St. John's Presbyterian Church Camas

06/01/2026

Let us testify to Love!
Happy Pride Y’all.

Listen here: https://c44.lnk.to/TestifyToLove Grammy® nominated a...

06/01/2026

Why go to a little church? Because it’s nice to be in community. Why go to a big church? Because we are called to join together. Why go to a medium sized church? Because it’s a place to find others. Yesterday we, as the Church, came together and we talked about being community. We came and we were community and we’d love to have you be a part of our community.

Yesterday we blessed our new spaces, we prayed prayers of gratitude for the helpers, the builders, the architects, the people who ran the numbers, and the ones who carried out soggy furniture. We prayed over our dreamers and those who asked for fiscal responsibility. We need both of them. We prayed for our graduate and for the journey. We prayed over the coordinator of the details and for pastors who serve our communities.
We are a praying people and we prayed for our friends we haven’t met yet who might be served by us. Thanks Rev. Brian for joining us and preaching for us! What a joy to have you helping bless our space and become a partner in dreaming dreams with us.

If this sounds like what you need to be a part of, come hang out with us.
We’ll be getting together Sunday at 10:30a in-person and online.
We’d love to have you join us.

05/25/2026

It’s important to understand that Memorial Day is a holiday set aside for remembering those who died in service. Often they are on foreign soil, in places far away from home, and fighting for their lives. They engaged in the fight for our freedoms and did not walk away with battle scars or wounds that can heal. We asked them to go to the fight and they volunteered to do so. Jesus is quoted as saying “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” John 15:13

Mourning is a tradition and ritual that helps us come together as a community to acknowledge our collective gratitude and remorse. Maybe understanding THIS particular day can help us stave off war and learn the value of diplomacy and unity. I hope that how ever you come into this day of mourning you will find a way or a tradition that helps to remember the cost of a life lost for wars over things and places we probably don’t understand. Hold in prayer those who have died and those who grieve their loss. Find a way to make peace and not war so that our gratitude becomes a steeled monument to the idea that the loss of life is not a cheap commodity, but an incalculable loss of which we stand, acknowledge, and fight on our own front to avoid.

Our Prayer for those killed in service,

Holy Redeemer,
You promise us an eternity with you,
and our salvation is promised through your grace.
We hold fast to that hope of life after life.

We lift in prayer those who have gone before us
in service to our country. Let them rest in your peace and rise in your glory.
There are no words sufficient to mark their loss.
I have no words that will comfort the grieving.
I can only ask that your peace rest with those who grieve.
May the children know that we see their pain.
May their spouses, parents, families and friends know that feel their heartbreak

We prefer to resist mourning, allowing ourselves to be distracted by
things of no real consequence.
Holy One, let our hearts break where your heart breaks.
Give us the strength to enter into mindful unrest,
so that the grief of one of us inspires us to fight against wars
and be bringers of peace into our places of conflict.
Let your peace and mercy be woven into our very being
as a memorial to those who have died serving our country.

In Jesus name we pray,
Amen

05/18/2026

What a beautiful poem of perfect love between two people. A relationship that helps with healing, that allows for grace to freely run through it, where equality and differences make it come alive.

This poem is a wonderful wedding poem and on the Monday after the Reign of Christ Sunday it hit a different chord for me. Maybe this is what it means for the Church to be the Bride of Christ? Maybe our holy Triune God loves us like this? What vows are exchanged in this covenantal relationship we are in with God? What curiosity and questions do you have to ask God about how it all works? Are you still asking questions of God about how it all works?

In John chapter 17 Jesus asks questions of the disciples about their relationship with him and he goes strongly into his arrest. There is no doubt, only strong conviction that he will sacrifice so that every person who comes to him will not perish, but have everlasting life. That’s much different than Luke where Jesus sweats blood and begs the Apostles to stay awake and pray for him. Maybe both things are true? The reign of Christ is eternal and we follow a God who knows suffering and the feeling of being distraught. We also believe in a God who knew what would happen and the power of the cross through Christ’s authority. He didn’t choose power OVER others he chooses perfect love OF humanity. That perfect love -we are called to keep working at having perfect love of others. Not power over, but love of others.

