by Rev. Heather Davis

By Rev. Dr. Richard Floyd

By Rev. Heather Davis

By Rev. Dr. Richard Floyd

By Rev. Heather Davis

By Rev. Richard Floyd

By Virginia Kackley

By Heather Davis

By Virginia Kackley 

By Rev. Dr. Richard Floyd

By Rev. Heather Davis

By Rev. Dr. Richard Floyd

By Rev. Heather Davis

By Rev. Dr. Richard Floyd

By The Rev. Dr. Richard Floyd

By Rev. Heather Davis

Dori Sanders Video

by Rev. Richard Floyd

This week we're exploring Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant, as found in Matthew chapter 18. As we discovered last week with the parable of the workers in the vineyard, Jesus' teachings often have a sting to them. The whole point of that "sting" is to make us uncomfortable, to provoke a holy shift. This week we'll wonder about the shift to mercy. How do we live with mercy? How do we experience forgiveness? And how do we pass that forgiveness on to others?

Last week we talked about the waters of creation, and how they remind us that everything is held up by grace, and everything is connected. This week we'll look at another watery story from Matthew chapter 14, where Jesus walks along the stormy waters and invites Peter to do the same. Are we called to follow in Peter’s footsteps?

 This week, we'll focus on the very first chapters of the Bible, the creation story from Genesis chapters 1 and 2. What can we learn about creation, and our role within it, from this ancient story? What might water teach us about how to live as part of this beautiful world, and how to be faithful to God along the way?

That's what we're exploring during the month of July. Last week we talked about a couple of signs: the lightness of being that comes from laying down our burdens and worries and trusting in God's grace, and the light that we can shine for others so they can find their way to that grace.

This week we'll talk about "Being Light," both learning to let go of things we don't need to carry (that is, traveling light), but also how we are a light for others when we learn to live in this way.

This week we will consider three vignettes from the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 9: the calling of Matthew as a disciple, the healing of a woman, and the raising of a young girl from the dead. In each case, we will discover that there's a question of purity at stake - a bright line that good, religious people aren't supposed to cross. And in each case, we'll see that Jesus steps right over that line in the name of healing and compassion.

Does God demand purity? Can we only experience God if we ourselves are pure (however we define that)? Can we only appreciate the beauty and goodness of others if they are pure, too? Let's tackle these questions together this Sunday.

One of those divine myths is the idea that God is absolutely fixed and settled and unmoving. As one of our hymns puts it: "There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not; thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been thou forever wilt be."

Yet the God of the Bible also seems to be a God on the move, stirring things up, and calling us to stir things up. And our doctrine of the Trinity - which we also celebrate this Sunday - suggests that, rather than a single fixed person, God is a mystery of multiplicity and movement. We will explore all this on Sunday!

We know we can't quite take this story literally. Heaven is not "up there." Is it just a story from a pre-scientific age that we can dismiss?

I think the story raises a question, a question that the early church was clearly wrestling with, a question we continue to wrestle with today: where is Jesus? Everywhere? Nowhere? Heaven? Earth? At different times we've given different answers.

So that's the Unsettled Question for this Sunday. I hope you'll join us as we look for an answer together!

To all who mourn and need comfort...to all who are weary and need rest...to all who are friendless and want friendship...to all who are homeless and want sheltering love...to all who pray…and to all who do not, but should...to all who sin and need a Savior...this church opens wide the door and makes free a place, and in the name of Jesus the Lord, says “WELCOME!”

For more than 150 years, FPC has lived out that invitation—not only being a warm welcome for people here, but also taking the faith and hope and love nurtured here and sharing it with the world. We have much to celebrate!

George Carlin is not exactly a patron saint of religion, but he makes an interesting point here about doubt. We welcome healthy skepticism, critical thinking, and a desire for first-hand confirmation in most other spheres of life. But for some reason when it comes to religion, we often look at doubt as something to be avoided, even condemned.

But I think there is and always should be room for doubt in the church. You know in Matthew chapter 28, even after Jesus had appeared to all the disciples after the resurrection, the text tells us "some of them doubted." Doubt has been a part of the life of faith from the very beginning.

Every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
Practice resurrection.

This Easter Sunday and every day, may we practice resurrection.

Did you know the English word "Lent" refers to the season of spring? Spring (if it ever comes!) is a season of rebirth and renewal, a season of promise, and so we've been focusing on the promises of God this Lenten season.

We've talked about the promise that God is at work for salvation, sometimes in spite of us; that God is with us in the wilderness; and that God will give us true freedom, if we will have it.

This week we pick up the story of David from the Old Testament. We'll be looking at an episode late in David's story (2 Samuel 12), where David is confronted and judged for a terrible sin he has committed. I think how we respond to judgment says a lot about our lives. Judgment can be hard, but it also can be healing, if we will face it.

An interesting part of the story is the way the people keep looking back. Whenever they feel threatened, they start to pine for the good old days of servitude in Egypt. It's almost as if they don't know how to be free, don't know what to do with the freedom they've been given.

That's the promise we'll explore this week, the promise of true freedom -- and how hard it can be to live in that freedom.

Eventually the game clock hits zero and the game is over. At that point it's etched in history forever; nothing can change what happened. For some it will be a happy memory, for others a memory of loss, but either way, it's done. Finished. Over. End of the road.

We'll be talking about this idea in worship on Sunday, how we sometimes encounter dead ends in our life. We'll look at the promises we find in the prophet Isaiah, that God will do something new, that there are no dead ends for God, and so we should always hope beyond hope.

It raises the question of where and how we find God's blessing. The idea of being "blessed" shows up a lot in our culture (it's a popular hashtag on Instagram, #blessed), but it's pretty clear from reading the beatitudes that Jesus has something else in mind.

What does blessing really mean? How do we find it? How do we share it? Hope to see you on Sunday as we celebrate communion and explore together where the blessings are.

Over the next couple of Sundays we will reflect on what it means to be called. We will look at Isaiah 49:1-7 this week, one of the so-called "servant songs," which talks about what it means be to a servant of God. 

This Sunday we will look at the story of the annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), where the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear the Christ child. We usually imagine Mary as timid and compliant. But I think we might better imagine her as courageous.

Christ the King Sunday always poses the question: if Christ's reign looks nothing like the rulers of this world, then what does it look like? Where do we find it? How do we see it?

To answer that question, we'll look at a well-known passage from the gospel according to Matthew, the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. 

That's what we'll be talking about here - the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), where both go up to the temple to pray, but only one ends up being forgiven and reconciled. Only one ends up reconnected.

That's the Odd Practice we're going to focus on this week: telling our story. We'll look at the moment when the people of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land. They are told to be generous and give thanks to God. And then they're told to tell the story of how they got there.