Westminster Presbyterian Church, Alexandria Va

Rev. Dr. Kathryn Grieb, Virginia Theological Seminary, reflects on the experience of the early church, as described in the book of Acts, in dealing with both personal and social change. This week's theme is "From Private Property to the Common Good." Through May 21.

Those of us who are well-acquainted with the story of the resurrection still desire to encounter it anew. How can we experience the resurrection as something that is vivid and real to the heartbeat of this life, not just some promise of the life that is to come or some story from many years ago? Patrick Hunnicutt preaches on Luke 24:13–35.

When the risen Christ appears to his disciples as a body in John, Christ bestows upon them the power to represent him in the world, and the power to "forgive" and "retain" sin. What does this offering of forgiveness do for us today? Larry Hayward preaches on John 20:19-23.

Rev. Dr. Kathryn Grieb, Virginia Theological Seminary, reflects on the experience of the early church, as described in the book of Acts, in dealing with both personal and social change. This week's theme is "From Saness to Joy and from Easter to Pentecost." Through May 21.

The only real way we can respond to the resurrection of Christ is to fall down and worship. For people of faith, worship is crucial in accepting and preparing for a great responsibility, for our Great Commission. Larry Hayward preaches on Easter Sunday from Matthew 28:1–10, 16–20.

Today is traditionally known as Palm Sunday, the day in which Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and was greeted by crowds waving palm branches and cheering, a day that leads to Jesus’ death but ultimately to his resurrection. It is the resurrection of Christ that makes his teaching beyond that of a great teacher, his death beyond that of a martyr, his life beyond that of other great lives, both those lived to their fullness of days and those cut short by human conflict and violence. And it all begins with a procession into Jerusalem on a donkey, to the waving of branches and shouts of “Hosanna!” Dr. Larry Hayward preaches today on Matthew 21:1-11, using Mary Oliver’s poem, “The Poet Thinks About the Donkey.” This sermon was preached at the 8:30 a.m. service.

Dr. Victoria Barnett, Director of Programs on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, challenges our understanding of how the Holocaust radically transformed the relationship between Christians and Jews. She will provide an overview of the role Christian churches played and explore post-Holocaust conversations between Christians and Jews. One session will focus on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s role in this history.

In today's story, Jesus finds his friends in difficult places, filled with fear and grief. In times of our own fear and grief, we often ask the same thing they did: “Why?” Jesus says, “Come, and see.” Casey FitzGerald preaches on John 11:1-54.

King David is a person with tremendous capacity for good and evil, compassion and cruelty, tenderness and violence. Why would an all-powerful and all-knowing God invest God’s very self in a person like David – or for that matter a person like you or me? Why would God take such risk? Larry Hayward preaches from 1 Samuel 16:1-13.

Dr. Victoria Barnett, Director of Programs on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, challenges our understanding of how the Holocaust radically transformed the relationship between Christians and Jews. She will provide an overview of the role Christian churches played and explore post-Holocaust conversations between Christians and Jews. One session will focus on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s role in this history.

Over 3500 years span the calendar between the people of Israel in the wilderness, Christ and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, and Van Morrison in the Irish countryside. But each experiences water as an entry point of a deeper experience of God. Larry Hayward preaches from Exodus 17:1–7 and John 4:7–15.

Dr. Victoria Barnett, Director of Programs on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, challenges our understanding of how the Holocaust radically transformed the relationship between Christians and Jews. She will provide an overview of the role Christian churches played and explore post-Holocaust conversations between Christians and Jews. One session will focus on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s role in this history.

Faith normally comes to us in a place and may take us to another place, but it is rarely if ever “place-less.” We can never underestimate the role of geography in forming our faith, giving it roots, leading it to live. Even when geography is the source of friction and pain, we cannot escape it. Our faith takes form around place. Larry Hayward preaches today from Genesis 12:1-4.

In eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the woman and man were not giving into or falling into some base, lower nature; rather they were rising, extending themselves, aspiring to exceed and excel. They were responding to all that is good and noble, hopeful and helpful, not base or demeaning: Nourishment, beauty, knowledge. What’s not to like? Larry Hayward preaches today on Genesis 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11.

Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana, writer and Presbyterian pastor, leads us in Improvising with God. How is God at work in our lives and how do we respond? Examples of God’s improvisation from scripture are explored as we challenge ourselves to see God in creative and surprising ways through music, pop culture, literature and psychology.

Third of a three-class series on world religions and Christian theology that adopts a way of belonging, behaving, and believing for the common good.

We welcome to our service the Reverend Whitney K. Fauntleroy, the Westminster Associate Pastor Nominating Committee’s candidate for Associate Pastor for Youth & Young Adults. Reverend Fauntleroy comes to us from Wilmington, NC. She holds a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Youth and Young Adult Ministry from Princeton Theological Seminary. Reverend Fauntleroy preaches today from 1 Samuel 3:1-10.

Sathi Clarke, Wesley Seminary’s Chair in World Christianity and Professor of Theology, Culture & Mission Second of a three-class series on world religions and Christian theology that adopts a way of belonging, behaving, and believing for the common good.

Dr. Larry Hayward concludes an accidental sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount, preaching on Matthew 5:38-48. How do we address the gap between the demands of these words of Jesus and the world in which we seek to understand and live them out?

In her sermon a few weeks ago, Casey FitzGerald challenged us to re-engage with Scripture such that we might see the tension within it; between it and ourselves; and between it, ourselves, and our world. Today, she leads us in hearing a large piece of Scripture—three chapters from the gospel of Matthew—that our time in worship does not normally afford us to hear. Let anyone with ears, listen.