Love’s Abyss

"God does not love. God is Love. In other words, God is the free-falling that we experience Love to be. It’s like we step off the edge, into the bottomless abyss, relinquishing control, and refusing to try to grab ahold of the side. " 

Meditation by The Rev. Dr. Joel Daniels

Sunday, July 26, 2026

Parable of the Sower

“The parable of the sower is not a show of force; it’s not an emperor on a throne.  This is God’s wild, irresponsible, chaotic spreading of joy and love.  A liberal scattering, far and wide, right there in the midst of the rocks and the weeds and the dry soil and the whole weedy world.”

Meditation by The Rev. Liz Peterson

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Field of Weeds

“In this world of desirable plants and weeds, nobody can presume to be good. In this world of desirable plants and undesirable weeds, no one can presume they have the authority to judge another. That is the work of God and God alone.”

Meditation by The Rev. Liz Peterson

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Parable of the Sower

“The parable of the sower is not a show of force; it’s not an emperor on a throne. This is God’s wild, irresponsible, chaotic spreading of joy and love. A liberal scattering, far and wide, right there in the midst of the rocks and the weeds and the dry soil and the whole weedy world.”

Meditation by The Rev. Liz Peterson

Sunday, July 12, 2026

In-Dependence Day: Restriction or Resurrection?

“Our dependence on God is not enslavement to God but rather freedom in Love. Jesus came to liberate and to set the captives free.  It is a dangerous message, and it must be our message and life, otherwise we might as well put a political party logo on the sign outside because all we are doing is propping up a system designed to control and subjugate.

But Jesus says to the world today, the message and purpose of our very existence as a church, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’ Amen.”

Meditation by The Rev. Joel Daniels

Sunday, July 5, 2026

We are Family

“Jesus placed value on community and radical love for our neighbor rather than blood relations, a stance which upsets anybody in power.  You can see this upset and fear in the Tennessee legislature’s move to declare June ‘Nuclear Family’ month in opposition to Pride Month.  They idolize the ‘nuclear family’ to protect their own power and ideology.  If our legislature really cared about ‘family,’ they wouldn’t enact legislation to tear children away from their immigrant parents.  But that is exactly what they are doing.” 

Meditation by The Rev. Elizabeth Peterson

Sunday, June 14, 2026

We are Family

“I have many parents and siblings here at CoS - folks who have stepped in to those roles in my life at various junctures and who may not realize the profound healing effect their presence, love, and respect have had on my life. 

So, folks, as many of you already know, this is a place of chosen family, bound together in Christian community that goes beyond acceptance to celebration of you as a child of God, queer or not. It’s a place of respect and dignity for us all, a family you may choose- or not. If you do choose, just know that you are already chosen and they will show you that if you let them!”

Meditation by The Rev. Tonya Barnette 

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Four-Letter Words

What is your word for whatever “it” is that pulls you out of bed on a Sunday morning when you’d prefer to sleep in. I’ve heard it called a nugget, a "something," a spirit, an atmosphere. It is that  “something” that makes us who we are. This is our time, our veriditas. The greening power of God is among us.  So I’m going to encourage all of us to keep breathing and take some advice from Paul: to LOVE, to CARE for one another, to HOLD one another with honor and respect, to HATE EVIL, to HOLD FAST to what is GOOD, rejoice in HOPE, persevere in PRAYer, rejoice together, WEEP together, BLESS all. And I would add, be KIND. 

Meditation by Ceil Sheahan, preacher

Sunday, May 31, 2026

Defecting in Place

“When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, the Jesus movement transformed overnight from a close-knit community of believers who shared everything in common to ensure nobody went without, to a state religion sanctioned and mandated by the Roman Empire.  What could possibly go wrong?” 

Meditation by The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Peterson

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Origins

“Our origin story includes that truth that we come from a God who made us in their own image. This means that caring for the creation includes care for the value and dignity of every individual human. Because when we do so, we recognize the divine in each of us.”

Meditation by The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Peterson

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Sitting on a Fence

“God, give us the courage of your compassion.”

Meditation by The Rev. George Waters

Sunday, April 12, 2026

The Good News of Peace by Jesus Christ

“Jesus is the Good News. ... You must know that, because the world will tell you lies.  Someone will tell you that compassion is weakness.  Jesus shows otherwise.  Someone will say that ‘empathy is a made-up … term that does a lot of damage.’  But Jesus put flesh and blood on empathy, lived and died empathy, raised up and proved its real power to save.  Some believe the myth of redemptive violence and the rhetoric of ‘holy war.’  Jesus was a victim of violence, not a perpetrator of it.  He is the Prince of Peace, so whoever sides with those who kill are on the wrong side of God’s equation.  Someone will tell you that God condemns you and hates who you are.  Don’t believe it; you can know that’s not true, because Jesus is good news.” 

