Walking The Earth

Walking is an act of disconnecting and reconnecting. As we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we remember the walks of the civil rights movement - they walked to disconnect us from a system that was designed to keep one part of us separated from another.  They disconnected themselves from thoughts of their own safety, because many of them were beaten and some of them died.  

They walked disconnected from a destination but reconnected to a purpose.  

They reconnected to each other and found courage in struggling together.  They reconnected to a sense of dignity and worth as people created in God’s image. And they walked with God, the God who executes justice for the orphan and the widow.  The God who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. The God who requires of us that we walk in those ways.

Waking Up To The Presence Of God

If I could summarize what the spiritual life is, I would say it is learning to see. It is earning to see the holy in the ordinary - learning to see that everything is spiritual.

The Bible is a collection of stories, poems, letters, written by people who experienced God, people who saw God and were so transformed by what they saw that they wrote about it, they passed it on to help generations that followed to see God too, to learn how to see God’s presence in our world, in our lives every moment.

Because the Biblical witness and experience and reason all point to the truth that everything is sacred and that our journey towards becoming our best selves is really about learning to see the holy everywhere. Learning to see.

Your Light Has Come

The birth of Christ is the light that has come into the world not just for the people of Israel but for the whole world, and the three kings represent that, they are foreigners from a foreign land who see the light and receive the light and pay homage to the light, too.

This light that has come into the world, this light that has cut through the darkness, is for everyone. This new day, this new dawn that marks the beginning of the end for the dark things of this world is for everyone. Salvation is for everyone.

Magnify The Lord

May you dare to believe that you are capable of magnifying the Lord and may you say: Here I am: here is my body, here is my mind, here is my present, here is my future, here is my soul, it is yours. Let me be exalted for you or brought low for you. Let me magnify your name.

Change Your Mind

Change Your Mind

Have you ever made a decision that led you off the path? Ever made a mistake that led you off the path? Ever had a feeling you were going the wrong way but you’ve been too stubborn, too hard-headed, to stop? And there is this moment when you go: oh this isn’t good. This isn’t right. I don’t have peace. I don’t have contentment. I’m not experiencing joy. You come to see this isn’t the life you were meant to live, you are off the path.

The Bible reveals this truth about the human experience--that we are good, and we start out on this path--but we tend to wander from it - we are prone to wander off the path or we think we know a shortcut or know better. Whatever the case, we end up going the wrong direction but it doesn’t change our inherent goodness, we are still good. We just are not walking in the way that leads to life and God wants that for us. God wants us to thrive. So God does everything in God’s power to help us to return.

Sermon Media:

Click Here to Watch Video From Sermon

Picture from Pastor Blair’s Hike:

Choir Christmas Cantata

On December 9, 2018 the Arapaho United Methodist Church Choir alongside the Philharmonic Orchestra of Texas presented "The Many Moods of Christmas" - a collection of traditional Christmas songs arranged by Robert Shaw and divided into 4 suites. You will also hear testimonies from Sungmoon Lee, Kasey Cummings and Eric Snyder.

Stand and Lift Up Your Heads

There are forces in this world that want us to stay numb and inside our houses wrapped in warm laundry and eating bread. There are forces in this world that would rather us not be woke.

No. We are woke because of Christ. Because the Christ in you and the Christ in me stands up in the face of fear, and in the face of suffering, and in the face of dehumanization and says: I will not look away, I will not back down, I will not sit down, I will not let it go...not until the poor have good news and the hungry are fed and the sick are cared for and the stranger is welcomed.

click here to watch the video used during the sermon

Agreement Verses Change

Has this ever happened to you? You see a problem that needs to be solved but you can’t solve it by yourself? So you let your manager know and they agree but then you wait for change? And you wait and wait and wait. You have gotten agreement but what you really wanted was change. In our scripture today James is saying that if you agree on who Jesus is then there will be a change.

The Good Samaritan

There's a great saying from author Anne Lamott that you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.In today’s text we read about when a lawyer asks Jesus a question. This lawyer, is really good. He knows the law.  And when Jesus asks him what the law says, he says: 

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself." 

And Jesus begins his response with…

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead."

