Valley Presbyterian Church has an international reputation as a destination wedding setting, but for some 350 people in the Bay area, it’s more than a wedding, or even a Sunday, destination: it’s our home. Because of our proximity to Stanford and Silicon Valley, a lot of us work in academia or technology. Because of our love of and passion for the arts, many of us are working artists, writers, and musicians – or aspiring to be! We follow Christ in the teachings of the Reform tradition (PCUSA),…
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This Sunday launches my fall preaching theme of "Abide: Lessons from the Vineyard." On my sabbatical, I spent a lot of time in vineyards and with winemakers, and I'm excited to share some of what I learned as we explore Jesus' words to his disciples in John 15, "I am the vine, my Father is the vineyard keeper." This week we'll explore this image of God as a farmer and the tender care with which…
I am very excited to welcome back our beloved pastor, Jenny Warner! During service, Jenny and I will have a conversation about her sabbatical and how her experience was this summer. We will discuss some of her highlights, learnings, and hopefully, we will be able to hear about some of the adventures she went on.
Nate Milheim will be the guest preacher this Sunday and his sermon is titled, "This is the Day" and the scripture of focus is Psalm 118:21-29. In the words of the Psalmist: "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it." In the words of Mary Oliver "You have a life - just imagine that! You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another." What if each day is…
The sermon for this Sunday is titled, "The Word Became Flesh—Life as a New Creation" and the scriptures of focus are John 1:1-5; 9-14, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, and 2 Corinthians 5:17. The story of God, humanity, and creation does not end with Genesis. It continues into the Second Testament and we witness this story unfold with spectacular splendor in the Gospel of John. "In the beginning was the…
This Sunday, we are fortunate to have Naomi Kinsman as our guest preacher. Naomi will be preaching a sermon titled, "Seeing in Stories", and the scripture reading will be on Mark 6:30-44. When Jesus feeds the crowd of five thousand, the miracle goes beyond provision. This is a story that invites us to see differently. Instead of snapping his fingers and solving the problem, Jesus turns to his…
Reverend Deborah Lewis-Virges, pastor of Saint Mark AME Zion Church, will be our guest preacher and she will be delivering a sermon titled "A Message of Hope". Regardless of the current state of our country, we must always look at the big picture, what God is doing, and our own destiny in Christ. We must never lose the wonder of God’s grace and offering for a future of hope.
This Sunday will be the fifth sermon of our summer sermon series and it is titled "Creation and Labor—The Sacred Rhythm of Sabbath and Rest". Sabbath is a sacred rhythm essential to the Jewish and Christian spiritual life. In a world where our value is determined by what we do and contribute, the architecture of the Sabbath is intended for humanity to rest in the healing and transformative love of…
The sermon titled, "Creation and Care of the Earth", will explore the origins of humanity's fraught relationship with creation and find that our role as 'rulers of creation' is better captured in our role as caretakers of the earth.
The sermon for this Sunday is titled "Creaturely Life and the Fall". In this sermon, we will uncover the meaning of what it means to be a creature and what our relationship to brokenness and sin is. By looking at Genesis 3, we will find that though humanity was made for relationship, we have experienced fracture and disconnection in our relationship with God, one another, ourselves, and creation.…
What does it mean to become like a child in the eyes of God? In Matthew 18, Jesus places a child before his disciples and says, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This Sunday, Cindy Liu invites us into a deep reflection on what it means to encounter our inner child and return to a childlike posture—one of vulnerability, authenticity,…
“The passage from Ephesians tells us we, all of us, as a people, and indeed the entire cosmos, have redemption in Jesus Christ. Despite everything we have done, we have been given a gift. How we respond to that gift is up to us. So let us consider this passage, holding in tension all the things that are true: that our political system is more precarious than we may have thought, the birds are…
Psalm 5 invites us to rejoice, to sing for joy, even in the midst of evil, wickedness, lies, and destruction. Mary Oliver's poem, "Don't Hesitate", invites us to not be afraid when we unexpectedly encounter joy, but to jump in. Let us hold onto joy in the middle of all the chaos and evil in this world. It can be difficult for all of us to live into the idea that "the joy of the Lord is our…
