Jeremiah 31:31-34
John 12:20-33
Children’s Time:
The reading from Jeremiah talks about knowing what is right or wrong, so here is my story (and it’s not one I’m proud of). When I was pretty young – about as young as you are – I was at a friend’s house, and they had some special kind of candy. I was jealous, and I wanted that candy, but I knew my mom would say no if I asked her for it. So one day I was at the grocery store, and I saw the candy right there on the shelf. No one was looking, and I took the candy and walked out of the store. (more…)
Join us for Food for Thought next Tuesday at 12:00 in the CE building video room. We’ll be watching Bill Moyers Journal’s presentation of Beyond our Differences, a documentary film that explores the common bond uniting all the world’s religions. Preview the film at its website, or simply bring your lunch and join us for the whole thing on Tuesday. See you there!
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
At the beginning of this reading from John, Jesus gives us a little Sunday School pop quiz: why did Moses lift up a snake in the wilderness? The short answer is, poisonous snakes attacked the Hebrews in the desert, so Moses made a bronze snake that anyone who had been bitten could look at and be healed. So Jesus says here that if we look at his cross in this way, we’ll live. He says that there’s strength in how God will be lifted up here. Of course, we know that this often doesn’t work immediately. The snakes didn’t go away in desert, and we still struggle with a world where power is in the hands of death, and Jesus is still crucified, however much we might trust in God to work things out in the end. (more…)
Hope Community Presbyterian Church Deacons
Wish to invite you to a
Spring Social Hour
Sunday, March 22, at 1 PM
Join us for cookies an’ and enjoy the music of Sue by Two.
Sue Swanson and Sue Stevens play the music of your life, because it’s the music they love.
Some of their favorites include Misty, Over the Rainbow,
I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face, Bewitched,
Moonglow, Blue Moon, As Time Goes By, and many more.
Please consider joining us for treats and sweet music.
See you then!!
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22
We might wish Jesus would do what he does in this passage from John. We might want him to burst into whatever edifice we see as oppressive and drive the bad people out, and we’d defend his right to do it (but then we know we wouldn’t really stand up when it counted, and he knows that about us too). (more…)
Mark 8:31-38
Romans 4:13-25
I owe an apology to those who read along in their pew Bibles for using the New International Version of the Romans reading. I couldn’t resist this translation that has Paul say, “God calls things that are not as if they were.” I think this phrase captures God’s creativity better than the idea of God’s “command” calling things into being. To me, the command sounds like it already happened, but this translation sounds like it’s still going on. God is not fazed by what’s not here yet, but She’s powerful and imaginative enough that what doesn’t exist – what we’ve lost about ourselves, what we haven’t become yet – God can treat that as the reality it is. God calls things that are not as if they were. (more…)
Wednesday, March 11
12:00 Noon
HOPE COMMUNITY FORUM
A Brown Bag Lunch/Lecture Series
PRESENTS
Sam Cook
Columnist and Outdoors Writer
for the
Duluth News Tribune
He will show slides of his excursions and talk about why people live and vacation in the Northland.
Hope Community Forum is a brown bag luncheon series that takes place at
Hope Community Presbyterian Church
212 5th Ave. S.
Virginia, MN
(Across from the Library)
NO CHARGE COFFEE PROVIDED BY THE CHURCH
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
Show of hands: Who is excited that it’s Lent? (If you raised your hand, we need to talk about how best to repackage this season.) This is a season to give things up, to mourn our sins. We try not to be too cheery during Lent, just in case somebody around us is having a hard time without chocolate, sweets, or coffee. We want to get through this season and move on to Easter, but unlike with Advent, we don’t tend to do that. We tend to stick out Lent and save most of the Easter celebrations until the event comes. Maybe this is just because of how our school and work calendars line up. Maybe it’s because there’s something comfortingly familiar in the church being morose. Or maybe we really do have a sense that we should go through this process, because things will get worse before they get better. (more…)
