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Sermons

Creating Community

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection HERE. I start each and every week with God—and with the readings for the upcoming Sunday. I have labeled this time on Monday mornings my GPS: my time of gratitude, prayer, and sermonating (offering myself to the Spirit as a conduit for revealing what God has to say to us today). When the weather is nice, I sit out on the patio at church, or on the deck… or in the woods. This past Monday it was raining, so I sat in the garden, on one of the flagstones underneath the overhang of the building. There are some weeks when, as I pause and pra...
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Walking Together

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection HERE. Safer at Home. By my counting this is Day 33. Thirty-three days of Zoom meetings and worshiping online. As I read the Bible passage this week, the action of walking caught my attention. Because, for me, the past 33 days have been filled with lots and lots of walks. How about you? Have you been going on walks? If so, what have they been like? Do they feel any different? Do you walk with anyone? Have you encountered people in your neighborhood you didn’t know? Or, is your neighborhood silent? This is a time in which where we wal...
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Micah 3:1-12, 6:8

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
Reflection on Micah 3:1-12, 6:8 offered Sunday, April 19, by the Rev. Jerry Hancock. You can watch Jerry's sermon HERE. And I said: Listen, you heads of Jacob   and rulers of the house of Israel!Should you not know justice?—   you who hate the good and love the evil,who tear the skin off my people,   and the flesh off their bones;who eat the flesh of my people,   flay their skin off them,break their bones in pieces,   and chop them up like meat in a kettle,   like flesh in a cauldron. Then the...
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From Wilderness Into The Garden

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection HERE. View the Time with Children share on Easter morning HERE. The story begins like this: At day break, two people walk towards Jesus’ tomb. I wonder, was the morning crisp and cool, with a gentle breeze and a burst of color on the horizon as the sun rose? Or was it cold and damp? Gray and rainy? Like this Easter morning is for us? I suppose what the weather was like that morning doesn’t really matter. Except, during this pandemic, I have found that the weather greatly impacts my emotions. Especially my sense of grief around all t...
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What We Have Lost

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection HERE. This has been a most unusual, emotionally packed week. Stories in the news have captured our attention: There has been financial disruption. There have been protests as women and men stand up and insist on being seen as they work to save lives. As individuals show up… and tell about the real human tragedy, the real losses, all the underlying illnesses, and the overwhelming presence of death in isolation that is tearing lives apart. The anguish. Tears. Grief. We have been there. We have seen. There is so much tragedy g...
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Wilderness: A Place We’ve Been

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch Sunday's time with children and sermon HERE. Welcome to Palm Sunday! What a riot of a Palm Parade you all created at the beginning of worship! I saw scarves and ribbons, flowers, hands, and palms. I am guessing there have not been many Palm Parades quite like this before. Virtual. And yet so very real. I want to have us all pause for a moment. Look at where we are at. Where YOU are at—at this very moment. Let it sink in. I am at my house, in our guest bedroom. How about you? Where are you worshiping? Are you in your living room? At the dining room table? Using Zoo...
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Wilderness: A Place of New Life

Posted on by Kristin Gorton
You can watch the sermon HERE. I have to tell you; the story of Ezekiel and the dry bones has always been one of my favorite Bible stories. As has the tale of Lazarus’ death, and the musty, mildewy wraps that trail from his body as he emerges from his tomb. For me, these are both stories that pull together the grief, loss, tears, hope and love of a community. In both narratives, God’s breath blows new life into desolate voids. And now we have our own, desolate void, don’t we? A new virus. Real life concerns. Our routines upended due to the pandemic. COVID-19. As we gather for worship t...
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Wilderness: A Place of Healing

Posted on by Kristin Gorton
Last Sunday during worship, I mentioned that planning for each week’s worship service begins months in advance. I am finding great irony in the fact that I was beginning to reflect on the sermon for today waaaaay back in late December, early January. Back then, the theme for today’s sermon, Wilderness: A Place of Healing, began to develop. Around that same time, thousands of miles away, doctors in China and officials at the World Health Organization were beginning to share with the world that a previously unknown pneumonia was rapidly spreading through communities. First called a “novel coron...
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Wilderness: A Place of Surprises

Posted on by Kristin Gorton
You might not know that planning for each worship service begins months in advance. That gives the worship team, from the music ministries to the worship committee and faith development, time to collaborate. Back in December, in all its darkness and cold, with the holidays in full swing, I sat down to prayerfully reflect on Lent. The Bible passages we read today had already been selected and the hymns picked. The theme chosen for these 6 weeks was wilderness. On that day waaaaay back in December a sermon series emerged. Thus, when Lent arrived two weeks ago we started out with Wilderness: A p...
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Known and Loved

Posted on by Kristin Gorton
In the calendar of the church year, we are encountering a shift. After weeks of epiphany and encountering God in all sorts of unexpected places, Jesus calls us up to the top of a desert mountain. On the church’s calendar, today is Transfiguration. In The Message, this moment is depicted as Jesus’ “…appearance chang(ing) from the inside out, right before” the eyes of James, John, and Peter. “Sunlight poured from (Jesus’) face. His clothes were filled with light” (The Message, Matt. 17:2). In all the glory of that moment, I can’t help but think about what it took to get there—to the top of the ...
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