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This Sunday launches my fall preaching theme of "Abide: Lessons from the Vineyard." On my sabbatical, I spent a lot of time in vineyards and with winemakers, and I'm excited to share some of what I learned as we explore Jesus' words to his disciples in John 15, "I am the vine, my Father is the vineyard keeper." This week we'll explore this image of God as a farmer and the tender care with which God tends our souls.

I am very excited to welcome back our beloved pastor, Jenny Warner! During service, Jenny and I will have a conversation about her sabbatical and how her experience was this summer. We will discuss some of her highlights, learnings, and hopefully, we will be able to hear about some of the adventures she went on.

Nate Milheim will be the guest preacher this Sunday and his sermon is titled, "This is the Day" and the scripture of focus is Psalm 118:21-29. In the words of the Psalmist: "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it." In the words of Mary Oliver "You have a life - just imagine that! You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another." What if each day is truly a gift from God? Let us embrace the sorrow and the joy of our wild lives, knowing that each day is pregnant with beautiful possibility to love and build a more loving world.

The sermon for this Sunday is titled, "The Word Became Flesh—Life as a New Creation" and the scriptures of focus are John 1:1-5; 9-14, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, and 2 Corinthians 5:17. The story of God, humanity, and creation does not end with Genesis. It continues into the Second Testament and we witness this story unfold with spectacular splendor in the Gospel of John. "In the beginning was the Word... And the Word became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:1; 14). The first human, Adam, became a living being; the last Adam, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, transcended the bounds of creatureliness and became a life-giving spirit and gift to the world. Through the power and revelation of Jesus Christ unto the world, the story of humanity is one that is transformed and becomes something new. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Through God's gift of Jesus Christ joining the world, the chasm of fragmented relationships between God and humanity, humanity to one another and self, and humanity and creation may be repaired, reconciled, and restored. It is only in God's enfleshed, participatory love and grace, that we may be restored, new creatures and lead as God's instruments of transformative love in the world.

This Sunday, we are fortunate to have Naomi Kinsman as our guest preacher. Naomi will be preaching a sermon titled, "Seeing in Stories", and the scripture reading will be on Mark 6:30-44. When Jesus feeds the crowd of five thousand, the miracle goes beyond provision. This is a story that invites us to see differently. Instead of snapping his fingers and solving the problem, Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “You give them something to eat.” Jesus invites his disciples not just to witness a miracle, but to roll up their sleeves and participate in the story. They’re concerned about the logistics—the people are hungry—but Jesus draws their attention not only to what is needed, but to how and why we respond. How might this familiar story invite us to step into a deeper, co-creative trust with God?

Reverend Deborah Lewis-Virges, pastor of Saint Mark AME Zion Church, will be our guest preacher and she will be delivering a sermon titled "A Message of Hope". Regardless of the current state of our country, we must always look at the big picture, what God is doing, and our own destiny in Christ. We must never lose the wonder of God’s grace and offering for a future of hope.

This Sunday will be the fifth sermon of our summer sermon series and it is titled "Creation and Labor—The Sacred Rhythm of Sabbath and Rest". Sabbath is a sacred rhythm essential to the Jewish and Christian spiritual life. In a world where our value is determined by what we do and contribute, the architecture of the Sabbath is intended for humanity to rest in the healing and transformative love of God.

The sermon titled, "Creation and Care of the Earth", will explore the origins of humanity's fraught relationship with creation and find that our role as 'rulers of creation' is better captured in our role as caretakers of the earth.

The sermon for this Sunday is titled "Creaturely Life and the Fall". In this sermon, we will uncover the meaning of what it means to be a creature and what our relationship to brokenness and sin is. By looking at Genesis 3, we will find that though humanity was made for relationship, we have experienced fracture and disconnection in our relationship with God, one another, ourselves, and creation. It is only until we see that part of our role on earth is to seek repair, reconciliation, and restoration of our broken relationships, we will continue a relational cycle of fragmentation, harm, and rupture.

What does it mean to become like a child in the eyes of God? In Matthew 18, Jesus places a child before his disciples and says, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This Sunday, Cindy Liu invites us into a deep reflection on what it means to encounter our inner child and return to a childlike posture—one of vulnerability, authenticity, and spiritual wholeness. Drawing from Scripture, her deep inner work of healing, motherhood, and her work as an Ontological Integration Life Coach, Cindy will guide us on a journey back to the very child within us whom God has never stopped seeing and loving, regardless of how old we actually are. In welcoming that child, may we once again encounter the liberating love of God. Come as you are—tender, guarded, or weary—and remember: God’s loving gaze has never left the child in you.

“The passage from Ephesians tells us we, all of us, as a people, and indeed the entire cosmos, have redemption in Jesus Christ. Despite everything we have done, we have been given a gift. How we respond to that gift is up to us. So let us consider this passage, holding in tension all the things that are true: that our political system is more precarious than we may have thought, the birds are still singing, and we woke up this morning free to come to church."

Psalm 5 invites us to rejoice, to sing for joy, even in the midst of evil, wickedness, lies, and destruction. Mary Oliver's poem, "Don't Hesitate", invites us to not be afraid when we unexpectedly encounter joy, but to jump in. Let us hold onto joy in the middle of all the chaos and evil in this world. It can be difficult for all of us to live into the idea that "the joy of the Lord is our strength" when so much of the world and the news are pushing us in other directions. What if joy is one way that we can resist all that is wrong with the world? How can we diligently pursue joy and live in joy as we journey through this wild life on earth? Join us with guest preacher Nate Millheim.

In the sermon, "The Human Creature in Relationship", we will explore what it means to be a human creature. As a creation of God, we are made in God's image and made for relationship. Yet, in an increasingly divided world, we are unaware of or have forgotten our origins, what we were made for, and that we belong to one another. In order to continue our journey along the right path, we must go backward to the beginning in order to go forward.

Last Sunday we successfully began our summer sermon series, "Origins: The Story of God, Humanity, and Creation", and located ourselves as modern readers of Genesis, a pre-scientific, ancient Far East creation narrative. This summer, as Jenny is on sabbatical, we have invited guest preachers to preach on topics outside of the summer sermon series. This upcoming Sunday, Naomi Kinsman will be preaching a sermon titled "Practicing Presence" on Exodus 3:1-12. Deep in the wilderness, Moses approaches a burning bush. In this unexpected encounter with God, he finds himself standing on holy ground. In our lives, too, sacred moments often begin with small acts of paying attention. How might God’s call meet us in our day to day lives? What doorways might open in our hearts when we dare to pause, listen, and practice presence?

Our summer series, Origins: The Story of God, Humanity, and Creation, will be focused on the book of Genesis, the remarkable story of God and creation, and humanity's role in the creation narrative. We will begin the summer series with a sermon, "The Story of Us: Reading Genesis in Context". The sermon will be about locating ourselves as readers of the Genesis text and how to begin reading it appropriately for its genre and context. By equipping ourselves with the proper interpretive lens, we will be able to access ancient scriptural knowledge and meaning for our spiritual lives in the modern world.