As Far as the East ..... Message for August 16, 2026

Everyone keeps a file. Not on paper — in the head. It's the one that plays at two in the morning: the two or three things you've done that you'd never say out loud, the version of yourself you hope no one ever meets. Now picture a woman who had her file read aloud in public — dragged into a circle of men with stones already in their hands. Into that scene walks a promise a thousand years older than the crowd: as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. This Sunday, August 16, our summer series Promises, Promises turns to the promise of forgiveness — a clean slate that's actually clean. Come as you are. There's mercy wider than your worst day, and there's room for you.