Today in our first reading, God asks Samuel a question that echoes across Scripture and across our lives: “How long will you grieve…?” Samuel is stuck… he is stuck in disappointment, stuck in what might have been, stuck in the past. And God gently nudges him forward. “Fill your horn with oil and set out.”…
There’s a moment in Genesis when God speaks a simple but life‑altering word to Abram: “Go.” Leave what you know. Step into what you cannot see. Trust that blessing will meet you on the road. It’s one of the most generous invitations in Scripture, not because it promises ease, but because it promises presence. God…
There’s a moment early in Genesis—before the serpent, before the hiding, before the shame—when everything is simple. God places the human in the garden “to till it and keep it.” It’s such a gentle, generous beginning. God gives Adam a home, purpose, beauty, abundance. The first story of humanity is not about scarcity or fear….
There is something about a mountaintop that stirs the soul. Even if we’ve never climbed a literal mountain, we know what it feels like to be lifted above the ordinary—those moments when God feels close, when clarity breaks through, when the world seems touched by something holy. Scripture is full of these moments, and today’s…
There’s a line in Isaiah today that lands with a kind of holy clarity: “Is not this the fast that I choose… to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them?” Isaiah is speaking to a people who are very religious…
There are moments in Scripture when God’s voice cuts through all the noise and confusion with startling clarity. Today’s readings give us one of those moments. In Micah 6, God gathers the mountains and the foundations of the earth as witnesses and asks Israel a piercing question: “What have I done to you? In what…
“Behold,” cries Isaiah, “listen well,For God has called me forth the truth to tell.”From distant shores the servant hears his name,A light to nations set with holy flame.Though strength seemed spent, though labor felt in vain,God shaped his life to heal the world’s deep pain.The One who formed him in the womb declaresThat glory rises…
Annual Meeting – 2026 There’s a line in Isaiah today that feels like it was written for a congregation standing on the threshold of an annual meeting. God says, “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you.” It’s such a tender image—God not…
The Rev. Canon Cathy Dempesy-Sims In our opening collect today we hear these words: O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature I can think of no better time than right now to be reminded of the gift of human nature, and of our baptismal promise to respect…
Beloved, tonight we gather in the deep hush of winter, in the glow of candles and the warmth of familiar carols, to hear again the story that has shaped our lives more than we know. It is late—on purpose. Christmas Eve invites us into the hours when the world is quiet enough for wonder to…
There is a line in our call to worship this morning that feels especially tender as we approach Christmas: “Today we acknowledge our pain and the pain we have caused others.” Beloved, Advent does not ask us to hide our wounds. Advent invites us to bring them into the light. And today, as we light…
Advent is a season that invites us to awaken our spiritual senses—to look again, listen again, hope again. And today, as we light the third candle, we name that awakening as joy. Not the thin, fragile joy that depends on everything going right, but the deep, steady joy that rises from God’s presence breaking into…
