I must say it feels so good to be back in the routine of regular worship on Sundays!  Resuming choir practice (with its inevitable belly-laughs), seeing long-time friends, and becoming acquainted with the new faces in the pews all warm my heart.  Our seasonal members will start trickling back in a month or so, and I think everyone is going to be pleased to see how we are fleshing out our new mission statement: Congregational Church of the Valley United Church of Christ is a community sharing Jesus’ message of love, hope, peace, and joy with all persons.  We plan to communicate publicly and often exactly how our family of faith is impacting the local community-and how we can all be part of something greater than ourselves.

Last week I preached on Proverbs 8, which is a great Old Testament wisdom passage.  I will continue the wisdom theme this coming Sunday, and this time preach out of the New Testament, focusing on James 1:5-8.  You will see that there is great consistency between the Testaments (and throughout the canon) on biblical wisdom.  What’s important is knowing that (biblical) wisdom is a gift of God, derived from experience, and mediated by prayer.  Jesus, in fact, is “Wisdom in Person” and the one who showed us that true wisdom comes in the complete giving of ourselves-that’s why true wisdom isn’t particularly natural or intuitive.  I have lots more to share and some good stories to tell!  So as long as I-17 stays open and the Agua Fria River doesn’t rise, I’ll see you in church!

Rev. Sandi