Lent

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Ashes to Go: Get yours on the run Feb. 14

by Trina Kleist

Ash Wednesday for the busy believer! For people who don’t have time to get to church for the traditional start to Lent on Feb. 14, PEACE Lutheran Church in Grass Valley offers a solution: Ashes to go. Commuters and folks on their lunch breaks can drive to the church at 828 W. Main St. and […]

Sunday, April 9: Palm Sunday!

by Trina Kleist

Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday! Today begins the highest holy days of the Christian church. (And no, it’s not Christmas!) We lead up to Easter on April 16 with a rollercoaster of drama and emotion. We’ll start by raising up palm branches at both worship services today – 8:30 and 11 a.m. Gather with […]

Sunday, April 2: Life or death?

by Trina Kleist

Will you choose death or life? God already chose you a long time ago. You can choose to turn away, and that’s OK. But if you open your heart to God, guess what? You get life – and bunches of it! Life and death – and God’s life-giving Spirit – run through all of today’s […]

Sunday, March 26: Get lit!

by Trina Kleist

Jesus invites you to get lit! When someone says, “that’s lit,” these days it means something is cool or pleasing or maybe even exciting. A somewhat older meaning is that a person is quite drunk, as in, “wow, he was really lit.” Both these meanings have in their background the idea of light, of shining […]

Sunday, March 12: A new beginning!

by Trina Kleist

Are you looking for a new beginning? There was this guy, Nicodemus, who was beginning to wonder about Jesus. Nicodemus was a high-level man in the most influential Jewish circles of the time. Educated and analytical, steeped in the scriptures, Nicodemus wondered about this wandering preacher, Jesus, who was transforming crowds with his strange talk […]

Sunday, March 5: Temptation and Bread

by Trina Kleist

Even Jesus faced temptation! So what does that mean for me? Temptation comes to Jesus right after the amazing moment when he is baptized and revealed as God’s Son. Then, the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness, where Jesus fasts for 40 days. (What a contrast that must have been!) The Devil comes to […]

Sunday, March 13: Rwanda Sunday today!

by Trina Kleist

How costly is your devotion? Mary and her sister Martha were dear friends of Jesus. But after Jesus raised their brother, Lazarus, from the dead, Mary’s devotion to her Lord reached a new spiritual depth. Mary has spent 300 silver coins for expensive perfume in today’s Gospel story. She rubs it onto Jesus’ hot, tired […]

Sunday, March 6: Alive again!

by Trina Kleist

Like father, like The Father God waits for us. That’s probably the most important message of Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son in today’s Gospel reading. That’s the story of the greedy and materialistic younger son who asks Dad to get his inheritance early, then quickly squanders that wealth on wild living. The son finally wakes […]

Sunday, Feb. 28: Is your tree barren?

by Trina Kleist

Try some spiritual fertilizer! Some Christians imagine either themselves or other people to be no more than barren trees that might as well be uprooted and tossed into the compost heap. Come to worship this Sunday and hear what the Divine Gardener says about barren trees. We are in the season of Lent – the […]

Sunday, Feb. 14: Celebrating God’s love

by Trina Kleist

Abundant love that never fails! It’s Valentine’s Day, and while we celebrate human love today, we always are grateful for God’s abundant, lavish love that never ends and never fails us! Jesus was God’s love-in-the-flesh, showing us how much God loves us and how God wants us to act toward God and toward each other. […]