Weekly Worship with FPC

 

9:30 Worship | March 8th, 2026 | Acts 8.26-40

 

How much feels like too much to ask of you when it comes to seeking to understand someone whose (racial, religious, sexual, political, spiritual, educational, financial) story is different from your own?

 

Allen Hilton has suggested that the U.S. has a ‘selective empathy’ problem. Increasingly, we count others worthy of our compassion only to the degree that they are like us (especially in our political leanings).

 

Enter Acts 8.26-40. Here we find the Spirit of God spurring a Jewish apprentice of Jesus to pursue spiritual intimacy with an Ethiopian eunuch. Here we find the Spirit of Christ prompting a growing disciple to embrace someone he might have rejected as (religiously, racially, nationally, sexually, politically) other. 

 

But notice: God breaks through our prejudice and reluctance not by simply calling us to do better, but by empowering empathy within us. By pouring Christ’s own power of Love into our hearts. 

 

How much is too much to ask of me and you if it is God who empowers what God invites?

 

Prayer: Lord, it is so hard to seek empathy for someone whose story I don’t know (and frankly don’t want to). Would you empower me by your Spirit to break through my prejudice with your own love? 

 

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We will be together in the Sanctuary for worship this Sunday at 9:30am. You can also click this link to live-stream our worship service (or view it afterward) https://youtube.com/live/Dw1o7j0-F0w?feature=share

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To listen by phone to the live 9:30am worship service on Sunday via Zoom, call 253-215-8782. You will be asked to enter three codes:
Meeting ID: 84025131691 (then #)
Participant ID: (just press #)
Password: 658627 (then #)
 
You will also be able to find our Worship on Facebook at 'First Presbyterian Church Missoula'