TLLC Wednesday Evening Sermon

Our Lent Misweek Worship Service tonight features "The Holden Evening Prayer". Presenting the Homily is Deacon Bri Morris-Brock. Please enjoy this service and reflect.

Wednesday Lenten Sermon Series - An Altar in the World: Practice NOT Perfect Generally people think benedictions are only in the purview of clergy, but right now the world and each of us are probably craving a sense of blessing. The most ordinary things are drenched in the divine. Pronouncing blessing on them is the least we can do. Of course the key to blessing them is to receive the blessing they offer us first.

Wednesday Lenten Sermon Series - An Altar in the World: Practice NOT Perfect See below for a series description. Most of us don’t have to carry water. In fact, most of us live in a culture that devalues physical labor. This week we practice serving physically to see that hauling brush, doing laundry, picking up trash, and yes carrying water are holy practices just as much as prayer or fasting. An Altar in the World: Practice NOT Perfect In An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor takes twelve ordinary experiences of human life and invites us to see them as spiritual practices. What if our spirituality was shaped not only by prayer, and worship, and sacraments – but also by getting lost, and paying attention, and in physical labor? What if our spirituality was shaped not by a quest for perfection but rather by continual practice? “My hope,” she writes, “is that reading [this book] will help you recognize some of the altars in the world – ordinary-looking places where human beings have met and may continue to meet up with the divine More that they sometimes call God An Altar in the World: Practice NOT Perfect In An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor takes twelve ordinary experiences of human life and invites us to see them as spiritual practices. What if our spirituality was shaped not only by prayer, and worship, and sacraments – but also by getting lost, and paying attention, and in physical labor? What if our spirituality was shaped not by a quest for perfection but rather by continual practice? “My hope,” she writes, “is that reading [this book] will help you recognize some of the altars in the world – ordinary-looking places where human beings have met a

Wednesday Lenten Sermon Series - An Altar in the World: Practice NOT Perfect In a culture that measures worth by how busy we are, the discipline of Sabbath simply begins with the practice of saying, “No!” It is impossible to say, “Yes,” to God without saying, “No,” to God’s rivals. When we say no to other things for a whole day, an hour, or even a few minutes we are testing the premise that we are more than we can produce. We test the theology that even if we spend the whole day being “good for nothing” we would still be good enough for God.

Since God knows us and what we need and want, it seems difficult to know what to pray for or about. In this brief message about being present to God, we will look at the ways in which God is already present in the world and we are present to that world through God's eyes. Building an altar in the world means that we see God present in all places. Our job, then, is simply to be awake and aware.

Wednesday Lenten Sermon Series - An Altar in the World: Practice NOT Perfect Ash Wednesday may seem like an unusual ritual, but it is an important part of our Christian practice. In a culture that calls us to perfection, Ash Wednesday speaks the truth of our need of grace. In a culture that markets a false immortality, Ash Wednesday speaks the truth of our dying… and our rising … through Christ. We need the practice of Ash Wednesday not because we can ever perfect it, but because we are ever in need of a reminder of God’s promises. God promises grace, mercy, forgiveness, peace, love - in short, God promises life. And God’s promise outlasts our bodies, all our efforts at self-improvement, and even time itself. God’s promise is this: at the other end of this ashy cross is an empty cross.

Transfiguration Transfiguration Sunday is a bridge between the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle that comes to a close and the Lent-Easter cycle that begins on Ash Wednesday. On a high mountain Jesus is revealed as God’s beloved Son, echoing the words at his baptism. This vision of glory sustains Jesus as he faces his impending death in Jerusalem. This vision of the one we follow sustains us as we turn this week to Ash Wednesday and our yearly baptismal journey of following him into the wilderness of Lent. For the light of Christ’s Transfiguration, transfigures us as well.

How do we discern what and who is better or best? Who is the most right? What if instead of squabbling we leaned into the foundation that God built for us, and instead of thinking who’s right... we just did the work.

How do we recognize the spirit of God? How do we recognize the spirit of the world? It is hard to tell what is God and what is the world, hard to tell when God is close to us and when it seems as though God is far away.

Wanting a sign from God, or God to make sense by conventional wisdom is as old as time. But the signs and wisdom that God offers us we over look because it seems foolish to our eyes. Wisdom like vulnerability, or relationship.

What do you let divide you from others? Lables? Organizations? Political Parties? What are the things that we have in common more than the things that divide us? What has God given us that unites us all?

Is faith something you feel like a crush? Or is faith something more like something you practice?

Epiphany means a revelation or “ah-ha” moment. The Day of Epiphany (January 6th) concludes the season of Christmas with a celebration of God’s glory revealed in Jesus Christ. As the visit of the Wise Men attest, that glory and this child are for all nations and all people. In the birth of Jesus, God offers himself for us. What do we offer in return? At our best, we offer ourselves.

Throughout the Advent season we have explored various names given to Jesus - Light of the World, Branch of Jesse, Son of God, Emmanuel. On this most holy night Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled as this child is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. On this most holy night we meet this child so longed for, and his name is Jesus because he is born to save the whole world. Tonight we name him as Jesus and claim him as Savior even as his birth names us and claims us as God’s own children.

Advent Series: “More Presence. Less Presents.” “Hold on to Hope” This is no time to have a baby! Israel is being attacked on all sides by nations more powerful than she. Yet, God sends them a sign of presence - not with mere words. God sends them a sign in the form of a baby, named Immanuel, which means God is with us. In this busy Advent season we are invited to reach out and hold on to this hope the way we reach out and hold on to a new baby.

What has God invited us into in this season of dark and cold? God has invited us to question and to sit back in awe at the state of all things.

What are we waiting for? When will God arrive, and how do we slow our lives down to meet God

Enticement - Connecting thanksgiving to Eucharist. --Many forms of giving thanks. --May all the world be clothed and fed.

Christ the King Sunday/Reign of Christ Sunday : This Sunday is the last Sunday of the church year and is always designated as Christ the King Sunday. When we proclaim that Christ is King we let him rule our hearts and give him central place in our life. Yet, even as we call Christ the King, we acknowledge that he is unlike any king we’ve ever known. It is a reign that leaves us lost for words.

Are you idle in your faith? How do we move with our faith and not just have it?

How can we block out the Noise of the world and hear the Truth that God offers us?

We all have this great power to help others, and the example of those that went before us, and the call from Jesus. How can we do good in the world?

In this familiar Reformation Sunday text, Paul describes grace as a gift, saying we are redeemed - brought back, saved by Jesus. We are not saved by our own aptitude, scrappiness, or ability but by grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone.

A special sermon for our blessing of the animals, how do our animals bless us daily?

How does our “correctness” hold us back from living into the gospel?