Evil is a pandemic. Why are we infected? Most of us don't believe ourselves to be evil people, but evil is a disease that has infected us all. Is there a cure? We begin in the Garden and there, truth is revealed.
Most people establish a set of goals to begin a New Year, but what if this year we reconnect with the values that make us who we are instead? What if instead of setting personal goals, we enter the year open to God's guidance, excited about what God has in store for us. It's a new year, Let's Go!
This has been a hard year. COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment, tensions during a presidential election, searching for direction in a country wavering on despair… What can the Christmas season bring that can change any of that? The birth of Jesus brought light into a very dark world. The Light still shines and this Christmas we will experience what people over 2,000 years ago did: Hope! This Christmas season, Hope is Born!
Moses wasn’t always the leader that we learn him to be in the Exodus story. Once a prince of Egypt, holding the power and might of a nation, he becomes aware of his roots and that he is not the one other people thought him to be. How does he negotiate life while living in a lesser status? God had a plan! We can learn from Moses’ experience and see what God will do in and through us.
People have ideas of what the church is, from what the building is supposed to look like to the "right ways" to worship. But is that the true definition of what the church is to be? What does it actually mean to be part of St. Paul UMC and of the global "Church"?
