Welcome to Grace!

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Current Worship Series

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"Advent 2025" - November 9 - December 28, 2025

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Part 1 - "The Days Are Surely Coming" - November 9-23, 2025 - We begin the Advent season by looking ahead. We return to the promises of God, the promise of a new reality, a new hope, and an ongoing presence that will usher all of creation into this new kingdom and kin-dom of relationship and joy. Though this series is grounded in the Hebrew scripture lectionary texts, Christ is the center of our worship and the ground of our hope. Let us be reminded that the days are surely coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.​

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"The Latter Splendor" - November 9 - Haggai 2:109 and Luke 20:27-38 - There is value in looking back. A healthy attention to the past helps us understand our legacy and to face the future unafraid. Haggai writes from the midst of the ruins of the temple and declares that God is still present. The prophet looks beyond the actual building, to who and what the people are called to be, to that glory and splendor.​

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"Rejoice Forever in Creation" - November 16 - Isaiah 65:17-25 and Luke 21:5-19 - ‘Rejoice’ is the word today. Isaiah calls us to rejoice in creation living in harmony, caring for one another in deep and profound ways. Today many present themselves as ‘saviors,’ there is only one Savior. In the kingdom of God, those on the edges are gathered in, loved, cared for. Greed, division, scarcity – they are no more in God’s kingdom.

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"Woe to the Shepherds" - November 23 - Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Luke 23:33-44 - On this, the Reign of Christ Sunday, we pledge loyalty to Christ. In our passage, Jeremiah calls out the ‘shepherds’ who let the flock scatter. The king and other leaders did not help the people overcome their tendency to be sinful beings. We are reminded today that Christ is the one who guides our living, who gives us hope and joy.

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Part 2 - "All the Earth Is Waiting" - November 30 - December 28, 2025 - Part 2 of Advent leans into the season as an active and watchful waiting. Doing so, we tap into the world's longing for redemption, salvation, and transformation. The beautiful hymn “Toda la Tierra,” #210 in the United Methodist Hymnal, is a reminder of what is at stake. “All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty” in the first verse allows us to look back to the story of the Incarnation and to look forward to the coming of the kingdom of heaven, when the will of God will be done on earth as in heaven. All of creation is waiting for this fulfillment. In worship, we can see the signs of the nearness of Emmanuel, God with us.

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"Signs and Times" - November 30 - Matthew 24:36-44 and Isaiah 2:2-5 - We are not good at waiting. That’s why we have microwaves and fast-food chains. Yet today Isaiah calls us to wait and tells us how to wait: with God as our priority, with God’s vision at our center. As we wait, Jesus adds, don’t cling to your stuff, your titles, your… And while you wait, be the sign of the coming kingdom of God in your daily living.

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"Signs and Stories" - December 7 - Matthew 3:1-12 - John the Baptist taps into a felt need – the need to draw close to God. He calls for us to repent. Not to feel sorry and confess, but to live by a different story. He is issuing an invitation to follow a new sign, a new hope. We are also called to ‘bear fruit worthy of repentance.’ That means not just thinking differently, but living differently.

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"Signs and Truth" - December 14 - Isaiah 35:1-6 and Matthew 11:2-11 - Isaiah reminds us – the ransomed ones, the ones purchased with a price – that one day we will come home, home to place of joy and abundance. Jesus offers to turn that ‘some day’ vision into a present day reality. He assured a troubled John the Baptists just as he assures us today, inviting us to have  joy, a taste of  ‘some day’ here and now.

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"Signs and Faithfulness" - December 21 - Matthew 1:18-25 - Joseph has betrothed to Mary. That was Plan A – get married, have children, be a family man. An interruption occurs… on to Plan B. But at night, an angel introduces Joseph to Plan C, which sounds a lot like Plan A. But different. Joseph is invited to be a part of bringing eternal life into the world. We too are invited to set self aside for God.

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Blue Christmas Service - December 21 - 6 PM - Gathering on the longest night of the year, we remember our loss and name our grief. Together we are reminded of the hope and light, of the love and peace that we find in Christ. Together we thank God for God’s presence and for the strength that God gives us to pass through this longest night and  the long nights of grief and sorrow to come.

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"Signs and Glory" - December 24 - 1:30 and 4:00 PM - Luke 2:1-20 - We are invited to slow down, to receive the gift of Christ. The shepherds were rough characters, people who were “unclean.” The angels came to them, though, to announce the birth. As the sky exploded and angels sang, soon they heard, “Fear not.” A babe in a manger, the divine come to earth. A gift that invites us into belonging, into peace.

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"Signs and Powers" - December 28 - Jeremiah 31:11-17 and Matthew 2:13-23 - We often find ourselves in a world gone awry – there is no room for the message of Christ, no room for grace, peace, and joy. Yet there are so many needs, so many requests to be filled. But the compassion to respond, to make room in our hearts and our worlds, it can be hard to find amidst this world.  So Matthew offers us the hope of a Savior.