When people talk about “family values” in the Bible, I often wonder which family they’re talking about. For this last Sunday before Lent begins, we’re going to travel back to Genesis and visit with Abraham’s twin grandsons, Jacob and Esau. There are enough choices here to fill a month, but I’ll try to narrow it to just a few as we look at the twins who literally came out of the womb wrestling for control.
— Pastor Anne
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One of the worst decisions in the Bible is made by a person most people have never heard of: Rehoboam, son of Solomon. As the United Monarchy in Israel is teetering on the brink of civil war, King Solomon dies and the country looks to Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, to unite them. It does not go well.
This week’s sermon title, The Torn Fabric, is taken from a scene right before the story when a prophet in the court (who you’ve also likely never heard of) sees the looming disaster and rips the new garment he is wearing into 12 pieces. It is torn to predict the splintering of Israel’s twelve tribes that is to come. Sunday we’ll look at what went wrong and how it might speak to us in our divided world
— Pastor Anne
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Choice is a topic that looms large in 2024. From a presidential election to reproductive choice to the United Methodist Church deciding in May how we will move forward as a denomination, there are major choices to be made this year that will have lasting effects. So our theme at Crawford for all of 2024 is “A Time for Choosing.”
Here at the outset of the year, we’re going to set the stage by exploring choices made by characters in the Bible. From now until Lent begins, we will look at characters who made choices that most would consider bad choices—if not sinful, then at least ones that caused more problems than other options. Then during Lent, we’ll compare those poor choices with choices that Jesus makes during his ministry.
To kick off our set of poor choices, we turn this coming Sunday to the story of Jonah. If you’ve never read Jonah, pick up a Bible and read the book bearing his name in the Old Testament. (Or read it online, here.) It’s only four chapters long and a good read. Jonah is an important figure for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, so you really should know his story. Then, come Sunday, we’ll look at why he made the choices he did and what we might learn from his mistakes as we make choices of our own.
— Pastor Anne
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As we follow the long thread of hope through Advent, we arrive at the week when our Advent Wreath encourages us to think about joy. Like hope, joy is not something we get right out of the box. Here we explore how we get there and how Paul can possibly expect us to “rejoice always.”
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Hope is the theme of the First Sunday of Advent, but we’re going to stretch it across the entire season as we hope for peace, joy, and love. In a society where we expect our transactions and communications to be instantaneous, the more sublime virtues of faith require patience. How can we sustain hope in a world that wants hope’s fulfillment yesterday? Welcome to Advent.
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