Easter Day 04/09/2023

 Readings (Matthew Gospel)

Happy Easter!!  

My heart is so full, seeing all of you here this morning!

For those joining us via livestream, outside, it’s a beautiful grayish Seattle day of blooming bulbs and spring green, made so by lots of rain.  

Inside, our sanctuary is awash with light and life: the glory of creation in flowers, joyful music that moves our hearts and bodies, and so many beautiful radiant faces.  

After three years in the pandemic and its shadow, it finally feels like we are emerging into new life.  We persevered through dark, suffocating days, and death.  We labored to find strength to breathe and feel alive.  We are not who we were before.  We are emerging into a new world and understanding of our selves.

Palm Sunday - 04/02/2023

Palm only Readings for today.

The Passion according to Matthew.

No, we didn’t forget to read the Gospel this morning.  With our bishop’s permission, we are using the Palm gospel from the beginning of the service as our Good News this morning.  In The Episcopal Church, Palm Sunday services typically read the Passion gospel just before the sermon.  Today we will hear the story of Jesus’ betrayal, trial, and execution as the postlude to our celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem surrounded by a noisy, cloak-wearing, branch-waving crowd.

5th Sunday in Lent - 03/26/2023

 Readings for today.

Can you believe Ash Wednesday was 4.5 weeks ago?!  So much has changed in the world around us - new light and flowers and allergies, more lay-offs and financial uncertainties, and continuing wars for geography and human rights.  

Lent offers some comfort and predictability.  Back on Ash Wednesday, our worship invited us into the prayer cycle of a holy Lent.  The cycle of self-examination and repentance; action as a result of that self-learning, and; listening to the Word of God.  Spending time with Scripture inevitably leads to thinking about the connection between the Word and our lives, and so the cycle begins again.  Self-examination, prayer, Scripture.  

4th Sunday in Lent - 03/19/2023

 Readings for today.

Who sinned this man or his parents?

Do they think I can’t hear them?

I’m blind, not deaf.  With all their laughing and talking and commenting on every last tree and stone and person, I heard them coming for the last 15 minutes.  There must be at least a dozen people, men and women, in this group.  I wonder where they are going.

I hope they toss a few coins my way so I can buy some bread today.

If they bothered to ask, to speak to me like a human being, I would have told them that I was born this way.

But no, they just assume that there’s something deeply wrong with me because I’m blind.  Because the only way I can support myself is to sit here at the side of the road, all day, every day, in the sun, begging for kindness of people who would rather I disappear.

Third Sunday in Lent - 03/12/2023

 Readings for Today

Here it is the third and middle Sunday in Lent.  Two more Sundays, then Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday.  Before we get all excited for the palm procession and the Passion, it’s still Lent.  Our Lenten commitments to do, or not do, something different for 40 days are beginning to feel more like habits.

A key component of our Lenten commitment is self-reflection.  What are we hoping will happen in Lent?  What is the point of making time and spiritual space for prayer?  Or changing our habits, fasting, or taking on a discipline?

Second Sunday in Lent - 03/05/2023

Readings for the Day



What do you love about Lent?

Many of us would say, “Nothing!” Who needs an entire seven weeks of being reminded how we don’t measure up? I can work up plenty of guilt and shame all on my own, thank you very much.

Most of us lump guilt and shame into one basket of unworthiness and emotional yuck. But did you know that they are distinctly different? Guilt is about something we did or didn’t do, breaking some social norm or rule. Shame is about judging our own self-worth based on unmet expectations.

Celebration of New & Mutual Ministry - 02/28/2023

A Celebration of New & Mutual Ministry is the service where the bishop officially installs a new rector in a congregation, blessing the relationship and shared ministry of the priest and congregation.

Readings:

Isaiah 2:2-4

Psalm 96

Ephesians 2:13-22

Luke 10:1-9

The Rev. Eric Stelle, preacher

You’ve got a lot to envy, here at Trinity.

You’ve got a long heritage of faith to be rooted in and to draw from. You’ve got a fabulous building that immediately feels like church as soon as you step inside. You’ve got an actual neighborhood! (My church is just kind of stuck on the side of the road.) You’ve got a nice website. (You see the things priests get jealous of!) You’ve gotten a great rector. When I daydream about having a second priest on staff with me, it’s always someone like Sabeth I dream about.

But do you know what I envy most? Your name! You get to be called, “Trinity.” You get to be known by that aspect of God’s nature our spirits most yearn to know – this paradox of being many and being one.