All are welcome to join us at 10 am for our Sunday morning service.  Sunday school runs during the service and coffee is available after the service.  We hope that you will consider joining us.

Here are Rev. Marlene’s notes for this Sunday.

Marlene’s Rev. Notes:

“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.” Luke 6:23

After choosing his disciples, Jesus finally embarks on his mission of preaching and teaching.  The scene we have in today’s Gospel is an impressive one, with his disciples, a large crowd, and eager listeners from a wide geographical area in attendance.  Known as the Sermon on the Plain, this section of Luke shares some features with Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. The mention of the woes also recalls the tradition of the two ways and brings to mind the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy.

This teaching of the two ways echoes the ancient biblical theme of choosing between two paths—one leading to life and the other to destruction. Jesus is challenging His listeners to choose the values of God’s kingdom over the fleeting security of worldly success. The contrast is not merely about wealth or poverty but about where one’s trust is placed—in God or in earthly things.

In Luke Jesus addresses the crowd more personally (“you who are poor” / “yours is the kingdom of God”).  This is coupled with blessed and woeful conditions that will be reversed by the values of the kingdom, and also echoes the prophet Jeremiah.  The cursed are those who rely on human resources (wealth, being full, laughing, and enjoying respect), but their fortune will be overturned in the kingdom.  The blessed, in contrast, are those who place their trust in God in the present moment, confident that their present misfortune (poverty, hunger, weeping, and receiving contempt from others) will be overturned in the kingdom.  No matter one’s present circumstances, wisdom demands walking the path of trust in God.