Sharing God's love as a caring faith community

So today, in a lazy mid-Summer hot Sunday service,

we have the best, or perhaps worst, 

story of sex and violence in the New Testament,

a story which has inspired artwork and artistic interpretations throughout the ages, from painters like Lucas Cranach to composers like Richard Strauss:

“The Dance that caused the prophet’s death”

Do we keep our faith when miracle healings DON’T happen?

is our faith all in vain, when these intercessions don’t become reality?

What happens if the sick woman for whom I am praying dies?

We need to help refugees and to oppose policies that degrade human rights of refugees and immigrants (for example the current inhuman practices along the US-Mexican border, and the immoral and wicked separation of children and parents).

I’d like you now to think about this:

who for you is wicked?

if you had to name somebody who is wicked, who would that be?

today, now, 

who is wicked?

Good Shepherding Sunday comes faithfully each year. 

The Lord our shepherd knows, protects and sets a place for us at the table, with a cup overing flowing, leading us to places that restore our soul, following us with goodness and mercy.   

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. To know of a good shepherd there also must be awareness of a...

By being silent, the women leave room for God.

The story is then not as much about what the women did or saw,

but it’s about what God did!

The focus is on God! 

O God, whose Son's death begot life, give us grace to let go of our lives, 

like a seed, and fall to the ground that your life might be rooted in us.   Amen.

It’s that time of year when those with a green thumb (and those persistent in their hopes of acquiring a green thumb) start to think a little about seeds and upcoming...

But if God is love and loves the whole world,

how can anyone perish?

If God is all love for all,

how can anybody be excluded?

The ashen cross points to resurrection and eternal life.