The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, January 25, 2026.

God calls us to walk into the future without knowing exactly where we are headed, to let go of old securities and certainties, and trust the God who promises to be with us wherever we go. The God who sent Jesus to invite us into wholeness and blessedness will empower us to take that wholeness and blessedness into the world, as witnesses to the light. We are sent to love, relentlessly, and to speak the whole truth, no matter how much the powerful pretend that what we see is not real.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, January 18, 2026.

Witnesses watch events unfold, even when it breaks their hearts, even when they are tempted to look away. And witnessing is more than being a bystander or an onlooker. To witness is to do something active. It means bearing testimony. It means remembering what you saw, perhaps filming what you saw, perhaps writing it down. It means providing evidence of the truth of a thing.

No matter how shocking, or brutal, or inhumane, witnesses tell the story afterward…

In this moment, in our national story, we are being called to see the truth of what is going on, the whole truth. Because the place of oppression and suffering is the very place to meet the risen Christ. The place of oppression and suffering is the very place to participate in and proclaim the Empire of Love.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, January 11, 2026.

We need a pause to remember our baptismal promises, whether we made them for ourselves or had them made for our infant selves and reaffirmed and claimed them as our own when we became adults: the promise to renounce the power of evil and seek the freedom of Christ; the promise, by the Grace of God, to be Christ’s disciple; to follow the way of Jesus; to resist oppression and evil; to show love and justice. We pause to remember those promises.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, January 4, 2026.

In the face of fear, let us stick together. Let us defy empire, not with swords, but with wisdom, truth telling, courage and solidarity. Let us kneel in awe, not before the powerful, not before any political party, or high-tech billionaire, or entrenched system whose dominance seems inevitable. Instead, let us bow before the powerless Christ, whose birth marks the beginnings of God’s peace campaign. Let us come into silence and allow the infinite to greet us there us in a place beyond words.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, December 21, 2025.

Advent invites us not simply to “be not afraid”, but to act with love in the midst of fear, despite anger or shame, despite that sense that we have been lied about in our country. We have been lied to, we have a sense of betrayal about what our country is doing and why. And despite that, through that, just like Joseph in his sense of betrayal and confusion and fear, we are called to act with love, to show up with courage, to reach out and say “take my hand”.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, December 14, 2025.

Too often in the version of Christianity that is dominant in our culture, courage is defined through heroic masculinity. Courage is understood to be loud, and bold and certain. We’ve all heard those voices in the public square, but Mary (Luke 1: 26-56) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1: 4-10) model for us a different courage. The courage to admit that they are perplexed. The courage to ask questions. The courage to hesitate and need more time. And the courage to take just one uncertain step forward. And then another. And then another. And they do not walk alone.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, December 7, 2025.

If Jesus is really the one who brings God’s rule to fruition, why is our world still marked by exploitation, injustice, polarization and violence? Why are we still waiting 2000 Advent Seasons later? How long must we wait? Will Jesus really come to redeem those who suffer, or should we look for another? The Empire is still intact, Herod still reigns.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, November 30, 2025.

We can approach our fear with compassion. We can have compassion for the other human beings caught up in inhumane systems. We can have compassion for the authors of cruelty who have turned so far away from their own humanity that cruelty seems good to them. We can be tender with our own fearful hearts. We can have compassion for our own fear. And we can claim our own courage.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on November 23, 2025.

The voice of power and the voice of prophecy run straight through church history. They also run straight through our biblical texts. Over and over again the tradition reminds us that it is the prophetic voice that brings us close to God, not the voice of power; the voice that speaks from the margins, not from the halls of power.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, November 16, 2025.

Endurance is a tricky word. We think of it as solitary and internal, something we can will ourselves or force ourselves to do. But endurance is not born just of our own strength. We are not called on to clench our jaws and ball up our fists, and will ourselves through on our own power, day after day. Endurance is born out of trust in God to buoy us and enable us; enable us to keep going, to rest and move forward. This goes against all our cultural scripts about what strength is, and what courage is, and what endurance means.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, November 9, 2025.

Living as we are now in times that converge on apocalyptic, when everything seems to be deteriorating all around us, what do we do with this? Jesus offers us a beautiful path through such anxiety: God is the god of the living, so live, give thanks, trust the truth, persevere in love.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, November 2, 2025.

