Sermons

December 17, 2023
Good morning! We are going to begin this reflection with an exercise called "shake out into stillness." Shake out into Stillness, and a second exercise called “laughing yoga,” provide wonderful opportunities for us to become more aware of what stillness and quiet are like.
Before we start, let’s practice laughing yoga for just a minute. Laughing yoga is new to me – it’s based on the premise that intentional voluntary laughter provides the same benefits as spontaneous laughter. So let’s practice by clapping our hands together - HA-HA-HA, and then HO-HO. If you are feeling especially daring you can clap hands with your neighbor on the HO-HO, but that’s up to you.
Ready?
We begin by shaking out one hand. Just imagine that you are shaking water off your fingertips. And now you can begin to invite the movement up into the elbow and then into the shoulder. It might feel a little different – most of us don’t normally move this way.
Turn your attention to your breath – are you still breathing? This would be a great time to deepen your breath.

Texts:
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85
Mark 1:1-8
2 Peter 3
May you have a peaceful and wonderful Christmas! May you find ways to enrich your capacity to reflect by walking towards peace. May you recognize Jesus in other’s suffering. May you make the path of Christmas – and life – better for others! If you hear nothing else today from me, please hear this.
There’s a remarkable and rich tapestry of Christmas offered by our scriptures: Isaiah 40, Psalm 85, the very beginning of Mark, and 2 Peter 3. I will be drawing images and conclusions from each of these, but I encourage you to allow the scriptures to inform how you walk towards peace today, and throughout the season of Advent.
I am a walker. I have enjoyed walking since childhood, finding Sunday afternoon walks the ultimate antidote to adolescent turmoil. More recently, I began walking in the January - February. 2020, time frame with a new intentionality: to clear my heart and mind for the coming COVID storm. The mental health crisis that followed is something Carol and I rose to fight in our practice, where I saw many more patients than I’ve done before and maintained a steady pace for years. But I needed the walks to provide space and energy for that to happen in. They were a source of refreshing energy and space, but something else began to happen during those walks: I discovered a new practice of prayer and presence, as I cultivated emerging awareness of the Spirit. Other forms of conscious presence came to the fore – I began paying more attention to the flora and fauna, the birds and the creatures everywhere. They were like little movies and adventures I had invited myself into and were alive with an entirely different range of energy than the “storm and stress” of my daily life. There was always something new to see, meditate or contemplate, an adventure of mind, body and spirit. I was being introduced to “peace that passes understanding” in a new way than I had ever experienced. I kept feeling grateful, and nature itself was saying, “You’re welcome. Visit again.” And so I did and do.

Julia Hanessian
November 12, 2023
"I believed that there was a God because I was told it by my grandmother and later by other adults. But when I found that I knew not only that there was God but that I was a child of God... when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous.
"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."
Written by, The Great Sage, Maya Angelou

November 5, 2023
Jim Knight
Greetings Friends!
I am grateful for the opportunity to be with you today. Some of you know that my home church is Bread of Life, another community that has followed in the Church of the Saviour tradition. We are family, even if our reunions may not be that frequent!
Our scripture for today comes from the lectionary reading about a month ago, and was very timely for me, as you’ll see as we go further this morning.
Psalm 80:7-11
7 Restore us, God Almighty;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.
8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River.
John 15: 1-8: The Vine and the Branches
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

In Matthew 5, Jesus says to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’
It turns out that this biblical injunction to love our enemies is not an isolated statement that can be dismissed as some weird, unreasonable standard. Indeed, similar statements are found scattered throughout the Bible. I looked it up on a website, which offered fifteen different statements in the Bible about loving your enemies … and not just in the Gospels or even just the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, Joseph forgives his brothers joyfully, saying “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Gen 50:20) Joseph expresses love for his brothers who have been — and, for all we know, may continue to be — his enemies.
Proverbs tells us: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles.” (Prov 24:17)

October 22, 2023
My plan for this teaching had been to talk about the theology of having fun. However, it turns out that over the past several weeks, I have had another question prodding me: How Much Is Enough? And when we discussed the question in Crisely and Luisely’s Discernment class last Thursday, I got some answers that I want to share with you.

For many, maybe most of us, living an intentional life has been part of our identity for years — some of us since childhood. At some point in our lives, we determined that it was critical that we live a life with purpose. And, unlike some others who decided their purpose was to make money or gain political power, our purpose had more to do with social justice and spreading the Good News. You can perhaps trace back for yourself to when that “call” became a conscious choice — perhaps as a child or young adult. It seems to me that one common denominator within our community is the call to live a purposeful life helping the disadvantaged, the sick, the disenfranchised. Even though I personally did not work in the social services field — and in fact, had my own for-profit company for 20 years — my “call” was to provide educational opportunities to the educationally disenfranchised: be they in rural areas, on Indian reservations or in prison. And my “call” has been to nurture those in this church.
So, once I retired and had no “real” work, what am I supposed to do with this call to live a purposeful life? Once you find yourself burned out, what are you supposed to do with this call to live a purposeful life? Once you no longer have the financial resources or physical or mental resources to live a purposeful life, what do you do?

This camera in this Zoom recording is pointed in the wrong direction so only the audio is available.  Also, there is no transcript.