s presence. We sometimes come to the conclusion that prayer is always a petition for something we think we need. Prayer is much bigger than that. The Catechism in our Book of Common Prayer, you know that part near the back of the Book of Common Prayer that most of us, like me, unless we are dragged to it by a class or presentation or having to write a sermon, has a bit to say about Prayer. “Prayer” it says “is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.” It goes on to say “The principal kinds of prayer are adoration, praise, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation, intercession, and petition.”(BCP p.856) Prayer can be thankfulness for what we have in our lives. It can be dedication of our work to God. That is the focus of Brother Lawrence. What I am doing right now, what ever that may be, is being done to the best of my ability for God. This kind of approach to the day’s activities makes everything a prayer. It can also lead to thankfulness for so many things that are part of the day and our lives that we wouldn’t normally think about or give thanks for. Charlie and I spent many summer vacations on the beach in Wells, Maine. Charlie loves the ocean and needs to get there as often as possible. As we were trying to make reservations one year we found that the rates for cottages had gone beyond what we could afford that year and I prayed, Petition, that we could find the money to still head to the ocean. As time went on it became clear that my prayers were not going to be answered the way I hoped they would be. In the meantime, Charlie had found a cabin on Moosehead Lake for a very reasonable amount of money and suggested we go there. I was disappointed that she would not have her time at the ocean but we had such a great time at Moosehead that we went there for several years in a row. Struggling with the situation in prayer had brought us to a better outcome. My petition was answered in a wonderful and totally unexpected way. Another reason for praying constantly is that it keeps God foremost in our daily lives. That I think is the crux of what I learned from Brother Lawerence. If when I seek an outcome other than the one in front of me and consider it prayerfully, I have a better perspective on what would be the more love centered, Jesus centered, way to respond. When I am doing anything, cutting the lawn, going grocery shopping, making deliveries or even washing dishes as Brother Lawerence describes and I do it to the best of my ability, with love, and with God in mind, my thoughts and actions are prayer and I am praying throughout the day. I am less apt to respond angrily to things that happen through the day. I am less apt to respond angrily to the actions of people I do or should love. When I am trying to engage the day in prayer I am less likely to over react when I get cut off in traffic. Don’t get me wrong, I still get mad but I get a reminder that this isn’t the end of the world and I should be able to put it behind me. Or when I was younger and one of the kids did something I reacted to angrily, I was better equipped to calm myself down before addressing the issue if I was praying constantly. To be honest I have not mastered praying always and there are days that I completely miss the mark. On the days when I do keep God in mind things work out better. When I was growing up my Mom and my grandmother would often say that God was watching me constantly and I should behave knowing that. Sound familiar? In a more adult approach it is that we ought to keep the values and principles we honor here on a Sunday morning all the days of the week. I think it keeps us better equipped to deal with the political and social divides we encounter daily. We will with God’s help? Maybe praying constantly is the answer to our current cultural quagmire. So in the coming week try praying constantly. No one is keeping score and you will be the only one who knows if and when and how often you succeed. Well God is watching all the time so . . . Seriously, verify what I am saying this morning and see if makes your days run smoother. And don’t be afraid to let me know if it made a difference or if, after trying it, you decide I’m just off my rocker. Amen By Steve Houghton, Lay Preacher
Good Morning. I would like to begin with a paraphrase of New York Times columnist David Brooks as I heard him on NPR’s 1A on July 7, 2025. Mr. Brooks said; Over the last twenty years, we've seen a rise in mental health problems, a sharp rise in suicide. Thirty six percent of Americans say they feel lonely much of the time Forty five percent of high school students say they're persistently hopeless and despondent. The number of Americans who say they have no close friends is up by fourfold since February. And so we've become sadder as a country, and more distrustful. Social trust and interpersonal trust have been collapsing over the last two generations. And so when you feel sadder, you feel meaner because your loneliness is a form of insult to your dignity, and so you wanna lash out. And so I think our politics sort of flow directly out of, the decline we've seen in people's social, relational, and spiritual lives. End of paraphrase. Let me repeat that last line of David Brooks, “and so I think our politics sort of flow directly out of