Second Sunday in Lent – February 28, 2021

Next Sunday, March 7 at 10 am, we will offer an in-person, outdoor worship service in our parking lot – weather permitting. Please bring your own chairs and wear a mask. Holy Communion will be provided in a pre-measured and sealed individual cup and wafer.

This Sunday we hear about the second of five covenants that God makes with God’s people in the Old Testament. They show God’s continual desire to be in right relationship with humanity and all creation, which for us is known once and for all through the Passion of Jesus Christ. We are reminded that the Christian path of loving God and neighbor was never promised to be an easy one, but that it is well worth it in contrast with what the world has to offer. It is a message of hope and new life that transcends all human boundaries. It is a promise available for all.

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First Sunday in Lent – February 21, 2021

On Ash Wednesday the church began its journey toward baptismal immersion in the death and resurrection of Christ. This year, the Sundays in Lent lead us to focus on Jive covenants God makes in the Hebrew Scriptures and to use them as lenses through which to view baptism. First Peter connects the way God saved Noah s family in the flood with the way God saves us through the water of baptism. The baptismal covenant is made with us individually, but the new life we are given in baptism is for the sake of the whole world.

Ash Wednesday – February 17, 2021

On Ash Wednesday we begin our forty-day journey toward Easter with a day of fasting and repentance. Marking our foreheads with dust, we acknowledge that we die and return to the earth. At the same time, the dust traces the life-giving cross indelibly marked on our foreheads at baptism. While we journey through Lent to return to God, we have already been reconciled to God through Christ. We humbly pray for God to make our hearts clean while we rejoice that “now is the day of salvation.” Returning to our baptismal call, we more intentionally bear the fruits of mercy and justice in the world.

Transfiguration of Our Lord – February 14, 2021

Thank you all for your amazing support and love and faithful prayers for Leslie and our family. What a difference it makes to be lifted up and healed in body and spirit by you all.

Please refer to Leslie’s “CaringBridge.org” page for updates and details about her story in case you may not have heard about her accident.

The light of Christ is brighter than any darkness that we may encounter in life. It is comforting to celebrate this mountain-top story of how God is always seeking to illumine our way. May our weekly time together in spirit help us to continually “Listen to God!” as we are asked to do in the Gospel story from Mark.

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