Call to Worship, 11/9, Water Into Wine
by Shawn Moran Last Sunday, our pastor led us in a study of John 2, where Jesus in His first public miracle changed water into wine. I have thought about that story all week, of how the Messiah strode onto the stage as the central actor in the drama of the story of redemption, not by moving mountains or causing the stars to dance in the night sky, but by saving a young groom from humiliation on the happiest day of the  man’s life. Amazing. I thought how great it would have been to have been there that day, to see him turn that water into a wine so fine that it would make the finest vintners in the world blush with embarrassment …  but then I thought how all of us hav

Call to Worship, 11/2, Reformation Sunday
by Shawn Moran This morning is a day celebrated around the world as Reformation Sunday, commemorating the day when a nervous but brave monk named Martin Luther stood before the Wittenberg door with paper and hammer and nail … and struck a spark that set the world on fire, declaring with a nervous heart but a steady voice, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” To be clear, we do not celebrate on this day the era of the Reformation or the men of that era, but rather the rediscovery in the Reformation of ancient truths made new again by their proclamation to a world grown dark … truths that pointed to and reveled in the majesty of the God who was their author. We

Call to Worship, 10/11, We Are Beggars
by Shawn Moran This morning as our worship focuses on the death of Christ that we will later celebrate  at His table, we begin with the last words that Martin Luther ever spoke. As he lay dying, the great reformer’s mind must have mulled over many things, but what he said before he closed his eyes for the last time was, “We are beggars. This is true.” Today, we the people of God are indeed beggars coming to Him with empty hands and empty hearts for the bread of life that He offers … and we are filled. We are beggars. This is true, as we the people of God come dying of thirst to the springs of living water that flow from His throne

Call to Worship, 10/4, Starry Night
by Shawn Moran When Vincent van Gogh painted his opus, The Starry Night, he was unable to see the stars that he depicted. After a nervous breakdown he was in a windowless room in an asylum, and he imagined what the star-lit sky looked like above the city of Arles where he was. He later wrote that as he painted The Starry Night, he never felt more strongly his need for God. The stars often have that effect on us. I remember when I was young, to look at the stars was to feel the vastness of the universe and the insignificance of my little life in comparison. It was as if the rolling expanse of the stars mocked my mortality, reminding me of the dust that I had come from an

Call to Worship, 9/27, Streams of Water
by Shawn Moran As we prepare to worship, let us consider the interaction from The Chronicles of Narnia  between a little girl named Jill and Aslan the Lion: “Are you not thirsty?” said the lion. “I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill. “Then drink,” said the lion. “May I- could I- would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill. The lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. As Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic. “Will you promise not t