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The Good News isn’t just for Sundays. |
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Sunday, Christmas Eve
12/24/23 The Light of Christ The Rev. Christina Miller helps us welcome Christ into the world, and asks us to see ourselves in Christ’s light: “…the truth is that you do belong here, and it is worth risking everything to bring your unique and particular light of Christ into the world.” Read here. |
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Sunday, Advent 4 NO RECORDING IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS SERMON. |
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A Festival of Lessons & Carols
12/17/23 A Vulnerable Baby The Rev. Dr. Mark Hargreaves reflects on how Jesus came into the world, and asks “how does that make us feel that God has come as a vulnerable baby?” Read here. |
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Sunday, Advent 3
12/17/23 Advent Focus The Rev. Christina Miller talks about how “In the winter Advent months our focus can shift to taking care of ourselves, souls, and bodies so that we can shine more brightly and bring Christ more fully into the world through our own divine embodiment.” Read here. |
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Sunday, Advent 2
12/10/23 Advent Waiting Our culture can’t stand having to wait for anything. But Advent turns waiting on its ear. On this second week of Advent, The Rev. Dr. Mark Hargreaves resets our frame of reference to waiting for the Kingdom of God asking, “How do our lives look from the perspective of the coming kingdom?” Read here. |
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Sunday, Advent 1
12/3/23 Keeping Watch As La Jolla’s Christmas parade gets underway outside, inside the Rev. Mark Hargreaves sets a different tone for Advent in preparation for Jesus’ return in glory: “Let’s wake up from our materialist slumber. Let’s not forget that another day is coming.” Read here. |
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Sunday, Christ the King
11/26/23 False Shepherds In our reading for the day, Ezekiel describes God, the True Shepherd. But for us, false shepherds can abound in this life. In her sermon, the Rev. Christina Miller gives us four clear strategies for ascertaining what is true shepherding, and what is false. Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 25
11/19/23 Be Surprised in Advent Preparing for Advent in a couple of weeks, The Rev. Mark Hargreaves visits the parable of the talents and comes up with what you may find as a surprising take. He encourages us to “…question [our] assumptions, to be prepared to see another viewpoint, to be open to seeing how something sounds from someone else’s point of view…” Read here. |
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Sunday, Pentecost 24
11/12/23 Peace and Harmony At these times of great trouble in our world The Rev. Mark Hargreaves turns to our readings for the day to assure us “One day, God’s kingdom where peace and justice will reign, will be established. There will be a banquet when all God’s people sit down together in peace and harmony.” Read here. |
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Sunday All Saints
11/5/23 All Saints Sunday Recognizing all the saints in her and our lives, the suffering today in the Middle East, and our gospel reading of the Beatitudes, The Rev. Christina Miller prays “…may you know that you are not alone in any of your grief, or at any point on your pilgrim’s journey.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 22
10/29/23 True Contentment The Rev. Dr. Mark Hargreaves finishes his six week series on St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians by speaking on the nature of true contentment and its relationship with gratitude, the theme of our current stewardship campaign. Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 21
10/22/23 Joyful Giving Kicking off our annual stewardship season The Rev. Mark Hargreaves challenged us to review the top five values we wrote down last week, and assign to each of them the amount of time and money we put toward them. He also asked that we approach stewardship with a sense of gratitude: “Who or what is standing guard over our heart and mind?” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 20
10/15/23 Your Values The Rev. Mark Hargreaves examines St. Paul’s values, how St. Paul came by them, and how we might learn from him: “I encourage you this week to take five minutes to list your top five values, and then to ask yourself, are those the top five values that I’d really want to be my top five values … and am I living out these values?” Read here. |
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Sunday, Pentecost 19
10/8/23 Growing Up Spiritually On St. Francis Day The Rev. Christina Miller talks about St. Francis’ spiritual journey, how he came to his calling, and how we might learn from him in relation to our own spiritual journeys. Read here |
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SundayPentecost 18
10/1/23 “Soli Deo Gloria” On the occasion of the dedication of our new organ, The Rev. Mark Hargreaves examines the hows and whys of giving praise: “This great instrument is primarily here to support us, the congregation, in our singing and worship of God.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 17
9/24/23 Centering Prayer The Rev. Christina Miller examines St. Paul’s ability to find Joy in prison, relating it directly to our practice of centering prayer: “When you quietly enter into your own inner room, you too will come face to face with Christ’s light. You will touch and see your own indwelling divinity, and you will know who you really are, perhaps for the first time.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 16
9/17/23 Finding Joy Saint Paul was writing to the church in Philippi from prison, yet he was filled with joy. What is this joy that was able to transcend his “now”? Reverend Mark Hargreaves posits that we can indeed “…know God’s joy as we press on to the prize that lies before us.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 15
9/10/23 Love and Praise! The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves searched far and wide for a “rallying cry” fit for Rally Sunday’s sermon. He found it naturally in both our gospel and Psalm set for the day: Love and Praise! Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 14
9/3/23 The Burning Bush The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves speaks to Moses’ enigmatic encounter with God and wonders what the equivalent of the burning bush would be in our own lives? Through it we learn “God remembers, God acts, God reveals, and God is with us.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 13
8/27/23 Who Do You Say? In her first sermon to us following her ordination to the priesthood The Rev’d Christina Miller asks us to consider Jesus’ question to Peter “Who do you say that I am?” It’s a loaded question: “… this question can’t just be answered individually because we need the entire diverse body of Christ to fully know who Jesus is.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 12
8/20/23 How to Live The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves takes St. Luke’s rich gospel on “how to live” (Luke 6:27-38) and relates it to our Old Testament Genesis story of Joseph and his brothers in Egypt: “He did good to those who hated him and he practiced the art of forgiveness. May we be given the grace to live the same way.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 11
8/13/23 Faith The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves uses St. Peter’s attempt to walk on water to talk to us about faith, where it comes from and what it’s comprised of. Read here |
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Transfiguration Sunday
8/6/23 Seeing His Glory At the Transfiguration, Jesus wasn’t changed, it was the disciples who were changed. They were now able to see His glory. The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves asks that we “…strive to be attentive to the God made known in Jesus who dwells by His spirit within us.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 9
7/30/23 Most powerful force The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves notes the penchant these days for making “Top Ten” lists of almost anything, but in his book, God’s love is the universe’s most powerful force, and always at the top of any list of any importance. St. Paul would agree! Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 8
7/23/23 The Lord In This Place On St. James Day the Rev’d Christina Miller connects the journeys of Jacob, Jesus, and James, and assures us on our earthly pilgrimage that “…God is in you, and God is being made known to you in all of creation.” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 7
7/16/23 Soils of the Heart The Rev’d Mark Hargreaves uses our New Testament readings to examine how seeds of faith can fall onto the soils of the heart. He asks “What type of soil is your heart most like today?” Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 6
7/9/23 Your Time of Singing The Rev’d Christina Miller speaks to us of her favorite love story in the Bible, that of Isaac and Rebekah, and invites us to let that love sing in our own hearts and lives. Read here. |
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Sunday Pentecost 5
7/2/23 Here I Am Continuing his series on Abraham, the Rev’d Dr. Mark Hargreaves parses the particularly terrifying passage of the sacrifice of Isaac. How do you deal with it? Are you a minimizer, a teacher, or a solver? Read here. |
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