Acts 16:9-15

We listen, not for sake of mere empathy, but for the sake of doingwhat is faithful. As both Lydia reminds us, we listen to Jesus Christ and not to Rome, or to society, or to sensationalist news — following Jesus will be inconvenient to our comfortable beliefs. We listen to Jesus Christ knowing that he expects something of us.

Acts 9:1-20

Saul’s physical impairment was a mark of the resurrection, a mark of his inner journey toward Christ, and a mark of his gestating faith. In meeting the risen Christ, in what might seem paradoxical, Saul loses his sight and receives wholeness.

EASTER SUNDAY ∙ John 20:1-18

There is a constellation of hope, and love, and joy in this place. It won’t make us unshakably certain, or unmovable strong. But it will make us alive — united in Christ, starstruck by the God of resurrections.

MAUNDY THURSDAY · John 13:1, 31-35

Jesus orders us to love one another, indiscriminate of whether others are citizens or immigrants; criminals or not; Christian or not; sober or not; mentally ill or not; politically-aligned or not; reciprocally loving or not.

PALM SUNDAY · Luke 19:28-40

Every Sunday, we witness God taking the island of misfit toys and assembling coronations, holy meals, unexpected anointings, and a new creation from it all. Through Jesus Christ, everything takes on a new meaning.

John 12:1-8

As we enter into Holy Week starting next Sunday, we are encountering mysteries that can only be expressed in music and song. It’s a messy week steeped in humanity: the very same humanity that is full of joy, and beauty, and complexity, and pain, and uncertainty, and everything else under the sun; the very same humanity within us that sings.

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 9:28-36

For men who often lack friendships and emotional intimacy with others, it is extremely uncomfortable to chart a path toward a connection and belonging to others in Christ. But singing together—like times in Scouting and even military service—provides a ritual that moves us toward connection.

Luke 13:31-35

Singing itself might change us. After all, God’s people have sung for thousands of years. It’s a spiritual discipline that at face value seems superficial, but if we trust the Spirit’s work, it will shape this church and our lives.

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.

Luke 6:27-36

In an economy that is predisposed to transactionalism, Jesus invites us to commit acts of unexpected generosity, and to find freedom in letting go of our wealth. Jesus is earnestly, fervently inviting us to do what is unintuitive to the powers of the earth: to love, to pray, to bless, to give.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

We are incubated in the love of Christ, constantly moving from adolescence into adulthood, constantly becoming increasingly alive and awake through the power of the Spirit. Patience, kindness, forbearance, hope: these will not let us stand still.

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.

Luke 3

Baptism was the start of Jesus’ ministry among us, stirring him to a life of radical peace, hospitality, healing, and hope. We see, flowing from Jesus’ baptism a life that was marked by relationships with the poor, sick, and morally disreputable. And that same baptism is wrapped around our waists, too, leading us back to the love and grace of our Creator.

Luke 1:46-55 & Matthew 2:1-12

The magi are all the wrong people, looking in all the wrong places. And yet, these wrong people, in the wrong places, were woven into the story of redemption, the people God chose to meet at the front door of life. We see time and time again that is “who” and “where” God fashions the sacred into the world.

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.

John 11

All Saints' Day is when we break the silence on grief—pull the cork out of the bottle together—and acknowledge that to be alive, means to have a relationship to death. Life, and death, are always talking to each other.

Mark 10:17-31

Being a disciple of Jesus isn't about following the script and checking the right boxes that are found on the pages of our Bibles and Book of Confessions. It’s to become alive and participate in the music of the Gospel, to be changed and follow the voice of our Creator and Great Composer, to encounter the Spirit within and around and behind our vocations as baptized people.