Chimes Volume 2016, #4: The Community at Worship

The Volume 2016, #4 issue of Chimes is now available. In this issue: 

• Grace and Peace from Chandler Stokes
• Making Sense Out of Time
• Stories of Worship
• WPC Music By the Numbers
• Much more!

A Hope Not Hopeless But Unhopeful

Rev. Chandler Stokes

Vaclav Havel wrote that “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. ... It is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. … it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.” That is the authentic hope we have in God. Join us on Sunday as we practice hope together.

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Chimes Volume 2015, #1: The People at Worship

The Volume 2015, #1 issue of Chimes is now available. In this issue: 

• The Changing Chimes
• Grace and Peace
• Worship Schedule
• The People at Worship
• We Just Can't Keep from Singing
• Much more!

Freedom

Rev. Chandler Stokes

“For freedom Christ has set you free,” says Paul. And at the very same time, we understand ourselves to be slaves to Christ, those who are bound in obedience to Christ. The paradox is that we find in our service to Christ, perfect freedom. Join us in celebrating Sherrill Vore’s ministry and in re-discovering the freedom promised in our servitude to Christ.

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What the Spirit is Saying

Rev. Chandler Stokes

This Sunday, May 31, is Trinity Sunday, when we celebrate (of all things!) a theological concept. In keeping with the season of Pentecost, we will be focusing in particular on one aspect of the Trinity: The Holy Spirit. Called Comforter, Advocate, Spirit, Wind, and many other things - the Spirit is also the glue that binds us as a community.

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Worship Schedule for June 2015

Freedom

June 7—The Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
Recognition of Graduates
Rev. Chandler Stokes preaching on
Galatians 5:1, 13-15
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
                         -Galatians 5:1
 

Human

June 14—The Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Commissioning Youth Mission Trips
Commissioning Camp Henry Staff
Rev. Chandler Stokes preaching on
TBA
But sin is best understood under relational categories.
Under this framework, sin is simply 'a way of being for which God never intended humans to live.'
                       -Dr. Greg Love
 

Gospel

June 21—The Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Rev. Jen Porter preaching on
Acts 17:16-34

Education

June 28—The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Rev. Chandler Stokes preaching on
Matthew 11:28-30
The word "education" comes from the Latin "educare" - to draw it out.

 

The Vulnerable Spirit

Rev. Chandler Stokes

Please note, everyone, that we move to one worship service at 10AM this Sunday! It is Pentecost and we will explore one of the essential gifts of the Holy Spirit—hope. My colleague Tom Are writes: “We hope for a life that we have never seen in ourselves, but we have seen in Christ.” It is a profound hope, rooted in our trust and confidence in God’s promise. Join us at … 10AM! on Sunday, May 24.

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When in our Music God is Glorified

Rev. Chandler Stokes

Ms. Herz-Sommer had a lot to teach us: “Beethoven was the most unhappy person,” she wrote to her son, Ariel, when he was away at school, “but gives to us in his music, hope, strength, faith, he wants to say: Life is worthwhile, even when it is very, very difficult.” Her letters convey a sense of urgency, almost an anxiety: not that he would suffer or fall ill, the lingering terrors of many survivors, but that he would fail to appreciate fully the art that gave her own life meaning. (from NYTimes.com)

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MissionMatters

Rev. Chandler Stokes

The story in Mark 12:38-44 is about the widow who puts her whole life in the temple treasury. Hers is an act of sacrifice to an institution that has failed her. And yet she is noticed and blessed by Jesus for her sacrifice. What can that mean for us who seek to serve Christ through the life of an institution.

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Praxis Makes Perfect

Rev. Chandler Stokes

Someone once said that it’s not about being smart; it’s about being good, that it’s not about being successful; it’s about being faithful. I’m not sure that faith and goodness are easier than being smart or successful, but they are definitely different.

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Worship Schedule for May 2015

Praxis Makes Perfect

May 3—The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Rev. Chandler Stokes preaching on
Mark 12:28-37
There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery [even] an hour,
if slavery were not sustained in the church.
                         -Frederick Douglas quoting Albert Barnes, 1852
Music: Stacey Tanner, Cello at 8:30a
Sanctuary Choir at 11:00a

MissionMatters

May 10—The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Community Service at CRC
Rev. Chandler Stokes preaching on
Mark 12:38-44
Westminster Presbyterian Church seeks to lead and serve by
Stewarding our resources, including those of time, money and Creation.
                       -Westminster Vision and Mission 2010
Music: Deb Eid and family at 8:30a
Sanctuary Choir at 11:00a

When in Our Music God is Glorified

May 17—The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Choir Recognition
Rev. Chandler Stokes preaching on
Revelation 4:1-11
"It protected us from hate," she wrote, "and literally nourished our souls."
                      -Alice Herz-Sommer on music in Terezin
Music: Sanctuary Choir at 8:30a & 11:00a

The Vulnerable Spirit

May 24—Pentecost
Rev. Chandler Stokes preaching on
Acts 2:1-21
The Spirit is wind and not wall. It is possiblility and not coercion.
It is opportunity and not threat.
         -Walter Brueggeman
Music: Sanctuary Choir at 10:00a

What the Spirit is Saying

May 31—Trinity Sunday
Rev. Chandler Stokes preaching on
Romans 8:12-17
When we cry, "Abba! Father!"it is that very Spirit
bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
-Romans 8:15-16
Music: Sanctuary Choir at 10:00a

In Whose Image?

Rev. Chandler Stokes

During this post-Easter season, we are thinking about seeing with Easter Eyes. What might that suggest about how a human being valued. My colleague Rick Spalding once wrote: Caesar can stamp his picture and pedigree far and wide, but he cannot come near the true commerce that animates us. So Caesar will get many or most of the coins – and be flattered by how well his likeness is rendered in the medium of cold, hard cash; but the coin of the realm of our flesh and blood is the image of God. What is rendered to God is whatever bears the divine image. Every life is marked with that inscription, an icon of the One who is its source and destination.

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Seeing

Rev. Jen Porter

Through what lens do we interpret the world that we see? We can walk back to Galilee, to Emmaus, to our lives, Christ risen but untransformed and full of grief. The world has been changed, God’s living word is here, God is present breaking bread in our midst. “Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.”

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He Goes Before You…

Rev. Chandler Stokes

This Sunday is Easter Sunday, when we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord. Rev. Stokes will be preaching on Mark 16:1-8: "He goes before you..." The resurrection is not only behind us but before us. Love has transformed the world. The choir will offer "Let the People Praise Thee, O God" by William Mathias and two pieces from Handel's Messiah, including the Hallelujah Chorus.

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Surely, not I?

Rev. Jen Porter

Rev. Jen Porter preaches on Maundy Thursday.

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