Grace for the Journey


“Fulfilled in Your Hearing” - Third Sunday after Epiphany

By Pastor Scott Schul
January 26, 2025

It was near the end of July 2022, and my sabbatical month in the north of England was rapidly coming to a close.  My family and I had enjoyed visiting a vast number of old Anglo Saxon and medieval English churches in that region.  But we were now reaching our capac...

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"Transforming Lives with Jesus" - Second Sunday after Epiphany

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
January 19, 2025

One of the advantages of age is slowing down, insofar as it gives us insight a faster pace might miss. Today we’re going to apply that to the gospel. Imagine being told to do whatever Jesus tells you and what he says is “go draw enough water to fill all these jars-...

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How to be a Christian - Baptism of Our Lord Sunday

By Pastor Scott Schul
January 12, 2025

Friends, what’s one of the first things you receive when you start anew job? In most cases it’s a job description and an employment manual. That’s how you know what you’ve been hired to do, including your direct responsibilities and the limitations of your...

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"What's God Up To?" - Epiphany Sunday

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
January 05, 2025

To those with insider information, the Wise Men are not the intended recipients of the royal announcement. The announcement is for the chosen who pore over the scriptures and know all the rituals. Some might say the visitors from afar were spiritually lost even more than geogr...

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Jesus At Home With Us - Christmas Day

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
December 25, 2024

In the weeks before Christmas, people ask if I will be doing anything special for Christmas, or if I get to go home for Christmas, or if I am having everyone home for Christmas. These social niceties are on auto pilot and kindly meant, but it surprises some if I remind them th...

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Zealous - Christmas Eve

By Pastor Scott Schul
December 24, 2024

Friends, our second reading tonight, from Titus, urges us to be “zealous for good deeds.”  Zealous isn’t a word we use all that often, so it caught my attention.  What does it mean to be zealous?  Well, synonyms for that word include eager, ea...

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Blessed is the One Who Believes - Fourth Sunday of Advent

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
December 22, 2024

Awhile back a guy walks into Grace in shorts, a hoodie and ball cap, wanting to talk to someone about a fundraiser. Immediately I prepared for a request of us but was surprised that when we sat down to talk, he meant that his business was doing a fundraiser for families at Chr...

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We Just Have to Be Human - Service for Weary Hearts

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
December 19, 2024

Have you ever had days where everything seems a far bigger struggle than it should be? Maybe when you didn’t feel well or were recuperating from a procedure,  or were trying to figure out new medications. Maybe you were recovering from a shock or trying to make sen...

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The Peaceable Kingdom - Second Midweek Advent Service

By Pastor Scott Schul
December 11, 2024

Tonight’s lesson contains two separate prophecies.  The one at the beginning is, at least for Christians, straightforward.  We believe that these verses are God’s promise to send a messiah, a savior, who would free and deliver Isaiah’s people from t...

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Save Us From Our Enemies - Second Sunday of Advent

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
December 08, 2024

“Through your holy prophets, you promised of old to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us, to show mercy to us. This was the oath you swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies.” These words...

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Here Is Your God - First Midweek Advent Service

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
December 04, 2024

There was a time when people knew God’s promise kept. They reached a land and possessed it. A good and generous land with resources beyond imagining. But the land “decisively transformed them. It seduced them until they wanted more and more land, more and more sec...

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Be Little Children - First Sunday of Advent

By Pastor Scott Schul
December 01, 2024

“Be on guard,” says Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson.  “Be alert at all times,” he then adds.  They aren’t the celebratory, joyful words we might be expecting as a new liturgical year begins amidst the sparkling blue of our Advent par...

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Praying for our Enemies - Thanksgiving Eve

By Pastor Scott Schul
November 27, 2024

Surveys suggest that only about half of the people gathered around the table tomorrow at Thanksgiving dinner will pray.  Some families who don’t engage in a traditional prayer will instead take turns naming a few things they’re thankful for.  If we trea...

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The Season's Not Over - Kingdom of Christ Sunday

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
November 24, 2024

For the first time since I came to Grace, when I shared what I’m about to say, one person was very happy and another said they were going to boycott church. Don’t worry, it’s a football thing. The year was 1968, and after defeating the Dallas Cowboys in the f...

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Birth Pangs - 26th Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
November 17, 2024

A few weeks ago, a female member of our congregation called me to update me on the health of her husband.  Before giving me the details, she hesitated for a moment and then said, “Pastor, no offense, but you men are the WORST patients.”  Well how could I ...

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All in For Love - 25th Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
November 10, 2024

There’s a name given for the kind of reading we have today in the gospel- it’s a controversy story. Even this name may make us want to cringe and tune out in our current climate but stick with me. Jesus and some of the religious leaders are debating each other at t...

