Sermon – January 15, 2012

Epiphany 2B: 10:00AM
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Who Is Your Eli and Your Philip?

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – January 8, 2012

Epiphany 1B: 10:00AM
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Following Jesus: Carrying the Light

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – January 1, 2012

Holy Name Sunday: 10:00AM
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: What We Do In the Name of Jesus

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – December 25, 2011

Christmas Day: 1o:00 AM 
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: Christmas Joy

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve: 11:00 PM 
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Working Together, Getting Christmas Right

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – December 11, 2011

Advent 3B
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: About An Adult Christian Christmas

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – December 4, 2011

Advent 2B
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Christmas Covenant – Part Two

1. The nativity scene: “That really happened in human history.”

2. Music: The REAL Christmas song is “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth.”

3. Christmas cards: “God, thank you for this human friendship, and thank you that through Jesus I am on Your friendship list.”

4. Credit cards: “The debt of the sins of humanity came due one day, and Jesus completely paid the price; and for that, I worship him.”

5. Christmas gifts: “Thank you God, that love motivated this person to give me this gift. And thank you God, for the unbelievable gift you have given me – Jesus.”

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – November 27, 2011

Advent 1B
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Christmas Covenant – Part One

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – November 20, 2011

Christ the King Sunday /
The Last Sunday of Pentecost
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: Christ the King

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – November 13, 2011

Pentecost 22A
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Enter Into The Joy of the Master

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – November 6, 2011

All Saints / All Souls Day
The Reverend Ephraim Ntikabuze,
Diocese of Western Tanganyika

Topic: The Work of the Saints

Listen To This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – October 30, 2011

Pentecost 20A
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Make Generosity and Gratitude Happen

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – October 23, 2011

Pentecost 19A
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Living with an Attitude of Gratitude

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – October 16, 2011

Pentecost 18A
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: What drives our decisions?

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – October 9, 2011

Pentecost 17A
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: Joy

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – October 2, 2011

Pentecost 16A / Proper 22
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: I am God’s vineyard

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – September 25, 2011

Pentecost 15A / Proper 21
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: A Study in Authority and Responsibility

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – September 18, 2011

Pentecost 14A / Proper 20
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: A Study in Radical Generosity

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – September 11, 2011

Pentecost 13A / Proper 19
Family Sunday / Anniversary of 9-11-01
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: We Are the Lord’s

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – September 4, 2011

Pentecost 12A / Proper 18
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: A Study of Radical Unity

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – August 28, 2011

Pentecost 11A / Proper 17
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: Keep Your Mind On Divine Things

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – August 21, 2011

Pentecost 10A / Proper 16
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Building Faith

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – August 14, 2011

Pentecost 9A / Proper 15
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Developing Persistent Faith

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – August 7, 2011

Pentecost 8A / Proper 14
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Peter Walked on Water!!

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – July 31, 2011

Pentecost 7A / Proper 13 
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Blessed, Broken, and Shared

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – July 24, 2011

Pentecost 6A / Proper 12 
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: It Takes A Small Step of Faith

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – July 17, 2011

Pentecost 5A / Proper 11 
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Dandelions and Weeds

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – July 10, 2011

Pentecost 4A – 2011
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Check Your Own Spiritual Soil

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon 6/26/11 by Rev. Judi Sato

Abraham’s Faith
2 Pentecost/Proper 8, Year A
June 26, 2011
Genesis 22:1-14 – Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac

Printable Version

Last week I told you about one of my hobbies – sewing vestments. But I also like to ready mystery novels. About half of the way through the book I start getting anxious and I am not sure how it’s going to end. So sometimes, to relieve my anxiety, I do the unthinkable – I skip to the end to find out how it ends. I just want to make sure my hero or heroine will be safe. Many of you probably think I’ve broken some cardinal rule about not reading the last page of the book. And most of the people I’ve talked to won’t cheat and look at the end. But if I know the ending I can relax and just enjoy the characters, scenery and plot and not be anxious about what will happen. What I’m doing is avoiding the anxiety.

Today we do not get to avoid the anxiety. The lesson from Genesis that we read today is one of the most difficult passages in all of scripture – God’s testing of Abraham. Abraham is asked by God to take his son Isaac and to sacrifice him as a burnt offering to God. What are we going to do with this passage?

We don’t like to think that the God we know – the God who loves us would even be a part of child sacrifices, and herein lays the source of our anxiety. We are looking at this passage after all the stories of the oral tradition, the history of Israel, and all the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures were compiled and collected. We are looking at this story 2000 years after the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. We look at this passage from the vantage of knowing the end of the story.

