Here’s a copy of Jesus son of Joseph’s obituary (our Palm Sunday service will be a Memorial to Jesus)

Listen to Rev. Jane’s radio interview on Woman-Stirred Radio, Thursday, April 5th at 2:00pm PST

Hi, everyone. 

Just a reminder that Rev. Jane’s interview on Woman-Stirred Radio is coming up!  Thursday, April 5th at 2:00pm PST.  We can listen to it live at www.wgdr.org by clicking on their “Listen Live” link.  If you miss it, you can still listen to it (since they keep the interviews archived).

Woman-Stirred Radio (WGDR 91.1 FM, Goddard College) features “interviews with GLBTQ writers, poets, musicians and artists from Vermont… and the rest of the world.”

prayer concerns and celebrations (Mar 25)

Please pray this week for the following concerns and celebrations brought before God during worship March 25th:

CONCERNS: prayers of healing for Lou, for Shayla, for Laura’s grandmother and cousin, for people at Sue’s work; prayers of support for Sue’s family when she goes on vacation, for Angel, for Dino’s family, for Steve’s Aunt, for Josie and family (grieving for Rose who died this past week), for Phil and for Marvelyn (for their concerns left here on our website); prayers of safe travel for Sue and Janine; prayers of hope that Ana and Megan will return to us soon (we miss you!); and for all unspoken concerns from all our hearts

The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. (Deut 33:27)

CELEBRATIONS: thanksgiving for a gorgeous day, for Laura’s grandmother continuing to improve (from a stroke), and for our church community.

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior! (Luke 1:46)

find in this people a family (call to worship Mar 18)

the call to worship from tonight’s worship service:

We bid you welcome, who come with wary spirit seeking rest.
Who come with troubles that are too much with you, who come hurt and afraid.
We bid you welcome, who come with hope in your heart.
Who come with anticipation in your step, who come proud and joyous.
We bid you welcome, who are seekers of new faith.
Who come to probe and explore. Who come to learn.
We bid you welcome, who enter into this hall as a homecoming.
Who have found here room for your spirit. Who find in this people a family.
Who ever you are, whatever you are, wherever you are on your journey.
We bid you welcome.

Happy Birthday to Terry!!!

Happy Birthday to Terry!!!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, dear Terry, Happy Birthday to you! And many more!

O God, our times are in your hand: Look with favor, we pray, on your servant Terry, as she begins another year. Grant that she may continue to grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen her trust in your goodness all the days of her life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. AMEN.

prayer concerns and celebrations (Mar 18)

Please pray this week for the following concerns and celebrations brought before God during worship March 18th:

Concerns: prayers of healing and support for Jerry’s sister-in-law Darlene, for Lou (especially that her medication will work well), and for Laura’s grandmother and young cousin; prayers of support for Becky, and for all the cats, dogs, and owners who have been affected by this food recall; and prayers of hope that the evil exemplified in the recent murder of a Toppenish man may end soon.

Everliving and ever-strong God, our savior Jesus healed the sick and restored them to wholeness of life: look with compassion on the anguish of the world, and by your healing power make whole every person and nation, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Celebrations: prayers of thanksgiving for the beautiful day, for the progress Laura’s grandmother is making, and for Lou returning to us (from the hospital)!

O Jesus, who has promised that your joy would be in us, so that our joy might be full: Grand that, living close to you, we may learn to rejoice and give thanks in all things; for your loving mercy’s sake. Amen.

tenderness, strength, and love

The Lord’s Prayer from last Sunday’s service:

Most compassionate Life-giver,
may we honor and praise you!
May we work with you to establish
your new order of justice, peace and love

Give us what we need for growth,
and help us, through forgiving others,
to accept forgiveness.

Strengthen us in the time of testing,
that we may resist all evil.
For all the tenderness, strength, and love are yours,
now and forever! Amen!
(Bill Wallace)

prayer concerns and celebrations (Mar 11)

Please pray this week for the following concerns and celebrations brought before God during worship March 11th:

Concerns: prayers of healing for Lou (in Memorial, room #260), for Sue, for Laura’s grandmother, for Laura’s cousin Kyle, and for Josh’s nephew D.J.; prayers of support for Cynthia, for Rev. Sheri Noah’s friends and family, and for Mona’s friends and family.

GOD, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word, you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.

Even when the way goes through Death Valley,
I’m not afraid when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure.

You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.

Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life.
I’m back home in the house of GOD for the rest of my life.  — Psalm 23 (The Message)

Celebrations: praise and thanksgiving that the fire in the orchard at Sue and Janine’s house did not damage the house and that all humans and animals were safe; thanksgiving for the progress Laura’s grandmother is making; praises for the life of Mona, and for the beautiful and warm day we had on Sunday.

