TPCFM

We are grateful to welcome the Reverend Sarah Crowther-Dixon into the pulpit this Sunday! Sarah is the Campus Minister & Executive Director of UKirk TCU. She started this campus ministry of Grace Presbytery in January of this year. She has been shaped by her experiences at Oklahoma State University, her Young Adult Volunteer year in Denver, Austin Seminary, and her amazing home church, Trinity...

Every Advent, we read the prophecy of Isaiah in which he declares that the Messiah will call a truce with the fire ants. This is something to give thanks for! Yet, our world seems to be in open rebellion against us: increasing global temperature, tornadoes, earthquakes, and all. Inspired by Isaiah and John the Baptist (who would absolutely fall into the category of “granola”), we are going to hear...

This Advent season, we are talking about the gifts that Christ has already given us. Far be it from me (Pastor Jake) to take the prayer “Fix it, Jesus!” out of your repertoire, but I am suspicious of the ways that we sometimes duck from responsibility in the hopes that God will clean up for us. In fact, that intuition motivated this whole series. Advent is a time of waiting, yet, but it is an acti...

Christmas is a season filled with traditions and symbolism. As we celebrate the “hanging of the greens,” we will break open the signs and symbols of Christmas and prepare our hearts to listen to the story of Christ’s birth. However, how do we hear a story that has already been told again and again? What do the signs and symbols of Christmas point us toward today?

This Sunday, we celebrate 100 years of the Feast Day of Christ the King. Pope Pius XI instituted the day on December 11, 1925 in response at once to both the rise of secularism and, importantly, the increasing popularity of nationalism in a post WWI context. In 1969, Pope Paul VI changed the title of the day to “The Feast to Our Jesus Christ King of the Universe,” and moved it to the very last day...

The God of the Cosmos, the One from Whom all things have come and for whom all things were made, has a plan for this creation. That is the original story we see in the scriptures, one of order from chaos. “Let there be light!” The story of God with us is a story of God’s wooing humankind toward justice, peace, beauty, love, and joy. God could have done this work solo, but God has chosen to hitch G...

This week in worship, we conclude our “Straight Outta Control” series with a reflection on money. The fact is that we spend an enormous amount of time and energy thinking about money, regardless of whether we have a lot of it or a little of it. Economic realities are one of the largest controlling factors of our lives. Looking again at the story of Joseph and the parables of Jesus, we realize that...

Faith invites us to see aging not as decline, but as a deepening. As our bodies refuse our direct orders – “Stop hurting, knee!” – or they simply take on a life of their own – “How am I in pain from sleeping?” – the illusion of control slips through the tightest of grasps. In Joseph’s final breath and in Jesus’ words to Peter, we glimpse the offer of a holy paradox: as our strength fades, our trus...

Have you ever had an emotion spring up that surprised you? All of the sudden you were at a 10 on the anger scale and had no idea how you arrived there? It happens quite often that we are out of control of our emotions. We don’t actually get a say in what we feel. As we continue our “Straight Outta Control” sermon series, we are going to talk about the every day experience of feeling out of control...

We live our lives mostly out of control. It’s one of life’s great frustrations for most people, especially those of us with just enough means to convince ourselves that we are in control. In this series, we will explore stories of being out of control: out of control of what happens in our lives, of our emotions, of our aging and death, and of our money. There is a grace in being out of control. W...

Reverend Pastor Kimberly Mendoza leads our sermon today. So often, we talk about the call from God to “go”, but what happens when God calls us to stay? Our world has widened (for better or for worse) with the advancement of technology and transportation. It is easier to leave or move on to the next best place. This Sunday, we will take a look at the book of Jeremiah and the the cleansing of the 10...

This week, we celebrate “World Communion Sunday” (a 100 year old Pittsburgh creation - ask Pastor Jake about it later!) as we also wrap our month of Peace and Global Witness Offerings. If our earnest desire is for peace to come and for our communion in faith and love to be truly global, how do even begin? This is the question begged by the prophetic expectations on Jesus’ life - that this One will...

The good news is good, really good. It’s the proclamation of sins forgiven and a world of justice and purpose, but it does not land softly! Jesus calls us to follow, not just with our words, but with our lives. And sometimes that means confronting what we’d rather avoid: our divided loyalties, our lostness, our comfort with injustice. In this series, we’ll walk through stories that expose the cost...

Admitting fault never comes easily. We would rather justify ourselves, minimize mistakes, or point elsewhere. Yet Jesus’ parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin insist on a good, yet difficult truth: to be found, we must admit something is lost. We aren’t always in the right. The good news is that in Christ our faults become occasions for grace, and our return is not met with shame but with c...

What if the real sickness of our age isn’t poverty, but affluenza - the endless chase for more? In our last sermon of our September series “Good News Ain’t Easy,” Jesus tells of a rich man, a poor man, and a chasm no one could cross. The bad news? Wealth disparities have created a rift in the common life of our people. The good news? Jesus’ invitation into Sabbath and Jubilee is good news for all...

Some of Jesus’ parables are easy. A sheep got lost and a shepherd, a GOOD shepherd wink! , went to get it. Celebration ensues! Thanks be to God, Jesus seeks and saves the lost! Hallelujah! Not this week, my friends! This week in “Good News Ain’t Easy” offers us one of the trickiest parables in the gospels. The dishonest manager. Is there a good guy here? Join us on the journey and discover that th...