Coming Up in Worship (and, therefore, on the ol' blog...)

(I was away yesterday (as you'll see below), and so there is no weekly sermon this week...but otherwise, we are back to our regularly scheduled programming here in our deranged little corner of the Christian blogosphere! -E.A.)

With Lent just around the corner (Ash Wednesday is in nine days, yikes...), I am excited to announce our sermon series for this important liturgical season: "Loss, Mercy, and Redemption: The Luke 15 Parables."  As described below from our newsletter, this series will be a five-week journey through three famous parables, all organized into one tidy chapter by Luke.  We'll spend one week apiece on the first two parables: the shepherd with the lost sheep and the woman with the lost coin, before taking three weeks to dissect the well-known and well-loved parable of the Prodigal Son.

I have been looking forward for a long time to sharing this series with FCC and with y'all here at the Project, and look for these sermons to start coming out on the 17th!  I hope to see you if you're around here, or that you'll follow along if you're a friend from far away!

Yours in Christ,
Eric

This Month in Worship: February 2013

If it's February, then we must be preparing for two big times--Valentine's Day and the season of Lent!  Believe it or not, both are all about love--the Valentine's Day one is obvious, but Lent is also about God's love for us because it culminates in the Passion story of Jesus dying and resurrecting for us!

And though I will not be with you the first Sunday in February, I am looking forward to what is in store.  For the months of February and March, we will be living entirely in Luke's Gospel, with first a look at Luke's account of the Transfiguration in Luke 9.  Then, when Lent itself starts after Ash Wednesday, we will begin a five-week sermon series that goes verse by verse through the three parables Jesus tells in Luke 15: the shepherd with the lone stray sheep, the woman with the lost coin, and--most famously--the prodigal son.  We'll be exploring those parables through the lenses of loss, mercy, and redemption, as we go through Lent preparing to lose Jesus to the cross, to seek God's mercy for our sins, and to be redeemed by His resurrection on Easter Sunday in March.  It promises to be a fantastic sermon series, and I look forward to sharing it with you!

I'll see you Sunday,
Pastor Eric

February 3: Rev. Dr. James Conrod, guest preaching

February 10: “Sol Invictus,” Luke 9:28-36

February 13 (Ash Wednesday, 7:00 pm): “Your Broken Crown,” Luke 4:1-13

New Sermon Series, Lent 2013: “Loss, Mercy, and Redemption: The Luke 15 Parables”

February 17: “More Equal Than Others,” Luke 15:1-7

February 24: “Kjeragbolten,” Luke 15:8-10