This Sunday... “Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks thanks!  Thanks be to God!”  Surely lines of Handel’s “Messiah” are not how each of us greet the coming holiday, and you may not hear the melody in your head.  Still, as we approach a day set aside for Thanksgiving, we may pause in the midst of things to be grateful for the gifts we know as members and friends of this church.  How are your spirits lightened by community when circumstances in our world dismay or confuse?  How do you know greater strength when you know the ways in which God both upholds the righteous and challenges the comfortable?  Let us celebrate and also remember with thanksgiving our connections as people of faith.

— Pastor Lisa

This Sunday... I looked in my study this week for the section of my library devoted to texts about women in the Bible, knowing that the scholarship is limited to relatively very few verses, to relatively few women.  Hannah is one whose significance is great and whose value to us is not only that she births a great man.  Why do we still read this story and how can we read it today to know something of our own experiences and our own possibilities in faith?  Her experiences of suffering are familiar in many ways to many people, though her response to them may not be.  As we gather for worship, in response to the ways we know we are blessed, we also gather in response to the ways we know we seek support; we tie our very real, human concerns with eternal promises and present help.  Join us as we seek together a hopeful and helpful future. 

— Pastor Lisa

This Sunday... Henry David Thoreau poses an interesting question.  He wrote, “How do we measure the cost of things? The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” We read today a story in which Jesus refers to the widow who gives her “mite” in offering at the temple, so that we may learn what it is to give.  In this season of thanks giving, we will begin to focus on the way that gratitude manifests in our lives, and becomes, in fact, our living.  Join us in the sanctuary or on Zoom as you are most comfortable, as we also celebrate Communion together.  If you are worshipping at home, please do gather the symbols of the bread and the cup so that we may partake together.

— Pastor Lisa

This Sunday…We are meant to be different.  In some ways, we might say “it is that simple,” but there is nothing simple about the commandment to love.  The lectionary this week leads us to read about the relationship between a woman and her late husband’s mother, and also to read how Jesus summarized all the commandments.  Then, we are asked to be different because of it.  We are commanded to be different because of living in a world not only of contracts and collective bargaining, but of covenantal love.  It is our choice and our privilege, and it is not easy.  Living “in the world but not of the world” takes the strength of community committed to being in covenant together, and how we do so in our church and in the rest of the world sometimes requires of us more conscious development of our talent to love.  Join in worship, in prayer and in song, as we grow together in faith.

I was blind, but now I see.  We know these words as part of the familiar hymn, “Amazing Grace,” but we may not know all the stories of healing sight in the Bible and at other times and places in miraculous ways.  What it means to see clearly and what it means to be seen is part of our conversation this weekend when we read the story of Bartimaeus and his faithfulness.  In a busy week in which we have been honoring friends and family who have died, we also look forward to the time we may all see clearly, in love, as Jesus taught us then and teaches us now.

— Pastor Lisa

From the Pastor…

We will remember John Merrifield together on Saturday, October 23 at 4:00 p.m., celebrating his life with song.  That said, I would like for everyone to know that we will offer participation in the service via Zoom and on our FM station, 103.5 (inside of a quarter mile), as well as in-person.  Space is limited in the sanctuary, with social distancing and masks required for all of our safety.  Singers will also remain masked, but I hope that many of you will feel comfortable and connected by Zooming in from home.  This will allow that members of John’s family and his close friends will find room inside.  We also will share the Zoom broadcast on the large tv in Fisher Hall with chairs set up ahead of time to offer social distancing.  Thank you for your understanding of our need to take precautions while also honoring our desire to be together.
You may access the service with the following link: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87105125443  Meeting ID: 871 0512 5443 Passcode: 514247