Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King (John 12:12-19) 12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;    see, your king is coming,    seated on a donkey’s colt.” 16 At fi

From “Our World Belongs to God:” 23. Remembering the promise to reconcile the world to himself, God joined our humanity in Jesus Christ— the eternal Word made flesh. He is the long-awaited Messiah, one with us and one with God, fully human and fully divine, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. The ONLY ONE,            who emptied Himself like this: Philippians 2:6-7 “For though he was in the form (the very nature) of God, did not count equality with God a

If you were to summarize the whole Old Testament with just 4 people/4 stories in addition to Adam and Eve, what would they be? In these weeks leading up to Easter, we've been using "Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testamony" as a framework for what leads up to Easter's great celebration. Two weeks ago we started with Creation.   8. In the beginning, God—Father, Word, and Spirit— called this world into being out of nothing, and gave it shape and order... and everythin

13. In the beginning of human history, our first parents walked with God. But rather than living by the Creator’s word of life, they listened to the serpent’s lie and fell into sin. In their rebellion they tried to be like God. As sinners, Adam and Eve feared the nearness of God and hid. Genesis 3:1-8 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in t

“Our church has been motivated to see that we owe this world a clear witness to our Lord, a contemporary statement of our hope and of the light of the gospel.  Therefore we have taken as our theme for this testimony, ‘Our World Belongs to God!’ by this theme we wish to proclaim God’s rule in a world that thinks it is out of control or that it’s controlled by human technique.” CREATION:   7. Our world belongs to God— not to us or earthly powers, not to demons, fate, or chance.

Good morning. Today I have been tasked with our final teaching on Epiphany with an emphasis on the inclusion of outsiders. And if I’m being honest, this has been the hardest teaching to write for me so far – and it’s not because the topic isn’t interesting, or because I’m not particularly passionate about what I’m going to speak to, but because it feels so enormous that I’m nervous I won’t get it right, or that I’m going to miss big chunks of this important story because ther

I offered to share at one of the Advent readings, and I probably should have paid more attention to the selection process, because if I had picked one, it would not have been a meditation on God’s love. Perhaps this seems strange as it must be the commonest component of Sunday school lessons. But it is precisely the depth and breadth of the topic which feels overwhelming to me. Where to start? However, as with many things, the hardest things are often the most rewarding. I am

Luke 1: 5-17  5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.  8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before Go

Before we begin unpacking this encounter with Jesus, I’d like to share a little bit about me. I am, and have always been, a curious person. I am deeply invested in learning, which is perhaps why I chose education as a career. Amongst friends, I have been teased relentlessly about starting many conversations with the phrases “I just read an interesting article” or “listened to an interesting podcast.” I voraciously sponge as much knowledge and understanding as I can. However,

We have really been enjoying these messages about encounters with Jesus!  It's been good to reflect on things we share with people who encountered Jesus when he walked on earth and so interesting to hear one another's personal stories, We'd like to open with a familiar little episode -- just a few verses long.  Mark chapter 10:13-16.  The NIV translation uses somewhat old-fashioned words, but I'm sure it will make sense to you. 13  People were bringing little children to Jesu