Covered By Grace

You are covered…do you know that you are covered…maybe you don’t believe you are covered, like maybe you feel like you’ve done something along the way and your coverage got dropped…

 No, no you’re still covered. So you messed up, so you think you aren’t worthy of coverage… maybe you’ve forgotten that this isn’t a divine points game, this isn’t about earning or achieving, I mean the rest of the world is into that but God isn’t into that…and we know that because of Christ crucified, because through him, success is redefined, weak is the new strong…the way up is the way down…

Watch the clip used in the service below

The Radical Thing About This Table

We may disagree on the issues, we may have conflict with one another, but we never ever stop seeing one another as brothers and sisters.

The pull of tribalism is strong now...it is strong and it is trying to influence us to treat one another as less than human beings, it is trying to get us to name call and to have closed minds and mean spirits…but it is no match for the power of Christ that is present at this table and in this bread and cup that compels us to love our neighbor.

Eager To Give

Talk about what money you have, learn about where it is and where it is, your 401ks and your IRAs, and your Roth IRAs, and your debt, and track your spending and your saving, because if you don't each know what you have and where you are spending it and why, if you don't talk about it, money will be your master, instead of your servant. 

Money will possess you--I am being intentional with that weighty word--Money has this incredibly power, and if you don't think about it and talk about it, you'll argue about it, you'll fight about it, it will come between you, it will rule over you, yes your relationship with money, your attachment to money, can take over your marriage, it can take over your life.

God knows the power money can have in our lives, I think this is why Jesus talks so much about money, teaches about money, invites us to see money in a different way: God knows we human beings struggle with consumerism. 

All In

Pastor Blair woke up with laryngitis on Sunday morning, so she reworked her sermon. In addition to her raspy voice, you'll hear testimonies from Pastor David and Kelly Carpenter and have time to reflect on your own response to the question: 'What would going on 'all in' with Jesus look like in my life?'

What Does It Mean To Follow Jesus?

People in churches ask all kinds of questions. In our reading we hear James and John asking Jesus something we may ask. If we are disciples and if we truly want to follow Jesus, shouldn’t we be asking different kinds of questions? In today’s sermon, guest speaker Rev. Hugo Magallanes, helps us learn to ask questions that are less self-centered and lead us to a life of service and community.

Don't Settle

Whatever it is in your life that is coming in at you from all sides, do not settle in...stand in and stand up! God's grace is here today for you: receive it, believe it, experience it, bask in it, walk in it, run it it, you are made for connection, you are made for community, you are made for this moment, you are made to be a blessing.

Move

Move

There is always some distance between where we are and where God wants us to be. It is always a climb from where we are to where God wants us to be but the view God wants to show us, it is so so good, so spectacular.

Our tradition calls this journey from where we are to where God wants us to be sanctification. God is calling us to become more like Christ. In order to move from here to there we have to be willing to move from what we know. We have to move from the comfortable, the familiar, the way we have always done things, the person we have always been, we have to move from our plans, our trajectory, our vision and go where God is calling us to go - which is up the mountain.

But It Is Also True That Love Never Ends

It is true that you are going to die. But it is also true that Love conquers death. There is this part of you deep within that has this sense, this intuition, this understanding that you are connected to the Source of Life and that this connection can never be broken. Your connection to the Source of Life can never be lost. Your desire for the life that you have - this desire to live forever is there because it is meant to be there, because you are made for eternal life.

Remember Who You Are

Do you know that this place at this table is for you? Do you know that it has always been set for you, do you know that you belong here, that you are accepted here, that you are needed here, do you know God wants you at this table, needs you at this table, made you for this table, yes you are made to be one with God and to participate in the work of God in the world.

Rublev’s Icon - Trinity

What Is Your Story?

What is your story?  Or better yet: What is the story you are telling yourself about yourself?  It is not too much to say that the story you are telling yourself about yourself has the power to change your life for better or worse.

If your story is preventing you from being your true self, from giving the gifts you have been given to make the world a bit better, you are living out of a story that is not the gospel story.

From The Bible On Broadway Worship Series - Les Misérables

What on earth are you doing?

So here we are, placed in the middle of a garden we didn’t plant and called to till and keep it. The word is stewardship and our stewardship doesn’t always live up to its promise. We haven’t contributed to the thriving of creation, which includes the thriving of the people around us. What do we do?

We need to remember what stewardship means.  It’s more than the time of year when the church asks for your financial support.  It’s about being responsible with something that ultimately belongs to someone else.  We do not live in our creation, we live in God’s creation. We are using it now and will hand it off to the next generation.  It’s about remembering Jesus’s words to seek first the kingdom of God and the rest will be given to us as well.