Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Worshiping God, living in community, reaching out to the world.

Category: Bulletin Inserts

The bulletin insert for July 9, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love: Rest

When the scriptures tell us that we should love others as we love ourselves, there is an underlying message that we are allowed to love ourselves. The Way of Love recognizes that one way to love ourselves and to maintain ourselves as useful instruments of God is through the practice of rest.

As Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life. Turn. Learn. Pray. Worship. Bless. Go. Rest.

Part of the work of a Christian is to take time to put the work aside and be restored. After God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them, God rested. In doing so, God created a sacred pattern of work and rest, realizing that making dedicated time – to allow our minds to unwind, for our souls to be comforted and healed, for our bodies to be rejuvenated – ensures we can continue in this divine stream.

Rest is a gift and we are allowed to take it.

Rest gives rhythm to our lives; just as it is the end of one endeavor, so it is the beginning of another. There is no greater reward for those whose labor never ceases than for those who do what they can and rest to come back refreshed to do the work another day.

Rest is not only a blessing to us but a blessing to God, as we demonstrate our faith that God is the primary actor, maker of heaven and earth. And as children of God, we are encouraged to trust that all of creation is held in God’s hand.

Are you willing to submit to the practices that will restore your body, mind, and soul? Will you join with others to encourage one another to observe the regular practice of rest?

Learn more about the Way of Love

Learn more about the Way of Love at The Way of Love. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Praying at Explore the Way of Love.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

July 7, 2023
The bulletin insert for July 2, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love: Go

As we discover the Way of Love and the practices through which we can follow Jesus more closely, we realize that Jesus did not stay in one place very often.

The pursuit of Jesus can often mean moving out of our circles of comfort and going to other places – geographically, culturally, economically, spiritually. Because if there is one thing Jesus did, it is that he went – out of his home, out of his town, out of his community – to engage with other cultures and people, to listen and dignify their stories, no matter their culture or station in life.

The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life. Turn. Learn. Pray. Worship. Bless. Go. Rest.

Jesus was a listener and witness to outcasts and sinners, drinkers and tax collectors, strangers and foreigners, the rich and the poor. He uplifted women who were considered unequal to men. He dignified people of other faiths or no faith at all, and showed them the values of the Kingdom of God, through his teaching, through his healing, through his listening, and through his meeting them where they were and putting love into action.

The Scriptures teach us that it is also our mission to go out into the world. As the writer of John’s Gospel quotes Jesus, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And as the first letter of John tells us, “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

Are you ready to make the commitment to go beyond your boundaries? To listen and talk, to love and serve, to use your gifts in the struggle for dignity and justice for your neighbor and for people who are outside your comfort zone?

Are you ready to challenge yourself to forge new friendships, open yourself up to new perspectives, and build bridges where once there were walls?

The Way of Love challenges us to Go.

As the writer of Hebrews tells us: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” We are called to give freely of our resources, our stories and experiences, our time and our attention. And we are called to invite others into this Way of Love. We bless ourselves in the process.

Learn more about the Way of Love

Learn more about the Way of Love at The Way of Love. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Praying at Explore the Way of Love.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

June 30, 2023
The bulletin insert for June 25, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love: Bless

The Christian tradition calls us not just to believe, but also to bless the world with the Good News that we have learned.

As the writer of Mark’s Gospel tells us, Jesus said, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” When we incorporate the practice of Blessing others into our lives, we are putting our love into action by becoming the Good News for others.

The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life. Turn. Learn. Pray. Worship. Bless. Go. Rest.

As part of the Way of Love, Blessing gives us a way to follow the example of Jesus. Just as Jesus was a leader and a teacher, he also was a son, a friend, a servant. Jesus understood the need to know and be known by those in his community and beyond. He understood that being seen, invited, and welcomed are ways of sharing blessing.

Likewise, we are called to know and be known, in the name of love. We are called to see, invite, and welcome as living examples of Good News. Just as the apostles were called to give and teach and heal, we are called to give the gifts we have to bless, as God has given so much to us. To seek, name, and celebrate the presence of God’s love in our lives and the lives of others is part of being good news.

We are called to work together as we share this love so that we are not alone in our work, but acting together as the Body of Christ, being his hands and feet in this world, we bring the Good News to life for people here and now.

Being part of a worshiping and serving community is part of the Good News. As the writer of Hebrews tells us: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” We are called to give freely of our resources, our stories and experiences, our time and our attention. And we are called to invite others into this Way of Love. We blessed ourselves in the process. Others will be blessed in the process.

This is how the world will come to know who we are and what we believe: Through the way we bless them.

Will you commit to the practice of blessing others? Are there others you know who are blessing others, who you can join with to multiply those blessings?

