Soul Stream

As our exploration of peacemaking continues, we'll turn to Matthew 5 for some of Jesus's wisest and most famous instruction on peacemaking. We'll also examine one of history's greatest and most innovative peacemakers - Mahatma Gandhi. Did you know that he named Jesus of Nazareth as one of his greatest influences?

This Sunday, we'll continue to explore the important work of peacemaking. Our readings - four of them for this week - will all come from what is known as the Jacob and Esau cycle, beginning in Genesis 25 and ending in Genesis 32. (Extra credit will be given to anyone who reads these 8 chapters before coming to worship this week!) The story of these two brothers - who are rivals even in Rebekah's womb! - is powerful and profoundly relevant to our exploration of peacemaking.

This Sunday, we will continue to examine God's call for ALL of us to be peacemakers. Last week we met Abigail, a wise and committed peacemaker. This week we'll talk frankly about the price of peacemaking. There is no doubt that being a peacemaker comes at great personal cost and sacrifice. We'll examine that cost through the lens of Jesus's sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 and Paul's call to offer ourselves as a "living sacrifice" in Romans 12.

This Sunday we'll explore what peacemaking is and why Jesus promised a special blessing to those who work for peace. You'll meet Abigail, an incredible peacemaker you may not have come across before. Her story will inform and challenge our story as individuals and as a congregation committed to peace.

Looking at Christmas as to God's choice of a young girl to bring forth his greatest gift.

We'll continue our exploration of peace, considering how we make and maintain peace in our relationships, one with another. We'll also examine Jesus's lineage according to Matthew - a very atypical report, as it includes several women in tracing Jesus's blood line. Could Matthew's unprecedented inclusion of women here be a clue for what is necessary for peace? Come and find out!

The road to peace and peacemaking begins with each of us developing peace within our own hearts and minds. We can't expect the world to be at peace when we haven't learned to practice peace in ourselves. Come this Sunday to learn how to take this critical first step on the road to peace.

Our series on "Being a Church for the Poor" continues as Toby will look at the dark side of some of the things we do for the least of these. What happens when the acts of charity we perform don't stem from a pure and loving motivation?

Matthew 25 and Hebrews 13, ask the question Joan Osborne posed in music in the 1990s: "What if God was one of us?"

Celebrating the kind of hunger God hopes we never lose. Jesus called it "hunger and thirst for righteousness." For Jesus, righteousness wasn't some sort of piety or personal holiness; rather it was everything in creation being in its right place, functioning as the Creator God intended. Poverty, hunger, war, and unchecked economic inequality are sure signs that we've lost touch with righteousness, that things are amiss.

What does Jesus tell us about abundance in our lives and how do we follow his lessons?

The service and the sermon are a celebration of the church being inclusive, and designed to reinforce the radical welcome Jesus extended to all people.

Our journey through the 7-Story Framework continues this Sunday with the long-awaited 7th story! We've seen what happens when people live out any of the previous 6 stories. History continues to reveal where stories of domination, revolution, isolation, victimization, purification, and accumulation lead. Thankfully, Jesus offers us another story, the Gospel story, the 7th story - as Brian McLaren and Garreth Higgins call it. Both this week and next we'll focus on this genuine and transforming love story.

Continuing our journey through the 7-Story Framework, our focus on this third week of the series will be on stories of purification and accumulation - the 5th and 6th stories. You'll be amazed how deeply rooted these stories are in human history and how far-reaching their corrupting influence has been.

Continuing the "The 7-Story Framework" he introduced last week, the two story types for this week will be stories of isolation or retreat and stories of victimization. These stories represent two of our favorite responses when the world disappoints us - either to run away or to declare that we are victims. Neither approach results in positive transformation or genuine Gospel living.

This Sunday we'll begin a new sermon and outreach series. Because our scriptures have over 2,100 references to the poor and our obligation to care for them, we'll spend the months of September through November exploring why Jesus made that his top priority. In the month of September, Toby will introduce us to what Brian McLaren calls "The 7 Story Framework," a profound way of understanding the world and how it got to the state it's in, with such an unequal distribution of wealth and resources.

Hope is our theme. So often we forget to hope and miss the opportunities God offers us for newness of life. Hope is central for the follower of Christ, and it is equally important to the recovering addict. Without hope, we are truly lost.

Acedia is an ancient term that is defined as grief; it can bury itself in our core and deny us joy. Miriam Hollar explains this phenomena and how it can be an addiction. Then, she talks about how to come to grips with this addiction by using some of the Twelve Step approach.

We'll continue our march through the 12 Steps of Recovery. We'll focus on the 12th step, which says, "Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

Miriam Hollar is no stranger to our pulpit and has become a true partner with Toby in the overall ministry of this church. She will continue our march through the 12 Steps of Recovery, focusing on steps 10 and 11. Her particular focus is the following articulation of the 11th step: "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for the knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out."