Because we are a community with a strong focus on study, service and community, we deeply appreciate challenging weekly sermons on these topics. (We call them “Promptings.”)
Below is a sampling of sermons offered in recent weeks by our talented and devoted preachers, Kristabeth Atwood and Carl Hilton VanOsdall, and our own Commissioned Lay Pastor, Frank Sadowski, as well as others who join us as guest preachers.
May 12, 2024
Rev. Carl Hilton VanOsdall
“Dwelling and Seeking”
Can we take a few moments to look around the space where we are.
Just notice the walls, the ceiling, things that are a part of your life.
What’s out the windows? Then, notice the floor.
We might not all be @ home, but I suspect most of us are…
In the place that we dwell, where we reside.
With our feet planted beneath us,
bodies seated, we can know that we are grounded.
Take a moment?…to feel the connecting point
between the soles of your feet and that little parcel of earth
where body & ground connect.
April 28, 2024
Rev. Carl Hilton VanOsdall
“Co-creators with God”
This last Wednesday evening,
my Gina and I took our first walk in a 40-acre parcel of preserved land
called Poulsbo Fish Park, nestled where Dogfish Creek
passes through an estuary and empties into Liberty Bay.
Our Wednesday walk was a day after worship planners had mapped out today’s service, with our focus on “I am the vine, you are the branches,”
so you’d never guess what I was on the lookout for!?!
April 21, 2024
Kristabeth Atwood, M.Div.
“Creating a Contemplative Culture”
It’s been almost two weeks since the total eclipse and the wonder of it continues to linger. Those of you who were local, did you get to experience it? Gary was working from home that day so, at 2:15pm, we went outside with the dogs, a couple lawn chairs, and our cardboard glasses not knowing quite what to expect. And pretty soon, there is was, the moon inching its way in front of the sun.
April 14, 2024
Rev. Carl Hilton VanOsdall
“The Sacred in the Earthly”
The way the story gets told, in Luke’s gospel,
Jesus first appears incognito to a couple of the disciples,
on the road to Emmaus…though they don’t recognize him
until they sit down at table and break bread
(like they’d done less than a week before in the Upper Room.)
Once the two with whom he’d broken bread in Emmaus
made their way back to the others in Jerusalem,
and no sooner had they finished giving the download of what happened
with Jesus showing up (& all)…
Then Jesus shows up again…with these opening lines, “Peace be with you.”
And makin’ it real, incarnate… “It’s me – muscle, bone, body.”
Jesus downs a few victuals to PROVE it.
That’s how Luke recounts this resurrection story.
Christ Church, Presbyterian 