As we light the fourth Advent candle and head into the last few days before Christmas, Pastor Jeffrey explores the role of this season as a time when our “real” world and the spiritual realm beyond are especially close. From the many biblical visitations around the first Christmas to our personal experience of feeling the…
The third Advent candle is the candle of Love. In today’s sermon, Pastor Jeffrey focuses on the least visible of the central Advent players: Joseph. His simple acceptance of Mary’s unique blessing was a supreme act of love, with or without the angel’s help. And, perhaps more meaningful for us today, Joseph models the fact…
Advent is about hope and preparation. In this sermon, Pastor Jeffrey suggests that the stress of our crazy, sad year of Covid may have conditioned us to understand better than ever before how the Israelites felt when John the Baptist told them to prepare for Earth-shattering change. This service also includes our monthly do-it-yourself Communion.
Today is the Church’s New Year’s Day: the First Sunday of Advent. It also is the first anniversary of Pastor Jeffrey’s starting his ministry with us. (The official term for his position is our “settled” Pastor, but it’s hard to use that descriptor for anything in this crazy year.) On this double anniversary, Jeffrey reminds…
Pastor Jeffrey continues his discussion of stewardship with the true story of how a little girl’s gift of 57 pennies in Philadelphia back in 1895 sparked the creation of institutions that today impact the lives of millions . . .including Jeffrey’s own family.
For stewardship Sunday, Pastor Jeffrey re-visits a few of the many references to money in scripture as well as some of the realities of keeping the lights on in our little church in the age of Covid. The truth running through it all is that putting your treasure into something bigger than yourself is the…
All Saint’s Day, Halloween, The Day of the Dead, When the Saint’s Come Marching In. They all celebrate an essence of goodness within us that lives on in the hearts of others after we’re gone. In today’s service, Pastor Jeffrey explores this idea in both the larger, public sense and our private awareness of the…
“Don’t start what you can’t finish” is advice we all got as children (often from someone bigger and tougher than ourselves.) However, in this week’s sermon, Pastor Jeffrey notes that most of humanity’s great accomplishments trace to people with the vision and courage to start something bigger than themselves – – something they knew they…
Traditionally, this is an annual outdoor service at FCCSR with pets and companion animals in attendance. In this year’s Covid world, that’s not possible, but the spirit is real, and the video is full of pictures of lovable critters from blessings services, past and present, around the world.
For World Communion Sunday Pastor Jeffrey focused on the uniquely powerful role of a shared meal throughout all human culture, both religious and secular. Sharing food . . . and recognizing the larger meanings of that act . . . defines our humanity.