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God’s Doing…Deliverance
February 8, 2026
Pastor Gregg Miller
Isaiah 9:1-7
In most worship experiences, there is a time when you turn and greet your neighbors around you. This is not a "throw away" activity; it's not some perfunctory bit of "busy work" that we do. It's actually vital for our community building, and it lets us express ourselves as the body of Christ for each other. We also know that for some this is a difficult moment. For the introverts in the room, it's a moment of panic from which there is a deep longing for deliverance. The introverts are thinking, "Oh great, the greeting: I bet I'll have to make eye contact with someone in order to do that!" On the other hand, for the extroverts in the room, this is why we wake up in the morning. Interaction with others, sometimes complete strangers, gives us enormous energy. That moment when we turn to someone we don't know and say, "Hi, I'm ____ " can be both threatening and life-giving. Speaking our name to someone else opens a door. Hearing our name can also be life-giving. God is calling our name today and wants to deliver us from whatever is holding us captive.
Names are important. Names do more than simply get someone's attention. Names identify, define, and empower people. Names also give hope. We're going to look at that together.
In the first verse of Isaiah 9, there is also a reference to the northern tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali-not names or words which are part of our daily vocabulary, for sure, and words that...
God’s Doing… Illumination!
January 25, 2026
Pastor Gregg Miller
Isaiah 42:1-9
Now in these verses God illuminates, shines light, on the person and work of the servant of God. Reading forward into this passage from the perspective of the 7 centuries before Christ, all that was known was that the servant was God's servant. Whom God upholds, whom God's chosen, in whom God's soul delights. Reading backward from our 21st century perspective we know that this servant is Jesus. The Christ. The Messiah, the Lord.
The accounts of Jesus' baptism as well as stories of his healing ministry in the gospel echo's these words in Isaiah. But, if these words from the past about God's illuminating gets locked up in a time warp and failed to enlighten our present darkness. And, even give us hope for God's future among us, then we are still in the dark, and we will remain there.
So what do these ancient words have to say to us today?
How does the message of God's illuminating presence spoken 27 hundred years ago into the darkness of a divided culture bent on perverting justice, oppressing the poor, turning away from God and looking for hope in the temporary, speak to us as 21st century followers of the way of Jesus?
These words illuminate two things, both the hearts of the servant to the people to whom these words were first spoken AND the hands of God. The servant of God in our world today.
The heart of the servant is illuminated...
God’s Doing… Renewal!
January 18, 2026
Pastor Gregg Miller
Isaiah 63:7-9
The next time the sun will rise in Barrow Alaska will be January 24th and the sun will be seen for just over an hour. How would you feel when that day came and you got to see the sun once more? I know I would probably do a little dance - and you don't want to see that. I would feel like Bilbo Baggins when they are traveling through Murkwood, and they get disoriented because they cannot see the sun. So Bilbo climbs a tree to the top and pokes his head out of the leaf canopy and he is revived by the sun. And the butterflies start flying around him, and it gave him direction and resolve to help the dwarfs know the way to go toward the Lonely Mountain. I don't know about you but I need the sun for my health. As we are entering the fourth week of winter, I take advantage of when the sun is out.
If you feel like me, then these words from Isaiah 60, particularly in verse 1, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!" were spoken to the people of Israel at one of the darkest moments in their history-and would provide hope beyond hope, and renewal for a whole nation of refugees.
Here's a bit of historical context. The passage from Isaiah 60:1-6 comes from Isaiah's vision concerning the exaltation of the city of Jerusalem. These six verses open what some scholars consider to be the core of the third section of this great book in the Old Testament. "At the heart of this miscellaneous collection of oracles directed toward Judah, most likely written in Jerusalem after the exiles had returned to a war-ravaged...
God’s Doing…A Noun and a Verb
January 11, 2026
Pastor Gregg Miller
Isaiah 63:7-9
What do Alanis Morissette, Bob Dylan, Che Guevara, Alec Guinness, Courtney
Love, Stevie Nicks, George S. Patton, Henry David Thoreau, Queen Victoria, Andy
Warhol and -- wait for it -- John Wesley ... have in common?