And we are not alone in this. In preparing for this sermon I read many commentaries and sermons to get the “experts” take on this. All of them were coming at this story having the rest of scripture and our modern understanding of the context of the times behind them. Even the Jewish scholars were using the psalms and the book of Job as ways of understanding this passage.

One interpretation is that by God rescuing Isaac He is prohibiting child sacrifices that were prevalent during those times – however this is not yet mentioned in scripture.

The most prominent Christian interpretation is that this passage prefigures Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Isaac carries his own wood just as Jesus carries his own cross. Isaac is bound and Christ is nailed to the cross. God spared Abraham’s son because he knew there would be another sacrifice hundreds of years later.

Both of these interpretations are reasonable and make a lot of sense. But they come from our knowledge of the whole story.

What if we were to look at this passage from another point of view? What if we looked at it as if we didn’t know the end of the story? This story is only in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Torah, the first book of the Bible. There is a deliberate flow in the order of the books of the bible and I think we need consider that when we look for understanding of this passage. So far in the bible we are just getting to learn about God, God’s creation, and God’s people. At this point we do not know very much.
We know God as creator
We know there is a relationship between God and Mankind and Mankind and the earth
We know God started having trouble with mankind – first w/ Adam and Eve, then with Cain.
We know there was further rebellion and God started over with Noah and his descendents.

And now we come to the story of Abraham. It starts in Chapter 12 when God calls Abraham out of his home country of Ur to a new land. He is obedient and takes his whole family and leaves behind everything he has known. Abraham goes through many trials – he passes his wife off as his sister; his nephew Lot gets in trouble in Sodom and Gomorrah, but God is with him all the way. God sees something in Abraham and so he enters into a covenant with Abraham. God promises Abraham descendents as numerous as the stars.

God is learning that Abraham is different than those he’s had a relationship with in the past. Unlike Adam, Abraham was obedient. He left his home when called by God to go to another land and become the father of many nations. Abraham is learning that with God anything is possible. At the age of 99 he becomes a father just as God promised. Isaac is the first-born of the promise of God.

Maybe now God has found someone he can trust as well. So God decides to test Abraham.

The word for test here is not a pass/fail kind of test. It’s more like testing or proving metal to see how much it can take. This testing also makes the metal stronger. God knows it is a test, but Abraham does not. But Abraham is obedient, leaving immediately. Along the journey Isaac asks an important question: Where is the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham’s response is one of faith – God will provide. God has provided before. Abraham had no reason to believe He would not this time. That was what his experience with God up until this point. There is also indication in the text that this is what Abraham expected since he told the servants to wait for both of them to return.

God is taking a risk here as well. What if Abraham ignores the covenant and refuses God and walks away – will all the work with him be in vain? It’s happened before.

Finally we get to the mountain and there is no indication that Isaac fought his father. Abraham probably explained it to him and he accepted his fate also in obedience to God. This would be expected as Abraham taught Isaac about all God. Finally, at the climax of the story, at the last minute, God intervened. He saw Abraham’s faith and obedience and provided the lamb for the sacrifice. God named the place Jehovah-Jirah – God provides. And in the next couple of verses that we didn’t read, Abraham’s obedience and faith was credited as righteousness. At last God has found someone on whom to start his kingdom on earth and the covenant was renewed.

The promise of God was met with obedience from Abraham. The covenantal relationship is now complete. And we learned something new about Abraham. Here was a man of profound faith in God. He was obedient and risked giving up the very thing God had promised him.

We also learned something about God. God provided what was needed – he provided the necessary sacrifice. God also found someone who was obedient and did not withhold anything from God.

Does this take away all the anxiety from the story? No, and I don’t think we have to do that. There is anxiety in following God. We cannot avoid it. We don’t always know how the story ends. We learn that God will provide what we need in anxious times or even in unforeseen and unfair tragedy. It may not be what we expect – but God is not far off. A recent example is the birth of premature twin sons Owen and Levi to some friends of our family. Levi did not survive and Owen is fighting for his life. Now at 26 weeks of age, Owen is trying to suck his thumb. But he’s not out of the woods yet. Neil and Lynn, their parents, are devout Christians, but they are struggling with their faith at times. Neil even has talked in his blog about not understanding God’s plan in all of this. While I don’t think this was God’s plan, God is providing them with all that they need. They feel the prayers of a community that stretches across the country.

