Sermons on John (Page 2)

Giving Up Being Right

Technical Note: We apologize. The first 10 minutes of the embedded video has no sound. We are blessed with leadership from Rev. Mark Wiley, who has served around the Southern California region including in Santee. Pastor Mark continues our Lenten series with a poignant reminder that we’re not always right–and that’s ok! Scripture: Isaiah 43:16-21 (NRSV); John 12:1-8 (CEB)

The Light of Home

Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, both Pastor Bob and Pastor Derek were prevented from being in Worship, and instead our South District Superintendent, the Rev. Sandy Olewine, brought a message of light and hope. Our Scripture this week comes from John 1:10-18.  It is the second half of the prologue to John’s Gospel. For the author of the Gospel of John, Jesus is the Word of God and the light that gives life.  Yet the truth is, no matter how…

Family Candlelight Service

Our 5:00 pm Christmas Eve Service focuses on children and families and will tell the story of Christmas through scripture and song. Children may be invited to join an informal visual tableau (no rehearsal required!) with fun costumes and easy movements. We will conclude with Christmas carols and candles.

Everyone Who Belongs

As we approach the end of our Christian year with Reign of Christ Sunday (sometimes called Christ the King), we might consider where we place Christ in our lives. Have we kept Jesus at the center of our awareness, remembering his parables and teachings? Have we remembered each day and even each moment to follow the commands to love God with all that we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves? Have we allowed Christ to reign in our…

Seeking Light in the Darkness

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday and begins our regular season that follows Pentecost. This is the longest season in our Lectionary calendar, lasting all the way until we begin the church year again in Advent! We include one of the most-often-memorized scriptures. Many of us memorized John 3:16 in early Sunday School classes, and some of us even know the following verse as well. Scripture: John 3:1-17 (CEB)

Our Daily Bread

In the third week of our sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer, Pastor Lea asks what it means to ask God for “enough” when we live in a world of abundance, and how we can partner with God to share our abundance with others, that they might have enough.  Scripture: Matthew 6:9-11 (CEB), John 6:30-31,35 (CEB)

Risking the Salvation of God

This is the end of Lent and the beginning of our celebration of resurrection! This is a time of looking forward with renewed hope after a period of darkness. This is a time that surely feels surprising, even to the point that we may even doubt what we see and what we feel. Could it be?? Scripture: John 20:1-18; Acts 10:34-43

Risking Temptation

This is the sixth week of the season of Lent and Palm/Passion Sunday. We conclude our Worship series guided by Amy-Jill Levine’s Entering the Passion of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week. As we near our Easter celebration, we might be tempted to want over to skip over the bad stuff and jump straight to the celebration and the eggs and the fun! And we would be wrong to do this. I wonder if Jesus was tempted, as he…

Risking Rejection

This is the fourth week of the season of Lent, and we continue our Worship series guided by Amy-Jill Levine’s Entering the Passion of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week. The Scripture passage this week is the story of a woman anointing Jesus’ feet (or head depending on which Gospel you read). We may recall this story of a woman in its various forms. Perhaps we think of Mary as the one anointing as depicted below, or perhaps as…

Epiphany & Creation

This is the first week of our series on Reading the Bible Again, informed by Marcus Borg’s Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. As we worship online, let us continue to pray for our community as we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This week combines the opening of the Gospel of John with the opening of the book of Genesis, both creation stories. On a Sunday that is traditionally understood as Epiphany Sunday, we explore the possibility of…

Lessons & Carols

It’s Christmas Eve! May the light of Emmanuel shine in us all. As we worship online, let us continue to pray for our community as we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our traditional Christmas Eve service, live-streamed from our Sanctuary. The Christmas story is told through Scripture and song, and concludes with candle lighting. Scripture: Luke 1:26-35, 38; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 2:1-20; John 1:1-14