"God is Holding Your Life"
Worship Series for the Season after Epiphany
Selah, is a word found throughout the Psalms. Most experts on the Bible are not sure what it means. The best theory is that selah marks a pause in the singing of the Psalms. A time, perhaps to listen for the Holy Spirit or take a breath.
This is what we will be doing in this season after Christmas, after Epiphany when the Magi finally arrive with their gifts and time of devotion. Instead, of rushing from the manger and throwing ourselves toward our hopes for a return to "normal", we will continue to live into the simplified life we witnessed on Christmas Eve. Not palaces or important people and perfectly planned events, just a baby born for us into the ordinary lives of a Palestinian family, trying to live according to customs and laws of their times. In the midst of challenges and an unclear future, they also found joy. The way we all do.
Over the centuries, ordinary people of faith expressed these experiences and how they sense God's presence in their midst, through praying and singing the Psalms. For the next 7 weeks, this is where we will go to remember all God has done for us and allow the Holy Spirit to continue to reveal the way God is holding us and guiding us through it all. A way into the new year, we can count on and sing about with those who have gone before us.
This is what we will be doing in this season after Christmas, after Epiphany when the Magi finally arrive with their gifts and time of devotion. Instead, of rushing from the manger and throwing ourselves toward our hopes for a return to "normal", we will continue to live into the simplified life we witnessed on Christmas Eve. Not palaces or important people and perfectly planned events, just a baby born for us into the ordinary lives of a Palestinian family, trying to live according to customs and laws of their times. In the midst of challenges and an unclear future, they also found joy. The way we all do.
Over the centuries, ordinary people of faith expressed these experiences and how they sense God's presence in their midst, through praying and singing the Psalms. For the next 7 weeks, this is where we will go to remember all God has done for us and allow the Holy Spirit to continue to reveal the way God is holding us and guiding us through it all. A way into the new year, we can count on and sing about with those who have gone before us.
This hand drawing can be printed for your prayer petitions or coloring
as you reflect upon God's Word today.
as you reflect upon God's Word today.
"In God Alone" - Week 4
January 24, 2021
"Where Can I Go?" - Week 3
January 17, 2021
“Awe and Wonder” - Week 2
January 10, 2021
"These Lives Are Precious" - Week 1
January 3, 2021
Christmas I - December 27, 2020
"Believe This: The Time Has Come"
Christmas Eve/Day 2020
This wouldn't be a true 2020 Christmas Eve without technical difficulties. Pastor Steve and Pastor Lori hope you will hear the true meaning of Christmas as only the telling from Luke 2:1-20 can do. Thank you to all the members, who helped share this Good News and offered images to help us remember what God - Emmanuel - with us has done and will continue to do, to bring peace on earth as it is in heaven. Merry Christmas!
Advent 4 - December 20, 2020
"I Believe in the Light": Illuminating Peace"
Advent 3 - December 13, 2020
"I Believe in God: Ode to Joy"
Advent 2 - December 6, 2020
"I Believe in Love: Daring Right Relationship"
Advent 1 - November 29, 2020
"I Believe in the Sun: Hope for Tomorrow"
Season after Pentecost - A Time for Contemplative Action
Compassion and Justice for All God has Made
Service of Thanksgiving and Praise
Join congregations from across the Northwest Intermountain Synod of the ELCA for worship and an opportunity to give thanks for all we are and all God continues to give us yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!
November 22, 2020
"Christ the King Sunday"
November 15, 2020
"Enter Into the Joy of the Lord"
November 8, 2020
"Whom are You Waiting For?
November 1, 2020
All Saints Sunday
This festival Sunday in the life of the church, remembers and gives thanks for the identity God gives us through the waters of Baptism; beloved, saints of God. Yes, we do recognize those people of faith, who have been set aside by the church as exemplars of the faith (Saints), we also embrace the teachings of Martin Luther also. That indeed we are saints and sinners, redeemed by the lamb who was slain and is seated at the center of our lives eternally. And, because of this grace given to us through Jesus the Christ, we live now by faith, trusting in this promise that whether we live or whether we die, we belong to God, saints according to his promise.
