Luke 11:1-13

Empathy is the easy part of the Lord’s Prayer! The hard part is... knocking day after day, seeking day after day, petitioning God day after day, when fixes don’t miraculously show up.

Galatians 6:1-16

Paul writes to the church of Galatia about the obsession to be right and its close bedfellow: the obsession to gain power over others. But Christ’s crucifixion gives us a very different set of rules and affections, ones which will surely lead us to plant seeds for tomorrow.

Luke 9:51-62

Let the dead bury the dead, and let’s start making room for the living. Everything depends on plowing a furrow ahead, getting ready for the Spirit’s seeds of hope, and anticipating a harvest that our children and grandchildren will reap.

Romans 5:1-5

God is so big, that even our faith—our very salvation—is an act of God... It is the faith of Jesus Christ which brings us into righteousness and peace.

Acts 2:1-21

The Spirit pours out flames upon each of us, not for the sake of growing our finances, or for the sake of larger membership, but for the sake of our neighbors. We’re not a cargo freighter at sea; we’re a dinghy on a lake, and when we open our sail, can easily catch the wind of the Spirit.

ASCENSION OF THE LORD ∙ Acts 1:1-11

These disciples are rubbernecked to heaven — to a spiritual event of the past, and a ministry of the past, and their ways of the past. In trying to figure it out, they forgot about Jesus’ words: “To Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

The church has never, ever, ever been called to tune out. It has been called to be tuned-in, with a heart and set of eyeglasses that give it a different lens: a bifocal faith.

Acts 11:1-18

Peter saw everything he was taught to avoid, and everything he was taught to reject, coming down in a sheet. He was being called by God to support and love Samaritans and eunuchs and Romans and foreigner gentiles. He was being asked to transgress the boundaries he formed and the lines in the sand he drew.

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.