Weekly sermon content from Manito Presbyterian Church in Spokane, WA. Whatever your past experience church has or has not been, you are invited to be a part of our conversations and happenings. We live in confusing, divisive, isolating times and it is o
“God wants humanity to be His creature. Furthermore, He wants us to be His PARTNER...God wants light, not darkness. He wants cosmos, not chaos. He wants peace, not disorder.” ― Karl Barth
"The covenant is not only quite as old as creation; it is older than it. Before the world was,before heaven and earth were, the resolve or decree of God exists in view of this event in which God willed to hold communion with man, as it became inconceivably true and real in Jesus Christ" -Karl Barth
"On the basis of the eternal will of god we have to think of EVERY HUMAN BEING, even the oddest, most villanous or miserable, as one whom Jesus Christ is Brother and God is Father; and we have to deal with him on this assumtion. If the other person knows that already, then we have to strengthen him in the knowledge. If he does not know it yet or no longer knows it, our buisness is to transmit this knowledge to him." -Karl Barth
"To be pilgrims means that men must perpetually return to the starting-point of that naked humanity which is absolute poverty and utter insecurity...The veritable pinnacle of religious achievement is attaned when men are thrust down into the company of those who lie in the depths. Where this is overlooked, the first must become the last, for only the last can be the first" - Karl Barth
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world" - Karl Barth
CreedGod has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. In his reconciling love, God overcomes the barriers between sisters and brothers and breaks down every form of discrimination based on racial or ethnic difference, real or imaginary. The church is called to bring all people to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church, and the exercise of political rights. Therefore, the church labors for the abolition of all racial discrimination and ministers to those injured by it. Congregations, individuals, or groups of Christians who exclude, dominate, or patronize others, however subtly, resist the Spirit of God and bring contempt on the faith which they profess. Scripture Readings Karen BartOld Testament: Genesis 45:15 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=611754268)New Testament: Luke 15:20 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=611754296)Homily: To receive and uphold one anotherScott Starbuck Focus: “The area of the Church stands in the world, as outwardly the Church stands in the village or in a city, beside the school, the cinema and the railway station. The Church's language cannot aim at being an end in itself. It must be made clear that the Church exists for the sake of the world, that the light is shining in the darkness.” ― Karl Barth
"Religion is the possibility of the removal of every gound of confidence except confidence in God alone." - Karl Barth
"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousandfibers connect us with our fellows; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects" -Herman Melville
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” -C. S. Lewis
“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The ordinary think inside of the box, the extraordinary think outside of the box, but genius thinks inside, outside, below and above the box.” -Matshona Dhliwayo
Scripture Readings Shirley Russell Old Testament: Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603296864)New Testament: Luke 14:28-33 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603296917)Sermon: Detachment or Focus?Scott StarbuckFocus: “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self–all your wishes and precautions–to Christ.” -C.S. Lewis
“You've got to think about big things while doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.” -Alvin Toffler
“This is our great challenge and consolation. Jesus comes to us in the poor, the sick, the dying, the prisoners, the lonely, the disabled, the rejected. There we meet him, and there the door to God's house is opened for us.” Henri Nouwen
"It is said that the age of a tree can be reckoned by looking at the bsrk - one can also truly know a person's age in the good by the inwardness of the repentance."- Soren Kierkegaard
“The True Self is not our creation, but God's. It is the self we are in our depths. It is our capacity for divinity and transcendence.” -Sue Monk Kid
"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." -Albert Einstein
Old Testament: 1 Samuel 1:1-19 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603295174)New Testament: Luke 18:1-8 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603295198)Sermon: Self AdvocacyScott StarbuckFocus: “It keeps our hearts chasing after God's heart. It's how we bother God, and how God bothers us back. There's nothing that works any better than that.” -Barbara Brown Taylor
Scripture Readings Jill CatheyOld Testament: Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603295429)New Testament: Luke 16:1-13 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603295453)Sermon: Heavy RealismScott StarbuckFocus: “Perfect is the enemy of good.” -Voltaire
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein
“Storms of every sort, torrents, earthquakes, cataclysms, 'convulsions of nature,' etc., however mysterious and lawless at first sight they may seem, are only harmonious notes in the song of creation, varied expressions of God's love.” -John Muir
“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb
The goal of our lives is not simply self agency or mastery but even more surrender to and embrace of God's will and being.
Tonight; we remember and anticipate all of the things that can happen in God…suddenly!
At Christmas, we celebrate and honor those who are culturally considered lowly but are exalted in the love and work of Christ.
Joy is to be found in accompaniment rather than control and exploitation.
Advent is the time of your to hold lights of mercy in any and every darkness to guide all feet in the ways of peace.
Advent means “coming.” Advent is our yearly exercise of preparing our hearts, minds, homes, and schedules for the in-breaking of Jesus Christ.
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose hear.
You will know them by their fruits. …A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Teacher, we know that you are sincere and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Old Testament: Psalm 85 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=593001011) New Testament: Romans 6:1b-11 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=593001062)
‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.' Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?'
Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord's people.
“Faith seeking understanding,” in the words of St Anselm, is our hope. In the meantime, “wax on, wax off…breathe in, breathe out” can help us remember that we are called to live and serve in the present in humility, joy and confidence, because our future is assured through the grace and providence of God.”
Christ made it abundantly clear that only God knows the time and manner in which God's Kingdom will be (re)established on earth. He also made it abundantly clear that it will happen, Christ will come again to usher it in, and we have been invited to enjoy it with him forever.
Although our faith has ancient roots, it is thoroughly forward looking.
While the life and ministry of Jesus happened in a particular moment in human history, Jesus' work continues, guiding us toward a future that is leading us toward the fulfillment of God's Kingdom on earth.
Just about everything in our relationship with God is about newness, new-orientation, renewal, and transformation.
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