June 1, 2025
Beethoven, Joy and Strife
Walter used Beethoven’s example of finding joy in the midst of suffering to talk about the value of celebrating joy even when times are hard. (He was going to start listing all the ways in which we’ve been feeling hardship and loss lately, but the music got him too choked up.)
May 25, 2025
God in You Has Your Back
Walter’s homily shares a conversation that resonated with Jesus’ promise in John 14 that the Advocate would teach us everything. He went on to leave us with the paradox that God is in us and beyond us.
May 18, 2025
The Cost of Safety
Mark explores a story of Jesus’ encounter with a man cast out by a well-off society–a clear illustration of how bringing someone to safety costs someone else their comfort. The gospel story is a challenge particularly to the comfortable: stop protecting our own peace at the expense of others… and start creating safe space, even when it costs.
May 11, 2025
Playfulness – Is There A Point?
Today at 2nd Breakfast, Teena shared some thoughts, videos, and quotes, and invited us to wonder about playfulness.
May 4, 2025
Death & Resurrection
Last Sunday, we were privileged to experience this powerful message from a long-time friend of St. Croix Church, Dr. David Moore. David challenges us to consider the death and resurrection of Jesus as a message of divine solidarity and hope to all the Lazaruses of the world — to all the oppressed, tortured, cast out, and left for dead, Jesus says, “Come out, rise up, this is not the end.”
April 27, 2025
It is Good to See You
This Sunday Bradley Jersak shared a beautiful message with us: When we see each other with the “eyes of flesh,” we’re prone to all sorts of mistaken judgments. And when we see the world through “eyes of flesh,” we become overwhelmed and hopeless because we’re blinded to God’s everywhere presence and the beauty and love and light available all the time. But when we learn to “see with our hearts,” it’s as if the world is transfigured and those around us are precious beacons of light and hope. And how’s this for a future: “And every eye will see him, and he will wipe every tear from our eyes. No more suffering, no more death, because the Lamb will be their Shepherd.
April 20, 2025
With Us in Suffering, With Us in Love
In this Easter homily, Jess Williams reflects on the suffering of Christ and his unshakeable solidarity with humankind, and what it might mean that Love is with us at all times. She invites us to consider the cross as both a confrontation and an invitation to “love the world in all the painfully honest ways only you can love it.” (A New Spring, James A. Pearson, )
April 13, 2025
Joining Our Sorrows, Second Breakfast
During our Second Breakfast service this Sunday, Jess shared a poem by Padraig O’Tuama and an excerpt from an essay by Ross Gay, and then we took some time to gather around our tables to share our joys, our sorrows, and our hopes together.
April 6, 2025
Widening Circles
Rachael explores the idea that maturing faith is movement towards “more love and union – in ever widening circles” (Richard Rohr), asking what wisdom this vision could offer us for these days, how we see it expressed in Jesus, and what sandboxes, planks and annoying people can teach us!
March 30, 2025
Prodigal Love
In today’s homily, Jess Williams reflects on the parable of the prodigal son, inviting us to consider what the story reveals about both the vulnerability of God and parenthood, and the “wastefully extravagant” prodigal Love of the Divine.
March 23, 2025
The Wilderness of a Shifting Faith
Janell looks at our current theme through the lenses of a shifting faith. She shares a narrative of her experience deconstructing some of the foundational beliefs she was raised in and a few of the things that helped her navigate this wilderness.
March 16, 2025
Thoughts on Lions and Lambs and Leadership Through Difficult Times
Jess Williams reflects on the lion and lamb imagery used to describe the nature of Christ and how both of these can be useful in times like this. Then she invites the community to pray for the leadership of SCC, opening up a beautiful moment of mutual love and support for the church as a whole