“The Word Becoming Flesh” on John 1:1-18 by Joe Ellis - Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2022
For some of us, this passage in the Gospel of John is anything but our first time reading it. We have become intimately familiar and profoundly shaped by this passage. With that familiarity, it's easy to lose the deep mystery behind John’s words. We take it for granted that John, the Apostle who wrote this Gospel, is talking about Jesus of Nazareth. Yet if you or I were reading the prologue of John's Gospel for the first time, a human figure would likely be the furthest t
“Christmas Eve Reflection” by Joe Ellis – December 24, 2022
I’d like to read you a note I received from my mom a little over fifteen years ago. At the time I was a student in Vancouver, looking forward to coming home to Alaska for Christmas break. Mom was also looking forward to our time together, she wrote: “I’m starting to get ready for Christmas! I made 5 dozen batches of cookies yesterday. Yum! It will be so fun to see you when you come! I’ll be at the airport with a huge smile. Start thinking about your Christmas list!!!
"Saying Yes" on Matthew 1:18-25 by Michelle Ellis for the 4th Sunday in Advent – Dec. 18, 2022
Today, I’d like to focus in on the character of Joseph and how God draws him into His story. Joseph often plays a background role in the telling of the Christmas story. In fact, none of his words are ever recorded in any of the tellings of Jesus’ birth or anywhere else in scripture. We never hear him speak a word. But his actions have a huge influence in the story. His actions are pivotal for Mary, for Jesus and for us. Imagine with me this young man, in his late teens o
“Two Kingdoms” on Matthew 11:1- 15 by Joe Ellis - Third Sunday of Advent, December 11, 2022
We’ve been talking about the word vocation recently, not vacation. If you’re not familiar with that word, as Christians we use it to refer to what God is calling you or me to do in this life. Often when we talk about vocation, we think about the job we’re paid for, but it's not limit to your job at all. Last week we talked about how our general vocation as followers of Jesus, is to reflect God’s glory back to Him — we do that through prayer and worship. We talked about ho
“John’s Vocation” on Matthew 3:1-12 by Joe Ellis — Second Sunday in Advent, December 4, 2022
When you start down the road of exploring being a pastor, one thing you’ll come up against pretty quickly is people asking you if you feel called into being a pastor. It's not something that you can just say, “I don’t know, I just sort of wanted to try it out." Well, maybe you could say that if you were a beginning youth pastor, but you’ll pretty quickly learn that you need to have some story of how God is calling you into “ministry." I’m pretty on board with needing to fe
