Narrative Church: Recent Episodes
Narrative Church
This sermon, titled 'What Does God Look Like?', takes a break from the "Life of Jesus" series and delves into the distinction between faith and theology and the crises each can undergo. It reflects on personal suffering and the broader human experience, emphasizing God's presence amidst daily trials. By examining Jesus' hidden, ordinary life and limited recorded miracles, the sermon argues that God's most profound acts of love are found in His quiet co-suffering with humanity. The sermon concludes with a scriptural reflection from 1 Peter, reinforcing the idea that God holds us through all forms of suffering, emphasizing His unyielding presence and the profound nature of divine patience and humility.
Jesus' pace of ministry is slow and steady, and then Jesus turns his disciples into the Apostles.
Julie shares her bungee jumping adventure and tells us what bungee jumping and new wineskins have in common
We consider the healing of the centurion's son and take some extra time to look at the place or outer darkness.
This week we look to the Beatitudes. They are a description of God, an invitation to us, and a ladder out from under the shadow of death.
Matthew introduces the place of darkness, under the shadow of death, and the Beatitude ladder we take to light.
We meet John the Baptist and anticipate Jesus coming without judgment and with an alternative way and his unquenchable, burning love to work on us.
We take a detour in our Life of Jesus series to consider God as a stonemason and the living stone in the form of Jesus.
Matthew makes Jesus central to the Old Testament and central to a genealogy of promise.
In this sermon, we finish our look at the book of Ruth and how to read scripture the Emmaus Road way
The story of Ruth heats up with a midnight, erotic encounter as Ruth takes charge of her destiny and declares who she is.
We focus in on Ruth, the Moabite. Moabite... Shmoe-a-bite... Boaz removes Ruth's labels and sees her for the amazing person that she is, and against the testimony of Deuteronomy and the will of Ezra and Nehemiah, Boaz pulls Ruth into the assembly of God -- under his wing and with his people.
We begin to explore how the story of Ruth pushes back against the Deuteronomic Law and Ezra and Nehemiah's violent religious actions against the Moabites.
In this sermon, we look at the ugly passages of scripture, how they reveal human ugliness and God's faithfulness, and how to read scripture progressively to make it fit within Jesus' revelation of the Father.
In this message, we consider how sin is still considered serious if we consider that God did not demand the death of Jesus for it.
The elephant in the room of many churches is the wrath of God. Many churches struggle with how to understand God's wrath. Today we begin to consider how God's wrath works.
The cross is is the epicenter of history -- it is our glasses through which everything comes into focus. The enigma of the cross is that behind the disfigurement of Christ on the cross we are given the clearest picture of God.
We arrive at Easter to discover the Garden of Eden is unlocked, we are welcomed back, and women are elevated out of patriarchy.
On a day unlike any other in the year, we sit in suffering without resolution as we join the community at the foot of the cross.
On Palm Sunday Jesus led one of two competing parades at Jerusalem. The question to this day is, "Which parade will we choose?"
In this sermon, we consider the hard work of praying outside of the spotlight and when things don't appear to be happening.
Not all prayer is about talking, a natural conversation has natural pauses for us to listen to the other side, or even just sit with each other.
This week we look at the theme of joy and consider those times when we just don't feel it.
We kick off Advent with the topic of Hope.
Isaiah
Chapter 2
1 Here is the message about Judah and Jerusalem that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz.
2 In the future
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure
as the most important of mountains,
and will be the most prominent of hills.
All the nations will stream to it;
3 many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple of the God of Jacob,
so he can teach us his requirements,
and we can follow his standards.”
For Zion will be the center for moral instruction;
the Lord’s message will issue from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge disputes between nations;
he will settle cases for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nations will not take up the sword against other nations,
and they will no longer train for war.
5 O descendants of Jacob,
come, let us walk in the Lord’s guiding light.
Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible, Second Edition (Denmark: Thomas Nelson, 2019), Is 2:1–5.
This sermon tackles faith at work in our lives and how that relates to earning our salvation.
In this sermon, we consider that the first step of a model church is embracing the gospel and mysticism.
With at least 25 other gods to choose from in the city, why did the first converts choose the Christian God?
Pastor Jason considers a small beginning we find in the church at Thessalonica which pays off in a big way down the road.
In this sermon, Pastor Jason introduced us to the historical and geographical context of the ancient church in Thessalonica.
In the final sermon on this series, we will look at some of the aspects of liminality as a time in exile.