Please join your MUCC family for a Progressive Dinner on March 7th.

What is a Progressive Dinner?
It is a social occasion at which the different courses of a meal are eaten at different people's houses.

Mark your calendar now for Faith Talk, our popular Wednesday dinner & conversation series in Lent.  It will be held on Wednesday evenings, February 18 through March 25, and wrap up on a Thursday, April 2nd (during Holy Week).  

Last year, Faith Talk in Lent was one of our most popular faith development offerings, six weeks of meeting around the dinner table for caring conversation and a chance to explore ‘God-talk’ together.  

This is a cross+generational event, and we welcome people of all ages.  The conversations are most likely to be engaging for people 3rd grade through adult, but younger children are welcome to attend with their families.   

A simple dinner will be served each week.  We invite you to arrive anytime 5:45 – 6 pm to get your meal and join us around the tables.  At 6 pm, our pastor will introduce the topic for the evening.  From about 6:15 – 7 pm, there will be time to engage the topic in large group and small group conversation. 

This year’s series is themed around ‘Strange Churchy Things.’  Each week we’ll discuss something that’s a part of Christian faith and practice – but probably strikes you as weird if you take a minute to think about it.  Our preliminary topic list is: anointing, sabbath, prayer, testimony, tithing, and sacraments.  Any question about these topics is fair game!  

Your reservation on SignupGenius will help us plan for dinner.  Follow this link to register:  http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d48aea72ea64-faith

We are also looking for people to share a meal component each week.  If you can provide a main course, side, dessert, or beverages (once or more than once), please let us know when you sign up.  

*We have had several people ask whether they could just come to the program (because they were not interested in dinner).  So much of Jesus’ ministry was organized around table fellowship, and the Heavenly Banquet is an important metaphor for the realm of God.  We’ve chosen to intertwine meal and teaching.  If you have dietary restrictions that make it awkward or uncomfortable for you to share a meal with us, please speak with the pastor.

What the appointed scripture for the day doesn't make clear is the context of the momentous events we just heard.  "Now when Jesus heard this..."   What was this?  What had he heard?  

The beginning of the chapter tells us:  Jesus had just received word of his cousin's death at the order of King Herod.  "Now when Jesus heard [of his cousin's death], he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself..."  

The driving weather was a little dicey on annual meeting Sunday.  Recognizing that some people who may have wanted to attend couldn't safely make it, we offer Pastor Kerri's reflections from that day, based on a portion of the Sermon on the Mount:

You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again?  It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket.  Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven. Matthew  5:13-17