 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.  by Steve Houghton, Lay Preacher
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you our Lord and Redeemer. This morning’s gospel is hard to hear for our Capitalist Society and those of us who live in it. In fact, in a number of bible studies I have been a part of it has been described as harsh, unrealistic and even un-Christ-like because Jesus would never have spoken with such condemnation about anyone. For that reason many of us dodge this gospel as much as we can. Growing up, my family considered themselves to be middle class. My parents bought their own home, bought new cars every few years and put me and my five siblings through college or an equivalent education. In order to do this my father worked two jobs and my mother worked nights. I don’t think we were rich by any stretch of the imagination but compared to much of the rest of the world we were. In fact, compared to many in our community we were. The cost of being in the middle class was a loss of time for us to be a family. My Dad worked in middle management and also worked at the nearby race track selling bets on the horses at night and on the weekend. As a result he was tired most the time and often not available for family activities. I was sometimes upset that he didn’t take the time to play catch with me or teach me the finer points of basketball ball that he wanted me to excel at as he had in his youth. I believe he was even more upset about it than I was because he spent a good deal of his later years apologizing for what he hadn’t done when we were growing up. My Mom’s job meant that Dad was babysitting for the six of us when he could have been resting or doing something with one of us kids individually, like play catch. It also meant that Mom was feeling under pressure to keep the house orderly, clean, cook the meals and meet the mark as a fifty’s mother and housewife. So as I grew up the mark was set for what success was and what was expected of me. As a young adult graduating from high school I had a bag of expectations. Those included how I was to treat my fellow human beings, how I was to treat women, what role my religion played in my actions in the world, how and when I was representing my family in my actions. There was a lot of stuff my parents gave me to help me become a respectable member of society so I picked up that bag and moved forward. (pick up bag) I went to college and got a whole new set of expectations and obligations to shoulder. Things like thinking for yourself and doing the research in order to make the right decisions. Things like being eligible for military duty when an unpopular and possibly unjust war was going on and should I serve or should I find a way out. (Pick up backpack) I met Charlie and found a new set of expectations and obligations as a husband and partner. What did I need to do to put a roof over our heads and keep us fed while we both went to school. (Pick up backpack) Then our first child arrived and new expectations and obligation came with being a father and guide. Since unemployment was high the best option at the time was to join the military and with that came the obligations of being a noncommissioned officer and leading men in successfully completing our mission. (Pickup bag) When we left the military I needed to find a job that would allow us to have the things my parents had attained so I found a good job and began to build a new division in that job. As you would expect, that included a whole new set of expectations and obligations. (Pick up backpack) So right now I don’t think I can get through the door never mind the eye of a needle and there were and are a lot more bags that I picked up getting to where I am right now. And what does all of this have to do with the rich young man? This story or a variation of it appear in all three of the synoptic gospels. This morning’s reading is from Mark. Mathew has the story at chapter 19(:16-26). Luke (18: 18-29) has the story with a young ruler who has great wealth. Also notice this is not a parable, it is an encounter with a person who has met with Jesus as Jesus is teaching. There is not a lot to analyze or figure out, the facts are pretty clear. In the beginning Jesus asks why the young man called him “good” when only God is good. I had always found that part of the story confusing but as I was focusing on this to prepare for this sermon I realized Jesus was telling the young man that Jesus could not cause a change of heart, only God can do that. And after all Jesus was going to call the young man to make a change of heart. And something that slipped by me in the past was the phrase “Jesus loved him”. If you think about that a minute it tempers the harshness of the comment about how hard it is for a rich man to get into the Kingdom. So now let me start to put all these seeming disassociated things together and explain my thoughts on camels, eyes, and getting into the kingdom of God. The rich young man was a good man and was living up to the expectations of the Jewish faith as he knew it. He was doing it all the right way. He sensed, probably from Jesus’ teaching, that there was something more, another step he had to take to truly be a follower of Jesus. He asks Jesus that very question and Jesus tries to let him off the hook by asking what his faith asks him to do, which I think Jesus already knew he was doing. The rich young man was determined to meet the mark for what Jesus was asking of his followers and so he pressed on and because of that Jesus saw his determination and “loved” him. In that love Jesus was not going to let him off the hook but rather to give him the direction that the young man sought. Jesus said sell all that you have and give the proceeds to the poor and the rich young man went away sad because he had many possessions. Note that we don’t know what happened to the rich young man. Maybe he did sell all his possessions. Maybe he didn’t. Jesus’ focus shifts to address all those who have many possessions and makes a broad observation that it is extremely difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Why would you think it would be so difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom? One reason might be that there is no time to work on entering the kingdom when you are striving to earn or maintain riches. Believe it or not even rich people have to work really hard to hold onto their wealth. It takes hours of work, late meetings, cross country trips and time away from home and family in order to hold your own in our Capitalist Society. Once you attain some of the riches you sought you find a new dilemma in trying to hold on to it. There are the physical dangers of theft, loss caused by nature, market crashes and other monetary disasters. All of these threaten wealth and possessions. There are the social dangers of going to the wrong clubs or attending the wrong churches or supporting the wrong causes or voting for the wrong party. All of these threaten your ability to continue to make more money or cause you to lose it to someone better aligned with perceived right thought. One of the greatest lessons our neighbors in need has taught me is that there is great freedom in not possessing anything. There is nothing to lose. You can take any position you want and no one can or will threaten you. Someone may think to take a swing at you but chances are they could get hurt as well and if you have nothing what does it matter what you say or what cause you support or who you cheer on. Of course that all assumes no one will listen to you. The greatest freedom is time, time to spend however you decide is right. These days very small voices are moving huge issues forward in the areas of equity, justice and fairness. We have evidence of this in our own congregation. The Kingdom of God was and is not a place somewhere out there or in another dimension as far as I know. It is right here, right now. Jesus many times over, said the Kingdom is here. How present it is depends on how much effort we put in to make it present. If we are caught up in chasing or maintaining wealth we won’t have time to try to make it present. So it is really difficult to impossible for a rich man to help illuminate or develop or spread the Kingdom. Also Jesus asks us to feed the hungry, dress the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the injured; all of which requires financial means. It is caring about and for the woman or man who is on welfare and doesn’t appear to do anything at all to help themselves. It means taking the time to put ourselves in the shoes of those we sometimes see as other and realizing the hurdles they have before them. Jesus is not saying that rich people are bad or that they are lost forever. He is saying that many of them may have to experience a change of heart in order to follow his lead. And he is saying that a change of heart is not easy and it is best done with God’s help. I like to think that the rich young man went home and after a lot of prayer began to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked because of Jesus’ teaching and while he may have not sold all his possessions he became a benefactor to those in his community. And maybe that too is why Jesus loved him. How are you and I going to respond to Jesus call and admonition? Like the rich young man I think we should give it some thought. Amen |
Mission
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.
Office HoursTuesday 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Closed holidays Our gardens and grounds are open from dawn to dusk for the community to pray, rest, be. Please help us take care of this sacred space by following the outdoor ethic & principle of “leave no trace.” |
Contact Information
|
Worship Times10 a.m. In-Person Worship & Livestreamed
View worship services. We would love to have you join us soon! |