Genesis 22 is a story of life coming into a situation of death; a story of redemption; a story of faith in the midst of extreme trauma. It is a story of a God who provides. It is true that it is sometimes difficult to see God’s provision and goodness in desperate situations when tragedy strikes. Nevertheless, the text calls upon us to look up and see God’s goodness breaking into situations of despair.

Abraham and Neil have learned that faith doesn’t help us avoid troubling times. They have learned that faith is what gets us through them. This is what we can take with us from this difficult text in Genesis – and it even stands on its own without the rest of the story.

Sermon 6/19/11 by Rev. Judi Sato

Relationship with the Trinity
Trinity Sunday, Year A
June 19, 2011 – Father’s Day – Rev. Judi Sato

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Printable Version

In addition to being Father’s Day, today is Trinity Sunday. It is a unique Sunday in the church as it is the only one based on a Doctrine. It is a doctrine that developed over centuries while a new church was trying to articulate an authentic faith. It is a doctrine that developed out of the church’s relationship with scripture and their relationship with each other and in their own church cultures. They were trying to understand God – and isn’t that just like today? We have the modern movement to understand the humanity of Christ. We have the ones who like to figure out the date of the second coming.

There is no doubt about it. The concept of the Trinity can be a tough one to wrap our heads around. And the truth of the matter is, no matter how much we think about it, no matter how much we talk or perhaps disagree about it, we will never really comprehend its depth or complexity.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church defines the Trinity as: one God existing in three Persons and one substance, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is one, yet self differentiated; the God who reveals Himself to humankind is one God equally in three distinct modes of existence, yet remains one through all eternity.” The “Three persons” is what I think throws us off. The Personhood of the Trinity does not match the Western understanding of “person”. Our understanding of person implies an individual with their own distinct will. In the ancient society of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, personhood was never separate from community. John Zizioulas the Greek Patriarch and Theologian says about Personhood there can be no “I” without a “you”. The Trinity is all about relationships; relationships between the three and with us.

Relationship with God – this is my favorite sermon topic. So when we look at the Trinity though, who is our relationship with?

Do you have a relationship with God the Father?

Do you have a relationship with God the Son?

Do you have a relationship with God the Holy Spirit? or…

Do you have a relationship with all three at once?

The simple answer is yes! To all of the above. We can have a relationship with each member of the Godhead, or we may not distinguish between them and just have look to God. But my experience has shown me that we can meet each member of the Trinity. It isn’t always something we seek. In fact each time I was not actually seeking God out – but God was reaching out to me.

So I would like to tell you about how I met God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And I brought some visual aids to help. I like to sew, especially church vestments and I now have three chasubles that represent each person of the Godhead.

God the Father: My Genesis Chasuble. This chasuble was made to depict the two creation stories in Genesis. The second one is different from the one we read today. It starts out with man being created in the image of God out of the dust of the ground, and then the animals to keep him company and then a mate. The second story of creation is about relationships: God with us; us with God, and our relationship to the earth.

This is God the Father, creator of heaven and earth. I met God the creator one night after a pesky evangelical was bothering me and my friends. I got fed up and went outside and sat under the stars. The scientist in me enjoyed looking at the stars – but soon I was going over the physics of the “Big Bang” and realized that the initial energy for that bang had to come from somewhere since energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It kind of dawned on me – was that God?

Anytime when I interact with creation – at the beach, in the rain, with squirrels, with flowers – I feel connected to God. It grounds me. It calms me – and I feel at peace.

I next met God the Holy Spirit. This is my red chasuble that I made for my ordination. It represents the Holy Spirit as the dove – but this dove is made out of the tongues of fire that fell on the disciples at Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit fell on Peter he went from a tentative and scared disciple to a powerful apostle who led 5000 to Christ with one speech. Christ told us not to worry about what to say – the Spirit will give us the words. And I have counted on that happening many, many times. I like to talk to the witnesses who go door to door. While talking with them I would often find myself going on about some aspect of scripture or theology and it’s like I’m observing myself, because I’m thinking “where did I get this information?” Later I would find out that what I said had been correct.

There are many gifts of the spirit at work in the church: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy, and miracles. We do not see them too much in America’s church because we tend to rely on ourselves more or just don’t believe the gifts are around anymore. But the spirit is alive and active around the world and even in this country. I subscribe to the magazine Charisma and this magazine tracks the movement of the Holy Spirit in the world-wide church. For example – in Mozambique, people are being raised from the dead. In fact if you want to be considered for ordination – you have to have prayed for four people to be raised from the dead. But we don’t even have to go that far. Up in Redding, California a revival is breaking out and people are being filled with the Holy Spirit and meetings and worship are going on almost non-stop. Anyone interested in a road trip?