I hope this poem offers you a warmed heart of what perfect love might sound like. Maybe it’s close to what God wants to offer us? Maybe it’s what we could give in some measure to others? Maybe it’s just a lovely poem to carry with you today. However it hits, I pray it brings a smile to you today.

You can find yesterday’s sermon on YouTube at youtube.com/-camasworship5182

We worship in-person and online at 10:30a Sundays

Our website is www.sjpc-camas.org

05/09/2026

We get that this can be a hard weekend for some. We wish you peace this Mother's Day for all who celebrate and for those who struggle.

Creator of All
You give us mothers in many forms, and today we pray for them all.

For those mothers who have left earth after a long life or who have left too soon, all of whom we miss dearly,

We raise these names to you in our hearts.

For all expectant mothers anticipating the arrival of new life whether with joy or anxiety, that they be supported and cared for,

We raise these names to you in our hearts.

For those women with hearts grieving for children that could have been,

We raise these names to you in our hearts.

For every woman who is raising children now, making difficult choices and sacrifices for her children’s becoming,

We raise these names to you in our hearts.

For those women who have taken in others’ children through adoption and foster care, showing us that the love of God extends far beyond biological ties,

We raise these names to you in our hearts.

For the grandmothers, aunties, sisters, neighbours, teachers, and friends who have mothered us, nurtured us, supported us and helped us to become the people we are today,

We raise these names to you in our hearts.

For mothers with whom our relationships are complicated, difficult, strained or severed, but who have forced us to choose healthier paths for our own lives,

We raise these names to you in our hearts.

Mothering God, help us all to reflect more of your compassion, love and strength to those around us today. May each one of us say, with Mary, that our souls will magnify you and our spirits will rejoice in your saving grace. Amen

05/04/2026

😆😆😆May the 4th be with you!

05/04/2026

Thanks Wood Street Worship and First Presbyterian Dallas for letting us cover your song in worship. This is a beautiful song and we are grateful to have it in worship with us.

Wood Street Worship and First Pres Dallas are church communities that are fully welcoming and affirming of all people. 'God's Got Room' is a testament to the...

05/04/2026

John 14:15-21 talks about “Do not be troubled” and then Jesus talks about his dying in a metaphor of going to his Father’s house to prepare a place for others.

I have had too many experiences with the dying and the grieving where someone is troubled because they feel grief and anguish. “But Jesus says I shouldn’t be troubled” as they cry into their hands that cover their face. My heart breaks wide open for them because in their hardest days they’re clinging to what they believe is a commandment, when Jesus is offering comfort for his grieving disciples.

We are created for connection. We are image bearers of God and part of that is our emotions. God bestowed on humanity our empathy, compassion, joy, sadness, elation, and all the other emotions as ways to know we live. Jesus will be highly anxious before his arrest. He gets angry and frustrated with others. He enjoy himself at the wedding and he is judged for it. We are built for emotions. All of them.

We are also built for imagination. Jesus creates a descriptive picture of where we are going when we are dead. He doesn’t fill it all in for us. We are required to sit and think about what this dwelling place might look like. We are required to color in the outline he has given us. This is common in the Jewish practice of scripture that the hearers are expected to sit and linger, using their imagination to create the picture. That is what resting in God feels like. It is the sitting and pondering. We are drawn towards imaginative thinking in all of Jesus’ parables and the visual imagery he uses when he tells us of God. Read John 14 and let your imagination go. What do you see? What is God saying? Where do you feel inspired or drawn towards? Invite the Holy Spirit to guide you and take the time to be still and linger with God. Do not be troubled but take comfort that you are loved and cared for.

