A Deeper Dive for Authentic, Hopeful, Worshipful Faith

On Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit draws us all into the Prophetic Call.

We will miss the Great Acts of God if we are unwilling to be surprised!

Another One Bites the Dust

To walk with God, Jonah needs to be Spit Out

Often, true piety is found outside of the covenantal people of God.

Christ sends us into the entire wide and unknown world!

Easter Freedom Opens the Way to Personal Transformation!

“Unless we frankly recognize that Christ's birth and resurrection come forth from places of hopelessness and helplessness, we've not understood their meaning.”

― J. Todd Billings, End of the Christian Life

Suffering is a necessary condition for the human condition, and cognitive suffering is essential for our conversions to follow the messiahship of Jesus Christ.

Scripture Readings

Old Testament: Isaiah 50:4-9a

New Testament: Mark 15:1-39

As Christians, we always confuse the work of Christ on earth as a sign of an earthly kingdom.

Jesus heals our sin by forcing our gaze upon what life, undirected to Jesus, will do to God incarnate in Jesus.

God’s covenantal binding is expressed in interpersonal rather than tribal relationships, but with universal scope.

God transforms the secular motivation for covenant from acquisition, profit, and control to suffering relational love.

In the face of evil and hatred, God unilaterally disarms human ways of responding and chooses, instead, to bind Godself to a covenant of grace.

“Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and has given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter.” --C.S. Lewis

“We become free as we let go of our three primary energy centers: our need for power and control, our need for safety and security, and our need for affection and esteem.” –Richard Rohr

“There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Being a Christian means we are lifelong learners to love God and all our neighbors.

The baptism of Jesus invites us into a life of loving relationships.

Christmas begins by receiving the light of Christ and holding it in our hearts.

Christmas begins by holding it in our hearts, before it lives forth through us.

For God’s Christmas to hold seed and bloom, we need to allow our hearts and souls to be plowed through humble repentance and joyous expectation.

Christmas is not something “magical” to divert us from dreary lives, but the joyous consummation of God’s complex relational work with all peoples.

Each Present Christmas Presents the Future Christmas and Culmination in our Lord Jesus Christ.

with guest pastor John Owen

This movement from self-possession to a more complex, inspired, and receptive vision of things is, I would suggest, relevant to the process that brings Jacob from a discrete, “mind of winter” view of his children to one that allows him to see them as flowing, feeding one another, growing, passionate, and capable of transformations. – Aviva Gotlieb Zornberg

Characteristically, then, Jacob leads from behind: he is the thinker, the one who projects in images and words, the director behind the scenes. This is, properly speaking, the position of the hunter, tracking his prey from the rear. Jacob comes into the world behind: “After that (aharei khen), his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob” (25:26).

Leaving all support systems behind him, Jacob moves into the world of the night. Here, nothing is clear, all is shifting, phantasm, illusion. And here, paradoxically, Jacob finds his ground of truth.

Jacob searches for his authenticity among all the “lendings” of the theatrical wardrobe. What Isaac senses is the “smell of my son,” which transforms the costumes of insincerity. It is ultimately the essence of his son—permeating clothes and skins—that registers as blessing.

-- Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

Abraham’s laughter, through which he communed with others, was a “pseudo-language,” in which “silence is the essence.” Now this essence is explored to its full, almost intolerable, extent. To live in a world in which the essential is experienced implicitly, wordlessly, is to return to the base out of which laughter, feeding, and ultimately speech emerged. -Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire (p. 172)

"Abraham bears the whole world with him in his personal anguished search. To roam, implies full exposure to the hazards of experience. The resonance of —“fool”—lingers on: the radical “folly” of those who abandon safe structures and fare forth on unmapped roads." -Avivah Gottlieb Zornber, The Beginning of Desire (p. 130)

All the pathologies of openness and closedness relate to imaginative obtuseness. According to the midrash in Bereshit Rabbah (36:1), the Flood people see God as blind, indifferent, callous to the world. What follows is that human beings feel themselves free to be likewise blind, indifferent, and callous. --Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire, p. 56

The powerful implication here is that God’s original intention can be consummated only by Adam’s free perception and desire. Only when Adam comes to feel the solitude of the angelic, unitary existence is he split into two separate beings. He must, in a sense, diminish himself, come to know the rightness of a more complex form of unity.  -Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire, p. 37

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

“To recognize that the Psalms call us to pray and sing at the intersections of the times--of our time and God's time, of the then, and the now, and the not yet--is to understand how those emotions are to be held within the rhythm of a life lived in God's presence.”  

― N.T. Wright, The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; there is no one who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord?

O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  a layperson shares how the particularities of the psalm connect, challenge, trouble, or liberate their own soul.  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  a layperson shares how the particularities of the psalm connect, challenge, trouble, or liberate their own soul.  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  a layperson shares how the particularities of the psalm connect, challenge, trouble, or liberate their own soul.  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  a layperson shares how the particularities of the psalm connect, challenge, trouble, or liberate their own soul.  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

“The psalmist is brutally honest about the explosive joy that he’s feeling, and the deep sorrow, or confusion.”

–Bono

“The songs are not pretty. They’re not nice … but they’re honest. I think we’re trying for honesty, which is very, very hard in our culture.”

– Eugene Peterson.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  a layperson shares how the particularities of the psalm connect, challenge, trouble, or liberate their own soul.  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  a layperson shares how the particularities of the psalm connect, challenge, trouble, or liberate their own soul.  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

Throughout our worship series focused on a single psalm each week that becomes part of the New Testament playlist, our regular order of worship has been changed from a linear progression to a kaleidoscopic experience centering on the psalm.

Key changes and new elements include:

Embodiment: the Psalm becomes a spoken Word through deeper congruence with the emotional self.

Meditation: a five-minute moment of silence for reflection and note-taking after the Embodiment which ends with the Passing of the Peace.  Please note your feelings and memories in the space provided in the bulletin.

Reflection:  a homily suggesting the emotional and theological connection of a section of the psalm with a New Testament writer.

Engagement:  a layperson shares how the particularities of the psalm connect, challenge, trouble, or liberate their own soul.  The Engagement continues after worship in Discussion in the Gathering Place where others are invited to share their notes and “ah ha’s.”  Look for a group gathering at the big table near the stained-glass windows in the Gathering Place.

“The glory of God is a human being fully alive,” wrote Irenaeus of Lyons some two thousand years ago. One of the reasons I remain a Christian-in-progress is the peculiar Christian insistence that God is revealed in humankind—not just in human form but also in human being.”  ― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith