Sermons
Week I: Eve | Follow the Leader
This Sunday I will be preaching the message I was already in the midst of preparing last week, the first in our “She Has Words” series, which is about Eve. We’ll look at her words, but also the way in which she has been unfairly cast in Christendom, bring some correctives to that, and reimagine her. -Pastor Paul SCRIPTURE: Genesis 2:18, 21-25, 3:1-7 (NRSVUE) 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him…
And the Word Became Wind
This Sunday is our LAST Sunday of this season in the Narrative Lectionary, which means that this Sunday is Pentecost! Pentecost is a huge day in the life of The Church, so we’ll be marking it by moving backwards in the narrative to Acts 2. There is a LOT about Pentecost that many (if not most) Christians don’t realize, one thing being what the word even means. Do you know? It means “fiftieth”. Yes this holiday with this big strange name…
Grace.
This Sunday we turn the page into June, with one more week in Galatians. This week’s passage is a mixed bag for bag. There is some really great stuff in it, and then there’s some really problematic stuff. But overall it offers us an opportunity to… well… go to seminary! That’s right, this week we’re going to dig to hardcore Methodist theology! Sounds riveting, I know. But in all seriousness, it is this theology that we’ll look at on Sunday…
Rules, Regulations, Rhythm, and Righteousness
This Sunday we depart from the Book of Acts, though we will head back there on Pentecost Sunday in a couple weeks, as well as spend a couple weeks in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Galatians is a tricky book, requiring a lot of context to truly get what Paul is doing and saying, and without proper context, it can lead (and has led!) to a lot of harm. That said, Paul opens up some interesting, important, and profound theological…
Our Ever Expansive God
This Sunday is our last Sunday in Acts for this season, and the story there has huge implications on the early church, and The Church through space and time. This Sunday is also the last one where we’ll have a choir anthem for the season. So you don’t want to miss out! Going forward we have just 4 Sundays left in this season of the Narrative Lectionary. Information on a couple Summer preaching series will be coming soon! -Pastor Paul…
Open Swim
This week in worship we continue in the Book of the Acts, and we get what is probably my favorite baptism story, which seems appropriate coming on the heels of Santiago’s baptism in worship last week. The Choir also has an anthem prepared for us, and it’s Mother’s Day! So I’m sending out a huge thank you to all the moms out there. -Pastor Paul SCRIPTURE: Acts 8:26-39 26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up…
It’s All About Community
We will be spending the next three weeks in the Book of Acts, which is widely considered the sequel to Luke, as both of them are attributed to Luke, and it picks up where Luke leaves off. And we have a baptism this Sunday! I haven’t done a baptism in years and I can’t wait! It’s a really full Sunday, but fear not, the Sermon will be abbreviated this week to keep us on track. -Pastor Paul SCRIPTURE: Acts 6:1-15…
We Fall. We Rise.
With Easter being last Sunday that means that this Sunday is our last Sunday in the Gospel of Luke! We’ve been in Luke for four full months, and what a journey it’s been. This week we’ll take a look at the famous “Walk to Emmaus” and how things come full circle. -Pastor Paul SCRIPTURE: Luke 24:13-32 (NRSVUE) 13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other…
More Idle Tales, Please
… Jesus was crucified because of the culmination of his work defending the defenseless, bringing in those who were cast out, declaring clean those who were labeled unclean, and in so doing, challenging the religious/political systems of the day, or as the powers that be usually interpret it, insurrection. But at his death a curious thing happens. Luke 23:47 says, “When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’” Kind of a powerful…
The Stones Will Shout Out
I have long said that I believe that Palm Sunday may be the most misunderstood Sunday in the Christian Calendar (with Pentecost right on its tail!). Too often the story stops with the crowds waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna” (neither of which exist in Luke’s Gospel, by the way!), and don’t get to the part of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, and then shifting from grief to anger and driving the money changers out of the temple. It’s a wild…