VUE Church

Sarah Huffman - A revelation is the act of God communicating truth and knowledge to a person or people to show us something we did not know or see before. This is a gift from God, not something we do. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God (Romans 8:14-17).

We go to the Eucharist for this reason.  We cannot heal ourselves or overcome our wounds and divisions all on our own. So we must turn our helplessness into a Eucharistic prayer that asks God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves: create community. Our One Great Act of Fidelity , Ronald Rolheiser BENEDICTION SONG: Bind Us Together (The Porter's Gate) Bind us together within your love Bi...

(Jarrod Morris) Today we talked about Paul’s advice in Romans on how to be a good neighbor and how to be shalom (peace) to those around us.

George wrapped up a three-part introduction to our journey through Romans by going to chapter 8 and introducing us to some words Paul uses throughout this letter. Sin, law, and death are powerful forces, but so is the Spirit which is life and peace.

Reading through just a few verses in chapter one of Romans George spent some time recovering the meaning and energy of a few words like apostle, gospel, grace, peace, salvation, and righteousness. 
 SLIDES GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING 
It isn't about a moralistic framework in which the only question that matters is whether we humans have behaved ourselves... It is about the vocational framework in...

George set up our journey through the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans by beginning at the end (chapter 16). He also offered us some context to understand how to read it as ecclesiology (about the church and who makes up the people of God). Paul's point is who benefits from Jesus? Everybody! Exactly as they are. Romans is not about individuals apart from the collective. It's a churc...

A brief liturgy and song to rest in God's love! Recorded in our gathering on July 21, 2024

Long Story Short is a series of conversations and snapshot clips of defining moments (struggle, growth, healing, discernment, direction, or purpose) shaping people's lives and faith. We all experience and love God in a diversity of beautiful ways. Everyone’s faith is enriched when we can trust our unique path and experiences of God while recognizing the truth and beauty of another’s. If you or...

Long Story Short is a series of conversations and snapshot clips of defining moments (struggle, growth, healing, discernment, direction, or purpose) shaping people's lives and faith. We all experience and love God in a diversity of beautiful ways. Everyone’s faith is enriched when we can trust our unique path and experiences of God while recognizing the truth and beauty of another’s. If you or...

Long Story Short is a series of conversations and snapshot clips of defining moments (struggle, growth, healing, discernment, direction, or purpose) shaping people's lives and faith. We all experience and love God in a diversity of beautiful ways. Everyone’s faith is enriched when we can trust our unique path and experiences of God while recognizing the truth and beauty of another’s. Visit Res...

George led us in two practices this morning: a centering prayer around love and to the table for the Eucharist. A DEFINITION OF LOVE "To love is to act intentionally, in sympathetic/empathetic response to God and others, to promote overall well-being. Possibilities for uniquely profound and redemptive acts of love become available as people unite in Christian community. Without being engaged in th...

Long Story Short is a series of conversations and snapshot clips of defining moments (struggle, growth, healing, discernment, direction, or purpose ) shaping people's lives and faith. We all experience and love God in a diversity of beautiful ways. Everyone’s faith is enriched when we can trust our unique path and experiences of God while recognizing the truth and beauty of another’s.

Long Story Short is a series of conversations and snapshot clips of defining moments (struggle, growth, healing, discernment, direction, or purpose ) shaping people's lives and faith. We all experience and love God in a diversity of beautiful ways. Everyone’s faith is enriched when we can trust our unique path and experiences of God while recognizing the truth and beauty of another’s. Sarah Hu...

Long Story Short is a series of conversations and snapshot clips of defining moments (struggle, growth, healing, discernment, direction, or purpose ) shaping people's lives and faith. We all experience and love God in a diversity of beautiful ways. Everyone’s faith is enriched when we can trust our unique path and experiences of God while recognizing the truth and beauty of another’s.

What is a church? It is a community of people held together not by power but by love. Simply put, any notion of a church must be a fully practical church that is concerned about getting the job of love done—and done better and better. A church is made up of genuinely good people who are, from the deepest levels of their understanding and motivation, committed to promoting the good of everyone.

What is a church? Jarrod Morris-How can you talk about the beauty of the church without talking about the women of the church? For Mother's Day, Jarrod did just that, talked to us about the role of women in the church.

What is a church? The book of Acts is the very first story of the church. What is the big story of these texts and how do they still matter to us in the modern world? SLIDES GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING “When we claim and constantly reclaim the truth of being the chosen ones, we soon discover within ourselves a deep desire to reveal to others their own chosen-ness. Instead of making us feel that w...

What is a church? The book of Acts is the very first story of the church. What is the big story of these texts and how do they still matter to us in the modern world? SLIDES GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING The great gift of Christianity is to be united while remaining oneself. - Teilhard De Chardin The Eucharist invites us to gather as family. Nothing is an island, not even a molecule or an atom. Eve...

What is a church? The book of Acts is the very first story of the church. What is the big story of these texts and how do they still matter to us in the modern world? SLIDES GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING How much I must criticize you, my church and yet how much I love you! How you have made me suffer much and yet owe much to you. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence. Neve...

What is a church? The book of Acts is the very first story of the church. What is the big story of these texts and how do they still matter to us in the modern world? SLIDES GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING The gift of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful; in a word, more alive. A church is a group of people who are learning—imperfectly and with lot...

Waiting in hope is open-ended. Much of our waiting is filled with wishes; we want the future to go in a very specific direction. Hope is something very different. Waiting open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. It is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life, trusting that God molds us according to God's love and not according to our fear. — Henri No...

Palm Sunday- Where do we find God's physical presence in the world? In the historical Jesus, the body of Christ (his church and people), and in the Eucharist. SLIDES GEORGE READ IN THE GATHERING Christianity is without doubt the earthiest of all religions. It doesn't call you out of the physical, out of the body, or out of the world. Rather it tells you that God enters the physical, become...

When we forget the rhythm of work and rest, things in our lives can begin to slowly unravel and break down. Are you honoring the rhythms built into the fabric of creation and your life? SLIDES GEORGE READ IN THE GATHERING fields not factories Genesis 2 Leviticus 25 Hebrews 4 We used to sing the hymn "Take Time to Be Holy." But perhaps we should be singing, "Take time to be human.&qu...

Matthew 17-Jesus' Transfirguration SLIDES GEORGE READ IN THE GATHERING Love is not just something that happens to you. It is a certain, special way of being alive. — Thomas Merton There are two utterly different forms of religion: one believes that God will love me if I change; the other believes that God loves me so that I can change! Ideas inform us, but love forms us—in an intrinsic and las...

The Lenten season is a time of thoughtfulness and reflection, a call to remember who we are, and a time to get back in touch with our souls; our guide to the more of life. And Jesus' life renews all of this in every one of us. SLIDES GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING Our stories are all stories of searching. We search for a good self to be and for good work to do. We search to become human in a wor...