First Presbyterian Church Of San Anselmo

Lesson: Ephesians 2:1-10. "God has brought us to this moment to tune our hearts to sing God's grace, to live gracefully connected to God and all people ever after. Here I raise my ebenezer."

Lesson: Mark 8:31-38. "What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? The connected you. The you that remembers God."

Lesson: Mark 1:9-15. "We invite you to take a stone home today. Let it remind you that we are called and then empowered to change – ourselves, and our world. Let it remind you, daily, of daily resurrection, of the stone God rolled away to raise Jesus, and rolls away in our lives as well. Now. And every single day.

Lesson: Mark 9:2-9. "However God shows up in your life, however you experience transformation, may your life be enriched by the experience of being present to God’s awesome power and transforming love."

Lessons: Psalm 147:1-11, 20c; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23. "The word for this kind of behavior, for Paul’s behavior, is not marketing, or evangelism, but hospitality."

Lesson: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. "We are the body of Christ. May we be neither neutral nor detached. May we choose community."

Lessons: Psalm 62, Mark 1:14-20. "Maybe not tomorrow, my friends, or next year, or in our lifetime, or even in a way that the rest of the world understands it. But brothers and sisters, believe the good news: the kingdom of God is here and we are called to work in it and for it and toward it, and everything’s gonna be all right."

Lesson: 1 Samuel 3:1-20. "Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Lessons: Isaiah 43:1-7, Mark 1:4-11. "And we belong to each other. When we are baptized with Christ, we are baptized into his ministry of grace, to love others as we are loved, to stand with everybody whose life is messy and complicated and hard which means: with everybody."

Lesson: John 1:1-18. "My New Year's prayer for all of us is that although Christmas is over, we will live a Christmas life, so that the light might continue shining on in even the darkest of places."

Lesson: Galatians 3:23-4:7. "Our totally true, totally present and unconditionally loving parent has adopted us not because of who we are but because of who God is."

Lesson: I Corinthians 1:3-9. "The path of love is the pathway out of the dark and toward the Advent hopes of peace and justice for all. These goals are worth working towards – they are worth the wait."

Lesson: Psalm 34:1-10, 22; Matthew 23:1-12. "To be a saint is to be our selves, working together with God in the creation of our own lives; not some perfect or false life but a humble life, a servant life that is in fact an exalted life because of the connection to each other and to God that humility expressed in service makes possible."

"May we practice. May we find time, regularly, to dwell in the presence of our God – the Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God-of-Angel-Armies protects us. May we be still-enough that the love and peace of God be known in our hearts this morning and always."

Lesson: Jeremiah 17:5-8. "Yet, our faith tells us of a radically different reality–one in which we have access to new life, in which evil and suffering are not the victors, in which we are nourished by God to bear fruit in defiance of the powers of death."

Lesson: Philippians 4:1-9. "When was the last time you rejoiced? I saw a New Yorker cartoon with a father and son in a car, and the father, who is driving, says to the son, “If you bring joy and enthusiasm to everything you do, people will think you’re crazy.”[8] No. They will think you’re Christiian.

Lesson: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20. "The path to freedom is through a wilderness of uncertainty and hard choices, and it takes a community of encouragement and discernment to help us figure out exactly how to love God and our neighbors, which is the only sure way we all will be free."

Lesson: Matthew 18:21-35. "We used to pray debts and debtors; many traditions pray trespasses rather than sins; but it all means the same thing. We are praying that God will forgive us, which Scripture says God does, freely, again and again, and we are praying for the ability and the will to forgive others – which does not come as naturally to us as it does to God and that’s why we need to pray it, week after week after week."

Lessons: Matthew 20:1-16. "Every creature God has made. Every single one, the apple of God's eye. God claims you. Today. That is grace. Reach out and accept the gift. May it be so for you and for me."