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News and Service Updates
Who Do People Say That I Am?
In this coming Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples: “Who do people say that I am?” We find the story in chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel, and so since Mark has sixteen chapters, it would seem fair to say that it’s a mid-course assessment kind of question. The...
Let go, let be, let come…set free
There are two “first” questions in the beginning of the Bible. One comes from God’s adversary, the serpent, who asks Eve, “Did God really say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’” And the other comes after that challenge, when God asks Adam and...
Sustaining Grace Gatherings
Last Fall and this past Spring, over 100 Grace members attended a Sustaining Grace Gathering – small social events in fellow parishioners’ homes. “Reconnect and Renew” was our Grace theme in 2022, and at these gatherings in the Fall of 2023 and the Spring of 2024 we...
Lessons From a Neglected Garden
“You’ve been talking about your garden, ever since I met you”, a Grace parishioner told me after a recent reference probably in a sermon! Well, imagine the impact of my back and forth from Northern California on the poor thing. Thistles and rogue trees love it, as I...
Civic Discourse: God Does Love Everybody
The image above is a real photo from the internet, taken in a Publix supermarket (a grocery chain in the south). I do not know this man, but his shirt is perhaps a reflection of how bad our ability to dialogue really has become in our country, so much so that it has...
Our Short and Sweet Why!
Our short and sweet why! What if I was to tell you that there are five outstanding reasons for the Church to exist? First it is to recognize that as human beings we all seek purpose and meaning, and the Church welcomes that search. Second, there’s joy in knowing that...
Sport, Spirit, and the Search for Transcendence
I am remembering why I have tried over the years to take my vacation during the Olympic Games! In the election tour for the diocese of Iowa, I even warned the people what to expect. It is amazing that we enjoyed five Olympics together. In 2012, the Olympics were in...
Love is a Mirror
Praying with Helen All This Time I was away last weekend on a retreat. It was scheduled a while back and came right on time in so many ways for me. While I wanted to be with you all here at Grace to bless our dear Helen, I needed to be away with myself even...
Of Holiness and Home: In the End…Relationships.
A Reflection on the 2024 Youth mission Trip On our second night in Parrish, after a full day of hard work followed by excellent southern barbecue at the Full Moon, we sat out in the garden under the lights (with plenty of bug spray for all...see above) and considered...
Prayer: The Ministry of Helen Christianson
"I have learned that prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine. To be made more grateful, more able to see the good in what you have been given instead of always grieving for what might have been. People who...
Freedom: Juneteenth
From an essay on The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth posted on the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture website: On the eve of January 1, 1863, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all...
Gratitude.
In addition to all the things I do at Grace, I am also a hospital chaplain. I lead groups and visit individual patients in Units 3 and 4 at the Adventist Hospital in Vallejo, where youth and children with mental health issues are patients on the ward. These are...