All are welcome to join us at 10 for the weekly church service.  Sunday school runs the same time as the church service.  After service coffee is served and there is an opportunity to visit.

Here is a bit of what the message will be about this Sunday.

Marlene’s Rev. Notes:

“And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.” Matthew 25:10

This week’s Gospel reading is about both seeking wisdom and anticipating the end time appearance of the risen Christ. It is a parable, which is found only in Matthew’s gospel. Parables are fictional stories that establish a comparison—in this case, “the kingdom of heaven will be like…” and that often involve everyday images to communicate their meaning. The phrase “kingdom of heaven” is sometimes misunderstood to mean “heaven” only. However, it is better understood as the full reality of the reign of God, and the breaking of the bonds of evil and suffering in the world. So, preparedness for the coming age seems to be an urgent matter of life or death as depicted here.

Strikingly and urgently, this parable and the passages around it, tell of a need to prepare a light, to pay attention for Christ’s coming. We are to look for the realm of God; for that trans-formative moment, when half-hearted or half-prepared will never do. If we fail in a wholehearted response, we will miss the opportunity when it arrives.

Wholeheartedness is a feature of the beloved community: honest in telling our whole story, bold as we strive to embody the liberation and justice we have experienced with God, and careful with the story, and one another. Opening and closing doors rarely requires thought in our everyday life until there is someone on the other side of the door denied entry. They are excluded and denied grace. Unlike every other time that Jesus has made a way; here the door remains shut. It forces us to consider: who have we personally and communally shut out? And what are we going to do about it?

Rev. Marlene