Words of Welcome

Genesis 17:1-8, 15 How did you get your name?  I’m named after my father, Robert David Cornwall, Sr, who was concerned about the family legacy.  As for Brett, he’s named after the center-fielder from the 1989 National League Champion San Francisco Giants.  This was a compromise choice, after Cheryl rejected my first choice -- Will Clark, who was the Giants’s first baseman that year.  Our names reflect the eras in which we were born, our family heritage, and even our cultural climate.  Some names endure and others don’t.    While we don’t usually think about the meaning of a name, names often have meanings in the biblical story.  In the Gospel of Matthew, the Angel tells Joseph to name the couple’s child Jesus, because he will save the people from their sins. Jacob’s name gets changed to Israel, because “he has striven with God, and has prevailed” ( Gen. 32:28 ).  Then there are names that Hosea gave to his children:  “Not Pittied” and “Not My People”  (Hosea 1:2-9 ).  Thos

Psalm 133 It seems providential that on the Sunday when I’m preaching on the call to Christian Unity as a founding vision that we begin a  Week of Compassion  emphasis that has its theme “We Are One.” We began worship this morning singing “ Somos Uno en Christo ” – “We are One in Christ.”  We sang it in both Spanish and in English as a reminder that the body of Christ embraces many languages and people. No matter our differences in appearance and culture, in Christ we are one.   Barton Stone, one of our founders, declared that  “unity is our polar star.”   It is the guiding principle for the Disciples as a movement.  Thomas Campbell, another founder, declared that the  “Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures.”   Campbell and Stone were committed to the cause of Christian unity because they beli

1 Corinthians 12:1-12 When a storm hits, knocking out the power, life can get interesting.  No lights, no refrigeration, no stove, no heat, and no television or computer.  If you have a smart phone you might have access to the outside world, but if you don’t, you’re in the dark.  And that’s not a feeling we enjoy.  Of course, there’s also political power, which I won’t get into!   It seems that power comes in many forms.  It can be used to bless and it can be used to destroy.  Remember that the same atomic elements used to create electricity can be used to destroy cities and nations.   Although power can be dangerous – it’s also essential to life.  In this fifth sermon in my series on Reclaiming a Founding Vision, I want to affirm the power that comes to us from God through the Holy Spirit. Andy Crouch recently wrote a book about “Redeeming the Gift of Power."   Crouch writes that “Power is for flourishing – teeming, fruitful, multiplying abundance.”1  What he mea

Galatians 5:1, 13-15 We’ve reached the midpoint of this seven-week sermon series.  My hope is that I can connect our founding visions with our present and future ministry. During my sabbatical I thought a lot about the links between past and present.  Although I believe that we need to keep focused on where God is leading us, I also believe that we can find clues to where God is leading in the past. To put it in biological terms, during my sabbatical I did a bit of research into the DNA of this congregation and my own spiritual heritage. My sense is that our spiritual DNA will help us find our place in the present and in the future.     Although I could have started with the creation story, I think that the best place to start in exploring our spiritual DNA is with the covenant that God made with Abraham and Sarah.  In that covenant God promised that through their descendants, the nations would be blessed.  This founding vision has been meditated to us through Jesus, whom we c