It took me a long time to meet the next person of the Trinity. I kept putting it off too – I knew that once I met the Son of God my life would never be the same and I wasn’t ready for that.

Finally, I met the Incarnate God – Jesus. For God to deny himself and become one of us was to me the most amazing thing. God became man to experience His creation, to live among us – to have friends – to reach out and help the outcasts and sinners – to serve others…..this is unparalleled and not found in any other religion. This is special and in understanding and accepting this I began a life centered on faith. But that is not all Jesus did. We know the story – we celebrate each year during Lent, Holy Week and Easter. Jesus died on the cross, paying the cost of my sins and defeating death. This is represented by my white chasuble. I made this one for my niece’s wedding I officiated at a couple of weeks ago. The bond and covenant of marriage was established by God in creation, and Jesus endorsed this way of life by performing his first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. So making a chasuble for a wedding was very meaningful for me. The cross on it represents Christ’s saving act at Calvary.

Today we all must try to do what the doctrine of the Trinity was originally formulated to do: give words to our faith. As Christians in the world, we must be ready to witness to others about what we believe and why we believe it. The early Christians, living in a hostile world, needed to put some definitive language to what they believed Christ had revealed to them. We need to do the same thing. The Trinity gives language to our strongest belief that our God is not merely a God of history, performing mighty acts only in Bible times, but a powerful, on-the-move God of the present and of the future. A God who is more than a Creator who made the world out of nothing, more than the God of the big-bang theory who began the universe and then left it to run on its own.

The words of faith, of what we believe, come from our relationship with God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Our experiences with God are unique to each of us. Sharing them with others will help us all see how big God really is. We will get to see something new about this God that we love. Sharing them with others will help build faith in those who are seeking God.

So if someone comes and asks you – why are you a Christian? What would be your story?

Sermon – June 12, 2011

Pentecost Day - 2011
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Tools of the Trade

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – June 5, 2011

7 Easter – 2011
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: A Life that Brings Glory to God

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – May 29, 2011

6 Easter – 2011
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: We Are Not Left As Orphans

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – May 22, 2011

5 Easter – 2011: Family Sunday
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: The Way, the Truth, the Life

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – May 15, 2011

4 Easter – 2011
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Five Dimensions to Living an Abundant Life

Lisetn To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – May 8, 2011

3 Easter – 2011
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: We Are a Luke 24 Church
Consider the men who met Jesus on their way to Emmaus. Learn from Rembrandt’s painting how we might be responding as they did.

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – May 1, 2011

2 Easter – 2011
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Now We Can Live a Resurrected Life

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – April 24, 2011 Easter Day

Easter Day- 2011
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Easter proclaims two promises

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – April 23, 2011 Easter Vigil

Easter Vigil- Year A
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: An Opportunity for Radical Believing

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – April 22, 2011 Good Friday

Good Friday- Year A
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: Reflection on the Crowd during Jesus’ Passion

Listen To This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – April 21, 2011 Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday- Year A
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Jesus was radical and taught us to be likewise

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – April 17, 2011

Palm Sunday- Year A
God Is Closer Than You Think – Week #6
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: God Doesn’t Get Much Closer Than This

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – April 10, 2011

5 Lent- Year A
God Is Closer Than You Think – Week #5
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Recognizing God’s Voice
In this sermon, I explore the spiritual pathways that John Ortberg discusses in Chapter 7 of his book, “God is closer than you think”; how to make ourselves more receptive to God’s voice; and how to filter our thoughts to determine which of them are from God.

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – April 3, 2011

4 Lent- Year A
God Is Closer Than You Think – Week #4
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Listening to God

Psalm 16:8
I have set the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – March 27, 2011

3 Lent- Year A 
God Is Closer Than You Think – Week #3
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Partnering with God

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – March 20, 2011

2 Lent- Year A 
The Reverend Judi Sato

Topic: Where Is God in Our World?

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – March 13, 2011

1 Lent- Year A 
The Right Reverend Mary Gray-Reeves

Topic: Seeing God Through the Chaos

Listen To This Sermon
There is no text copy of this sermon.

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – March 6, 2011

Last Sunday after the Epiphany- Year A 
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: For the “Valley Days”

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – February 27, 2011

8 Epiphany- Year A 
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Paralyzing Fear

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)

Sermon – February 13, 2011

6 Epiphany- Year A 
The Reverend Ken Wratten

Topic: Murder, Sex, Alienation – and the Good News

Listen To This Sermon
Read This Sermon

Scripture Lessons (Revised Common Lectionary)