First Sunday after the Epiphany by The Rev. Martin Elfert

Lessons: Genesis 1:1-5 Acts 19:1-7 Mark 1:4-11 Psalm 29 This is the very beginning of the Gospel of Mark – the shortest of the Gospels, the oldest, the one written in the roughest Greek, and the one told with the most urgent excitement. Mark tells us the good news like an out of breath childContinueContinue reading “First Sunday after the Epiphany by The Rev. Martin Elfert”

First Sunday after Christmas by Matthew David Morris

Lessons: Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7 John 1:1-18 Psalm 147   Why does it matter? Why does the story of Christmas matter? If you braved the ice for the late service on Christmas Eve, you may have heard Fr. Martin pose a similar question. I, myself, did not make that treacherous drive through the icyContinueContinue reading “First Sunday after Christmas by Matthew David Morris”

Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve by The Rev. Martin Elfert

Lessons: Isaiah 52:7-10 Hebrews 1:1-12 John 1:1-14 Psalm 98   So. It is the end of 2017. We are in the Pacific Northwest. This is a time and place in which many of us are indifferent to church or ambivalent about church or allergic to church. And yet it is Christmas Eve and we areContinueContinue reading “Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve by The Rev. Martin Elfert”

Third Sunday of Advent with Christmas Pageant by The Rev. Martin Elfert

Lessons: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8,19-28 Psalm 126 Rejoice always, Pray without ceasing. I grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, in that part of the world that is sometimes called Cascadia and sometimes called the Pacific Northwest. (The latter name is testament to the gravitational pull that the United States exerts onContinueContinue reading “Third Sunday of Advent with Christmas Pageant by The Rev. Martin Elfert”

Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King by The Rev. Martin Elfert

Lessons: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 Psalm 95:1-7a Ephesians 1:15-23 Matthew 25:31-46 We have just heard what Paul Nuechterlein calls “The smallest huge translation mistake in the Bible.” In the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the one that we read together on Sundays, we hear: All the nations will be gathered before him, and heContinueContinue reading “Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King by The Rev. Martin Elfert”

Thanksgiving Service by Matthew David Morris

Lessons: Deuteronomy 8:7-18 Psalm 65 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 Luke 17:11-19 I begin this homily by giving honor to the Chinook, Clatskanie, Cowlitz Kalapuya, Sillamook, Siletz, and Yakama people, and to the many other tribes and bands of First Nations people whose original lands we occupy in Oregon. Their stories and histories are a part ofContinueContinue reading “Thanksgiving Service by Matthew David Morris”

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost by The Rev. Martin Elfert

Lessons: Amos 5:18-24 Psalm 70 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Matthew 25:1-13   * Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream. We are gathering this morning in the wake of a mass shooting in our country. It is America. It’s 2017. And so these are words that I could reasonably use toContinueContinue reading “Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost by The Rev. Martin Elfert”

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