Learn more about the Way of Love

Learn more about the Way of Love at The Way of Love. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Praying at Explore the Way of Love.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

June 23, 2023
The bulletin insert for June 18, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love: Worship

Throughout the Scriptures, the people of God are called to worship.

As the Psalmist writes, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.” Just as God wants to enter into our lives and meet us where we are, so God desires for us to enter into God’s space together and be present there..

The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life. Turn. Learn. Pray. Worship. Bless. Go. Rest.

Worship is an important part of the Way of Love, the practice that followers of Jesus have traditionally followed. Worship brings us out of our own space to walk on sacred ground. Worship brings us out of our loneliness into communion with fellow worshippers, as we become one Body of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Worship reminds us who we are, in light of the God who creates, saves, and sustains us.

In worship, we can bring all of our selves before God, as a kind of offering. We can bring our hopes, our dreams, our joys and sorrows, our thanks and our praise. We can boldly proclaim ourselves to be who we are, and give public voice to what we believe, without reservation.

By coming to the table together, we have the opportunity to break bread together, and in doing so, share a common experience to which all are welcome.

Gathering together challenges us to leave our loneliness behind, and risk relationship with God and with those on our journey who also gather to seek God’s presence. As we join in worship together, we are experiencing the presence and glory and beauty of showing up boldly before God and sharing in the communal life of the multitude of followers of Jesus who have gathered here before us.

And we are one body.

Are you ready to make a commitment to regularly gather to worship?

Learn more about the Way of Love

Learn more about the Way of Love at The Way of Love. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Praying at Explore the Way of Love.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

June 16, 2023
The bulletin insert for June 11, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love: Pray

Our day to day lives can be hurried and busy. We have so many things to do and so little time to do them. With devices and media asking for our time, so much to do and hear and say – it can make us feel overwhelmed and isolated. It can make our relationships challenging, as we struggle to connect.

The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life. Turn. Learn. Pray. Worship. Bless. Go. Rest.

The practice of the Way of Love, following in the footsteps of Jesus, tells us that God wants to break through the noise and busy-ness of the world and be able to have a relationship with us – with you. Not as a distant god in a far-off sky, or as a theory or an ideal or a metaphor, but a presence, dwelling with us, here and now. And the way to make that connection is to Pray.

As the Psalmist tells us: “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Jesus taught us that it is nourishing and strengthening to intentionally take time to pray. The daily practice of making time and space to speak with God, to listen to God, or to simply be with God, clears a pathway for God to enter our lives.

Jesus told us how we can talk with God: We can praise God and thank God for all that has been done. We can tell God about our troubles, and God will listen. We can ask God for healing and forgiveness, and God will help restore us. We can ask God for protection, and face the world with courage. Or we can simply receive God’s spirit, in faith that when we make space to pray, God is with us.

We can pray alone and know that we are not alone in this world. We can pray together, whether just two or three of us or a whole community, and find a whole new level of connection with those who are on the journey with us. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

The Way of Love is not a static practice, in which we read a book of rules and perform the exercises to become improved people. It is a dynamic practice, and part of the active process of transforming our lives is opening up the channels of communication with God, giving and taking, talking and listening, like electricity flowing through a cable or streams that connect a river to the sea. We create a connective flow with a God who loves and cares about us, who and where we are on a daily basis,and wants to know how you are doing today.

Are you making a commitment to incorporate the regular practice of prayer into your life? Is there a place where you can gather with others in the presence of the divine?

Learn more about the Way of Love

Learn more about the Way of Love at The Way of Love. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Praying at Explore the Way of Love.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

June 9, 2023
The bulletin insert for June 4, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love: Learn

As humans, we often think of our lives in terms of stories. So much of the input of our senses, what we hear and what we read – and even what we feel – is processed in terms of story. We are the protagonist, the heroine or hero on a journey, pursuing our goal, facing conflict along the way, and each day is another chapter in our story.

The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life. Turn. Learn. Pray. Worship. Bless. Go. Rest.

When we look to the example of Jesus, we see a life in which God was incorporated in a very real way as part of that story. As we embark on the Way of Love, the practice that leads us in the footsteps of Jesus and those who have followed him for generations, we can invite God into our own stories.

The Way of Love calls us to the practice of learning. As the Psalmist prays, “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.”

By reading the scriptures, taking time to study, listen, and absorb what they say, we are entering into the long, deep, stream of humankind’s experiences with God. By taking time daily to engage with the Scriptures, particularly the stories of the life of Jesus, we move beyond pop culture interpretations and quick one-line verses and immerse ourselves into the character, will, and story of God. And by internalizing what we read—meditating and allowing even the most mysterious words to flow over us and work inside of us—we are allowing God to work in our story, too.

Diving into the Scriptures can be daunting for some. The Bible is not a rulebook or instruction manual to be easily digested and applied on first reading. Instead, it is a library of different experiences with God, written or told by many different people in different places for different reasons over generations of time.

