Weekly Metaphors
Each week our worship service revolves around a visual metaphor (seen below). We seek to communicate a message in a language easily understood by our congregation using multiple media including the visual medium. The visual dimension of our service is made possible by four large plasma screens run by a state-of-the-art control system.
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Sharing Together "The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles
that are lost and won, than by the stories it loves and believes
in" - Harold Goddard.
August 29 , 2010 |
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Celebrating Together I am glad to gather for sabbath with this congregation... to make music and sing a new song (or at least listen to some). I am grateful for the opportunity, as one hymn puts it: to get lost in wonder, love, and praise. August 22 , 2010 |
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Playing Together Creativity is a way of life available to all. The more we practice it, the more we play at new ways of being creative, individually and together, then the more we will live in the joy and comfort of the Lord, and the more we will be able to share that joy and comfort with a world that needs it. August 15 , 2010 |
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Laughing Together Does God have a sense of humor? Absolutely! August 8 , 2010 |
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Drawing Together "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothes like one of these." "An Artful Christ" August 1 , 2010 |
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Exploring Together We are creative to our core. We are problem solvers and we are adaptable and we invent. We see it from the wheel to genometic research, we have gloriously complex brains and we want to know how? and knowing how we want to use that knowledge in other places. July 25, 2010 |
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Shaping Together Come, go down to the potter's house... July 18, 2010 |
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Growing Together We are, each one of us, sometimes good soil and other times not so much. I think God is happy, but not surprised, when the seeds take root in soil that is rich and ready. But God is throwing those seeds everywhere, not waiting for things to be just right. So, I imagine God rejoices when the smallest sprout emerges in an unexpected place. July 11, 2010 |
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Standing Together Jesus sent not just the twelve but all of his followers to the places he intended to go, and today it is through us that he intends to get there. When it comes to the environmental disasters related to coal mining and drilliing for oil: Things are not going to get better. They're not. Unless... you and I out of our concern for God's people who are vulnerable and the planet that is at risk take responsibility for our consumption and find our voice to speak truth to power. July 4, 2010 |
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Reciting Together We are to be transformed by the salve of Jesus and changed from lonely, frightened, uncaring and unforgiving into people who resemble Jesus who was in the likeness of God. This is the "salvation" Paul asks you to "work out." How will be salvation (salve) for others? June 27, 2010 |
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Cooking Together When we gather as the church we do not give up the uniqueness of who we are. We bring all of who we are, the flavor of our lives, and allow ourselves to be integrated into the church. The water of baptism washes away what needs to be washed away and baptism in the Spirit heats us up, reviving our passion for peacemaking and kingdom living. God is doing something/making something here that invites a variety and combination of flavors that is unique, and wonderful, and special. June 20, 2010 |
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Growing in Wisdom The young people at CCUM presented projects they worked on in class this year and served as worship leaders. Our lay speakers, who have made a commitment to continue in the lifelong invitation to grow in wisdom, shared reflections on their Sunday School and study experiences. June 13, 2010 |
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Energizing Peace God continues to raise up people to cry out for peace and justice. On this Music Sunday, we are invited to consider again our theme music. We gather around the Communion table to remember the One who offered us a better song to sing. June 6, 2010 |
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Prayers for Peace for the War Weary While honoring those who serve and those who sacrificed, who did what they were asked to do, we as a people of faith must not fail to uphold the hope of the prophets that there will be day when nation will not lift up sword against nation and we will learn war no more. May 30, 2010 |
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Prayers for Peace with Ourselves In John's Pentecost the Holy Spirit comes not to rest on us but to dwell in us. May God's indwelling presence make us whole in mind, bidy, spirit, and relationship-- that we may serve God with a loving heart. When we love one another as Jesus loved, he will never be far from us. May 23, 2010 |
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Prayers for Peace with our World Luke has Jesus' final instructions to his followers be a call to believe all that he has been trying to tell them. Restoration will not come the way we think it will. There is another way, and it is not about when but how. The question is no longer what form the Christ, the Messiah will take, it is now a matter of what form his followers will choose. May 16, 2010 |
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Prayers for Peace in our Relationships Ruth makes a deliberate and intentional commitment to continue in relationship with Naomi. It was a risk, but it would lead to her being remembered as the great-grandmother of Israel's most famous King: David. May 9, 2010 |
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Prayers for Peace with Our Neighbors Worship/Service: Spill Out into the Neighborhood May 2, 2010 |
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Prayers for Peace Making paper cranes involves folding and unfolding; making creases so that later folds will be easier as something beautiful emerges. It makes me think about how in our prayers and work for peace with the planet there are lines to follow, work that has already been done. It makes me wonder about what kind of creases we are making. Is the impact of my life and living for the good or the harm of this planet that is not ours but God's own creation and one we are intended to share with our children and our children's children? April 25, 2010 |
