The Transfiguration Text from Luke.  I felt a number of weeks ago that focusing on the valley experience was where the Holy Spirit was carrying me (us?).  There is a good bit of pain at this church over the recent General Conference.  I have tried the last several weeks to minimize direct discussion of General Conference, and focus more on implied elements.  This day, I felt a direct discussion was in order.  All I can tell anyone is that I agonized over what to say, and this is what God provided me.  

This is from 9:00 AM.  I may also do the 10:30 service, which was a little longer.  

First Corinthians 15 meets Luke 6 with a touch of For Every One Born, A Place at the Table.  Our choir performing this piece is shared.  

Invaluable help here from Rev. Kerry Greenhill.  Her opening prayer, Call to Worship, Confession and Pastoral Prayer were exquisite. 

I had to add the Youth Choir with their I Believe by Mark Miller.  A great piece and something they do quite well.   

I confess that General Conference 2019 in St. Louis was in my mind.  I don't think I mention it directly.  

The sermon starts about 11:30 or so and goes to 38:00 or so.  A little longer than is my norm.  Kerry's Litany of Commitment wraps up the Sermon.  

The various scriptures for this Sunday are HERE.  The sermon is from the Luke with touches from the Psalm and the (unread) Jeremiah.  

I wonder if the title doesn't give the big idea to us:  "Blessed to be a Blessing."  

Job 23 ... I like Job.  Not easy to preach from but I do think it speaks to us in our humanness.  

James 5:13-20

Sunday Five of Five Straight RCL Sundays on James

An attempt to put a bow on James and our Culture of Growth Idea ... 

¹³ Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, ²⁰ you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

This is Acts 10 where Peter is surprised by what God is calling him to do, set aside almost everything he has previously known.  What is it that we have previously held as true and God has surprised us with what we need to do?  

This was a look at Fear of the Other.  Connect with each other.  Quite a bit of reference back to the music we sang this day.  The reprise I used was a little play off an acronym of FEAR -- Face Everything and Rise with some words from Dr. King on moving from fear to knowing and meeting.

Question is "how often do we let our fear of the stranger drive us to not connect."

Some continuation of the previous week's theme of connectedness, but here the connectedness is getting past the dikes that hold us in our own flood of fear of the other.  Dikes of courage (among other things) are needed (a quote i thought about using, but didn't.)

I am currently listening to Isaac Asimov Robots of Dawn and wonder how much of this might be helpful ... if you are not familiar with the book, do not worry.  If you are, the conversation Daneel and Elijah in Chapter 2 is what I am thinking.  Elijah has to see Robots differently on Aurora than on Earth.  On Earth, they are an object of scorn and subservience.  On Aurora (a fictitious planet) they are near equals, if not precisely equals.  Elijah has to be taught this, as it does not come naturaly to him.  Yes? 

Quotes from Dr. King: 

• "People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other."
• "We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear."

― Martin Luther King Jr.

Question is "what keeps you from getting connected with others?"

But two prong:  we ourselves must open ourselves up to others but others must also look at us and be willing to attempt to connect with us.  Not an either/or but both/and. 

Music focusing on community (invite the stranger) but also recognizing the need for solitude.  Mixed. A balance.  Not exclusively hang out with others all day/every day.  We need to be together, in fact, we are made to be in community but on the other hand, it is natural, and biblical to seek moments alone. 

This is my Christmas Eve reflection.  Bonhoeffer meets Ebenezer Scrooge with a little help from other sources.  

The Reverend Mario Alejandre returning to Hilltop to close out our Stewardship Campaign for 2017.  Mario is a Lutheran who sounds like a Methodist.  Gifted.  Truly.