October 25, 2020
Reformation Sunday
Today, we join with the larger church in seeking out the Holy Spirit and listening for how God is supporting us, re-forming us, and leading us through this wilderness time. Come and join leaders of our Northwest Intermountain Synod and Rev. Lamont Wells, program director for LuMin/Campus Ministry in the ELCA, who will offer the sermon today.
October 18, 2020
"Golden Calf or the Glory of the Cross"
Due to technical difficulties when recording, we do not have a video, but the bulletin and sermon can be found using the buttons below.
October 11, 2020
"Who Will Lead Us?"
October 4, 2020
"House Rules"
September 27, 2020
"Is Yahweh Among Us or Not?"
September 20, 2020
"Lutherans Restoring Creation"
September 13, 2020
"Forgiveness"
September 6, 2020
"Owe no one anything, but to love one another."
Sunday, August 30, 2020
"Who is the Messiah?"
Season after Pentecost - A Time of
Growth and Contemplation
July 12 - August 23, 2020
In this six-week worship series, adapted from the Worship Design Studio,
we will dwell with the God of Divine Goodness, deeply in love with us, and practice ways to return that love as we fall more deeply in love with creation and with one another.
we will dwell with the God of Divine Goodness, deeply in love with us, and practice ways to return that love as we fall more deeply in love with creation and with one another.
One thing I ask of you, [Divine Goodness],
one thing I seek:
that I may dwell in your house all the days of my life,
to gaze on your beauty
and to meditate in your Temple.
- Psalm 27:4 (Inclusive Bible)
one thing I seek:
that I may dwell in your house all the days of my life,
to gaze on your beauty
and to meditate in your Temple.
- Psalm 27:4 (Inclusive Bible)
In preparation for this worship series, take a look at the resources below. The At Home Preparation document outlines suggestions for setting aside space for worship, creating items to support your senses, and offers weekly reflection activities for all ages to do during the week.
Follow the Nurturing Faith Resources button for additional resources to cultivate a life of contemplation and compassion for all ages. This is where you will find the links to interviews with Wendy Farley that go more deeply into the themes raised in worship. Wendy Farley is a professor of spirituality and her book (the title of this worship series) will be available this Fall.
Follow the Nurturing Faith Resources button for additional resources to cultivate a life of contemplation and compassion for all ages. This is where you will find the links to interviews with Wendy Farley that go more deeply into the themes raised in worship. Wendy Farley is a professor of spirituality and her book (the title of this worship series) will be available this Fall.
"From Beauty to Compassion and Justice"
Week 6
August 23, 2020
"The Beauty of a World Without a Why"
Week 5
August 16, 2020
Wednesday Evening Prayer
August 12, 2020
"Abyss, Mystery, and Wonder"
Week 4
August 9, 2020
August 2, 2020 @ 11:00 a.m.
This Sunday, we are invited to join with the larger church in worship, live. An email with the Zoom invite will arrive by August 1. If you do not receive it, contact Pastor Lori at flcpastorlori@icloud.com. Note the change of time. FLC fellowship will happen on Zoom at 10:00 a.m., then we will shift to join our sister synod in Tanzania for prayer and worship at 11:00 a.m. PDT. If you do not have access to Zoom, use the morning prayer service to guide your worship this morning as you lift up the ministries we share as a synod and with the UKD.
"Awakening to Beauty, Falling in Love with the World"
Week 3
July 26, 2020
Week 3
July 26, 2020
"You Are Made for the Beloved"
Week 2
July 19, 2020
"Beauty, Contemplation, and Radical Compassion"
Week 1
July 12, 2020
Holy Hilarity Sunday - July 5, 2020
Martin Luther’s thermometer for detecting the health of your faith, was by the measure of laughter. Or as he put it, “You have as much laughter as you have faith.”
So, in celebration of our freedom in Christ and as a means of strengthening our faith, we join a long-held festival of the church: Holy Hilarity Sunday (usually celebrated the Sunday after Easter). “The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead.”
May this service renew you, so you may continue to answer the call to meet the needs of the world with hope and compassion.
So, in celebration of our freedom in Christ and as a means of strengthening our faith, we join a long-held festival of the church: Holy Hilarity Sunday (usually celebrated the Sunday after Easter). “The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead.”
May this service renew you, so you may continue to answer the call to meet the needs of the world with hope and compassion.