This is a motley collection of names. The commonality is that they all kept or keep
diaries. Probably some of us have as well -- but not all of us, for it takes a certain mindset and outlook to stick to daily journaling.
Vampire Diaries. The TV series. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005). That's about it for most of us when it comes to anything with the word "diary" in it. Maybe you remember Bridget Jones's Diary movies.
However, journaling may suit your personality, and, if so, there can be several
benefits. A journal can help you:
- clarify your goals,
- sort through ideas,
- make you a better communicator,
- have an outlet for your burdens and outrages,
- keep a record of your blessings and joys,
- affirm the reality of your life, and
- turn ideas into words.
In some cases, it may even help others later to learn from or about your life. Or, as in the case of the diary of Anne Frank, it can give later readers an inside glimpse...
How to Spell CHURCH
January 4, 2026
Pastor Gregg Miller
Acts 2:1-21
"Aoccdrnig to rscheearechrs at Cmabrgide Uinervtisy,it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbemls. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."
Can you read this statement?
A few cautions: This popular internet meme may be spurious because when "researchers at Cambridge University" were asked about this research, no one at the prestigious British university was aware of any studies of this nature whatsoever.
Second, the assertion of this meme is blatantly false. In addition to its horrible sentence structure, the order of the letters in a word does matter in certain contexts. Who can read this, for example?
"Bblaaes! pryleas pnmrrioefg srillaimy, aeoulltsby dvrseee clbrpmaaoe capnmeooistn."
The sentence reads:
"Baseball players performing similarly absolutely deserve comparable compensation."
Don't worry if all of this sounds confusing. That is precisely the point! Now you can understand what was happening in Acts chapter 2: One can scarcely commemorate the birthday of the church without more than a passing nod to the confusion and chaos on that day - the day we know as Pentecost Sunday. About 2,000 years ago, the universal church came into being, so today as we begin a new year is a good time to ask how we understand the church - how we spell "church" - and if we can do church with a proper beginning and ending, even if the middle is a mess.
In New Testament Greek, the word for church is "ekklesia." The word is usually translated "church," and also means "assembly, congregation or meeting." The Greek literally means "called out ones" from ek meaning "out," and kaleo, meaning "to call." Some scholars have stressed that this "called out" sense of the word provides a hint as to how we should understand the church: an assembly of those who have been called out, or separated, for a special purpose or called out from the world to live godly lives.
But how might we spell "church" in English? Such an acrostic might look like this:
C = Charis
H = Healing, Hopeful or Healthy
U = United
R = Radical
C = Compassionate
H = Hospitable, Honest or Helpful
Here are a few talking points to get you started on fleshing out..
God’s DNA…The Word became Flesh!
December 28, 2025
Pastor Gregg Miller
John 1:1-14
Today, somehow, we have the wrong scripture in your worship folder. We are looking at the gospel of John 1:1-14.
Have you ever awoken in the night and you stumbled to feel for a light switch? You carefully navigate your feet, right? What you think might be on the floor at the time...trying to remember exactly where the chairs are, the nightstand, the dresser, the lamps...other obstacles, so that you don't stub your toes or bump your knees. You move cautiously and carefully through the dark room until...you extend your hand on the wall, right? As you move your palm up and down on the wall trying to find that light switch, right? Trying to find the light switch and you're puzzled to wonder if there ever is a light switch on the wall. You question yourself, you begin to search with your fingers in the other direction until you say, 'Oh, there it is,' and you turn on the light.
Now everything is clear, right? The glowing light bulb overhead makes all the difference in the world to navigate your bedroom. This is what the writer of John is trying to communicate to us in his gospel.
When we try to navigate life without light - we move cautiously - and if we aren't careful we can run into danger. In fact without light in our lives - we are lost.
What does it mean to live in the light? How do we receive the light? What difference does the light make anyway? John gives us this cosmic...