Sermons

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One Thing at a Time

Michaeo Schaff & Crisely Melecio

March 29, 2020

Introduction to Scripture readings:

Michael Schaff: Welcome. Thank you for joining us this morning.

Crisely Melecio-Zambrano: While I was very doubtful we could make this work, Michael assured me we could do it! Michael and I were hoping that all of you could interact with these readings in new ways. When we first read through the readings for this weekend together, Michael noted that he noticed things he hadn’t heard before, so I invite you to listen to and/or watch these readings with openness to receive something new. Each of these readings has rich imagery, so even those of you who are joining us via phone can sit back and imagine each reading unfold with your different senses.

Oscar Romero at 40 years since his martyrdom, a light for our times.

Videlbina and Paul Fitch-Flores

March 22, 2020

Greetings to all, in this different time, when we are physically apart but in which we seek to be unified in a Lenten spirit of tragedy and triumph as we journey together towards Christ’s death and resurrection.

Our scripture readings for this week express, from Ephesians 5,

“8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord.” … “we were in the darkness, but now are in the light of the Lord and, as children of the light, we are to find out what pleases the Lord”.

In the Gospel reading, from John, chapter 9, we learn of a man who was blind from birth, to whom Jesus gave sight, and for whom was the source of great perplexity for the Pharisees. It shook their sense of order, of how they considered that things should be.

As we are inundated by a flood of news, information, opinions, and actions regarding the novel coronavirus, our sense of order, of how we consider things should be, have been thrown off. We enter into moments of malaise where we do not know exactly what to do. Wash your hands, isolate ourselves from one another, stay home becomes our new mantra.

Wild Hope

Gayle Boss

March 15, 2020

Text: Romans 5:1-11
         Exodus 17:1-7
         John 4:5-42

Good morning.  I’m honored to be with you.  Eighth Day was the sister church to which my husband, Doug, and I first belonged to when we stumbled into the Church of the Saviour in 1980, unaware that we were in the home of spiritual giants and were about to be changed for life.  We still talk about how grateful we are that God dropped two 23-year-old newlyweds here.  Church of the Saviour, beginning with the Eighth Day Community, has shaped our whole life since the first month of our marriage.

I’m here at the invitation of Jennie Gosché and the New Creation Mission Group.  Jennie, and I know others of you, too, enjoyed my first book, All Creation Waits, and invited me after learning about my new book, Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing.  The vanishing, in this case, are twenty-five of the world’s wild animals that we may lose in the next few decades unless we radically change the destructive way we live on planet Earth, animals like the polar bears that Jennie loves and photographs.

Old-Age Diminishments

Marja Hilfiker

March 8, 2020

Texts: Genesis 12:1-7
           John 3:1-17

There is a specific mention in the Genesis story that Abram was 75 years old when he responded to God’s call to leave Haran where his father had been buried.  It was clearly unusual for an elderly patriarch to uproot his extended family and take off for a destination 500 miles away. 

I have been trying to picture how God talked to Abram.  His conviction that God was calling him probably grew over a period of time.  Life in Haran may have been difficult because one of the meanings of the Hebrew word haran is “parched.”  Earlier, Abram’s father had actually planned to move his people to Canaan, but for some reason he had stopped at the city of Haran, which is now in modern Turkey.  It seems likely that Abram would have heard God calling him to complete his father’s journey to Canaan while he still had some strength left.  Canaan was also on a trade route and known as a more fertile area.   Abram was buoyed by God’s promises of an amazing legacy, “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you… and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” He knew he had to go.

Download mp3 audio of Marja's teaching

Planting, Watering, and Tending for Life and Growth from God

Emily (Owsley) Everhope

February 16, 2020

The lectionary scriptures for today make me grateful to live under the ‘New Testament’ way of faith — sort of.  There is much focus on rule-following, life-and-death, and not-messing-up from the Old Testament passages, along with some compelling symbolism and imagery around land, fire, and water.

The gospel message this week is a tough one for me, where Jesus sets the bar even higher for how we should behave and the lengths we should be willing to go to keep ourselves in line —   like getting rid of body parts that cause us to stumble and really harsh rules around marriage and divorce — so I’m not going there this morning…

Download mp3 audio of Emily's teaching

The Grace of Salt and Light

Kip Dooley

February 9, 2020
 [Special thanks to Kent Beduhn for ideas, editing, and fellowship]

I came to Church of the Saviour and 8th Day in a way that seems both totally by chance and by design. For about six years I had been searching for a church and a community I could call home. I was looking for a denomination that offered both the structures of tradition, that would help connect me with my Irish Catholic ancestry, and the openness and flexibility that I needed, as a person who had experienced God in many forms, through things like Yoga and Zen meditation.

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Micah and anti-racism

Karen and Steve Mohr

February 2, 2020

Here are the notes from Steve's portion of the sharing:

Welcome to Black History month ... black history... or as our anti-racism group likes to say: -- “history.” White supremacists like to think black history began with slavery. This history is the forgotten ignored stolen forbidden history. This true history is removed from the schools and history books to make way for propaganda. The propaganda has said that black people are sexual perverts and thieves. The only thing they're good at is entertaining. They're also lazy even though they were the back bone of the development of the American economic superpower.

Download mp3 audio of Karen and Steve's teaching

Love is a Decision

Kent Beduhn

Texts: Matthew 1:18-25;  Romans 1:1-7

“Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” one of my favorite childhood hymns, would always move me deeply.  “Begotten,” what is begot? I actually looked it up: it’s bringing into being, birthing, it’s creating.  The participle form is begetting.  We do a lot of begetting in this congregation, a lot of creating of new things.   Love—if we’re thinking about love today—may be the Presence, the beginning, middle & end to our entire Christian Story.   So, where does an experience of God’s love, as this chant evokes, from the 4th Century, come from?  Can we grow in understanding the origin and essence of God’s love in us, in and among us? 

The kind of awe, mystery and opening of my heart that that particular chant evokes is something I felt as a child—not even understanding the words entirely.   I still feel chills every year, up and down my spine, whenever we sing that.  I don’t understand why.  

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