This Sunday: Modern Worship Collective @ 5 pm

Greetings!

As Pastor Annanda and I have talked about this series where we want to dig into thinking about trusting God, loving ourselves and others, the overall point has been to stir up powerful ideas about how we can be a loving and transformative community together.

We’ve also realized that the work of doing this goes way beyond just a few people — and certainly there is much wisdom to be found across our whole community about living out our faith. So, we decided we wanted to try to incorporate some other voices into our worship reflections.

This week, instead of preaching a sermon, I’ll be having a public conversation with Elder and Deacon Keyla Zorzella. Keyla helps to lead many in our community in exploring spiritual practices that ground us in our connection to the divine. Come hear what wisdom and challenges Keyla might have to offer!

With hope,

Hardy 

Please join us immediately following the Sunday service for our Coffee Hour (in-person in Trinity Court or online via Zoom).

bit.ly/SVPCCoffeeHour

Theme for Sunday

“Giving is the way we also learn how to receive. The mutual practice of giving and receiving is an everyday ritual when we know true love. A generous heart is always open, always ready to receive our going and coming. In the midst of such love we need never fear abandonment. This is the most precious gift true love offers — the experience of knowing we always belong.”

Bell Hooks, All About Love: New Visions

Questions for Reflection

• Do you have a regular spiritual practice? If so, what do you think you get out of it?

• Are there times when you feel drained of the energy you need for everyday life? Are there any resources you turn to when you feel this way?

1 Kings 17:8-24

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there, for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She then said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” But he said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. He cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” So the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”