Sunday, Pentecost 5
6/27/21
God gets it
Our lessons this Sunday deal with losses of various kinds. At a time when we are counting the losses we’ve experienced during the pandemic, the Rev. D. Rebecca Dinovo assures us we are not alone: “No one can fully understand the losses that you face. Loss itself, like grief, can be isolating because no one else completely gets it. But God does.”
Read now.
 
 
Sunday, Pentecost 4
6/20/21
Fighting Goliaths
Today we heard the story of David and Goliath and how one smooth stone did the trick. The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves discusses the difference between foolish naivete and the strength that can be gained by faith in God. As we face our own Goliaths he urges us “to do what we can with the skills that we’ve been given, and the resources at our disposal, and
trust God to do the rest.” Read now.
 
 
Sunday, Pentecost 3
6/13/21
Graduation Day
On a day recognizing our new graduates the Rev’d Mark Hargreaves continues to explore St. Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, where St. Paul with confidence, purpose, and love is asking his friends to pay more attention to inner nature than outward appearances. If you will do that Fr. Mark believes you can make
“every day…a graduation day for
our soul.” Read now.
 
 
Sunday, Pentecost 2
6/6/21
Hold On To Your Fork
As we slowly begin to emerge from pandemic and start to face a whole new set of decisions, the Rev’d Mark Hargreaves says “We’d be better off following St. Paul’s lead and ensuring that our inner nature is being renewed, day by day. We can choose to invest in the spiritual realm and live our lives from the perspective of eternity.” The best is yet
to come! Read now.
 
 
Trinity Sunday
5/30/21
Send Me!
On this Trinity Sunday the Rev’d D. Rebecca Dinovo plumbs the prophet Isaiah’s plaintive “Woe is me!” passage to demonstrate how our triune God gives us the tools to lift ourselves out of that thinking with “…new knowledge to become the impetus that launches one into healing and reconciliation with God, one’s self, and others.”
Read now.
 
 
Sunday, Pentecost
5/23/21
Your Sunbeam
On the original Day of Pentecost the disciples were all together in a house, much as we have been throughout the whole pandemic. But it doesn’t matter where we are, God’s Holy Spirit can find us now as it did the disciples then. The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves describes how 4th century theologian Basil the Great described the Holy Spirit as a sunbeam reaching
out to each of us, individually. Fr. Mark asks us to “Take it from St. Basil, Jesus really does want you for a sunbeam.”
Read now.
 
 
Sunday, Ascension
5/16/21
Absence and Presence
On Ascension Sunday, as we slowly start to emerge from a pandemic which has seen so many absences and losses, the Rev’d Mark Hargreaves asks what we want to be present in our lives going forward, noting “The presence of the spirit of Jesus is still active and still transforming his disciples.”
Read now.
 
 
Sunday, Easter 6
5/9/21
Be a Mom
On this Mother’s Day the Rev’d D. Rebecca Dinovo offers that we can take a cue from mothers everywhere “on how all of us are called to be mothers in the sense that as Christians, we’re all called to love and care for others.” She shows how we are all able to love others more deeply than we think we can.
Read now.
 
 
Sunday, Easter 5
5/2/21
Encounters with Christ
In his final sermon on the resurrection this Easter season the Rev’d Mark Hargreaves looks at some different instances of Jesus appearing to his disciples, and uses those as a window to how we might encounter Jesus through the Holy Spirit: “We must be ready to hear that voice, which so often gets lost in the busy-ness, and we should be prepared to
respond.” Read now.
 
 
Sunday, Easter 4
4/25/21
Our Coronacoaster Journey
Drawing parallels between the emotions we experience in the current pandemic
and the roller coaster of emotions Jesus’ disciples experienced after the
resurrection, the Rev’d Mark Hargreaves takes us on a journey down the road
to Emmaus where fear will turn to joy and celebration. How does their
experience inform your spiritual
journey? Read now.
 
 
Sunday Easter 3
4/18/21
Touch Me
“Touch me and see”, Jesus said. Touch was an integral part of Jesus’ ministry, and is an ever present aspect of how we communicate today. The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves examines this to help us visualize what the resurrected life, Jesus’ as well as ours, looks and feels like.
Read now.
 
 
Sunday Easter 2 
4/11/21
Your Resurrection Too!
Amid pandemic despair it’s natural to feel like a “Doubting Thomas.” But we are starting to see hopeful signs, and coincident with Easter, the Rev’d D. Rebecca Dinovo reminds us that Easter’s resurrection story is not just about Jesus, it’s about you too, and “…is able to lift you from doubt to faith and bring about
incredible transformation in your life.” Read now.
 
 
Easter Sunday
4/4/21
Where Does Our Story End?
Our gospel reading for the day leaves our friends at the tomb afraid. But that’s far from the end of the story. The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves picks it up there, and leads into the knowledge that “…our story ends with the hope of heaven. The victory of Jesus over sin and death can be our victory too.”
Read now.
 
 
Good Friday
4/2/21
Passive, Excruciating, Forsaken
The pandemic has given us new lenses through which to watch again Christ’s journey to the cross. Through them the Rev’d Mark Hargreaves makes some observations he hadn’t previously considered, concluding: “There is no horror that we might face, that God in Christ has not already tasted.”
Read now.
 
 
Maundy Thursday
4/1/21
Learning By Doing
Jesus didn’t just give us a mandate, he showed us the way by “doing”. The Rev’d D. Rebecca Dinovo takes us now to the Last Supper and asks us to consider “How would Jesus have me love and serve my neighbors?” Read now.