the decline we’ve seen in people’s social, relational, and spiritual lives.” We are here this morning to reverse that decline in our spiritual lives. We are here to re-assess how we are relating to the world and if we are, in fact, following the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. We are here to reacquaint ourselves with the love and togetherness that Jesus always spoke of. In Hebrews, Paul is teaching us that the obedience of Abraham, Jacob and Issac was rewarded with God’s blessing and an abundance of descendants. Paul goes on to explain that even though they died before seeing the complete fulfillment of God’s promise they had faith that God would do what was promised. They recognized that they were strangers on earth and that “they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one.”(Hebrews 11:16). Do we have faith in that promise and do we desire a better, heavenly country? Jesus uses bridesmaids and servants in many of his teachings as examples of the importance of being prepared. His kind of being prepared is not a passive thing but is very active. “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.” I really enjoy the gospel when Jesus calls for action. There’s no personal salvation here. As Paul said this is a call to action in forming a new country, a heavenly one, a coming of the kingdom. So the question comes to us, what does it mean to be ready and to be dressed for action and have our lamps lit? That is really what I want to focus on in the readings this morning “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.” Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis puts it this way. “I can see a bold new path led by a vision of the sacred goodness of humankind and the abundance of the planet’s resources…. You and I are the ones we’ve been waiting for to create better lives for ourselves and our communities and to build a better world—together. All we need is the courage to imagine, and the will to make it be so.”( Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World (Harmony Books, 2021), 14, 15.) Rev. Dr. Lewis’ words roll easily off the tongue but can be a bit less easy to execute. Early on in my involvement with Emmaus Companions and early in the prayer corner at Second Helpings I was sitting at our prayer corner when a guest I will call Bob came to me just before folks were called to get their food. I need you to understand that this was back when we would call individual tables to the service line and we expected folks to come when their table was called to keep the line moving efficiently. I started getting nervous since there didn’t seem to be enough time to get a prayer in before they started serving the food. Bob went on for several minutes describing how and why he wanted prayers for his daughter who was ill and living in another state. I started to cut Bob short and explained that food was being served. He looked me in the eye and told me that if he wanted food right away he would have waited in his seat but he came to me to pray for his daughter. To say I was embarrassed and caught up short would be an understatement. I quickly recovered and was able to lead Bob in a prayer for his daughter. Driving home I realized that I had put my need to keep things moving, to maintain the protocol of the meal, ahead of what our ministry was about; sharing Christ’s love. I had tried to approach serving others through a perspective of maintaining the established system. Fortunately, Bob, like many we serve, was not shy and quick to redirect my focus. And doesn’t that happen with most of us? We set out to help build a new country with an attitude focused on maintaining the status quo. One of the guidelines of Emmaus Companions is to shut up and listen. We need to hear what our companion is asking for or looking for. Focused on not stepping out of our comfort zone will cause us to misread or completely miss the other person’s need. How often have we joined the express lane in the supermarket only to see someone in front of us with a full cart? Stage whispered observations of “which checkout is this” and how “some people don’t know how to count to fifteen”, don’t really demonstrate having our lamps lit. It is possible that the customer with the oversized load is trying to get home as fast as possible to take care of a sick child. Perhaps being prepared will help us to smile and take the edge off that mom or dad as they red faced leave the supermarket. I was in the Energy Park with a number of folk including one gentleman I will call Mike. Mike had been homeless for over thirty years in several cities and towns in Massachusetts. He was looked up to by the people on the margins and saw himself as a mentor and guide to those newly homeless. We were talking about homeless experiences when he suddenly turned to me and demanded what right I had to be with this group of people. In the four or five seconds it took me to respond my mind went in a million directions. This is where the Holy Spirit usually steps in and saves my butt and this was no exception. I looked Mike in the eye and said something to the effect of “There was this teacher in ancient Israel who said all people were my brothers and sisters and I believe him.” Mike looked at me for what seemed like an hour but was really only