You are invited to the Second Sunday in Lent Worship on March 16 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441      Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Second Sunday in Lent
Sunday, March 16, 2025, 10 am

Today is Sunday School with Joan!
[First, children will be in worship. Following the Special Music,
the teacher, Joan Culbertson, will lead our children to the Nursery Room.]

Choir Anthem: The Christ of the Cross
Words and Music by Frank C. Huston

Message                            Numinous Mystical Fire:                   Rev. John Song
Part 2) “Personal Encounter”

During the 40 days of Lent, I will be devoting my sermon series on “Numinous Mystical Fire.” As humans, we have had various iterations of the experience of numinous. For Part 2 sermon, I will share my personal encounter with the Numinous Mystical Fire that set the trajectory of my life.

Psalm 42: 1-3
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”

Vacillation
by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.

You are invited to the First Sunday in Lent with Holy Communion on March 9 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441      Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

First Sunday in Lent with Holy Communion
Sunday, March 9, 2025, 10 am

 Daylight Saving Time Begins March 9th!
Remember to set your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night
or Sunday morning the weekend of March 9.

 

Message          “Numinous Mystical Fire” Part 1) “Introduction”        Rev. John Song

During the 40 days of Lent, I will be devoting my sermon series on “Numinous Mystical Fire.” As humans, we have had various iterations of the experience of numinous. Artists throughout history have painted an aura of numinous halos on saints, mystics, and holy people. We are drawn to this numinous divine light of God. “Numinous” has many names: divine energy, energy of God, uncreated light, original light. Numinous is a love story of God pouring Godself completely in love to become us. Therefore, God is living through the lives of others, including you. The great 20th century Swiss psychologist Carl Jung said, “Only numinous can truly heal and transform us.”

Divine Light: Mystery of “Transfiguration”
“The divine light becomes the principle of our understanding;
in it we come to know God and ourselves.
The divine light manifests itself in this life in space and in time.
It is revealed in history, but it is not of this world. It is eternal.”
~ Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church

Matthew 17: 1-8
The Transfiguration

“Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.”

You are invited to Sunday Worship on March 2 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441      Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Transfiguration Sunday
Sunday, March 2, 2025, 10 am

Children’s Time: Dr. Haley

Special Music: Each Step I Take, Words and Music by W. Elmo Mercer
by Carmelita Abenoja

Rewilding Is the Resistance: Part 2) “Cultivating Radical Friendship”
Message by Haley Feuerbacher, Ph.D. 

In this second message of two-part series, Rewilding Is the Resistance, we will turn to Cultivating Radical Friendship as the way forward. True friendship—woven with justice, equity, and deep valuing of diversity—is not just a personal gift but a form of resistance. When we build relationships that honor and sustain our full humanity, we create the beloved community that can heal and transform the world.

Rewilding is not just about restoring landscapes; it is about restoring our souls. It is about weeding out the forces that deal death—fear, injustice, isolation—and making space for what gives life: connection, courage, and love. This spring, we turn to the wisdom of the wild, the wisdom of the Spirit, and the wisdom of each other to reclaim the freedom and flourishing that is our birthright.

“Jesus calls every generation to wholehearted discipleship: opening our hearts to the people we encounter daily; practicing compassion with our families and neighbors; honoring the dignity and worth of all people near and far; recognizing the systems that destroy human lives through poverty, war and exclusion; and advocating justice and care in our churches, communities and social structures. God calls us further to be stewards of creation, caring for the skies and waters, soil and plants, and all beings.”
~ preamble to United Methodist Social Principles 2025

“Real power is usually unspectacular, a simple setting aside of fear
that allows the free flow of love. But it changes everything.”
~ Martha Beck

“Work is love made visible.”
~ Kahlil Gibran

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

You are invited to Sunday Worship on February 23 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441      Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
Sunday, February 23, 2025, 10 am

Today is Sunday School with Joan!
[First, children will be in worship. Following the Special Music,
the teacher, Joan Culbertson, will lead our children to the Nursery Room.]

Children’s Time: “It’s Okay to Feel Afraid” by Dr. Haley

Choir Anthem: Constantly Abiding
Words and Music by Anne S. Murphy

Message: Rewilding Is the Resistance:
Part 1) “Weeding Out Anxiety in Fearsome Times” by Haley Feuerbacher, Ph.D.

Spring is the season of renewal, growth, and the wild resilience of life breaking through the cracks. In this two-part series, Rewilding Is the Resistance, we will explore rewilding—an ecojustice movement and spiritual calling that invites us to reclaim the untamed, life-giving rhythms of creation, community, and courage.

For too long, we have been conditioned to tame ourselves—to suppress our sacred instincts, to conform to systems that harm, and to sanitize the Spirit into something compliant rather than something liberating. Rewilding calls us back to the truth: that God is found in the wilderness, that the Spirit moves like wind and fire, and that our faith flourishes not in control but in connection.

This Sunday, February 23, our message is on Weeding Out Anxiety in Fearsome Times. We will distinguish fear from anxiety and confront the ways oppression, crisis, and suffering stoke anxiety in us. We will unearth spiritual resources that help us transform anxiety into a centered, courageous, and compassionate presence—one that empowers our action, deepens our impact, and roots us in hope.

You are invited to Sunday Worship on February 16 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441      Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Sunday, February 16, 2025, 10 am

Come and Help Bob Culbertson Celebrate his 80th Birthday!
Potluck Lunch following worship

Children’s Time: “Are There Any Righteous People in Sodom and Gomorrah?”
by Pastor John

Choir Anthem: Lord, Keep Your Hand on Me                         
From The Billy Graham Picture “Oil Town, USA”
Words and Music by Redd Harper

Message            “Jimmy Carter: The Man of Faith”            Rev. John Song

We are living in an immoral society. We are wondering if the center will hold. We are sorely in need of moral leaders who speak truth, love, unity, and to shine light in our dark time. On this Presidents’ Day weekend, we will examine our 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024.

Reinhold Niebuhr, the great 20^th century American Protestant theologian published a book in 1932, Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics. Jimmy Carter was a moral man living in an immoral society. President Carter struggled to live his faith with moral conscience, integrity, and humility. He has something invaluable to teach us on how to live our faith in our tumultuous time.

“When people feel uncertain and afraid,
they’d rather have someone strong and wrong than weak and right.”
~ Bill Clinton

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
~ Edmund Burke

My understanding of the word “sin” is quite simply “to turn away from God.”
~ Ann Pletcher

 “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
~ Matthew 16:26