864-502-8280 | Worship every Sunday @ 4 p.m.
864-502-8280 | Worship every Sunday @ 4 p.m.
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If you can’t worship with us in person, worship with us online and learn the good news of the Gospel from wherever you may be. See below for most recent sermons.
By Rev Danielle Elliott
We live in a time when some preachers bless tanks and call it patriotism. When billionaire CEOs are treated like prophets, their quarterly earnings dissected like sacred text. When candidates quote Scripture while gutting programs for the poor. When worship services open with the Pledge of Allegiance and close with a stock portfolio. We live in a time when faith has been conscripted, drafted into the service of empire. Crosses are wrapped in flags. Sanctuaries echo with applause for power rather than compassion. The name of Jesus, who fed the hungry and lifted the lowly, is invoked to justify cruelty at the border, greed in the marketplace, and indifference in the halls of government.
By Rev Danielle Elliott
Take a minute and think about the most significant relationship in your life. It could be with a partner, a family member, or a close friend. Someone who really gets you. Why is that relationship so meaningful?
For me, it’s always been the people who truly see me. Not just the version I present to the world, but the real me—the one who’s a little tired, a little unsure, a little complicated. The people who see beneath the surface, beneath the layers we all wear to get through the day, and still know and love who I really am. That kind of connection is rare. It feels holy. It reminds me that true intimacy isn’t about being impressive. It’s about being known.
By Rev Danielle Elliott
What Eddie is describing in that haunting passage is Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass which occurred on November 9th-10th, 1938. When you read about this event in history books, the story often goes something like this: German Nazis attacked Jewish people, looted their shops, burned their synagogues, and 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and sent to concentration camps. While all of this is accurate history, I have come to struggle a bit with the imprecise language that is used. By labeling the perpetrators as ‘German Nazis” and the victims as “Jews,” historians are creating a distinction where there should not be one. All of the victims of Kristallnacht were also Germans. Yes they were Jewish but as Eddie tells us, these people were also proud citizens of Germany. They did not see themselves as the “other” until this night made it abundantly clear that they were “others.” What history also tends to gloss over is that it wasn’t only official Nazis who participated in pogroms like Kristallnacht. The truth is far more disturbing – every day people who had lived and worked beside their Jewish neighbors for generations, turned on them almost immediately when given the opportunity. The question for us all to consider is WHY. Why did this happen? How did thousands of otherwise decent, hard working people turn into monsters when they knew that they could participate in this violence and not only get away with it but also be praised for it?
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