I would first like to ask for your prayers for Peter Neblett, who has been transferred by ambulance from Ellsworth to Maine Medical in Portland following a fall on Thursday. Please hold him in your prayers as they determine whether he needs to have a pacemaker installed, and please also pray for Randi and the rest of the family as they care for and worry about him.

We pray in faith, and the lessons this Sunday invite us to consider what it means to have and to live in faith. In a time when our sense of what is right is challenged by world events, we also wonder what it means that God is faithful. As we consider Abram’s faithful responses in covenantal relationship with God, and Paul’s suggestion that we find models of faith to follow, we also can look at Jesus’ actions to know the finest model for faith and for behavior that we may know. Bring your faith, bring your questions, bring your doubts to our conversation and our worship.

Blessings and peace, Lisa

With the first Sunday of Lent, we are invited on a journey, which begins in our own day with echoes through all time.  Despite temptation and depravation, the people of Ancient Israel are moved to gratitude; despite temptation in the face of extreme hunger and thirst, Jesus remains true to God’s call for him.  With Lent a time of reflection that ideally makes us ready to enter into the joy of Easter with full hearts and clean consciences, we will look together at how very difficult it can be to recognize reasons for gratitude when life presents us with challenges.  Our service also will include the sacrament of Communion, which helps to remind us that what we know of abundance now is only a foretaste of what God has in store for us.  Although we are not sharing in the elements in the sanctuary, you are invited to prepare them in your homes.  That said, we also may look forward to returning to the sanctuary on Sunday, March 13th (in addition to remaining on Zoom).  Don’t forget your masks, but let’s celebrate our togetherness once again!  

Please mark your calendars for our Quarterly Meeting on Sunday, March 20th, following worship.  You may also want to add to your calendars three other opportunities this week:  We are gathering in front of the church on Sunday afternoons at 4:30 to show our support for peace in Ukraine.  We begin our study on the history of nonviolent resistance on Monday the 7th at 6:30 on Zoom. Our Lenten study series with the congregation of St. Francis Episcopal Church begins on Wednesday at 10:00.  Join us!  

Blessings and peace, Lisa

I am singing with John Lennon today, praying for peace in the world and beyond our understanding.  As we listen tomorrow to the story of Jesus’ transfiguration and of Moses’ face shining radiantly in the presence of God, I invite you to pray with me for peace; for a glimpse of God’s presence here on earth.  We may pray together for the veil to be lifted between what we can see and what God can transform, even now.  We may pray together for the the easing of tension and violence and for the softening of hearts.  We may pray for a new imagination in the world, in which creative nonviolence wreaks something of glory as we forge our way forward in peace.  Please join us in worship of our God who would make all things new.

Those who gathered in front of the church on Thursday afternoon spoke of meeting regularly while the war in the Ukraine rages.  Please know that we are considering different times of day and days of the week so that as many people as would like to gather together in prayer and song are able to do so.  Please listen for more details as plans unfold.

A reminder:  We are meeting only on Zoom this weekend, in response to active cases of Covid in our congregation and throughout the peninsula.  Thank you for your understanding!

Love and peace to you all, Pastor Lisa

There are probably few if any among us who can’t recite “the Golden Rule” that summarizes God’s law in Jesus’ words.  Some of us can probably also receive the very similar, but perhaps more inclusive version of this command as the Chinese philosopher Confucius spoke it.  What may be less familiar is the way in which Jesus expounded on it so that we practice love even more fully.  This Sunday, we will look at the practice of love when we are challenged to love those with whom we disagree or even whom we would call enemies.  What does that look like?  What might forgiveness look like in such a call to love more deeply?

Love and peace to you all, Pastor Lisa 

Worship at Home Materials:

Below you will find materials to accompany this week’s Sunday Morning Worship via Zoom. An order of service with scripture readings, along with music recordings to accompany the service, are available by clicking the following links.

Helpful Hint: If you are planning to join the Sunday morning worship Zoom call, you might wish to print the following documents prior to joining the call, if you have that capability.

Sermon:*
A Reading from Psalms Psalm 1

A Reading from The New Testament Luke 6:17-26

Sermon “Happy Are We”

*A link to the sermon will be shared on our website during the week following the service.

In a movie moment that had its origin with a skit on Saturday Night Live in the 90s, Mike Myers’ and Dana Carvey’s characters proclaimed “We’re not worthy!” when they meet the famous rocker, Alice Cooper.  We may still laugh to think of their genuflections, and probably have laughed because it sounds, frankly, ridiculous.  A sense of unworthiness is not too unfamiliar to all of us, though.  We often struggle to feel adequate to the tasks in front of us.  Such has been the case with humanity forever.  Add to the tasks one faces the idea that God Godself has asked one to perform them, and it is no wonder that there are stutter steps in the paths of prophets and disciples.  This is certainly true in all the lessons we hear in this weekend’s worship service.  That we are not left alone in our journeys, though, is central to our faith and to our community, and we celebrate this in the Sacrament of Communion, even when we are physically distant from one another.  Join us as we share in our common difficulties and pray for the strength to overcome them, even as we proclaim the good news of God’s love for us. Don’t forget to gather your bread and the cup in order to partake in the sacrament together-apart!

Love and peace to you all, Pastor Lisa