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“Jesus Wept” - All Saints Sunday

By Pastor Scott Schul
November 03, 2024

Jesus’s miraculous raising of Lazarus occurs at the very center of John’s Gospel.  Ten chapters precede this remarkable story, and ten chapters follow it.  That wasn’t a mere coincidence.  John was making the point that this miracle is not just...

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Continuing in God's Word - Reformation Sunday

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
October 27, 2024

Life is full of change. There is a dizzying pace of teaching and feeding and healing and confrontations that lead up to today in the gospel. Jesus has said “I am the light of the world whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” C...

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True Greatness - 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
October 20, 2024

When you’re together with a group of friends, a nice way to pass a little time is to put your heads together and compile your lists of the all-time greats. List your top five rock bands… your top three all-time TV shows… the ten greatest movies… or mayb...

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What to Let Go - 21st Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
October 13, 2024

When I began seminary in 2007, the Pennsylvania Turnpike had instituted EZ Pass which made my commuting life inherently easier. No longer would I need to wait in line, have money, be stuck behind someone who was also asking the toll booth attendant for directions. I didn&rsquo...

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Glimpses of God's Kingdom - Fifth Sunday of the Season of Creation

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
October 06, 2024

This Sunday is All Creatures Sunday at Grace, as we conclude the Season of Creation. Each week the readings have focused upon creation and our place within it, from forests to rivers to storms to all creatures. We have joined churches around the world encouraging each other to li...

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Storms - Fourth Sunday of the Season of Creation

By Pastor Scott Schul
September 29, 2024

Some days are forgotten as soon as the sun sets.  Other days become forever seared in your memory.  One day I’ll never forget was Friday, May 31, 1985.  I was home in Kane at the conclusion of my freshman year of college.  It had been a very ordinary...

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The Song of the Trees - Third Sunday in the Season of Creation

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
September 22, 2024

From the dawn of time, trees have been witnesses to creation in all its glory and despair. Genesis tells us trees saw the first sunrise, having been created before the sun and moon were placed in the sky. Every major theme in God’s story with creation involves trees, from t...

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Roll On, Beloved Rivers of Grace - Second Sunday of the Season of Creation (Rivers/Waterways)

By Pastor Scott Schul
September 15, 2024

Nearly every Sunday at Grace we recite the Apostles Creed, a statement of faith which developed over the first few hundred years of the Christian Church. It’s a distillation – a summary – of the teachings of Jesus’s first apostles. When we recite it, we ar...

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Who Am I - First Sunday of the Season of Creation

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
September 08, 2024

Years ago Michael and I traveled to the Southwest to hike national parks like the Grand Canyon, and also Monument Valley, the national park of the Dine’ nation, people we call “Navajo.” Monument Valley is one of the few remaining locations in the United States w...

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And Let It Begin with Me - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
September 01, 2024

Way back in January, Linda and I spent a week in Cyprus.  We were guests of the Orthodox Bishop of Limmasol, an invitation that came about because he and I had a friend in common, a professor in Maine who knew the right people to contact.  It opened a bunch of unexp...

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God's Got You! - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
August 25, 2024

To pick up on what our Faith Formation team shared today, “You’ve Got This!” And more importantly, “God’s Got YOU!” So we’re going to practice that. Each time I raise my hand, you all are going to say, “God’s Got YOU!&rdquo...

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Ask Me - Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
August 18, 2024

If you’ve been following along these past few weeks in the gospel, Jesus has been talking about being the bread of life. Today, I’m going to give you something different to chew on-that’s a really bad pun. Imagine right now, today God shows up in flesh and b...

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Not a Symbol - Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
August 11, 2024

Our world is awash in symbols.  Not “cymbals” like drummers smash and crash.  I’m talking about symbols with an “s,” things that represent other things.  Symbols are such a common communication tool that we rarely give them much tho...

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Manna - Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
August 04, 2024

Have you ever been “hangry”?  It’s that feeling of being irritable when you’re hungry.  That word is a recent invention, but the feeling is as old as time itself, as we see in today’s first lesson.  The Israelites had lost their pa...

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Not Enough - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
July 28, 2024

Do you realize the power each of us has over complete strangers to make them feel frightened and weak, or cared for and safe? It is difficult to explain the enormous power that human words have, but we create and sure are fed a steady diet of them. Now, think about the total numb...

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Rest a While - Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
July 21, 2024

The Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter seasons take us directly into the drama of Jesus’s birth and death.  Those stories are foundational for us, because in Christ’s miraculous birth and salvific death, we have the assurance of forgiveness, and the peace of ...

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"Now What?" - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
July 14, 2024

Today I’d like everyone to be seated as we hear the gospel, because I would like everyone to immerse themselves in this gospel and imagine you are there because questions will arise- “Now what?” “Where’s the good news?” The Gospel Text: Mar...