In the sermon, "The Human Creature in Relationship", we will explore what it means to be a human creature. As a creation of God, we are made in God's image and made for relationship. Yet, in an increasingly divided world, we are unaware of or have forgotten our origins, what we were made for, and that we belong to one another. In order to continue our journey along the right path, we must go…
Last Sunday we successfully began our summer sermon series, "Origins: The Story of God, Humanity, and Creation", and located ourselves as modern readers of Genesis, a pre-scientific, ancient Far East creation narrative. This summer, as Jenny is on sabbatical, we have invited guest preachers to preach on topics outside of the summer sermon series. This upcoming Sunday, Naomi Kinsman will be…
Our summer series, Origins: The Story of God, Humanity, and Creation, will be focused on the book of Genesis, the remarkable story of God and creation, and humanity's role in the creation narrative. We will begin the summer series with a sermon, "The Story of Us: Reading Genesis in Context". The sermon will be about locating ourselves as readers of the Genesis text and how to begin reading it…
Pentecost is a high day in the story of the church – not just because of the original moment of the Holy Spirit's arrival, but because every year we need to remember that our power and hope comes from God. The church's mission has never been dependent on smart, savvy, sophisticated people. It has always been about God working through the most unlikely people in the most unlikely circumstances.
6.1.25 - Message: I Want You to Be by Valley Presbyterian Church
Real community asks us to put aside our preferences in order to build a community that truly reflects the love of Christ. In the early church, Peter was given a vision that asked him to break tradition and religious restrictions in order to welcome those outside his circle. What are we called to let go of?
VPC is committed to being a place of welcome for everyone. We are always seeking new ways to spread our arms wider to the world. Over the years, our welcome of LGBTQIA+ folks has grown organically as we have listened to the stories in our congregation and come to understand how important it is to have a clear commitment to full inclusion. We are so proud to be a partner with kin•dom community, an…
There’s Always Room for One More, Revelation 7:9-17 The writer of Revelation imagines a community of people from all nations and ages gathering together in the love of God. We will explore this vision together on Sunday and remember the mothers and grandmothers who taught us there was always room for one more.
Join us for a special guest sermon with Danny Thongsy! Danny is a community advocate, who has worked on a statewide effort for immigrant rights and to end mass incarceration. He mentors and supports directly impacted community members through advocacy and their reintegration. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a Sociology degree and had studied biblical/religious studies through the Golden Gate…
Join us for a special Sunday service as we learn about welcoming!
Join us for Easter Sunday!
The life and teachings of Jesus have a way of sorting and exposing our lives. But they are not meant to cause shame, they're meant to point us toward life. In these days, as we live in a swirl of escalating bad news, where do we put our focus? What does faithfulness look like?
As we head toward Easter, we are turning to the New Testament and the life of Jesus. On Sunday, I will explore a way to understand who Jesus is and how we relate to him as the center point of our faith. Get ready for a theological deep dive!
This Sunday, as we continue our journey through the Bible, I explore the story of a woman who was forgotten and invisible to everyone but God. God sees us in our hidden places too. With God's eyes, we are invited to see those who are invisible.
This Sunday, we welcomed Brian Heredia to preach on one of the first stories in the Bible, the story of Cain and Abel. Brian explored what it means to trust God and the hidden reasons we often struggle to trust.
We began this first Sunday of Lent by exploring our theme to approach the story of Scripture through the eyes of children. Jesus tells us that unless we approach God as a child, we will not enter into God's realm. How do we reclaim our innocence and sense of wonder in our faith? Join us to kick off this season!
This Sunday, we'll explore an obscure and rather dark biblical story from the time of King David. The story of the protest of a heartbroken mother named Rizpah changes the heart of a king and brings honor to her disgraced family. Her story brings to light the way our grief has power to make change in ourselves and in the world around us.
The practice of our faith is not judged by right opinions or beliefs but by the wideness of our welcome. The book of James invites us to examine the quality and limits of our embrace of those who are the "other." In the way of Jesus, there are no favorites and no exclusive access. Join us on Sunday as Pastor Jenny speaks from this passage and has a conversation with our Community Curator, Jaron…
This is a time to take a moment to reset our values and priorities as we enter into a new season. Pastor Jenny will invite us to consider Deuteronomy 10 when the Israelites were invited to a reset.
