WORSHIP WITH US on Sunday, January 11, at 10:15 a.m.

WE LIVE STREAM OUR WORSHIP SERVICES AT 10:15 ON SUNDAY MORNING. You can join us online in real time at https://vimeo.com/event/1424751. This streaming address is the same each week.

The video of Sunday’s worship service will be posted after worship at https://vimeo.com/channels/1547852.

You can view and download the bulletin here.

The scripture lessons this morning take us into the wilderness.

The wilderness is the dry country an “unclean spirit” traversed. The wilderness is a time and place of trial. The wilderness is the place where the heavens seem closed. The wilderness is the time when we know the affliction of human beings and the barrenness of the earth. Those times when you pray and find no answer are times in the wilderness. When you face difficult choices with no good options you are staring at the desert places of life.

In a sense good news can only be spoken and heard when we stand in the waste places and realize that life is not perfect, the we are not the good people we want to think we are, that our nation is not the nation we want to think it is, that there is such a thing as “sin” separating us from all that gives life and makes life good. Good news can only be heard when we go to those places where people are hungry, poor, and broken, those places where the guns of war sound loud, where the strong seek to defeat the weak. In such places we join in the struggle for life.

Scripture Lessons: Matthew 3:13-16; Matthew 12:43-45

Sermon: “In Over Our Heads”

The Rev. Bill Lovin preaching

Anthem:          “Follow Me to Jordan”          Jay Althouse

No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.