This small, delightful story (Exodus 1:15 - 21) is a message to us to remember that we too are called to resist evil. With whatever skills and knowledge we possess, wherever life places us, we are called to choose life with humility, creativity and courage.

I’m thinking today of the creativity that we are witnessing every day at the ICE building here in Portland, and I have to say that I have never been prouder to call myself an Oregonian than since the Frogs of Resistance starting dancing their whimsical and subversive dance in the streets. They are dancing to say no. Portland is not a war zone, it is not on fire, and it has not disappeared. They are dancing to say no to the authoritarian power-grab of ICE, to make a mockery of the lies that are being told — creatively, whimsically, with persistence daily they are dancing their resistance.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, October 26, 2025.

I think we are all feeling it more and more, that it takes courage to live in these dangerous days. To really live, with intention, and purpose and generosity. To live with our hearts and spirits rooted in the Gospel message of God’s love for humanity, and the Gospel call to participate in creating Beloved community. To be awake to the world, but not overcome by it. It takes courage. And some days are easier than others.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, October 19, 2025.

Well, an unjust judge who had no fear of God and no respect for people — it’s not a headline. It’s a story 2000 years old, proving that people then were faced with a world and a future that felt increasingly dangerous. Just like we are. And just like we, they wondered, as we sometime do, how do I pray in the face of that? Does it do any good? How do I keep faith?

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, October 12, 2025.

“The alien who resides with you shall be to as the native born among you. You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” — from Leviticus 19

I have been thinking, as I’m sure many of us have, about all the different ways we describe people living far from the places of their birth, the places of their ancestors, the place of their dreams for their children.

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, December 22, 2024.

“Our weary world does not need anymore cynics, and scoffers and skeptics. But as wars rage and divisions heighten, we desperately need hope bearers and hope partners who point us to a better way; one where life is made new, and lives of shame and fear do not have the final say. Our hope is a reflection of God’s intention for the world; intentions for renewal and restoration for everyone.”

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, December 15, 2024.

“This Advent in the quiet spaces of our hearts, where God’s still, small voice speaks to us, we are called to discern what is our to do… Our work might seem small or insignificant, but when we look at the long stories of scripture, the stories of the Hebrew bible, the stories of the New Testament, the stories of church history, we see lots of ordinary, flawed people stepping in with their small thing and doing it with a full heart. Each good work no matter how small, is an important thread in the fabric of the whole; part of God’s on-going creation story where love will overcome, peace will be restored, and new life will emerge. In this time when our national life feels so precarious every small gift is more needed than ever. Every act of generosity, and truth telling, and compassion, and justice belongs to that larger divine tapestry.”

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on The Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024.

“This season of flickering candles and Christmas lights and carols can have a shadow side filled with loneliness and grief. For many it feels like anything but the happiest time of year. And yet, the season offers us so many opportunities for kinship and connection. When we are grieving we can ask for help. When we are not grieving we can reach out… We can invite people into our hearts, and into our homes and into our lives. We can show that in God’s family no one has to face their sorrow alone, and no one has to celebrate their victories alone and let them grow hollow. What would it look like for us in this community to foster deeper connections in this season with each other, with our neighbors, with our extended family, with the people we work with or volunteer with? What would it be like to dare to move beyond pleasantries? Nice pleasantries, nothing wrong with them, but what would it be like to share your messy, wholly complicated life?”

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on The First Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2024.

“As we face uncertainty and anxiety in our national life, in our congregational life, in our own lives, how is God magnified through your unique perspective, and vision and experience? What stories of divine presence do you have to tell? What words and acts of love will you choose to describe the good news of the Messiah that you carry in your body, in your life, in your relationships? Don’t wait. Sing it. The world needs your witness of blessedness and blessing. Sing because you are a blessing.”

The reflection by Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman presented on Sunday, November 17, 2024.

“…this is the promise of the Gospel: more life, new life. And as hard as it is to hold onto, this is still the promise; renewed across history through one savage human moment after another. In the middle of our lament, we are called to hold onto the vision of God’s realm, to participate in God’s realm. It is very easy to despair or to grow numb and stop paying attention or to let exhaustion win. But, it is precisely now, now when the world around us feels the most apocalyptic, that we have to respond with resilient, healing love… Love is the answer that we must have. And it is precisely now when systemic evil, and age-old brokenness threaten to bring us to ruin that we have to hold each other tight. As the veil parts and the walls fall, we need each other.”