December 16, 2022 Antoinette Richardson
Dear Friends,
The Staff of Forest Hill Church and I wish you a very Merry Christmas! We are blessed to be part of this great congregation. Your commitment to worship, to learning, to hospitality and to both the inner work of prayer and the outer work of justice give testimony to your faith, hope and love.
May you find a peace that passes all our understanding; a joy that lifts your spirit, a love that carries you through difficult moments. Remember that Christ was born. He knows the fullness of life, the moments of bliss and the moments of pain. May we all be mindful of others this season.
I hope you will be able to join us at one of the Christmas Eve services at 5:00 and 11:00. The early service will be for all ages, with a special focus on the children. The late service will be our community service featuring Eligie! If 11:00 is too late for you, make sure to tell your friends about it.
We will be worshiping on Christmas Day at 11:00. Come casually. We will sing hymns, read scripture, say our prayers and then head home!
God bless you this Christmas season! Christ is born! ~John
November 28, 2022 Antoinette Richardson
Advent is a time of waiting, anticipating the coming of Jesus Christ in a physical body just like ours. Christians everywhere and throughout time have used Advent to reflect, to deepen their experience of God coming to us in the flesh.
For Advent this year, the members of the Ministry of Adult Spiritual Growth have decided to try something different. In the past, we have offered special Sunday morning Advent classes as a way for people could enhance their spiritual growth. However, many people find attending Sunday morning classes difficult or not appealing. We know that such classes reach only a small portion of our worshiping community.
At our most recent meeting, we considered ways to reach out to the entire church community during Advent. We decided to have an Advent Email each week on Monday morning, with a reflection about the theme of the week and its application to everyday life. We know that our fellow church member, Jean Reinhold, has written wonderfully poetic Advent reflections. So we asked, and Jean has generously agreed that we can use her writings for our Advent emails this year.
Each week during Advent, you will receive an emailed reflection by Jean on the theme of the week from the Ministry of Adult Spiritual Growth. You will find the first Advent email, on the theme of Hope, on the next page. We hope that you will read and re-read this reflection throughout the week as a way of deepening your experience of this time of waiting.
from Ann Williams and the entire Ministry of Adult Spiritual Growth
Tags: Adult Ed, advent, faith, growth, trust, WorshipJune 10, 2018 Peg Weissbrod
According to Time Magazine these products were among the most successful technology failures of all time. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Acts 4: 32-37, failure, faith, Gordon Crosby, Potter's House, pruning, Psalm 138, spiritual creativity, success, successful failuresApril 8, 2018 Peg Weissbrod
Before I begin, I was speaking to the Pathways kids this morning, as a member of the Co-pastor Nominating Committee, to update them on our progress. I asked them to write some advice for our new Co-pastor, whoever she will be. As for preaching, they said: Don’t give wordy and seemingly endless sermons. Make them interesting, engage the audience. Make sad topics funny, no one wants to be too sad. Well, I can promise none of those, today, but I will do my best. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: doubt, Doubting Thomas, Easter, faith, fear, John 20: 19-31, love, resurrection, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Thomas, uncertaintySeptember 24, 2017 Peg Weissbrod
I need to start this sermon by making a confession. I did not come up with the title. My dear husband did. It’s one of the perks of being a clergy couple–we frequently talk about sermons and other aspects of our ministries over morning coffee. A few weeks ago as we were contemplating the lectionary texts for today Richard said, “I think a good title for a sermon on this text would be “Bread and Whine.” (And not the kind of wine you drink…) Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: abundance, bread, Exodus 16, faith, fear, gratitude, hunger, whine, wilderness, wineJune 12, 2016 Peg Weissbrod
What would life be like if we didn’t have to think or talk about sin? Why don’t we just blithely live our lives and not burden ourselves with all that negative talk about sin? Because God wants to crack open the hard shells, resistances, and judgments that stand in the way of the abundant life for which we were created.
In her little book, Speaking of Sin, Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of an Eskimo hunter who went to see the local missionary who had been preaching in his village. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: abundance, faith, forgiveness, harlot, judgment, Luke 7, pharisee, witnessMay 29, 2016 Peg Weissbrod
I learned a lot about community these past couple of weeks. In response to the death of my father my mother was swept up in this communal show of support and affection. Circles of friends from old neighborhoods; former fellow church members at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, First Church Arlington and current members of the Village Church at Greenspring – calls, notes, visits, food, invites to dinner. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Brueggemann, common humanity, community, create community, death, dying, faith, Hebrews 12:1-2, Kingdom of God, stewardship, together, widow warriorsMay 1, 2016 Peg Weissbrod
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Tags: Advocate, brains, confused, faith, fear, hearts, home, humility, Jesus is like..., keep my Word, love, metaphor, peace, reassurance, tension, understanding, welcoming JesusApril 3, 2016 Peg Weissbrod
To be honest, until this week, I never felt much sympathy for “doubting” Thomas. Give me ‘denying’ Peter or ‘laughing ‘ Sarah, or that prostitute Rahab, or the adulterous murderer/song writer King David. I like the naughty lusty sinners best! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: continuum of doubt, doubt of desire, doubt of indifference, Doubting Thomas, faith, fear, follow, John 20, Thomas, woundsOctober 25, 2015 Peg Weissbrod
In my Bible the little paragraph heading over the lectionary Gospel Lesson for today reads “The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus.” At first glance that’s what the story seems to be about—a blind beggar sitting by the side of the road, calling out to Jesus and having his sight restored. It’s a riveting tale of a marginalized, disabled person who, courageous in Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bartimaeus, blessings, blind, commitment, courage, faith, fear, healing, love, Mark 10, Psalm 34, sight, Son of David, the Jesus Prayer, trust, visionary
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