Beginning to understand and know the Scriptures is a lifelong practice, and calls for patience, openness, and a willingness not to know every answer. But as we continually study, and discuss with other people who accompany us on our journey, and reflect upon the ideas on the page, sometimes wrestling with them, and sometimes just letting them flow by like a spring breeze, we will grow in understanding, and we will get to know God better, as God becomes more and more intertwined with our own story.

Are you willing to commit to the practice of learning? Are there those around you who can support and join you as you learn?

Learn more about the Way of Love

Learn more about the Way of Love at The Way of Love. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Turning at Explore the Way of Love.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

June 2, 2023
The bulletin insert for May 28, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love: Turn

There are so many voices in the world, telling us who we are, what we should do, and how we will be fulfilled. They tell us to focus on our desires, on our cravings, on being the best individual we can be. The world, we are told, revolves around each of us.

The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life. Turn. Learn. Pray. Worship. Bless. Go. Rest.

For many, these pursuits of self-fulfillment can leave us feeling drained, empty, and alone. They can lead us away from our divine calling. Away from the creator in whose image we were made. But if we listen closely, there is a spirit calling us to come back to ourselves, back to our purpose, back to something more meaningful.

When we look to the example of Jesus, we see the way that he followed. This is the Way of Love.

One aspect of this Way and making it a practice in our own lives is remembering to simply to turn toward the voice that calls us. Intentionally choosing our direction, choosing to turn and face the light, is the fundamental shift that puts the Way of Love into action. As Jesus tells us in the Book of John: “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”

Turning doesn’t have to change who you are—you are loved as you were created. But it can change where you are going. It can shift you from selfishness to loving the other. It can shift you from hoarding to generosity. It can lead you from sin and distance from God into closer alignment with the One who made and loves you so much.

Obeying this call means recognizing the things we put first in our lives, the things we allow to have the most space in our minds, our fears and hopes and desires. And turning instead toward love.

It can be as freeing as the early followers putting down their fishing nets. It can be as missional as Jesus asking us to pick up our cross and follow him. It can be as simple as paying attention to which direction our feet are facing on our journey.

Turning is not just a one time event, but an ongoing discipline, re-directing our steps as often as we think to, always turning toward the light. And turning toward the light can also illuminate how many there are on the journey with you, emerging from the shadows to walk the same path.

The Way of Love can lead you to discover a community of fellow travelers with whom you share the journey. The Way of Love shows us who we are, it lights the path to where we should go, and it gives purpose to our desires for fulfillment. And it shows us that we are not alone. That like us, there are many who choosing to turn toward the Way of Love. Are you ready to commit to turning and following Jesus?

Learn more about the Way of Love

Learn more about the Way of Love at The Way of Love. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Turning at Explore the Way of Love.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

May 26, 2023
The bulletin insert for May 21, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

What Is Pentecost?

Next Sunday, May 28, we mark Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit among the apostles and followers of Jesus. Celebrated 50 days after Easter (including the day of Easter itself), the name of the holiday comes from the Greek Pentēkostē, which literally means “the 50th day.”

The events of the day are foretold by Jesus in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, just before his Ascension. While his followers were with the risen Christ, he tells them, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5, NRSV). He goes on to say to them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The followers would not wait long for the promised Spirit. The author of Acts, traditionally believed to be Luke, recounts:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
Acts 2:1-6 (NRSV)

We celebrate Pentecost as the inauguration of the Church’s mission in the world. Empowered by the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are to go out into our neighborhoods and the wider world—to Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth—witnessing to the risen Christ.

The Day of Pentecost is identified by the Book of Common Prayer as one of the feast days “especially appropriate” for baptism (Book of Common Prayer, p. 312). Because of this, Pentecost is also known as “Whitsun” or “Whitsunday” (“White Sunday”), a term used to describe the white baptismal garments worn by those who were baptized at the Vigil of Pentecost and then worn to church on the Day of Pentecost.

Collect for Pentecost

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Book of Common Prayer, p. 227).

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

May 19, 2023
The bulletin insert for May 14, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Reflections on the Resurrection

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything. To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Week 6

Being a Christian is believing in the Resurrection of Christ, which ends up being the center of faith and hope for everyone who believes in Jesus. Christ, upon coming back to life as the firstborn among the dead, reveals to us that our God in Jesus is the Lord of life and not of death, “He gives death and brings life, he brings down to Sheol and raises up” 1 Samuel 2:6.

It is in the paschal experience of his apostles, whom he himself called, with whom this beautiful experience begins, in extraordinary events such as the empty tomb, the appearances of the Risen One “And he appeared for many days,” Acts. 13:31, where certainly it is He himself who manifests himself, the Jesus of Nazareth, since the apostles recognize him, see him, and touch him, eat with him, his presence is real and not like that of a ghost.