about fifteen seconds then declared that he guessed that I did have a right to be there if that was the case. People have a right to challenge us when we are trying to do good works and it is important for us to have an understanding of what motivates our actions. If I had been caught up in trying to justify myself I am sure I would have failed in Mike’s eyes. I know that standing in front of a 6’ 4” man with a thousand foot stare that burns like a laser into the back of your head trying to make friends and offer a helping hand isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but for Alicia, Charlie, Dennis and I it is and if any of you think it might be for you also just talk to one of us. The reality is that none of us has to do huge, great, splashy things to help bring about a new country. One of our reflection group members shared that simple things have a big impact on us. She shared that a person let her proceed first at an intersection and that gave her hope that there were still good people in the world. Now that says two things; one, our culture is so screwed up that a simple gesture of kindness has a great impact and more importantly two how easy it is to make a change toward the better. I think Brian McClaren sums it up well when he writes: “Our choice is clear from the start: If we want to be his disciples, we won’t be able to simply coast along and conform to the norms of our society. We must choose a different definition of well being, a different model of success, a new identity with a new set of values…. ” (Brian D. McLaren, We Make the Road by Walking: A Year Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and Activation (Jericho Books, 2014), 128–129) So the task before us is pretty simple in action and very profound in impact. Whether it is curtesy at intersections or praying with a friend in Page 15 need, we need to seek Jesus’ love as we build a new country, a heavenly one. If we are to be salt and light, I wonder, how will we dress for action and light our lamps in this coming week? Amen
While studying today’s gospel it occurred to me that there are really two themes to be absorbed here; one on the location of the sermon and the healings and the other on the “blessed” and the “woe” There are some outstanding differences between Luke’ account that we heard this morning and Matthew’s account. After doing research for this sermon I am pretty sure I could offer a seminar on the different and interplays between the two but you will be happy to know that I am focusing only on Luke’s version this morning.
First, we need to consider the geography of the place where this sermon is given. Luke’s version is often referred to as the “sermon on the plain” and so it is as we heard this morning that Jesus set about teaching on a “level place”. This level place was not just on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, it was a plain on a rise above the shore. It was also below some hills behind, much like we see in our area. That is because the Sea of Galilee is actually a broadening of the river Jordan and formed to some degree like this area was formed by the Connecticut River. The topography offered an are where it is easy for the human voice to be heard over a fairly long distance. So we have a large level area with a sort of bowl shape and with great acoustics. If you are old enough think Yazger’s farm the site of Woodstock. The other thing we need to know is that Tyre and Sidon had a good many gentiles living there. The population that had access to the area was moderately large and diverse. Jesus and a large number of his followers have just been on retreat up in hills surrounding this spot and Jesus has picked out the twelve followers that make up the core of his teachers. As they all come down from the hills they are met by a very large group of people who want healing and are looking for a good show. The level area offers a situation in whic everyone is on the level. No one is higher than their neighbor. The area is large enough that those who have been pushed to the margins, like lepers and those possessed and are unclean due to all kinds of legalistic reasons, still can see and hear what is going on. Now in this environment, what is the first thing tha Jesus sets out to do? Heal. The very first thin Jesus does is heal. Not just some but “he was healing everyone.” Not only that but he was healing both the one that he could touch and those who, though they could not reach him, were healed by a power that went out from him. When I was working for a living I had to study explosions. In that pursuit I and my fellow investigators would study ultra slow videos of explosions and we could watch the pressure wave as it moved out from the center of the explosion. You might have seen this in some action movies or documentaries about nuclear explosions in the Bikini Islands. When I think of the power of healing that went out from Jesus that is the picture that forms in my mind though not a wave of destruction but a wave of healing. So now we have a very large gathering of people all on a level field and all are now whole There is n margin. There are no outcasts. I have a hard time believing that Jesus didn’t understand and plan what was happening. If the kingdom was going to start it was going to