Saint James Messages

When the disciples went to sleep on Saturday night, they were sure death had won, that the Roman Empire and religious authorities had succeeded. Sunday morning offered a new and unexpected response. New life is not limited to an Easter morning two millennia ago; what would new life look like for us today?

Join us as we ponder the meaning of the crucifixion and how we might be impacted by the death of Jesus today.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday. Jesus is headed into Jerusalem and the crowd/mob turns his arrival into a parade, For the moment, they only see Jesus as an answer to their problems, a fulfillment of a promise. They have placed their own expectations on Jesus and those expectations shape the way they receive Jesus. Their assumptions lead to misunderstanding, rejection, and death. How do our conceptions of Jesus lead us to our own misunderstandings? Just who is Jesus and what can we learn from the Palm Sunday parade?

The disciples offer Jesus food. He's been talking to someone next a well. His response is purely Jesus- it becomes a teachable moment. What does food mean for you? Is there another place for us to get our nourishment?

After Jesus's initial encounter with the woman at the well, we discover more about her and she becomes part of the good news. Join us this week as we continue the story of Jesus and the woman who was transformed in meeting him at a well.

Jesus is traveling through town and stops to rest at a well. The disciples head into town to scare up some food to eat. Jesus encounters a woman at the well. She has come for water but can Jesus offer her more?

We turn our attention to a questioner who made his way to visit Jesus under the cover of darkness. Our questioner, Nicodemus, probably had a variety of reasons to show up at night and we'll explore our own propensity to ask questions and sometimes avoid answers as we seek this Path that Jesus laid out for us.

This represents the first message in a three-part series about gratitude as an attitude worth cultivating.

Who really wants to be persecuted? And yet Jesus tells us, Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What would it look like to be persecuted for the sake of "righteousness?" This week we take a look at this last of the beatitudes and ponder together what it might mean for us in our daily lives now.

This week we turn to the #peacemaker #beatitude: How blest are the peacemakers; God shall call them sons and daughters. Those who bring and make peace are called "God's children" by God!

Hunger and thirst are primal instincts that emerge from deep within. Both #hunger and #thirst are triggered when our bodies want to tell us we need food and hydration, not just want it. Jesus uses this image of hungering and thirsting to describe an attitude for God's Kingdom. The beatitude described is the yearning, the hunger, for "right to prevail" or, in another translation, "righteousness." What is it about this #beatitude evokes the primal instincts in us? Join us at 11AM Eastern on Sunday in-person or online or watch the recording later in the week.

As I sat pondering the passages for this weekend, I could not hope but notice a recurring theme of humility. Honor can only come from the other and not from a false sense of personal value. The passage from Hebrews sums it up as: Let mutual love continue. (NRSV) or Keep loving each other like family. (CEB) Where is it we are meant to find the "grounding," the humility (literally "on the ground" from the Latin; root word hummus meaning "ground, dirt") to be in community with one another? We are meant to find it in mutual love which is always building the other up. The honor is in honoring the other, the love is in loving the other. This Sunday we will take up community, humility, connection, and honor as the foundation for our faith. Join us at 11AM Eastern in person or online.

For a fair portion of my life, I was not a morning person! Even now I suspect I am not a morning person though I get my most focused work done early in the day rather than later. What is this focus that Jesus brings up in Luke 12:35-40 about keeping awake? Join us Sunday in-person or online.

Invest Your Life by Saint James Church Alexandria VA

Busy? Martha gets that. This Sunday, we will look at Luke 10:38-42 and learn how Jesus' visit to Martha's home creates questions for her (and I think us) about life. It isn't always either/or? Or is it? Join us Sunday at 11am in person or online as we see what Jesus, Martha and Mary have to teach us about our own lives.

Presented with the commandments in Deuteronomy, the Israelites struggle to figure out if they can live into those commandments. The commandments seem to them high above them and out-of-reach. The word that comes to the people is one of reassurance and possibility. This Sunday we will look at the words of Deuteronomy and their connection to us today.

The prophet Elisha has taken over in the work of Elijah. A request for healing comes to the king of Israel form a rival king and leads to turmoil that only Elisha in his work for God can solve. Kings and prophets are not roles or people that seem familiar to us and yet as we look closely we may discover something about ourselves. Join us Sunday at 11:00AM in-person or online for worship.

At the height of his work, Elijah runs away into the desert. Sometimes I think I understand where he was coming from. He had given his best and he felt overwhelmed. What good was the work he was doing? What difference did it make? Elijah's answer was to run away. What can we learn from Elijah? Join us Sunday at 11AM Eastern as we study.

Sunday we are exploring Jesus' transition from daily ministry to Jerusalem. While the transition itself is important, on the way out of town Jesus runs into a blind man, Bartimaeus. That encounter is important for Bartimaeus. What might we discover in the story about Jesus and Bartimaeus? Will it matter to us?

This Sunday is a day in the church year called Pentecost, a day to celebrate when the “church” became the church with an outpouring of Spirit. Now two millennia later, we are going to ask what this Pentecost means for us and how Spirit plays in our lives today.