Covenant Presbyterian Church Augusta

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke has been thinking about this quote from Simone Weil this week alongside the story of the magi who follow a star to find the Christ child. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the magi "observed his star at its rising," which means, of course, that they were paying attention. They had to pay attention to observe suc...

Pastor Andy Cooke has shared the story the story of the time that Katelyn and I went on our first date. She told me that she wanted to see a play in Charlotte called "The Birth." It was based on the writings of a Presbyterian minister named Frederick Buechner. Needless to say, it was a great first date. But we do laugh now about how two Presbyterian ministers went on a date to see a dramatic reena...

This Sunday marks the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and our gospel reading will be the story of the birth of Jesus in Matthew. As Pastor Andy Cooke tells us, this story is not quite as popular as the Luke story, but I always appreciate it because of the way that it highlights Joseph and his role in the story. Joseph is a quiet character in the gospels, but we really get to know him in these verses. God...

One of Covenant's favorite images in the nativity story is the multitude of heavenly hosts praising God on the first Christmas night. Even though this Sunday's Lessons and Carols services happens in the morning and even though we are not angels, it's nice to imagine that this service is a continuation of the proclamation of the good news of great joy for all people that Christ is born. During Sund...

This week, Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke shares the prophet Isaiah's vision of "a shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse" in worship this week, and we'll wonder together about the beauty and mystery of God's faithfulness even in the midst of death, despair, and decay. Admittedly, these may not be the holly jolly words we want to hear in this season, but these are words that we and our world need...

This week we bring you a very special service of worship. Covenant celebrated the Waiting in Wonder of the beginning of advent with a service of readings and carols.  This Sunday, we'll have our annual Hanging of the Greens service. This service helps to make decorating a religious act rather than a chore. We slowly decorate the sanctuary together and pause to make sure that we speak aloud the spi...

Christ the King Sunday, celebrated on the last Sunday of the church year, focuses on the crucified and risen Christ, who God exalted to rule over all creation. As pastor Karla Conditt Daniels tells us, Christ the King Sunday was established by papal decree in 1925, to reorient the faithful after the horrors and destruction of World War I.  One hundred years later, with wars raging and the prolifer...

Pastor Andy Cooke says being part of the church can be hard work sometimes. Our relationships are a constant balancing act between grace and accountability, kindness and truth, acceptance and aspiration. Being part of the church is challenging, but I think that it is practice for how we interact with the rest of the world. On Sunday, we will look at the letter of 2nd Thessalonians and see how this...

Ever since the Stewardship Task Force decided on this year's theme of "Growing and Giving," those two words have been in the forefront of my mind.  Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke said she's noticed growth and giving happening all around me - especially here at Covenant. I see it in our Sunday School classes and in worship. I see it in the ways that people show up and serve at the church and in our co...

Yesterday, November 1st, was All Saints' Day, a holiday that Christians have been celebrating for over a thousand years. As Pastor Andy Cooke explains, at Covenant, we tend to celebrate this holiday on the first Sunday in November when we remember in worship those who have come before us in the faith and thank God for their lives. In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul talks about a spiritual inheritance...

This week, Pastor Andy Cook, tells us that Christian faith is often misconstrued as something that only pertains to an internal relationship with God, but if you open the Bible, it doesn't take long to realize that faith also involves our relationship to the world around us. This Sunday, we will be focusing on the world around us and our particular call to address poverty and homelessness.

On this week's sermon podcast, Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke, tells us of Jeremiah's counsel to God's people about what they are to do next. If you've ever felt displaced, homesick, or out of place (and who among us hasn't felt that way at some point in our lives?), there's a hard but good word of hope here for you.

This weekend, we will celebrate World Communion Sunday, which is a time for us to recognize the unity that we share with other Christians around the world. As Pastor Andy Cook tells us, it is a reminder that we are part of a global community, and that our allegiances are greater than we might sometimes think. This year, we are adding a new element to our celebration. Following a discussion between...

As Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke tells us this week, transitions are often moments when we pause to consider where we've been and where we're going, and our Scripture readings this Sunday invite us into that reflective space as well. In all of our transitions, we give thanks that God is steadfast and faithful. 

This week pastor Andy Cooke is back in the pulpit reading Jesus' words from Luke 14: "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children...cannot be my disciple." It is...interesting...to read and preach those words when your father, mother, wife, and child sit a few feet away. Some might want to skip over these words of Jesus, but I really appreciate them. And I'll preach...

In this week's sermon, Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke says we celebrate the big events and happenings in the life of our church and in our community, and, at the same time, Jesus invites us to remember the importance and significance of small things. In this week's reading from Luke, we'll hear Jesus' parable of the (very tiny) mustard seed. In world that is often drawn to things that are big and fla...

Pastor Andy Cooke tells us this week that scripture is filled with tree metaphors. We will hear some of them this Sunday as we kick off a new program year together. Psalm 1 compares God's people to trees and Revelation 22 shows the tree of life as a symbol for God's redemption of Creation. There are many other examples, and it is worth asking what is the quality of trees that is so apt for describ...

This week's message is from Pastor Karla Conditt Daniels.  I will admit that it had been a long time since I had read the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, the lengthy collection of oracles prophesying the impending downfall of the Kingdom of Judah. After God’s faithful guidance of the people of Israel out of slavery, through the wilderness, and into a land of plenty, they have “forgotten” God. Some...

As pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke tells us this week, there's a verse in Isaiah where God says to the prophet, "Come now, let us argue it out." I read that verse for the first time when I was in seminary, and I was struck by the idea that God would welcome us to argue with God. Given the number of people in Scripture who disagree with God, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. This Sunday, we'l...

Our readings this Sunday all focus on the challenges of being people of Christian faith. And as Pastor Andy Cooke tells us, sometimes, we get the impression that is it supposed to be easy and fun to follow Christ. If you look at the passages from Jeremiah and Hebrews, that myth is quickly dispelled (same with Luke 12:49-56, which is the gospel reading for this Sunday). Hebrews 11 and 12 focuses on...

Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke said, "To say this Sunday is going to be a big day at Covenant feels like an understatement." It's Preschool Sunday, which means we are inviting preschool families and staff to join us for worship. We'll commission the preschool staff and have a blessing of the backpacks for students (of all ages!) during the service. We also have the Blessing of the Playground this Sun...

Our Scripture passages this Sunday are like medicine: as Pastor Andy Cooke says, they may not taste great, but they are good for us. Our call to worship comes from Psalm 49, and our readings are from Ecclesiastes and Luke (see links above). All of these readings have to do with money, wealth, and our labor. In our society, it can sound a little depressing to hear a spiritual critique of wealth. Af...

This is our final message in the Double Take Series of sermons in which co-pastors Katelyn Gordon Cooke and Andy cook preach different sermons on the same scripture passage.  Prayer is often a daunting subject. We might love God, but we get nervous about talking to God--especially in front of other people. We don't quite know what to say or how to say it. We worry that we don't do it well. We assu...

This week we continue our Double Take Series of Sermons with our wonderful pastors, Rev. Katelyn Gordon Cooke and Rev. Andy Cooke.  During a recent conversation with some Covenant youth, one of the teenagers said this about their sibling: "Sometimes it's hard to believe we're related. We're just so different." I imagine some of you reading this email have had that thought about your own sibling or...

Pastor Andy Cooke said he really enjoyed preaching the first Double Take sermon last week. Katelyn and I each preached half of a sermon, which is what we are doing throughout the month of July. We are in Luke 10 again this week, specifically the story of the Good Samaritan. Last week, we heard about Jesus sending out 72 "missionaries" to towns in the area and telling them to carry no purse, bag, o...