Not Them, Lord

Not Them, Lord

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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God is Love

God is Love

On the morning of December 24, 2024, we are not yet to Christmas Eve. Instead, we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent and lighting the candle of Love. In this sermon, we conclude our Advent sermon series  talking about “the long thread of hope,” Remembering that Pastor Anne explained that one end of that strong cord is tied to the cross. This week we’ll look at the other end.

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Hoping for Joy

Hoping for Joy

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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The Long Thread of Hope

The Long Thread of Hope

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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Release The Kraken

Release The Kraken

In this, the final sermon of Pastor Anne Robertson’s Monster series, she asks us to consider why we might actually need monsters. Pastor Anne reflects on an essay by philosopher, writer, activist, and professor of psychology, Bayo Akomolfe

. “I say, ‘Release the Kraken!’ Unleash the primal on the familiar, disturb the edges, dispute the layers, find a place of stillness, press your ears to the ground to feel the rumblings of things outside your philosophy, linger by the shrubbery, improvise new rituals, pay homage to the nonhuman, and acknowledge the wilds whence you came.” —Bayo Akomolafe

Be sure to watch all the way to the end to see and hear our choir perform the Finale from Les Miserables. Soloists include James Guiterrez and Jenny Zuk, as well as Bryan Hilliard on trumpet and flugelhorn.

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The Monster Within

The Monster Within

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Werewolves, Vampires—these are all people who transform into monsters under certain circumstances. The warning they carry is that no human being is immune from taking a monstrous turn if the stars align; the struggle with our inner shadow is universal. How can we keep our own inner monsters in check?

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