SERMONS
Sermon 9/20/20: Complaints (Pr. Matt James)
We, you and I, all of us, simple, ordinary (and beautiful!) human beings are gifted, called, knit, into God’s saving work in this world. Simple as we might be, were made to be God’s gift, God’s response to the needs of our fellow creatures in this world. In our own actions, in our own words, we are a sign of God’s never-ending love, not only for one another, but for this broken down, dying, lamenting world.
And when exhaustion, or physical or mental illness, or the forces of oppression hold one or a number of us down, we have one another gift: this community: this simple, beautiful, body of Christ to lament, to shout, to protest, to vote and help others vote, to wear a face covering, to simply be a sign of God’s grace, of strength, of hope, of love in this world. That as we make our way together, through the wilderness, in the midst of all that we cannot quite bear, God hears our cries, God responds in ways both big and small.
Sermon 9/19/20: Bread of Heaven (Pr. Ben Adams)
This God given bread for the journey is needed more than ever, because we need to be filled with something different than what the world is filling us with. I know for me personally, when I turn on the news, or open my social media feed I am filled with fatigue as we close in towards our eighth month of the pandemic, I am filled with existential fear for our climate future as wildfires and hurricanes rage, I am filled with frustration at the partisan divides that toxically pit us against one another, I am filled with anger at continued racism and police brutality, and now I am filled with grief over the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Filled as many of us are with fatigue, fear, frustration, anger, and grief, we might think there can’t possibly be any room for anything else, but there is still a hunger for liberation. And, in order for us to carry on towards our liberated promised land, we’ll need some bread for the wilderness journey, some true bread of heaven that comes from God and gives life to the world. And so, in this liminal space between departure and destination, we feast on the bread of heaven until we’re filled with the true presence of the living God who is leading us to liberation.