One story that Jesus tells of a widow and her giving shows up in many stewardship sermons. Pastor Cara Scriven contends that taken in its full scriptural context, the story may not say what we think it says. For Christians today so used to seeing their worth defined by what they do, what might this story say to us?
God Shows Up
For this week's sermon, Pastor Cara Scriven takes a look at two parables, one modern and one ancient. Both tell a similar story. God continues to show up whether we like (or recognize) it of not.
Fear, Control, and the path of the Servant
In these days of heightened anxiety, our scripture this morning (Mark 10:35-45) poses a question. Will we, like James and John, try to seek power and control to regain a sense of security or will we choose the path of the servant? Pastor Cara Scriven causes us to wonder, how much toilet paper is too much?
All that you can't leave behind...
On this first Sunday of Lent, our scripture lesson comes form Mark's gospel (10:17-31) where Jesus encounters a rich man. The man asks Jesus what it will take to inherit eternal life. Pastor Cara Scriven helps us to understand Jesus' answer using the illustration of a popular contemporary sitcom, Schitt's Creek.
On this first Sunday of Lent, our scripture lesson comes form Mark's gospel (10:17-31) where Jesus encounters a rich...
Posted by Puyallup United Methodist Church on Sunday, March 1, 2020
A revealing gift...
This Sunday we encountered the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 8:27-9:8) where his closest disciples saw him for who he was. In her reflection, Pastor Cara Scriven shares with us a classic story that also reveals love in rare, self-giving form.
This Sunday we encountered the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 8:27-9:8) where his closest disciples saw him...
Posted by Puyallup United Methodist Church on Sunday, February 23, 2020
Selective Purity
In a final sermon in a series on hospitality and inclusion, Pastor Cara Scriven helps us to consider what Jesus has to teach us about the Levitical purity code (Leviticus 18:22; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23). Using a clip from the TV series ‘West Wing’ to elucidate the point, she also challenges us to question why we only seem to struggle with letting go of one prohibition in particular.
You can watch the West Wing clip online here: https://youtu.be/3CPjWd4MUXs
In a final sermon in a series on hospitality and inclusion, Pastor Cara Scriven helps us to consider what Jesus has to...
Posted by Puyallup United Methodist Church on Sunday, February 16, 2020
This week, we encountered two scripture readings, each informing in a different way Judeo-Christian wisdom on the importance of hospitality. The first text (Judges 19:16-25) is a challenging text often misinterpreted by modern readers. The second text (Mark 6:1-13) offers a look at hospitality from a different angle.
In her message, Pastor Cara Scriven helps us to understand what these texts say about hospitality and what that means for churches today.
This week, we encountered two scripture readings, each informing in a different way Judeo-Christian wisdom on the...
Posted by Puyallup United Methodist Church on Sunday, February 9, 2020
Healing our Understanding
This week we encountered the story of Jesus’ healing of the unclean woman (Mark 5:21-34) and the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (I Cor. 6:9-11) where he describes some of the behaviors persons in the community engaged in before becoming followers of Christ.
In her message for this week, Pastor Cara Scriven helps us to understand the complicated process of deriving meaning of some key terms while noting the importance of Jesus’ work of making us more whole and expanding the circle.
This week we encountered the story of Jesus’ healing of the unclean woman (Mark 5:21-34) and the Apostle Paul’s letter...
Posted by Puyallup United Methodist Church on Sunday, February 2, 2020