Matthew 5:1-13

There is no blessing for those who place order above wholeness, or the law above what is truly right. But there is a blessedness beyond reason to those who place wholeness and righteousness above human whims.

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Our lives are always making a confession of what is valuable to us. Will our lives make a good confession—that virtuous, loving, faithful, patient, gentle confession? Or will we miscalibrate our sense of what is valuable?

Luke 18:1-8 and 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Today, we hear a parable about a widow who was willing to die on a hill. She sought justice, constantly, persistently, even foolishly, and made her whole life into a song of protest. She made her whole life into prayer – in her words and her deeds. Sometimes, it turns out, there are hills we should die on, where God asks us to make our lives into a prayer—and song—of protest.

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus is coming of age in this passage. In this wilderness—like the wildernesses every humanity walks in adolescence—Jesus is on a pilgrimage to his ministry. He was baptized; now comes time for his confirmation as the son of God.

Mark 12:38-13:2

God’s movement in Newton and Sussex County isn’t bound by our fears, or relief, or numbness, or uncertainty, or optimism. And I believe that this church, deep in its bones, for decades upon decades, is not committed to institutional preoccupation, but to that mission and calling that lives in the heart of God.

Ephesians 4:1-6, 25-32

Our own purposes and agendas and neuroses and wound-licking will never, ever, ever compare to unity in that Spirit. We will never be fed by our own grievances or resentment or apathy; but as we are united in the Spirit, plunged into deeper, mature ministry, we will find our souls transfixed. 

Acts 2:1-21

“Though each of you, and me, and everyone in this room might be bewildered and confused by what happens next, it’s okay. Because God calls us to be bewildered, but not afraid.”