GOD’s strong name is our help, the same GOD who made heaven and earth! — Psalm 124:8  (The Message)

prayer concerns and celebrations (Mar 4)

Please pray this week for the following concerns and celebrations brought before God during worship March 4th:

CONCERNS: prayers of healing for Laura’s grandmother and cousin, for Jerry’s sister-in-law Darlene; prayers of support for baby Chris, for the families of those killed in the tornado in Alabama, for the families of those killed in that bus accident in Georgia, for the family of Rev. Sheri Noah; and prayers of hope that Ana and Megan will return to us soon.

O holy Father, perfect Mother, Creator of the universe, author of its laws, you can bring the dead back to life, and heal those who are sick. We pray for our sick brothers and sisters that they may feel your hand upon them, renewing their bodies and refreshing their souls. We pray also for our brothers and sisters who have lost loved ones recently.  Show to them the affection in which you hold all your creatures.   (Modified from Dimma, 7th c. Irish monk)

CELEBRATIONS: thanksgiving and praises for the progress Laura’s grandmother is making, and for the powerful performance of Jesus Christ Superstar.

I will sing to Yahweh all my life.  I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.  Psalm 104:33

idolatry leads to some pretty weird behavior, but idolatry (and envy, greed, and malice) is the sin, not the weird practices

Our Thursday night Bible study continues next week (March 8th at 6:30p in the church office).  We’ll focus on 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10, and Jude 7.  If you can, in preparation, read all of 1 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, and Jude 7. 

(<– Relief of Priest Sacrificing to Cybele,
terracotta. From Isola Sacra Cemetary, 3rd century CE.  Ostia Museum. Credits: Ann Raia, 2005)

We had a good discussion on Romans 1&2 last night.  We started to see Paul in 1:26-27 setting up the Jewish Christians in Rome for a fall, aiming to puncture their pride.  To do this, he delivers his “Wrath of God” sermon (verses 18-32) in the tone, phrases, and cadences that would stir up their “we’re better than them” sentiments and have them shouting, “Hallelujah, brother! Preach it!” pretty quickly.  He paraphrases, sometimes almost directly quotes, from the Book of Wisdom — which his Jewish readers would know very well and would agree with.  He even throws in an interjection (“…the Creator — who is forever praised.  Amen!”) at verse 25 to give that “I’m preaching and you all agree with me” feel. 

But, after inflating their “we’re better than those Gentiles” egos with the stuff about the crazy things the Gentiles do at those fertility rites (men castrating themselves in order to gain special powers, men having sex with the priest of the goddess in order to offer their seed to her, women wearing phalloi in order to penetrate men)… After whipping them up into an “we’re superior to them” frenzy this way, he slyly starts to include in his list sins which are truly sins — the everyday, banal evil his Jewish hearers would be all too subject to (just as all human beings are): greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, insolence, arrogance, boasting, disobedience to parents, without faith, without heart, without grace. 

By the time he got to this point in his pretend sermon, some of Paul’s Jewish hearers may’ve started to feel uncomfortable, realizing that, “uh oh, he’s talking about stuff I’m susceptible to now!”  And that’s exactly what he wanted to happen.  He wanted them to wake up and smell their essential equality with the Gentiles, their equality in real sin, and to let go of their thinking they were “holier than thou” because of the shameful and crazy things the Gentiles would do during pagan worship.  Paul would’ve definitely agreed that idolatry was sin – don’t get me wrong.  But he wouldn’t have agreed that their weird goddess worship practices were even close to the seriousness of real sin like greed and envy and arrogance.

Last night, Rev. Jane brought up a helpful analogy to this point.  She said the Jewish arrogance was like how the British now feel superior to the Spaniards because they practice bull-fighting.  Bull-fighting may not be the best idea (agreed), but it’s just not real sin, and every culture has practices that other cultures think are weird.

But, again, the bottom line is that even if Paul somehow could be shown to be agreeing with the characterization of the Gentiles in his “Wrath of God” sermon, he’s still not talking about homosexual relationships.  He’s talking probably about the crazy things Gentiles would do in pagan worship rites.   The “due penalty” the men received in themselves could well be – is probably – the castration some men would submit to in order to obtain special powers.  The men having sex with men is part of the temple prostitution in goddess cults.  And the women exhanging natural relations for unnatural is probably the women wearing phalloi and penetrating men.  All as part of the fertility goddess worship.

So if any of you are engaged in these kind of worship rites in order to worship a fertility goddess, I might be concerned if I were you.   But if you love and worship the God of our Lord Jesus, then you ain’t idolators and you sure as hec ain’t being described in those verses!!

Amen, sister!

p.s. The article I based a lot of the Romans discussion on can be found at James Alison’s website: James Alison. Theology.  This specific article is here: “But the Bible says…”? A Catholic Reading of Romans 1