We live in communities fraught with othering, be it for race, gender, faith, class or political ideology. The question, for believers, is how do we navigate this terrain while being faithful to Jesus' call for us as disciples? Faithful practice means we must widen our circle of concern for those it is easiest to love and particularly for those with whom it's most difficult. Embracing the…
Our staff member Aisea Taimani preaches!
What does it mean to live with transparency? This week we'll explore the Ephesians' call to live in the light of God's love and let that light shine to others.
We're excited to welcome Naomi Kinsman back to preach this morning. Her message will highlight that each individual is God’s poem, and collectively, our gifts work in harmony. One gift God gives us all is the ability to notice and celebrate gifts in each other. As we reflect on the roles we each play in our circles of community, how might we name the gifts we see in one another? How might we…
We all have a part to play in this world. Our actions matter. Each of us has our own gifts to give. Ephesians 4 gives us a picture of how good it can be when we all do our part. We'll be worshipping in our Redwood Grove this Sunday. Join us under the trees to sing, pray and listen together!
This Sunday Alicia Garcia from the amazing organization, WeHope will join us to share her message about how we need each other to bring out the essence of God in our lives and to be a thriving church who shines light into the darkness. WeHope serves the unhoused population all over the Bay Area, bringing dignity and hope through their shelters, Dignity on Wheels and job training programs. Alicia…
These verses in Ephesians 3:14-21 are what you pray when you don't know what to pray. They express the inner architecture of faith and the guiding words for our journeys in Christ. As we read and consider them, we'll seek hearts enlarged with God's love and strength beyond our own to live the lives God is calling us to.
We are excited to welcome Kafunyi Mwamba as our preacher this week. Kafunyi is a chaplain at Stanford Hospital and part of the pastoral staff at our partner church, St Mark AME Zion in East Palo Alto. A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kafunyi truly represents the title of his sermon, "Joy." In his own words: "The topic today is joy. And the chief question is: How can we be happy in…
On this fourth of July weekend, we'll consider our allegiances. This beautiful passage in Ephesians 2:11-22 invites us to place our allegiance to Jesus beyond any other group, identity or nation. When we do that, we find peace and community.
We begin our summer study of Ephesians with Ephesians 1:3-14. This letter is set up with a bunch of superlatives, reminding us that we are the beloved adopted children of God. What if we lived as if "every spiritual blessing" were ours? Let's take a moment to focus on what God has given us and to soak in the indescribably good gift of being children of God.
God calls us his masterpiece, his "poeima," which can be translated as his poem. What does it mean to be God's poem, God's poetry? As we live out this life-giving vocation, how might we listen for God's call, and use our voice in response? How might we join the artful pursuit of building a more loving world? Guest preacher Naomi Kinsman speaks.
Guest preacher Nate Millheim speaks on living with gratitude.
Today we hear from one of our seniors, Theo!
Why does it matter that Christians think of God as the Trinity? How might this ancient idea change how we view our world? And what does it mean for us in every day life? As we consider Nicodemus' visit to Jesus at night, we'll explore the answers to these questions on this Trinity Sunday.
This morning we'll explore the challenge of faith in our current time and how the story of Pentecost may give us signposts for reviving our lives and communities. Pastor Jenny will be preaching and Aisea will be sharing his story along with leading music.
One of the most powerful gifts of being human is to give witness to each other in the contours of our stories. Jesus asks his disciples to bear witness as he ascends to heaven. How do we become more skilled witnesses to God's love?
Interview Kelly Bean and Evariste about work in Burundi, the joy that comes from giving our lives to another.
Today we go back to the beginning, looking at one of the Creation accounts in Genesis and how it invites us to partner with God in affection and care for the earth. What if we started our conversations about caring for the earth by acknowledging that this is what we are made for? This morning we will rediscover the joy of being a part of all God has made.
Resurrection becomes real when we make it local, considering the place we live and what is needed here and now. Today's service will begin our April focus on caring for the earth as an expression our faith.