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Sand - Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
July 07, 2024

Two Sundays ago I spoke with you about how when we’re suffering trials and tribulations, it can feel like we’re in a boat in a stormy sea, alone, in danger, and forgotten by everyone, even our Lord.  And based on a story in Mark’s Gospel about a storm l...

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The Whole Truth - Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
June 30, 2024

“How are you?” This simple question gets asked a lot in the course of our travels each week. When I was little, I remember someone asking my Pop how he was and he then proceeded to regale them with a laundry list of his physical ailments, medications and how his ca...

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Hope in the Storm - Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
June 23, 2024

Memories can be funny things.  Some, even those that are quite recent, can be fleeting, like what you had to eat a week ago Thursday.  But others become firmly imprinted on our minds, hearts, and souls, like scenes in a movie, no matter how long ago they happened.&nb...

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Love Urges Us On - Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
June 16, 2024

When our daughter and son in law moved overseas to Finland for Alex to pursue her master’s degree, Landry’s family in Texas thought that was just about the wildest thing they could ever imagine. Not only were they not moving to Texas which was a sore spot, but jump...

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Liar, Lunatic, or Lord? - Third Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Scott Schul
June 09, 2024

Friends, the validity, truthfulness, and relevance of Christianity and its claims of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life depend upon one person, Jesus of Nazareth.  He claimed to be more than just Mary’s son.  He said he was God’s son.  The Bib...

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Stretch Out Your Hand - Second Sunday after Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
June 02, 2024

Have you ever noticed that Jesus walked a lot? Through the countryside, by the Sea of Galilee, in the Temple, even on water. Walking takes time, so much so today that often when we think about going somewhere, we choose to drive. Walking gave Jesus time to see things. And thr...

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The Wrong Questions - The Holy Trinity

By Pastor Scott Schul
May 26, 2024

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Nicodemus asks, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?  Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  Those questions reveal Nicodemus’s misunderstanding about everything Jesus wa...

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Renew the Face of the Earth - Pentecost

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
May 19, 2024

Many of you are probably expecting me to talk about fire and wind, and I say instead: “How many your deeds, O Lord! All of them you do in wisdom. The earth is full of your creatures. The sea is where creatures beyond number stir, the little, the large and the ...

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Ascension - The Ascension of Our Lord

By Pastor Scott Schul
May 12, 2024

To paraphrase today’s lesson from Acts, I ask you, people of Grace: why are you looking at the paschal candle we just extinguished?  The reason of course is that for seven Sundays in a row we’ve lit that candle as a symbol of the resurrected Christ’s pr...

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Stay Close - Sixth Sunday of Easter

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
May 05, 2024

Last week I had the joy of seeing writer Kate Bowler speak on the campus of United Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg. If you are not familiar with her, Kate Bowler is an academic at Duke University whose career was on the rise. She was married with two lovely young children whe...

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Interdependence - Fifth Sunday of Easter

By Pastor Scott Schul
April 28, 2024

Can you think of people who changed your life?  Who are the people whose presence positively impacted what you do, who you are, what you believe, or where you live?  We all have people like that, and they hold an honored place in our hearts.  Often it seems the...

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Love in Truth and Action - Fourth Sunday of Easter

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick, Deacon Sarah Kretschmann
April 21, 2024

The 4th century theologian Jerome tells a story about the Apostle John, who was old and frail and unable to walk. His disciples would carry him each week into worship, where his words to them were: “Little children, love one another.” This went on week after week,...

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Christ Alone - Third Sunday of Easter

By Pastor Scott Schul
April 14, 2024

There are lots of ways to get an education.  High School.  College.  Trade Schools.  Graduate programs.  But it seems like the most effective and lasting lessons we learn come from experience.  Now, I hope that last Monday, in the midst of all the...

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BELIEVE - Second Sunday of Easter

By Paster Carolyn Hetrick
April 07, 2024

So I wonder, which is harder to believe- that Jesus Christ rose from the dead or that peace can be among us in this world? Awhile back, Michael and I became fans of a series called “Ted Lasso.” If you’re not familiar, Ted is an American football coach hired to ...

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One Holy Place - Easter Sunday

By Pastor Scott Schul
March 31, 2024

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!  This is the Good News we joyfully shout and proclaim every Easter.  But such was not the case on that very first Easter morning.  Mark’s Gospel concludes with Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of J...

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Not Ours in Cringing, Yours In Communion - Maundy Thursday

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
March 28, 2024

Way back in the wilderness, in the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was given three temptations. “All this can be yours- all of these kingdoms,” Satan says. “I can give them to you.” Then on Palm Sunday we remembered that people wanted to make Jesus a k...

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Location, Location, Location - Holy Wednesday

By Pastor Scott Schul
March 27, 2024

If you’ve ever bought or sold a house, you’ve heard a real estate agent say that the three most important factors are “location, location, location.”  Where your home is located has an enormous bearing on its value, because location dictates factor...

