1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Jesus Christ does not establish the church to believe in love. Jesus Christ establishes the church to practice and enact love; to carry out a sacred vocation of love. This is where people cross aisles, where people eat shared meals even with their enemies, and embrace a faith where the math doesn’t work out.

1 Corinthians 12:12-33a

Like our own physical bodies, we don’t get to choose when our muscles work, or our vision remains, or our mental health reaches equilibrium. We don’t get to choose if we’re weak or not, and despite that inconvenience, it is a gift, because that is where the presence and hope of Christ enters into our lives.

Luke 2:1-11

This miraculous deed is a sign that God is not content with our mere survival; God is determined to bring about joy and celebration within our deepest souls, for the whole human race. In Christ, we envision a community of Newton that is more connected, more alive, more stable, more enfranchised in every way.

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.

Mark 7:24-30 and Mark 8:27-30

What if—in trying to hold onto the Jesus we’ve known—we’re missing the very Jesus who is trying to bring wholeness into our lives? God wants to unravel every one of our expectations about who Jesus is and weave together something unimaginably realer, and unimaginably better.

Mark 5:21-43

What is God calling you to interrupt? What injustices are holding this planet back from God’s love? What conversations need to happen to interrupt bias or social scripts or structural obstacles? And how can you pull on the hem of Jesus’ garment, reaching out in courage?

Mark 4:35-41 and Romans 4:13, 18-25

Life is fragile. Even when it feels so settled, so unshakeable, so predictable. We’re always in that boat on the Sea of Galilee, waves undulating beneath us, sails blowing about in some fashion.

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. 

Romans 6:3-11

We’re tempted to think that Jesus came into this world to bring us access to the afterlife, to ‘heaven.’ But so much of Jesus’ ministry is actually about salvation… For life that stretches beyond our wildest imaginations.

John 20:1-16, 18

Look into the empty tomb and be changed by it. Listen to the voice of love beckoning to you. In doing so, you might find the living God.

John 1:1-5, 10-14

We start Lent with the joy and hope of sticking around, praying that we might catch a better glimpse of that light of God in our midst.

Luke 1:5-23

Zechariah and Elizabeth show us that it is time to let go of old stories that are hurting us, to let go of wounds from a thousand years ago if we can, to listen, and to say “yes” to deliverance.

Matthew 13:1-23

The most important thing might be to start telling a story. To start making meaning from the discouragement and disappointments of our lives, when the world was all wrong. And to do this in a way that tells of God’s love, protection, and providence. We are invited to tell a story about how God’s presence and grace made things alright, even when they were all wrong.

Exodus 5-8

God never, ever, ever drives us out into the wilderness to die. And we have a whole book filled to the brim with stories about the wilderness. Our Bibles are full of stories where people encounter the goodness, holiness, presence of God in real and special ways.

Acts 2:1-21

Even though we may always carry scars, we will always carry the Spirit, too. Even when our lives have moved on–or the news cycle has moved on–it doesn’t mean the Spirit will abandon the past we carry.