This was our annual “Pillow Sunday,” when FCCSR members donate a small mountain of new pillows for the clients of Homeward Bound of Marin, a local non-profit that has developed a number of successful programs for housing the homeless and equipping them with the skills to turn their lives around. This year, Mary Kay Sweeney,…
As we continue our transition back to normal services inside our sanctuary, Pastor Jeffrey turns to the Gospel story of Jesus calming the troubled waters for inspiration. (Scripture Psalm 107: 1-3, 23-32; Mark 4:35-41)
This was a very special Sunday: After 16 months of video services, Zoom meetings and outdoor services, we were finally able to worship together again in our modest, but much-loved sanctuary. To mark the occasion, Pastor Jeffrey preached a wide ranging sermon on homecoming, from Jesus’ spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to return to his home in…
Michael Meehan and his partner Jamie Cline are long-time members of FCCSR, and they have raised their four terrific kids from elementary school to college as part of our family. In this sermon, Michael traces a straight line between the Pride movement’s message of all-inclusive acceptance and the same message in scripture. (Luke 10:25-37; Galatians…
For Fathers Day, Pastor Jeffrey looks at the relationship between the three things that – linked together – have been the most important influences in his life. In many ways, baseball was a primer for life for me — spirituality 101 — and it all took place on the field – or sometimes in our…
Our guest preacher this Sunday, Cassie Carroll, recently graduated from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and has been certified by the Presbyterian Church as a candidate for her first call. In this sermon, she finds Jesus’ familiar lesson comparing little children and rich men as candidates for Heaven (Mark 10:13–23) a fitting metaphor…
Pastor Jeffrey looks at several Bible passages where Jesus discusses the nature of prayer, especially the story of the tax collector (in Luke 18:9-14) desperately praying for God’s absolution. Jeffrey suggests that this kind of openness, this reaching out – perhaps without even saying a word – is the essence of prayer. We are living…
For Memorial Day, Pastor Jeffrey explored the meaning of memorials, from the death of Moses to today. The conclusion: remembering isn’t good manners or something ‘nice.” Remembering is an integral, essential part of being human and alive. Only that can be really yours which is another’s, for only what you have given, be it only…
For Pentecost Sunday, the Church’s Birthday, Pastor Jeffrey re-visits that first congregation being touched by tongues of fire, but then he turns to the bigger question: where in today’s world is that kind of inspired fire needed? How can we summon, personally, the kind of energy and passion that built the early church. May God…
In this very personal sermon, Pastor Jeffrey explores those moments when we feel much closer to the Divine. Often, they are physical settings that touch our souls – in Jeffrey’s case the retreat center on the Scottish island of Iona. With more experience, however, we learn that this unique experience is driven more by what’s…