“It is not God who stokes and exploits fear.  God’s message is, ‘Do not be afraid’ – we do not need to fear even death.  Jesus is God saying, ‘Look at me!  This way!  I’ll show you. I’ve got you.  Follow me.’  Believe the good news of Jesus.”

Meditation by The Rev. Valerie Coe Lowder

Sunday, April 5, 2026

Resurrection Now

"What does resurrection look like for a community of faith?  What does resurrection look like in our own valley of bones? It can look like a community that has been battered by the daily onslaught of attempts to divide us...a church beaten nearly to death by the knowledge of what our country is doing in God’s name … a people worn down to dry bones by the constant fight against each wave of injustice that empire unleashes-against our immigrant neighbors, our LGBTQ neighbors, our black neighbors, our Muslim neighbors.... It can look like that community grieving together, sharing one another’s pain. Then, reminding one another of God’s promise of steadfast love and forgiveness, opening ourselves to the spirit breath of God, inhaling rejuvenating hope. It can look like us unbinding and freeing each other to do our part of the work of unbinding and freeing our neighboring communities. At this moment, death is now and resurrection is also now. We are all connected by both. May we remember both our oneness and God’s promises so that we live out hope even after every death."

Meditation by The Rev. Tonya Barnette

Sunday, March 22, 2026

The Holy Power of Anger and Despair

“Lament is a sincere form of praising God.  As a people of faith, we must re-claim the powerful voice of lament found throughout the Psalms.  When we raise our complaints to God and demand that God intervene on our behalf, we express our trust that God can and will help us.  In so doing,  we avoid the misdirected feelings of guilt and blame that so often accompany hardship.”

Meditation by The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Peterson

Sunday, March 15, 2026

“The woman with the alabaster jar of expensive oil at Bethany gave Jesus a gift nobody else was willing to give him: she drew near to him and anointed his head with oil when his death was imminent. She was not afraid to stand by Jesus when the rest of the world looked away.” 

Meditation by The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Peterson

Sunday, March 8, 2026

Leaving the Garden

“Before we can really appreciate this beautiful narrative about what it means to be a human, we must peel off some of the layers that tradition and the patriarchy has erroneously placed on it:  1.  The snake is not the devil.  2.  The woman is not a weak-willed temptress, and 3.  This is not a passage about sin.”

Meditation by The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Peterson

Sunday, February 22, 2026

What Comes After the Mountaintop?

“I think, I hope, that we all get at least one mountaintop experience in our lifetimes. And maybe, hopefully? more than one. But the reality is also that mountaintop experiences can’t last forever. We all have to come down from the mountain eventually. It’s not coincidental that Transfiguration Sunday always falls on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. It is a stark reminder that the journey that takes us to the mountaintop also leads us through the valley. We know there will be challenges, pain and loss, difficult choices, times when we know fear and despair. But our experiences of God on the mountaintop can hopefully serve as reminders, as touchstones, so that we can continue to trust that God is with us in the valley.”

Meditation by Rebecca Avery-Quinn, preacher

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Be Salty, Stay Lit

“In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was speaking to a plural ‘you.’ He was talking to ‘all y’all.’ There is bad news and good news about this. The bad news: we are implicated by the behaviors—good and bad—of the groups we belong to. In other words, it’s not enough to try to do what is just, we must associate with groups that are trying to do what is just. The good news: we are not alone.”

Meditation by The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Peterson

Sunday, February 8, 2026

What We Know and What We Don’t Know

You don’t know what church Jesus is going to build in the new building. You don’t know what qualities, what abilities, what potential, God sees in you. You don’t know what Church of the Savior can become or will become.

What do you know? What you know, say boldly.

What you know you don’t know, wait for humbly and hopefully.

And the unknown unknowns? As Tony Soprano said to his daughter, “What you don’t know could fill a book.” You don’t even know what you don’t know.

But know this: God is faithful, and God has called you into the partnership of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Meditation by The Rev. Valerie Coe Lowder, preacher

Sunday, January 18, 2026

"Tender Merciful Love"

“We want merriment. We want twinkly lights. We want jingle-bells. We want bubbles. We want frivolity and festivities and familiar songs with catchy tunes. We want speed. And Advent is none of that. .... Advent is a slow, four-week crescendo of illumination. It takes time. Waiting and watching is the purpose of Advent. We’re supposed to look forward to Christmas, rather than dive right in. Deep sighs are expected. Patience is tested. If we rush through Advent, we miss its beauty and its crucial message altogether. So as we begin Advent, I invite you to slowness and stillness. I invite you to breathe deeper. Advent offers us an expectant pause. I know it’s busy and hectic and sparkly and loud out there. But here and now, in Christian worship, we get an antidote to all that -- a much-needed reprieve. A simple invitation to wait and to hope.”

Meditation by The Rev. Valerie Coe Lowder
Sunday, December 21, 2025