You're speakin' my language

You’re Speakin’ My Language

This is Rev. Marnie Leinberger’s sermon from Sunday, May 19, 2013. The scripture is Acts 2:1-21. In our service we read from the New Revised Standard Version and from The Message, a modern interpretation by Eugene Peterson. We read both with the hope that our understanding will be enriched.

This is from The Message:
1When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. 3Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, 4and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. 5There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. 6When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. 7They couldn't for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, "Aren't these all Galileans? 8How come we're hearing them talk in our various mother tongues? 9Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene; Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; 11Even Cretans and Arabs! "They're speaking our languages, describing God's mighty works!" 12Their heads were spinning; they couldn't make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: "What's going on here?" 13Others joked, "They're drunk on cheap wine."14That's when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: "Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. 15These people aren't drunk as some of you suspect. They haven't had time to get drunk—it's only nine o'clock in the morning. 16This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen: 17"In the Last Days," God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people:  Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters; Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams. 18When the time comes, I'll pour out my Spirit on those who serve me, men and women both, and they'll prophesy. 19I'll set wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billowing smoke, 20the sun turning black and the moon blood-red, before the Day of the Lord arrives, the day tremendous and marvelous; 21And whoever calls out for help  to me, God, will be saved."

The New Revised Standard Version can be found here.

You're Speakin' My Language

Rita's Shared Story

Listen as Rita shares a story by her son, Jed, and how he saw God in a little girl's generosity.

Rita's Story

One, But Not the Same

One, But Not the Same

This is Rev. Marnie Leinberger’s sermon from Sunday, May 12, 2013. The scripture is John 17:20-26. In our service we read from the New Revised Standard Version and from The Message, a modern interpretation by Eugene Peterson. We read both with the hope that our understanding will be enriched.

This is from The Message:
20I’m praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me. 21The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. 22The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are—23I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you’ve loved me. 24Father, I want those you gave me to be with me, right where I am, so they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me, having loved me long before there ever was a world. 25Righteous Father, the world has never known you, but I have known you, and these disciples know that you sent me on this mission.26 I have made your very being known to them—who you are and what you do—and continue to make it known, so that your love for me might be in them exactly as I am in them.

The New Revised Standard Version can be found here.

One, But Not the Same

Sandra's show and tell

Listen as Sandy shares how she sees God in her reunited family.

Sandy's show and tell

Poolside

Poolside

This is Rev. Marnie Leinberger’s sermon from Sunday, May 5, 2013. The scripture is John 5:1-9. In our service we read from the New Revised Standard Version and from The Message, a modern interpretation by Eugene Peterson. We read both with the hope that our understanding will be enriched.

This is from The Message:
1Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. 2Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. 3Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. 5One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?” 7 The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.” 8Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” 9The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off. That day happened to be the Sabbath.

The New Revised Standard Version can be found here.

Poolside

Karen's show and tell

Listen as Karen shares how she sees God, even when things are difficult and frustrating.

Karen's Show and Tell

Them and Us

Them and Us

This is Rev. Marnie Leinberger’s sermon from Sunday, April 28, 2013. The scripture is Acts 11:1-18. In our service we read from the New Revised Standard Version and from The Message, a modern interpretation by Eugene Peterson. We read both with the hope that our understanding will be enriched.

This is from The Message:
1-3 The news traveled fast and in no time the leaders and friends back in Jerusalem heard about it—heard that the non-Jewish “outsiders” were now “in.” When Peter got back to Jerusalem, some of his old associates, concerned about circumcision, called him on the carpet: “What do you think you’re doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited and ruining our good name?”  4-6 So Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out for them step-by-step: “Recently I was in the town of Joppa praying. I fell into a trance and saw a vision: Something like a huge blanket, lowered by ropes at its four corners, came down out of heaven and settled on the ground in front of me. Milling around on the blanket were farm animals, wild animals, reptiles, birds—you name it, it was there. Fascinated, I took it all in. 7-10 “Then I heard a voice: ‘Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, Master. I’ve never so much as tasted food that wasn’t kosher.’ The voice spoke again: ‘If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.’ This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the sky. 11-14 “Just then three men showed up at the house where I was staying, sent from Caesarea to get me. The Spirit told me to go with them, no questions asked. So I went with them, I and six friends, to the man who had sent for me. He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, ‘Send to Joppa and get Simon, the one they call Peter. He’ll tell you something that will save your life—in fact, you and everyone you care for.’ 15-17 “So I started in, talking. Before I’d spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus’ words: ‘John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?” 18 Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. “It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!”

The New Revised Standard Version can be found here.

Them and Us

Karen's show and tell

Listen as Karens shares how she sees God in her Grandmother, and in her Grandmother's generosity.

Karen's Show and Tell

Only Light Can Do That

Only Light Can Do That

This is Rev. Marnie Leinberger’s sermon from Sunday, April 21, 2013. The scripture is Acts 9:36-43. In our service we read from the New Revised Standard Version and from The Message, a modern interpretation by Eugene Peterson. We read both with the hope that our understanding will be enriched.

This is from The Message:
36Down the road a way in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, “Gazelle” in our language. She was well-known for doing good and helping out. 37During the time Peter was in the area she became sick and died. Her friends prepared her body for burial and put her in a cool room. 38Some of the disciples had heard that Peter was visiting in nearby Lydda and sent two men to ask if he would be so kind as to come over. 39Peter got right up and went with them. They took him into the room where Tabitha’s body was laid out. Her old friends, most of them widows, were in the room mourning. They showed Peter pieces of clothing the Gazelle had made while she was with them. 40Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body: “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. 41He took her hand and helped her up. Then he called in the believers and widows, and presented her to them alive. 42When this became known all over Joppa, many put their trust in the Master. 43Peter stayed on a long time in Joppa as a guest of Simon the Tanner.

The New Revised Standard Version can be found here.

Only Light Can Do That

Aiden and Lyndsay, Show and Tell

Listen as Aiden explains what Destination Imagination is (we all see God in Aiden) and as Lyndsay shares how she sees God in answered prayers and the following video:

Aiden and Lyndsay's show and tell