Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                              March 6, 2022 Genesis 2:7-9, 15-25                                                                      “Beloved Is Where We Begin” As we settle in for the season of Lent, we return to our most ancestral story, to remind us that we are all earthlings, creatures of earth, of the soil we till, the soil to which we shall return.  There is both dignity […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                       February 27, 2022     Isaiah 2:1-5                                                                  “Neither shall they learn war any more” Last week when I reflected on this text, I reminded us all that visions like this one and the myriad others found in scripture and human history are not impossible asks.  Rather they are the keys to […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                       February 20, 2022 Isaiah 2:1-5                                                                                                                       “Visions” Prophets have been creating visions for humanity that are not impossible asks, but rather the keys to a secret power.  And what is that power?  The power to not only imagine a better world but turn that imagination into reality.  These visions exist […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                       February 13, 2022 Luke 4:16-27 “The Kingdom of God is…now?” Christian author Diana Butler Bass recently wrote an essay entitled “Is There a Doctor in the House: Home Improvement as Political Theology.”[1]  In it she creates a metaphor of what it means to repair, or save, the world by thinking […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                         February 6, 2022 John 2:1-11                                                                            “No Offense to Mr. Spock, but…”             Let me set the stage for you.  The year is 2259.  The USS Enterprise has been attacked and badly damaged, and is about to crash into Earth.  The only way to save everyone on board is to engage […]

SCRIPTURE INTRODUCTION Our lesson this morning comes from the Book of Isaiah.  Isaiah, an ancient prophet, describes in the verses immediately preceding those I will read today that there was going to be some sort of disaster in region of Moab, causing its people to flee across the Dead Sea to seek refuge amongst the […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                         January 23, 2022       1 Timothy 4:1-6, 9-10                                                                                          “What Ails Us?” A couple of weeks ago, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote an editorial entitled “America Is Falling Apart at the Seams”.  In it, Brooks highlights a lot of troubling societal trends – trends we likely have all been […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                         January 16, 2022       Matthew 3:1-17 A friend recently told me this story: her denomination was having a statewide gathering.  In order to create a space for worship that represented the entire state, each region was asked to bring a container of river-water, and that water from each of the major […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                           January 9, 2022 Matthew 2:1-12                                                                                   “Gazing into the Heavens” On Christmas Day, the James Webb Telescope was launched into space.  The largest, most sensitive, and most sophisticated telescope ever created by humanity was years and years in the making.  It was a dream in the making, a chance to explore the universe in ways never […]