It seems that it is to them that these first manifestations of his Resurrection were reserved and not to all the others, that not even the same guards of the tomb who, terrified by the mysterious theophany, would not recognize him. It is to whom He called, his witnesses, his disciples.

It could be said that unlike the event of passion and death where the people and their own followers end up being only distant spectators of such painful events; while in the Resurrection his closest followers become living and very close actors of such a great Theophany.

The gospels try to describe it this way, wanting to narrate in the best way when entering this transcendental, ineffable sphere, which for this must return to the same words given by their Lord when he was with them, even to expressions already prepared by the Old Testament.

The experience of Pentecost ends up being the moment of the beginning of preaching, since it is with the action of the Spirit with which the true Resurrection can be preached as the center of life, a necessary experience for every believer.

We ask the Lord himself, the Risen One, to give us the grace to also be his close witnesses of love, that we can also see and experience his glorious manifestation in our own lives and that the Holy Spirit be the one who leads us to remove fears, break the locks of doubt to proclaim it with conviction and courage, like the first disciples; that we be his apostles in modern times, with the same dedication to announce it. That in this Easter feast we see in the God of Christians the God of life, who raises from death since he defeated it and, in his Resurrection, makes us part of a new life.

The Right Reverend Elías García Cárdenas is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colombia.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

May 12, 2023
The bulletin insert for May 7, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Reflections on the Resurrection

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything. To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Week 5

“Don’t Panic” is written in large, friendly letters on the cover of the book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a fictional, electronic encyclopedia that is the centerpiece object in a novel of the same name written by Douglas Adams. The angel at the tomb in Matthew’s Gospel says essentially the same phrase in their greeting: “Don’t be afraid.” Immediately after this in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus also begins his resurrection encounter with Mary and Mary saying, “Do not be afraid.” As Douglas Adams employs “Don’t Panic” to invite his reader into wonder and anticipation in the story of his novel, so we are invited deeper into our own story, to wonder what threats confront our resurrection witnesses when both the angel and the returned Jesus begin with “Don’t be afraid.”

What had Mary and Mary to fear? Was it the bright, otherworldly appearance of a heavenly messenger? Angels have been known to startle mortals. Was it that the teacher they loved and had seen murdered on a cross was now miraculously alive? This would have been enough. Ghosts and zombies still arise in human fears, particularly if it’s the appearance of a beloved. But the angel and Jesus know the deeper fears Mary and Mary have and the future fears they will face.

“Don’t be afraid” addresses their deeper fear that this encounter could turn out to be just a fragile dream – that after such joyous news, the proverbial rug could be pulled out from under them, leaving them worse off than before. This phrase addresses their fears that after sharing the Good News of New Life, they will most likely be laughed at and humiliated, rejected by those to whom they speak their exuberant joy.

Of course, none of these fears are mutually exclusive. “Don’t be afraid” addresses all of Mary and Mary’s fears, all at once. Such resurrection encounters remind us that Grief and Revelation are cumulative. We humans experience our fears, our griefs, our hopes, and our new discoveries in an ever-expanding continuum.

In Christ’s resurrection encounter, we are offered the pain and joy of experiencing a multiverse of realities, all at the same time. Because ours is not a fictional novel but rather a story grounded in the original witnesses who heard him, “Don’t be afraid” is spoken directly to us, inviting us to trust the one who stands before us saying these words. This invitation on holy lips comes to us through the cumulative continuum now two millennia on, still speaking directly to our multi-layered, multi-generational fears, right now, in our time and in our space.

The resurrected Christ meets us in a welcome that addresses all our fears. His greeting does not ignore but includes all the crucifixions we have endured and all the resurrections we have known, including his. With Mary and Mary, we run on with layered feelings in us, both fear and great joy. And we run, ever trusting in the one who leads us, always, from panic to peace.

This reflection, “Don’t Panic,” was written by the Rt. Rev. Matthew Cowden, Bishop of West Virginia. Cowden previously served as rector of Saint Michael’s Episcopal Church in South Bend, Indiana. His joy is in raising up the next generation of priests as potent pastors and powerful preachers.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

May 5, 2023

Maundy Thursday, April 2, 2026. Services at 12:00 noon and 7:00 pm. Gethsemane Watch Vigil from about 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

Good Friday, April 3, 2026: Services at 12:00 noon and 7:00 pm.

Holy Saturday worship at 9:30 am.

The Great Vigil of Easter, Saturday, April 4, 2025. Service at 8:00 pm. This is the night....

The 3rd Sunday of Easter (Year A), April 19, 2026. Services at 8:00 am (no music) and 10:30 (music). Education classes for adults (9:15 am) and children (9:30 am).