Thanks to St.Swithin’s by the Rev. Jay Sidebotham copyright (c) 2002 The Church Pension Fund All Rights Reserved.

With a little help from Dr. Joe and Marcus Borg, we hear about a God that is not going to control us or anyone else but a God that will stay with us…and the weird and in fact, all things, all the time.

“The historical Jesus was a spirit person, one of those figures in human history with an experiential awareness of the reality of God…”

– Marcus Borg

You can read the scripture by clicking on the gospel reading Mark 1:29-39 or listen to it in our recording below. Click on the white triangle in the black bar-shaped player below to listen to the scripture and sermon now or click on the link labeled: Download below the player to save an audio mp3 file for listening later.

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– from the movie Saved

Guest preacher, The Rev. Eric Heidecker returns to our understanding of scripture changes what is our own journey of faith without directing the journey of others. Listen for the “Oh…Paul” moments.

You can read the epistles on which the message is based by clicking here for 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. The gospel reading can be read by clicking on the reference here: Mark 1:1-11 or listen to it in our recording below. Click on the white triangle in the black bar-shaped player below to listen to the scripture and sermon now or click on the link labeled: Download below the player to save an audio mp3 file for listening later.

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Joy McClaine shares her moving faith story with the congregation. While Father Jeff talks about the mixed motives behind leaving our nets to get on with God’s work in repairing Nineveh and the world.

You can read the scriptures by clicking on these references Jonah 3:1-10 and Mark 1:14-20 or listen to the Matthew reading in our recording below. Click on the white triangle in the black bar-shaped player below to listen to the scripture and sermon now or click on the link labeled: Download below the player to save an audio mp3 file for listening later.

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Photo by Rachel Ramsey 2018 All Rights Reserved Used by permission

The Very Rev. Jeff Paul refers to Robert Leonard Reid’s Bristlecone Mass at the beginning of the message of how to stop looking for the enemy and looking for where God Resides in the connection between the spiritual and physical realm with a little help from his friend White Wolf.

Eduardo Galeano tells of “The Haitian Curse” in a passage from his book Children of the Days shared in the sermon by Father Jeff.

January 14. THE HAITIAN CURSE

The earthquake in Haiti was the culminating tragedy of a country without shade, without water, devastated by imperial greed and the war against slavery.

The dethroned slavers explain it another way: Voodoo was and is to blame for all the country’s misfortunes. Voodoo doesn’t deserve the name religion. It is nothing but African superstition, black magic, a black obsession, the Devil’s thing.

The Catholic Church, which has no shortage of faithful believers willing to sell the fingernails of saints or feathers from the wings of the archangel Gabriel, got Haiti to outlaw voodoo in 1845, 1860, 1896, 1915 and 1942.

In recent times, evangelical sects took up the battle against superstition. They come from the country of Pat Robertson, a country that has no thirteenth floor in its skyscrapers, no row thirteen in its airplanes, where civilized Christians who believe God created the world in seven days are in the majority.

You can read the scriptures by clicking on these references 1 Samuel 3:1-20 and John 1:43-51 or listen to the John reading in our recording below. Click on the white triangle in the black bar-shaped player below to listen to the scripture and sermon now or click on the link labeled: Download below the player to save an audio mp3 file for listening later.

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Father Jeff talks about the mystical experiences that connects us and all of creation in love.

You can read the scriptures by clicking on the scripture: Mark 1:4-11 or listen to the Gospel reading in our recording below. Click on the white triangle in the black bar-shaped player below to listen to the scripture and sermon now or click on the link labeled: Download below the player to save an audio mp3 file for listening later.

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If you are looking for the December 31st message, thank you for your interest. We do not have a recording for that Sunday.

Our Christmas Eve Sunday service was not recorded.

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We welcomed The Rt Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, former Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and former Bishop of Nevada as our preacher December 10th. She speaks about seeking that way home into God’s beloved community.

Justice is another word for loving our neighbors out loud…in public ways that transform society, structures and communities. – Katharine Jefferts Schori

You can read the scripture by clicking: Mark 1:1-8 or listen to reading in our recording below.  Click on the white triangle in the black bar-shaped player below to listen to the scripture and sermon now or click on the link labeled: Download below the player to save an audio mp3 file for listening later.

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Father Jeff explores meditation and prayer in scary times and lets us know the judgement time is not scary because of a dirty little secret of the Christian tradition: Jesus judges all: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

You can read the scripture by clicking: Mark 13:24-37 or listen to reading in our recording below.  Click on the white triangle in the black bar-shaped player below to listen to the scripture and sermon now or click on the link labeled: Download below the player to save an audio mp3 file for listening later.

We thank Jacob Ryle, (a.k.a. Sir Bedlam/Sir Bedlam Productions and Freesound) for the sermon sound effect requested by Father Jeff. Used by permission.

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