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The Gift of Hopelessness - Palm Sunday

By Pastor Scott Schul
March 24, 2024

When the week began, Jesus of Nazareth rode into Jerusalem like a man ready to receive a coronation.  Instead, by Friday, he would receive only a crown of thorns. When the week began, Jesus entered Jerusalem like royalty, riding a colt – the foal of a donkey - ju...

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We Belong in God's Heart - The 5th Sunday in Lent

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
March 17, 2024

One of the rituals of going away to camp is marking all your things. Back in the day, Mom sewed cute labels into all my clothes so people would know they were mine. By the time our girls went to camp, a Sharpie took care of that. We would write onto whatever it was- clothes, ...

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Until Every One is Found - Lenten Wednesday Worship Week 4

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
March 13, 2024

Recently I was hiking with a couple folks at the end of a work day in Rothrock. As we’re getting ready to start, one of them asked me if I’d brought a headlamp since it would be dusk when we finished. I realized I hadn't and before I could say anything more, she r...

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Do we really know Jesus? - The 4th Sunday in Lent

By Pastor Scott Schul
March 10, 2024

In this digital world of ours, I fear we’re rapidly losing our ability to form meaningful relationships with people.  We often hear that we’re all more connected now than ever before, thanks to the Internet and social media.  But those connections are so...

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The Prodigal Elder - Lenten Wednesday Worship Week 3

By Pastor Scott Schul
March 06, 2024

In my view, the Parable of the Prodigal Son is the greatest of all the parables, because of the astonishing picture it paints of God.  It reveals our God as merciful, forgiving, compassionate, understanding, sympathetic, gracious, patient, and so very loving.  This i...

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The End of Marketplace Faith - The 3rd Sunday in Lent

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
March 03, 2024

Imagine seeing the Welcome Center and the entrances and the upper commons here at Grace full of cages full of birds and pens of lambs and goats and calves. Imagine people standing in line waiting to get money and another line to pay. And then a line to get into worship. If you're...

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Jesus Simply Must Be With You - Lenten Wednesday Worship Week 2

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
February 28, 2024

It’s not a stretch for us to cringe at the word “taxes.” It was no different in Jesus day, but in areas ruled by the Roman Empire, contracts for collecting taxes were farmed out to wealthy foreigners. The people of Palestine were occupied by the Romans, whos...

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Ascend the Cross - The 2nd Sunday in Lent

By Pastor Scott Schul
February 25, 2024

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  That was the standard Jesus set for those who wanted to follow him.  It’s not the evangelism strategy most churches nowadays are willing to embrac...

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Electricity, Memory, and Meaning - Lenten Wednesday Worship Week 1

By Pastor Scott Schul
February 21, 2024

Most of you know my father passed away on Sunday.  Over the last few days, I’ve found myself taking a long walk down memory lane, remembering lots of things Dad did and said.  As in any person’s life, some of those things he did and said were noble and ...

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The Real Threat in the Wilderness - The 1st Sunday in Lent

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
February 18, 2024

I remember when my parents lived in Florida, the day the alligator stopped all play on the golf course in their development. Everything was well planned there- the sprinklers were programmed to run at just the right times, and the pesticides distributed in the right seasons to...

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Regularly Scheduled Maintenance - Ash Wednesday

By Pastor Scott Schul
February 14, 2024

Today’s Gospel lesson reminds us of the importance of treasure.  When I got married in December of 1988, I received two treasures.  The most important one was of course my dear wife Linda, who remains my wife 35 years later.  The other treasure was much le...

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The Door to Healing is Hospitality - The 5th Sunday after Epiphany

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
February 04, 2024

Last Sunday I was watching the livestream on the Grace app and during the Ministry Moment, Susan Buda and Spunky were wondering what Jesus has to do with us and Susan said, “Jesus wants us to be well.” And as I was in bed with COVID, that was gospel goodness right ...

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A Whale of Deliverance - The 3rd Sunday after Epiphany

By Pastor Scott Schul
January 21, 2024

Let’s play a little word game.  I’m going to give you a phrase, and then you fill in the blank.  “Jonah and the…”  Whale, right?  Of course.  We all associate Jonah with that part of the story where he gets swallowed up by a...

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Welcome and Wanted - The 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

By Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
January 14, 2024

Of all the moments in my life as a follower of Jesus, there is one outside of my baptism that I have come to see as perhaps the most important. I was new in town, and didn’t make friends all that easily, being skinny, awkward, not athletic and wearing glasses. But  ...

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Torn and On the Loose - The Baptism of our Lord

By Pastor Scott Schul
January 07, 2024

I’ve had the blessing three times now to visit the site along the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. It’s a very interesting place, situated where it is, on the border between Israel and Jordan. Soldiers with automatic rifles patrol the perimeter, but...

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205 South Garner Street, State College, PA 16801
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