What are we? What are we as humans? Sometimes we feel and we know that we were made to be more majestic than we experience. We are like a spray-painted dog who looks like a panda, but we haven't been made to be a farce or to be hollow but to be whole. The Bible teaches at the beginning that we are made with love and care and attention, that we were made in the very image of God, and that we were made for a life of dependence. This image bearing is who we are as humans (marred though it now is). This dependent life of faith and trust was not just a call to not eat the fruit of the garden, but an ongoing call from God to a life of Faith.

Genesis means "Origins". This Fall we are looking at the first 11 chapters of Genesis and considering how these "Origin" stories come to bear in our lives in an ongoing way. Genesis 1, in indirect poetic confrontation, presents us with a story of creation origins that is far more compelling than any of the myths of the ancient world or the random chance or survivalist beliefs of our modern times. Here we find a text, while not scientific per se, that gives us grounding for scientific exploration in the order and predictability from which God made all things. Here we find a text that is not violent like the ancient creation myths of the "bangs" of creation-belief in our day, but one that is intentional and caring. Here we find a text that speaks of creation not out of need, but out of desire and love. The bottom line is that the Bible presents us with a far more beautiful and compelling creation than anything else you can find.

Coming back from sabbatical, Pastor Peter offers some reflections on our church and how we are to follow Jesus in our time by looking at Jesus' incredible interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well. What Are We About? Well, Jesus is about seeking after the outcast and the sinner and the stranger, so we are to be about delighting in diversity and seeking the stranger. Jesus, somewhat oddly enough, in a conversation with this woman about worship, declares "we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." He grounds his compassionate engagement with this woman in the long salvation-history of God with his people and their practices. So, SCC is about being historically rooted and embedded in time and place. Finally, this woman makes a massive shift in her understanding of Jesus. As Ephraim the Syrian wrote in the early 3rd century, "First she caught sight of a thirsty man, then a Jew, then a Rabbi, afterwards a prophet, last of all the Messiah." How was this shift possible? Because she was with Jesus. The conversation about water was a conversation about Jesus, her concept of men was shifted because of the presence of Jesus, the conversation around worship found its end in Jesus. So, SCC is about being with Jesus and allowing his person and work to transform us.