For many of us, social distancing, has created a wall between us and separated us from our lives. Bumping up against this wall over and over again, our noses can almost smell the fear filled mortar which oozes from the newly laid brickwork.

During this time of unprecedented change, how can we create maintain and create greater financial sustainability?

  Sermon with Rev. Caleb J. Lines, University Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) UCC San Diego Children Worship & Wonder Story – Marshala Salgado-Solorio Scripture Reading – Luke 4:1-13 – Tim Stigers   Rev. Caleb J. Lines …

  Click below for Video of Sermon     Prelude Singing Bell and Call to Worship: L: Our lives feel all disjointed as though they were a valley of dry bones. P: But the Spirit of God …

The peace that we share when we turn and shake hands
Is simply the peace that our Savior commands.

Fast from fear and feast on love.

Fast from violence, feast on peace.

To several readers, already isolated because of health or age or retirement, I’ve written this could be our “monastic” opportunity to experience the value of being “all-one” (where the word “alone” comes from) as well as resting in God, taking a break and a breath and a breather, especially important resisting a respiratory infection.

Let’s take care of one another. Let’s share our resources whether that is money or toilet paper. Let’s inject humor into our conversation and encourage one another. This crisis will be over one day, and when it is, let’s have carried on in a way that we can be proud of.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Where fear can make us believe that we aren’t worthy or relevant, there is inherent value in facing your fears and doing things that take you out of your comfort zone.

    It was almost five years ago now, and I can still see her smile. It was a beautiful smile; a smile which I often return to in my mind’s-eye. I have long-since forgotten her name. …

The world will now be faced with a time of moral testing as Covid 19 spreads from pole to pole. The early response of hoarding toilet paper and hand sanitizer is not an encouraging sign predicting whether our better angels will be revealed or our fearful, selfish demons.

It is extremely unfortunate that the coronavirus is negatively impacting so many (especially those who are elderly or living in poverty) and disrupting our day-to-day lives, however, one valuable insight that may result from this disastrous virus is congregational awareness about the necessity of technology.

In the desperate final days of Bonhoeffer’s life, he wrote from prison about the futility of trying to talk to stupid people about facts, as many of his neighbors and fellow church folk simply rolled along with the Nazi movement. M. Scott Peck defined evil as a kind of “militant ignorance,” a refusal to deal with the known facts of reality.

A fully scripted Good Friday enactment courtesy of The Fountains, UMC.

Bishop Yvette Flunder preaches at The City of Refuge, 8400 Enterprise Way, Oakland, CA.

Changing the world vs/and changing ourselves. Today we consider the remarkable life of Eleanor Roosevelt who was first lady during the New Deal, WWII, and was our first ambassador to the United Nations.

Singer/songwriter Christian McIvor serves as the Minister of Music & Worship at College Park Baptist Church in Greensboro, NC.  He writes progressive Christian songs centered around themes of love, justice, compassion, and community that are intended for both solo/small group and congregational use in worship. 

If God is the source of Love, let us worship God by loving. If God is the ground of being, let us worship God by having the courage to be more fully human; the embodiment of the Divine.