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A Wing and a Prayer

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What Time Is It?

Lesson: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Martha Olsen Joyce: 

My name is Martha Olsen Joyce. I’ve been a member of this church for ten years, and I am currently serving my third stint on Session. Marci, David, and I have been asked to share with you some thoughts on the question “what time is it now?” This weekend the leadership of this church, as is an annual tradition, spent 24 hours in retreat, contemplating where we are as a church, and thinking about where we are going. We used the question “What time is it?” to guide our reflections and stories.  I’m the kind of person who likes to know what time it is. I’ve taken pride in perfecting my ability to do multiple things at once. I show off with glee to anyone who will suffer through it my iPhone-enabled electronic to-do list that lets me multi-task with aplomb. Weird, I know. So you can imagine the headiness I experienced when asked to speak to the question “what time is it?” Excellent! I’m an expert. Read more →

FPCSA’s On-Land Synchronized Swimming Team

“This isn’t the way I remember church!” said the announcer at this year’s County Fair Day Parade. Thank you, Joy Snyder, for all the hard work and leadership putting together our On-land Synchronized Swimming Team. Thanks also to the swimmers, sign carriers, bubble blowers, and our fans. We had fun! You can see the video here.

First Pres is Now a Pick-Up Site for Full Belly Farms veggie boxes

As of October 6th, friends and neighbors of First Pres can pick up their weekly or bi-weekly box of delicious, locally grown fruits and vegetables through a new relationship with Full Belly Farms. Thanks to the dedication of Nick Morris, seminary student and neighborhood coordinator, we have exceeded the 30-box minimum required to be a drop-off site. Full Belly Farm is a 300-acre certified organic farm located in the beautiful Capay Valley of Northern California, an hour northwest of Sacramento. Full Belly has been farmed using organic practices since 1985 and is certified by California Certified Organic Farmers. For more information about CSA (community sponsored agriculture) or to sign up for your own veggie box, contact Nick Morris at fullybellyveggies@gmail.com.

Can We Come?

Lesson: Matthew 21:33-46

The parables of Jesus have been described as narrative time-bombs.¹  They were simple, homespun stories that lodged inside people’s hearts and imaginations, slowly tick-tickticking away until finally, BOOM! The real meaning behind the seeds and coins and sheep and bread-making exploded into consciousness. But I think it’s fair to say today’s parable, the Parable of the Tenants, was more like a grenade for the chief priests and Pharisees.

When people in authority challenged Jesus, he’d often respond with a parable. If they didn’t get the first parable, he’d say, “Listen to another one,” probably thinking, “Maybe you’ll get it this time.” Today’s parable is just such a second parable.  The chief priests and elders had been questioning the source of Jesus’ authority.² But I’m probably not alone in thinking, after my first reading of this parable, “Could you tell us a third one, Jesus, because I don’t get this one either and I’m not even sure I want to.” Read more →

Is God With Us or Not?

Lesson: Exodus 17:1-7

When I was a child there were a handful of long car trips that were more or less routine for my family: To Walnut Creek where my grandfather lived; to San Francisco for a day at the zoo or the museums; to Santa Cruz for a weekend at the beach; to Columbia in the Gold Country where my father spent his childhood. The roads took you through the small towns in those days, not around them. According to my dad, he and my mom had to memorize where all the Foster’s Freezes were

– Foster’s Freeze is the Northern California equivalent of Dairy Queen – they had to memorize where they were so they’d know when to distract me and my two siblings with something inside the car or across the road. Because if we saw the Foster’s Freeze and didn’t stop, the complaining, whining and tears would last the rest of the trip. Read more →

God Is

Lesson: Romans 14:1-12

Ruth Graham, evangelist Billy Graham’s wife, worked as his partner in ministry throughout their marriage.  In the 1970’s, she attended a luncheon for wives of evangelical pastors in Germany.  She dressed up for the event, as we might expect an American woman in the 1970’s to dress.  I’m picturing big hair. A pastel suit. Simple pumps.  But the German women thought Christian women should dress very conservatively.  They didn’t think married women should wear makeup at all, or anything that made them look too “worldly.”  Ruth Graham, in her pink lipstick and mascara, had crossed over into “worldly.” A German pastor’s wife sitting across from Ruth was so upset by the shameful attire of Billy Graham’s wife that she started crying. Mrs. Graham had no idea what upset the woman so.  She was appalled, however, that the crying woman was drinking a beer. Read more →

The Old, Old Story: The Burning Bush

Lesson: Exodus 3:1-15

Today we conclude the summer-long sermon series we’ve called “The Old, Old Story.” We’ve worked our way all around the sanctuary with the pictures of our ancestors in faith and their adventures, and sometimes misadventures.  Next week is the Sunday before Labor Day, so this last of our old, old stories, the story of Moses and the burning bush, is an ideal segue. To begin with, the whole Exodus saga begins as a story about labor. If you’ll recall, Joseph brought his brothers to Egypt because of a famine, and there the Hebrew people flourished.  But then a new Pharaoh came into power that didn’t know about Joseph. Threatened by their numbers and their power, this Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrew people. They were forced to build Pharaoh’s empire, so he could live in wealth and luxury, while their lives, Scripture says, were made “bitter with hard service.”^{1  Read more →}

The Old, Old Story: In, Through, In Spite Of

Lesson: Genesis 37:1-28

Well, we’ve seen some pretty questionable behavior from our ancestors in the faith the past weeks as we’ve revisited the “old, old story” – those stories in Genesis, and in a couple of weeks, Exodus, that trace God’s relationship with God’s covenant people. Deception, conspiracy, raw ambition.  But today’s story has to take the cake. If you’re wondering how we can possibly justify Joseph’s brothers’ behavior, turn it into something good or holy, quit wondering.  We can’t. Sure, Joseph was annoying. A little snitch.¹ And worst of all, Daddy’s favorite. The coat was just the most obvious sign of Jacob’s partiality. Our pew Bibles say the coat had long sleeves; I’m sorry to be the one to tell you that the coat of many colors you might remember from Sunday school is a mistranslation in the King James version.  A long-sleeved coat might be worn by someone who doesn’t have to worry about getting his sleeves mucked up doing dirty work.²  The only other place this description of a garment is used is a royal robe worn by one of King David’s daughters.³ The point is that Joseph, the son of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel, is the little prince of the family.^{4  Read more →}

The Old, Old Story: A Trickster Is Tricked

Lesson: Genesis 29:15-28

This summer we’re focusing on some of our ancestors in the faith – what we’re calling “the old, old story.” These are the stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the people of Israel; stories that were passed down for thousands of years by Bedouin storytellers and eventually became the foundational stories of a people who defined themselves by their relationship with God.  It is this people to whom Jesus came, among whom he grew up, and preached, and healed, and so these stories are part of our family story, too.  As we’ve seen over the past few weeks they are very human stories, as messy and dramatic as a soap opera, filled with intrigue and plot twists and in the case of Jacob, who we hear about again this morning, plenty of deception. Read more →