05/03/2026

We were reminded that it’s World Labyrinth Day. What is a labyrinth? It’s a contemplative walk on a preset path leading to a middle point. It’s often confused with a maze, but the difference is that, unlike a maze, there’s no tricks or traps. A labyrinth invites us to walk its path while you think, pray, ponder, contemplate wherever you have burdens. Walking into the center and offering concerns and leaving a portion of them in the center. As you follow the path back out feel free to shed some of the worries and concerns. Mentally lighten your load. The labyrinth is never meant to have do’s or don’ts. Just come rest in it’s peace and we hope you and calm meet here.

In the Christian faith (and many others) we carry our prayers into the labyrinth and leave them with God in the center. The walking out is the transition from the center back into the world. This offering of our worries to God is from Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus tells us to give him our burdens. At St.John’s we’ve created a labyrinth and it’s open and available on the church grounds. If you need a place to think and be in nature, come visit the labyrinth. May you find God’s peace in the journey.

Matt 11:28–30

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

https://www.facebook.com/share/18TqGivBAy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Thank you Illustrated Ministry for the picture!

🌀 May 2nd is World Labyrinth Day.
May you find time to wander and contemplate the ever-expanding love of God.

04/20/2026

The Lectionary scripture this week put us in Acts 2:22-32 where after the moment of Pentecost (which will happen on May 24th)...after that moment Peter speaks to the crowd and he chastises the Jewish people for how they knew what God was capable of, they knew what to look for in the Messiah, they had heard the stories of King David and still they participated in the crucifixion.

We must be careful to not read the Bible and come away with an interpretation that brings us to anti-semitism. These verses have been used in that way. These verses have not always been used in church reading because of this problem. We are a confessional church ourselves. That means every week we come into confession of our corporate sins, our missteps, our falling short of God's heart. We screw up on the regular, BUT we come back and try again. We turn around as notice where we were sure we were right and declared it adamantly and then later we saw our hubris and today we ask for forgiveness. We call ourselves out, one to another. We don't love each other less, or lay blame of who got us here or who led us astray. We simply name it and live with that as a teaching tool.

This is the work Peter does with his own people, his family, himself. He could have stood with Jesus instead of hiding in the crowd. Any of the Apostles by joining Jesus could have made it harder for the crowd to turn on Jesus, but they all ran away from the suffering and made themselves scarce. Peter is leading a time of confession in this passage to what has happened and the promise that is made through this covenantal relationship. It's easy to read the Bible and simply read the words and decide what is happening in this small snapshot, but the reality needs much more explanation. Laying blame is easy - admitting fault, now that is some really hard work.

Here is the sweetness of admitting fault, once you acknowledge that you are part of problem and you realize that God holds you close in that moment, you fully know your need for grace and mercy. The Jewish people didn't cry out for the cross. Fear did that. Empire building and Power-greed, did that. Fear of not having enough if the inheritance of the Kingdom of God was shared with everyone, did that. Fear that the immigrants would use up too much of the grace of God, did that. Us verses them thinking, called for the cross. Good versus Bad, Clean versus Perverse, we must keep "them" away from God, put Jesus on the cross. Shoot, we would do it all over again, given the chance and that should stop us in our tracks.

Peter calls out himself first and his people he loves second. I pray we can take that lesson to heart. Peter tells us we are to bear witness to what God has done in our lives and on our lives. Hopefully you can give me an "Amen!" that we should live like that.

Join us Sundays at 10:30a in person or Live Streamed
for links and info see our website www.sjpc-camas.org

Here's an old song for your week. Hope you enjoy.

https://youtu.be/DqAIv4IOXsU?si=nf4SlJ0B933BA0fs

Provided to YouTube by CDBabyGrace Upon Grace · Sandra McCrackenThe Builder And The Architect℗ 2005 Same Old Dress MusicReleased on: 2005-01-01Auto-generated...