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Take Chances... Make Mistakes... Get Messy Jesus has not stopped inviting his followers to join him on an adventure of hands on love and service. Christianity is an immersion experience if ever there was one. Discipleship is always a class with a lab. What we think must be lived out in what we do. With Jesus the field trips are usually about challenging what is normal for the world: violence, domination, hunger, fear, isolation and lonliness. April 18, 2010 |
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Take Chances... Make Mistakes... Whether its the development of a vaccine or the creations of mini Big Bangs or telescopes in space or landing craft for the surface of Mars or doing something new in marketing -- or in the community of the church, you do not do the extraordinary, you do not create something exceptional, you do not change the world....by doing the same old same old; the tried and tested , the safe and predictable: you take risks. April 11, 2010 |
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Renew Easter is not only about what God did in Christ for you, but what God is doing in Christ to us and through us now. The gospels were written looking backward with post resurrection eyes, that is how they made sense of all that led up to that morning. We are called to look forward with post resurrection eyes, to write what is yet to come in our relationships with one another in light of the good news of God's reconciling love. April 4, 2010 |
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Abandon, Deny, Betray Our Palm/Passion worship service was based on the time frame and insights of The Last Week by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. The book takes Mark's version of Jesus' final days, setting the gospel in the socio-political context of his time. One of the central themes of Mark's gospel is failed discipleship. They promised, “I'll be there for you”, but as we move toward the end of the week Jesus' closest friends abandon, deny, betray... March 28, 2010 |
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Everyone Needs a Monica Monica's catch phrase was a loud, exagerated: "I Know!" Judas, like Monica, gambled too much believing he knew best. With all that we are still learning, discovering, wondering about Jesus, his circle of friends, and the communities that were forming to follow in his way, as with the first disciples, we do not know all that there is to know about the love and peace and forgiveness and sharing that Jesus calls us to. March 21, 2010 |
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Everyone Needs a Phoebe Phoebe is the free-spirited friend, but Peter as Jesus' free spirited friend...? It's not just that Peter is spontaneous as we can read in the gospels, it is also that Peter was willing to do the unexpected thing - to baptize Gentiles, even Romans, into the body of believers. March 14, 2010 |
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Everyone Needs a Ross "Friends" was written for an ensemble of characters that was well cast. Jesus also called together quite a cast of characters to take part in his drama of redeeming love and to trust with the initial witness so that it might continue. Everyone has a part to play... the one's who have struggled with their demons, the three times divorced, the socially awkward and the socially marginalized. March 7, 2010 |
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Everyone Needs a Rachel Rachel and Nicodemus remind us to be open to the people who have not yet proven themselves to be friends, You just don't know when the one you thought was nothing more than an aquaintance will defend you, or how they might be the one to meet your deepest need when the friends you thought you could count on let you down. February 28, 2010 |
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Everyone Needs a Joey in the TV show "Friends" Joey is loyal and trusting - and always happy to help the others remember how to play. We all need a friend who can help us relax. Maybe the home of Martha and Mary, sisters of Jesus' friend Lazarus, was such a place for Jesus. February 21, 2010 |
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Galilean Idol Can you imagine the spectacle if Jesus had jumped? Affirmation from the Jewish leadership and the popular vote as well for the next Galilean Idol. The problem was, Jesus knew he wasn't meant to be famous, he was called to be faithful. February 14, 2010 |
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Reality TV and Getting Real Jesus would OUTWIT, OUTPLAY, and OUTLAST not as a Survivor, but as a servant offering a new way of life for the world. Jesus would not cheat the strategy to which he was called. He offers us the chance to join in this alliance. Choose this day whom you will serve. February 7, 2010 |
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Food Challenge There is a food challenge in which we are called to engage. It is not about how much we can eat but how much we can share. We are challenged, like Jesus was, to remember that the food choices we make are not just personal, but have a consequence for the global community and creation itself. January 24, 2010 |
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Year of the Lord's favor We (you and me and all of us in the United States) are NOT the poor, so Jesus' good news, for us, is also hard news. There is a challenge involved in making Jesus' priorities our own. If we do, this may yet be the year of the Lord's favor. January 24, 2010 |
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Activate The gift card that is our life was activated by the Holy Spirit, and it was called in at our baptism. Now it is our purpose to spend that gift in love and service to the world. January 17, 2010 |
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Resolution God sees us with the highest resolution there is. God knows what we look like when the picture of who we are is complete: a reflection of the Divine, perfected in love. January 10, 2010 |
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In with the New Will this is be the year we will retire, from our personal vocabularies, those phrases we so often say, yet do not believe: "It's God's will"; "There's a reason for it!"; "It 's part of God's plan."? And what phrases should we be eliminating from our church language? January 3, 2010 |
