Rev. Andrew's Adventures

Community UMC, Quincy “Being Needy & Gifts of Love” Rev. Andrew Davis January 27, 2019 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31a 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13              Whenever I think of the parts of the body, I keep hearing that song from preschool about the hand bone being connected to the arm bone, or foot bone being connected to the leg bone, head bone being connected to the neck bone, etc..  Or I hear Marty Haugen’ s song,  “We are many parts, we are all one body, and the and the gifts we have we are given to share.  May the spirit of love, make us one indeed, one, the love that we share, one our hope in despair, one the cross that we bear.” [i] Even the choir anthem that was just sung expresses the ways our gifts are interconnected, such as coming together like the colors of the rainbow.  Music is a way for things come to light for me; or anything visual, such as the Jenga game with the ...

Community UMC, Quincy “Greater Gifts: Gifted for Others” Rev. Andrew Davis January 20, 2019 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11             I don’t know about you, but I love it when the Holy Spirit moves during worship and sets a positive tone for the entire week. I feel like the Holy Spirit has been moving through this church despite some of the challenges we may face day to day, or challenges we face here in the life of the church.  It seems quite fitting that we are spending this month talking about gifts, from the gifts the Magi brought to the toddler Jesus at Epiphany to, God’s gift of grace, to the spiritual gifts that we all have when we consider all of the greater gifts that God gives each of us that empower us to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ and are activated by the Holy Spirit.               In this morning’s scripture les...

Community UMC, Quincy “Greater Gifts: YOU Are Beloved” Rev. Andrew Davis January 13, 2019 Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22           How did you like the snowfall we had last Sunday? I was telling several people that I wasn’t expecting very many to be in worship last week, especially when the big snowflakes were coming down right before worship began and stuck to the sidewalk, yet we still had more than I thought we would who braved the snow as we talked about the Magi’s journey and gifts that they gave Jesus.  Even though one of our saints was here to shovel the sidewalk early in the morning, the snow kept on falling, and falling, and falling throughout the day that it was hard to keep up.  Even in my driveway, I dusted my 4Runner off a few times and it was still covered in snow.  Nevertheless, I still get a sense of childlike wonder whenever I’m around the snow.  Growing up in the Sacramento area, ...

Although the church began a new year last month with the season of Advent, the new calendar year is here as we said farewell to 2018 and welcome to 2019 while celebrations took place all over the world on Monday night into Tuesday morning. I think I celebrated in bed, as I was in bed by 8:00pm and ended up sleeping through all the celebrations. As I get older, it’s my kind of way of celebrating the new year, especially since I want to be up in time to watch the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day.   As we have celebrated the new year and now that stores are switching over to Valentine’s Day stuff, here we are at the end of the Christmas cycle in the church year on this day of Epiphany.  Today is one of those times where once every several years when Epiphany happens to fall on a Sunday.  While we may have heard the word epiphany at one time or another or might be hearing it for the first time, what exactly is Epiphany and why does it matter? ...