The Table UMC

Contrast the domination system against the kingdom of God: our faith gives us a vision of the world organized around love and justice rather than power and domination — a vision in tension with the kingdoms of this world. Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

One of the highest challenges to Christians. What does this mean, and ask of us, in relation to real-life “enemies”? Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

If every human being bears the divine image (which scripture says we do), then we must affirm a fundamental human dignity/sacred worth that obligates us to oppose systems that degrade human beings. Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

Pentecost Sunday commemorates the Pentecost event in the book of Acts, when people from all across the world speaking many languages could suddenly understand one another through the movement of the Holy Spirit. Symbols are fire and wind. Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

Being awake to God, learning to be comfortable in our own skin, leaning into our pain, being open to the journey, and embracing restfulness are some of the ways we’ve explored what it might look like for us to become more fully alive. Notice that what we have explored has been less about attaining something and instead more about becoming aware that the means are already ours. As author Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, “All we lack is the willingness

Barbara Brown Taylor says, “In a world of too much information about almost everything, bodily practices can provide great relief. … In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.” We continue this week with our Easter season theme, “Come Alive!”, offering an invitation for us to come more fully alive. In the first version (yes, there are two) of the fourth commandment (Ex.

In our scripture reading for this Sunday, we find Abram setting out on a journey, heading into an unknown land. This is just one of many journeys we find throughout scripture – journeys taken by many prominent figures of our faith. Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

The book of Job is not an easy read. And it is deeply connected with Easter. Job’s story is essentially a passion narrative in wisdom form. Job suffers unjustly, is abandoned by friends, and cries out to a seemingly absent God — mirroring Good Friday. Job refuses false comfort or tidy theology. He brings his raw anguish directly to God rather than suppressing it. His cries mirror Jesus’ from the cross — “My God, my God, why have you forsaken

John’s gospel begins by telling us that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:14) Reflecting on the gospel of John, preaching professor Karoline Lewis writes: “This is a full sensory Gospel. Sometimes it’s tasting (John 6), sometimes it’s smelling (John 11), sometimes it’s hearing (John 10), sometimes it’s touching (John 13:23), and sometimes it is seeing. This is what it means to be human and to experience relationships as human beings. A full, intimate, meaningful relationship will

Jacob is desperately seeking to get far away from a family situation that has imploded. Seized by a mixture of guilt, shame, and fear he runs off trying to put as much distance between him and his family as possible. He lays down to sleep in the midst of a rocky wilderness feeling as desolate and lonely as his surroundings. While he sleeps, he dreams of a ladder stretching from heaven to earth and recognizes the abiding presence of God

Lent was originally a season for new converts to learn and prepare for their baptism on Easter. During that time, they would study what was central to Christianity. As we enter this new series, we study what is central to Jesus’ life and ministry: radical welcome, love for neighbor, care for the vulnerable, nourishment for the hungry, nonviolence in the face of injustice. At the heart of Jesus’ teachings, we find liberation, love, mercy, and grace—all of which are meant

Lent was originally a season for new converts to learn and prepare for their baptism on Easter. During that time, they would study what was central to Christianity. As we enter this new series, we study what is central to Jesus’ life and ministry: radical welcome, love for neighbor, care for the vulnerable, nourishment for the hungry, nonviolence in the face of injustice. At the heart of Jesus’ teachings, we find liberation, love, mercy, and grace—all of which are meant

This Sunday we will observe Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the final week of Jesus’ life, a span of time that Christian tradition has come to refer to as Holy Week. While the week culminates in the events of Good Friday and Easter, the movement through the entire week tells us of significant interactions with followers as well as definitive confrontations with adversaries, each of which brings greater clarity about how Jesus understood his mission, to incarnate

While Jesus is teaching in the Temple, some scribes and Pharisees interrupt Jesus to put both him and a woman caught in adultery on trial. Their questioning intensifies as they cite Mosaic Law and put the woman’s fate in Jesus’ hands. Instead of focusing on punishment, Jesus flips the script and invites each person to consider their own sin; Jesus defuses the spectacle by condemning no one. Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

Jesus was a first-century Jew, and our scripture reading this week comes from the Hebrew scriptures that would have shaped Jesus’ own theology and ethics. Our friends at “A Sanctified Art”, who developed our theme for this season, say: “Throughout his ministry, Jesus emphasized the last, the least, and the lost, building upon the mandates of the Hebrew Scriptures to care for the immigrant, widow, and orphan among you.” Retired religious studies professor Heather Anne Thiessen has pulled together some

John’s Gospel doesn’t begin with a temptation story but instead opens Jesus’ ministry with a wedding miracle, a miracle Jesus enacted seemingly for the sole purpose of expanding joy by keeping the good vibes flowing (literally). It may feel a bit lavish to start the season of Lent with a wedding banquet, but the good news begins with joy. This week we focus on the subversive and playful nature of the good news. The kin-dom of heaven is so good

John’s Gospel doesn’t begin with a temptation story but instead opens Jesus’ ministry with a wedding miracle, a miracle Jesus enacted seemingly for the sole purpose of expanding joy by keeping the good vibes flowing (literally). It may feel a bit lavish to start the season of Lent with a wedding banquet, but the good news begins with joy. This week we focus on the subversive and playful nature of the good news. The kin-dom of heaven is so good

Ash Wednesday at The Table. Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804

Focus this week is on who is with Jesus, referring to forefathers of Jesus, Moses and Elijah, and the contemporaries of Jesus: Peter, James and John (Jesus’ present), and who “walks alongside” us – from the past and present. Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804