Yet another whirlwind week! This time members of our community have spent three days studying, breaking bread, and sharing fellowship along the border wall both in El Paso and in our sister city of Ciudad Juarez. We have laughed, we have cried, we have learned (a lot), we have grown relationships new and old. And we have remembered that life in the borderlands is one that is shared across a wide variety of experiences from around the globe. This weekend we will be looking at

Oh what a week! It has been a joy and a kerfuffle this week as we dove deeply into God's lovingkindness at #CompassionCampVBS!!! With sixteen children and nearly as many grownups, there was never dull moment as we danced, sang, acted, crafted, re-created, welcomed, ate, and played together across the five afternoons. There is no way to say enough of a thank you to all of the helpers who made this week possible - especially our tri-chairs: Sarah Heim, Stephanie Fernandez, and

"The Beatitudes" by Kelly Latimore Last weekend we began our summer sermon series on the Beatitudes from Jesus's "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew 5. Years ago now, when I first got into a solo pastorate, my late husband said, "Do the lists over the summer. You know, the ones everyone thinks they know what they mean. Do those, because I'm sure there's more to them and it's a long season of ordinary preaching otherwise." This series was actually the first one I ever did (even i

"Christ the Light" by Kelly Latimore A little girl once asked a character played by Morgan Freeman, "Did God paint you?" He smiled, chuckled, and responded, "[God] loves wondrous variety." It is a funny thing, but that is the main piece I remember out of the likely hundred times I watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves during the summer of 1992. Well, that and the opening notes of the prelude. Because even at the age of ten years old, the truth of those words rang as cle

This weekend is Trinity Sunday - the annual tradition of pastors attempting to explain the ethereal and eternal mystery of how our God is One and yet Three Persons at the same time. Such a party. Okay, so there was some snark there, but truly I am a Trinity nerd and I love this Sunday (and no, it's not just because we get to sing "Holy, Holy, Holy"). From the beginning, there have always been images of our God being more than simply an old man in the sky, though that is a fu

This weekend we come to an end and a beginning. Throughout Eastertide we have journeyed with the tribes of Jacob through the wilderness, headed toward Sinai - the mountain of God. What most Christians either don't know or have forgotten is that the ancient festival of Pentecost is the celebration of their arrival at Horeb and God's great gift of the law. The beginning of that great covenant where intentional community was built around how we relate to God and our neighbor. An

How do we know God is with us? That is the fundamental question at the heart of every wandering story in the Exodus narrative. Frankly it's the question that many of us ask at a myriad of points throughout our own lifelong journeys, too - isn't it? How can we be sure that God is really there and not on holiday? Before we get to the celebration of Pentecost - which is the Jewish celebration remembering God's gift of the law on Sinai - we are making one final "pit stop" so to s

Almost all of us have found ourselves lost in the wilderness at some point or another in our lives. This week I learned that one of my dearest friends and mentors has entered one particular wilderness far too many of us are familiar with. It is unlike any other, for it eats out a hole in the center of our souls and takes years to as we finally claw our way back out of the pit in the desert in which we find ourselves, even if we do not realize it until months or years later.

This weekend we come to a turning point in the Exodus narrative - where one becomes many. For though we may be called as individuals, we are always called into community that God's whole world may flourish. In this case, as God comes down to rescue Jacob's descendants and bring them up out of slavery in Egypt, God not only helps the people but creates a community from the survivors. One that intentionally recalls that they are God's and therefore are meant to live as God has

What is God's call on your life? Believe it or not, it is never too late to figure out precisely what God wants you to do. And it might even change at different points and places. It may look a bit unique for each of us. But there will be some similarities. Moses was already eighty years old when he encountered the burning bush. On some level we can hope that those were "Genesis years" and maybe they were counted a little unconventionally, but either way, it is clear that God

This weekend we will start our Eastertide sermon series on the book of Exodus. The story begins with a simple statement, "A new Pharaoh arose in Egypt who did not remember Joseph..." A new king who does not remember history. Does not honor promises made before. Does not care about how things were done in the past and looks only to his own greatness and what he believes he can make of the future. That is how the story begins. Alongside this prominent figure, God's own people,

"I Believe" by Steven Price of A Sanctified Art, LLC I feel extremely blessed to have been raised with a remarkably ecclectic musical background. Among the songs I grew up knowing nearly from birth was Louis Armstrong's version of "La Vie En Rose." Seeing the world through rose colored glasses - only the best and the brightest parts of life. It is a fabulous song, even if the worldview leaves something to be desired. Many years later, I came across rose colored glass in the w

"Unbind Him" by Hannah Garrity of A Sanctified Art It is incredible to think, but we are only one week away from Holy Week. It feels like Lent has flown by. Before we get there, though, we have this one final story of wonder and amazement. In the gospel of John, just before Jesus travels to the holy city and as he is doing his ministry, he gets word that his best friend is sick. In fact, he is dying. Still, Jesus keeps going with what he is doing - and we are never told why.

This morning on my way home from dropping the minions off at school, I saw two very different scenes within one block of each other. On one side was a family in lawn chairs campaigning for someone in the primaries. On the other side of the block was a man cleaning up his sleeping place on a bus bench from the night before. It was quite the contrast. But the thought occurred to me that both are looking for safety. Belonging. Home. This past weekend in my sermon I mentioned tha

When I was in my first church, I had the rare opportunity to study with one of the foremost experts on the gospel of John - Dr. Gail O'Day. She opened my eyes to the world of the fourth gospel in ways I never could have expected. You see, while the first three gospels sound like kids who shared a book report in school (you know I'm not wrong), John comes from an entirely different direction. What John centers on is the person and embodiment of Christ. And the question the a

Welcome to Lent! This Sunday we are starting with a double temptation. On the one hand we have the temptation of Christ in the desert. The old Tempter follows him out into the wilderness after his Baptism and offers him three different versions of earthly glory - all of which Jesus denies. For he knows that God has a greater purpose for the Messiah than anything this world has to offer. By contrast, our passage from Genesis is the original temptation of the first couple in th

This weekend we are joining a celebration already in process. In worship we will be welcoming our favorite guest jazz musicians, which is highly appropriate, especially given that it is Mardi Gras weekend. And in addition, we are traveling to the mountain to see Christ transformed. As I wrote on a marquis sign several years ago: "Christ was transfigured before Star Wars made it cool." We will behold Christ as God's own Messiah bathed in light. A truly Jewish embodied figure s

This weekend we are returning to our "regularly scheduled programing" with a portion of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount from the gospel of Matthew. Several years ago, one of the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention reported that when pastors within his denomination preached from this section of Matthew's gospel they reported that their members would come up to them and ask where they got those "liberal talking points." In response, his colleagues would respond, "I am quit

"There Is Still Room" by Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman Right now, so much is coming at us from so many directions. And at times it is difficult to hear God's voice above the din. The truth is, though, that God's voice is the still small whisper that comes from right in the midst of the milieu - we just sometimes forget how to look and listen for it. At the very end of his earthly life in the gospel of John, Jesus preaches a sermon to his disciples that can be summed up from

"Exodus" by Marc Chagall This weekend we will be honoring our lost ones that were taken from us in the Holocaust. We will be doing this in a variety of ways in worship. Among them is by examining a beloved passage from the prophet Micah that focuses around three keys words: mishpat (מִשְׁפָּט), chesed (חֶ֔סֶד), and tsana (צנַע). They are the definition of what is tov (טוֹב) in God's eyes. Mishpat is one of the Hebrew words for justice. In this case, it is not the same as the