Invited to God's Banquet, October 15 Worship

We are invited to a banquet. It’s quite a feast. On the menu is mercy, grace, and joy. Come and sit at this table and you will laugh with relief and wonder. This is God’s banquet, and He invites us to come and sit with him at His table. It is an honor we have not earned and do not deserve. If you are surprised to be invited you might pause and think, “But I have nothing I could wear to such a lavish banquet.” Look again and you will see that the invitation says “come as you are.” Here we are in the presence of the Almighty Creator and King. God’s banquet is just getting started. It is an eternal celebration of all that good, right, and true. 

Listening for God, October 8th Worship

God might want to send you an important message. But if you cannot accept the messenger you will never hear what the Almighty and All-knowing God wants to say to you. This happened in the days of Isaiah the prophet just as it did again when Jesus revealed himself to the people of Israel. How might God be speaking to you today? Sometimes we are not listening because we simply are not expecting God to be speaking. At other times we hear His truth and then we actively resist it because it sounds too threatening or difficult. Opening ourselves to the idea that God could be speaking to us today will change many things including our relationships with other people. When we listen to others with respect and consideration, not only do we honor them in a way that makes our relationships with everyone easier and better, but we also open our hearts wider to the amazing revelation of God’s pure love and grace.    

God of Completion, October 1st Worship

Every day we deal with things that are too big or complicated to finish. Even though we long for things that are whole and complete, so many things in life are too vast to even be able to see the end. At work or school we strive to finish long projects that have no end in sight.. At home we continue long conversations with family and friends without resolution. In the eyes of God everything about us is incomplete. His great promise is to continue with us until we are made complete. Even when it feels like we will never get to the end of things God is here. No wonder Paul urges us to remain hopeful as we “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Our Generous God, September 24th Worship

As we begin to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we rejoice that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works. The whole point of the Reformation is that it is easy to forget this amazing thing. Because of Jesus God is abundantly, outrageously generous in His love for us. Jesus tells us a story about how surprising and mysterious the mercy and love of God can seem. He invites us to worship and rejoice in the wonder of our Generous God.

God's Gracious Account, September 17th Worship

Each of us is, in a sense, writing the story of our lives. We want to steer the story in a certain way. Yet, along the way there are many “what if’ moments that we cannot control. Paul tells us in Romans that in the end each of us “will give an account of himself to God.” In other words we will get to tell the story from our perspective. But what really ignites the imagination is that we will then get to hear Almighty God’s version of our story. Along the way, as it is being written God can turn our stories in surprising ways. He can add or subtract things, not because we deserve it but because it is His pleasure to see something better than we could ever create for ourselves. In the end, God can choose to see the whole of our lives in an entirely different way because Jesus the Son of the Living God has made sure that our stories include grace and forgiveness and the undeserved eternal compassion of God.

God Creates Anew, September 10th Worship

God is creative. The Bible tells us from its first pages that God has infinite power to make new things, and maybe even more amazing, He can also renew and recreate. When Jesus finds his disciples squabbling about who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven he invites them to think about themselves as children. In thinking of ourselves in this way we prepare ourselves for the newness of life God can create. By his Word and Spirit God can bring newness in wonderful, graceful, and eternal ways. Today as we begin new things we gather to pray, “God, come among us, and create anew”.

The Amazing Way of God, September 3rd Worship

God’s way is often very different than what we might imagine. Jesus willingly went to the cross when His disciples could not see what that would accomplish. His sacrifice made the way that leads to our salvation. Jeremiah too was surprised by God. Jeremiah doubted the Lord's intentions but God still promised to deliver and redeem him.  St. Paul tells us in Romans how it is that what looks like a loss can be the very way in which we gain something from God. Our God is awesome, surprising, and amazing. We pray for His Spirit that we may be able to follow his way.

God is Our Rock, August 27th Worship

Rocks provide security and stability. God's Old Testament people were called back to the faith of Abraham, their ancestral "rock." Jesus promises that He will be the Rock for all those like Peter who confess His name. When given a rock solid foundation to build on we can build lives that really work and feel right. From that rock we can only marvel at God's infinite grace and eternal might, and say with St. Paul, "To Him be glory forever. Amen."

God's Great Mercy, August 20th Worship

Today we see a Canaanite woman come to Jesus to plea for her daughter's well-being.  No one probably expected Jesus to give them much attention.  Instead Jesus is filled with compassion and mercy for them.  God has abundant mercy for everyone who calls upon Him in faith.  This means we can be bold with God and confess out needs, faults and failures. So great is God's mercy that from Him we can be inspired to be merciful and care for the people in our lives. 

Courage in Almighty God, August 13th Worship

Every day we run up against our limitations. We get tired. Despite our greatest ambitions we can find ourselves coming up short of what we would have liked to accomplish. In contrast God has no limitation. He can walk on water. He can create a splendid world out of nothing. He can even declare us holy and set apart simply because He wants to. We are not alone if we struggle with understanding the nature of God. We join Peter and Job, and Paul who all were amazed to see that indeed, God has no limitation. In Him we can have courage.