start in just such a manner. While Jesus had already done many miracles and taught many ideas I think this was the start of God’s kingdom. Having now worked his way to the bottom of the bowl as he was healing the crowd, he lifts up his eyes and begins to preach. It is dead quiet and you can hear his voice no matter where you are standing. He doesn’t need to shout but can talk smoothly and warmly. The great “blessed are” and “woe to” are not spoken until all can hear. There are a lot of ways you can hear the beatitudes both today and when they were spoken. As I was growing up they became part of the check list for the great retirement plan after death. That list was very long but it was made pretty clear when this reading of Luke was preached that these blessed ways of being and especially the woes were on the list St. Peter had in his hand at the golden gates. I recently came across a quote from Brian McLaren in a Center for Action and Contemplation, (December 29, 2024) meditation and while he follows the pattern of Matthew’s beatitudes the same can be said of Luke. He wrote; “I’ve come to understand the Beatitudes as a way of saying something very different. The Beatitudes say, We, this new movement, bless the very people who are usually excluded. Jesus says, In this movement, we bless the poor and the poor in spirit. We bless those who mourn, we bless the meek or gentle, we bless those who hunger and thirst for justice. We bless the merciful and the pure in heart. We bless the peacemakers and those who are persecuted for standing up for justice. And then Jesus continues: We see the world differently because we bles people who are usually forgotten, despised, or excluded. That different way of seeing the worl leads to a different way of being in the world. Indeed it does. I think if we look at the woes through the same sort of lens we see less a condemnation of people and more a condemnation of selfish being If your focus is on being comfortable then you have comfort in your own little world instead of making your community comfortable with you. That selfishnes is its own reward. And if you focus on your own belly instead of the belly of your community, don’t be surprised that when you have needs, your community doesn’t come to your rescue. If you sit back at home enjoying what you have while others are anguishing over their troubles, don’t wonder why no one comes to help you in a time of grief or loss. And finally, if you are only looking for th adulation of those around you, abandoning the possible perception that you are a do gooder, forgetting what Jesus taught, then you will have let your community down and perpetuated the discord that exists in our society today. Jesus says over and over again that the Kingdom is here and our efforts should be here In the Sermo on the Plain, Luke shows us what Jesus saw as essential behavior to bring that Kingdom to life. He does it in the healings and he does it in the teachings. A short time back, I was talking to Larry who distributes tents and blankets and things to folks who are in need. We were talking about the greater need to find a systemic solution for homelessnes and how our meager efforts were only puttin bandaids on very large problem. I told him that at least we could put a bandaid on it and help for a short while. I have thought about that a lot since we talked and I have thought of the response we get from the people we put bandaids on. I have come to realize that it is not the bandaid that is helping, it is the fact that we are there to offer the bandaid We car enough to be out there and having something to offer The size of our offerings matters but the f that someone cares, someone is willing to put mistakes behind, someone is willing to offer a han and recognize the humanity in the suffering; that matters more. Do you hear what God is offering here Does it rin true? Do you feel it in your heart? I believe God made us for relationships. I believe Jesus taught us about relationships; that the Kingdom will blossom from relationships. Now, in this time and place, we need to see the Son of Man in everyone we meet. We need to stand on the level place and help Jesus heal everyone. The world around us is trying to pull us apart, to see everyone as other. If we can take the time and effort to practice hospitality we ca make a difference We can mend the tears in ou relationships and change the feelings of ill ease that confronts us too often these days. If more and more of us offer the bandaids that Go has asked us to offer then pretty soon we have direction and then a movement and then maybe the Kingdom. Who knows? What we do know are the lessons that Jesus has offered us, on the plain, in Jerusalem, at the shore of Galilee, every place he walked. How can we follow the teachings he spoke on the plain today and this week? Amen. |
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We believe God is calling us to cultivate a community of love, joy, hope, and healing. Jesus is our model for a life of faith, compassion, hospitality, and service. We strive to be affirming and accessible, welcoming and inclusive; we seek to promote reconciliation, exercise responsible stewardship, and embrace ancient traditions for modern lives.
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