Pleas
e Note: The church building is currently closed due to the COVID-19 “Safer at Home” quarantine. Weekly worship services are still occurring via YouTube (see link below). For some perspective, click here for an informative article regarding COVID-19 spread within churches.
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This Sunday, at 10am, click here to watch our Worship Service video on YouTube and click here to see the Sunday Worship Bulletin. For any previous Sunday Worship Service, click here.
“Things that Don’t Matter to the Christian”
People who have known me for a long time know that there isn’t much that’s special or mystical or distinguished about me. People who only got to know me after I got ordained tend to apologize for swearing in front of me and duck past conversation topics that could be construed as rude or vulgar. It’s an odd balancing act, one that is unfortunately compelled by a culture that sees religious practice (especially Christian ministry) as the vanguard of manners, decorum, and individualized moralism. In this culture, pastors become the valiant knights of censorship, respectability, and outdated notions of what is “appropriate.” This is, of course, the fault of clergy for painting ourselves as such. It is also, biblically speaking, antithetical to the mission of Jesus and to what our redeemer is trying to accomplish.
Our gospel reading this week comes from Jesus’s final showdowns with the religious and political elite in Jerusalem following his triumphal entry into the city (Palm Sunday) and his cleansing (i.e. riot) at the Temple. Jesus puts a group of Sadducees to the test on questions of spiritual authority, questions that are very threatening to the Sadducees’ own feelings of superiority and to cultural norms about their untouchability. Not pulling any punches, Jesus ends our reading saying “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” This Sunday, we’ll talk about why. — Rev. Wesley Snedeker, Community Minister
NEWS
Church Reopening Taskforce Report
Pasta and Sauce – * WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP! *
An Update from the Community Minister
Previous GROW Zoom Session Videos
