Peak Community Church Sermons: Recent Episodes
Edward Hopkins
The end of the creed covers the Last Things -- in particular, what will happen to things and time. Neither are rejected; through Love, both are brought into eternity and fulfilled.
1 Corinthians 15
Rev. Edward Hopkins
Sermon from November 6, 2022
The back to the land movement put forth a picture of The Good Life, especially in the writings of Scott and Helen Nearing. One of their most ardent disciples, Eliot Coleman, put their ideas to the test. Decades later his daughter makes an assessment in her memoir, This Life Is in Your Hands.
How good can we make our own lives? Forgiveness offers a different foundation—a different life in our hands.
Colossians 1, 2
Sermon from October 30, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
The next three lines of creed cover a lot of ground: God the Holy Spirit, the Church, and the Communion of Saints. As the Spirit hovered over the formless deep, and the barren womb, so the Spirit hovers over humanity. The Church is the beginning of the Spirit's work, a sign of what is to come. We point to the Spirit's creative power when we humbly trust God's work. When God asks, Can these bones live? We must answer not yes, or no, but O Lord God, only you know.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Sermon from October 23, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
The most important thing to know about the future is that there is a judgment. Sounds like bad news, but in the creed we discover it is deeply good because the judge is the one who was judged, killed, raised, and ascended.
Matthew 25:31-40
October 16, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
The mystery of faith in two clauses. First: Jesus identifies with the worst we can imagine: the prison of death. Second: a breaking of the prison, a transformation of death. Love or death -- now we know which is stronger.
Sermon from October 9, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
The creed invites us to trust not in a theory, but in an event. What difference does that make, especially now?
Sermon from October 2, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
After introducing Jesus, the creed tells us two things about his incarnation: he is fully God and fully human. But what does this have to do with our salvation? By noticing who isn't mentioned (Adam), and who is (Mary), we see how Jesus brings a whole new humanity, one of grace instead of sin, life instead of death. Salvation is about truly living -- an abundant life forever.
Romans 5:12-21
Sermon from 9/25/2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
In the first sermon in our series on the Apostles’ Creed, we wrestled with John Wesley’s idea of essentials vs. non-essentials. Which are which, and who decides? In this recording I look at the Church Fathers to understand the difference, and pave a way forward that allows us to remain in community and tell the truth to one another, even when we disagree.
The entire creed unfolds with an origami-like structure from this point: Jesus Christ, the Father’s only Son, our Lord. Here we see God’s heart of love as Jesus turns toward the Father, and we see God’s passion for justice as Jesus turns toward us as Lord.
Isaiah 42
Philippians 2
Sermon from September 18, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
This week we take a closer look into the second stanza of the Apostles Creed.
Sermon from September 11, 2022
Rev. Steve Wynkoop
The first in the Apostles Creed series.
2 Timothy 1.1-10
Sep 4, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
A trip to a crematory tells us a lot about what we believe about death, and what we believe about death depends completely on what we believe about baptism.
Romans 6
Sermon from August 28th
Rev. Edward Hopkins
Despite brutal persecution Christianity never disappeared from Japan. But it also didn’t take the form that the first missionaries from Europe intended. This sermon describes what happened and points to the ways God speaks to us — not in triumph but defeat, not against silence, but in it.
Col. 3.1-11
July 31, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
The Reformation brought with it violent reaction and Christians on the run. Many refugees gathered on the estate of Count Zinzendorf in Saxony. Multiple groups of persecuted Christians with deeply held beliefs and strong disagreements. And yet, one summer in 1727, everything changed and the world witnessed the possibility of unity not based on complete agreement, or even a shared tradition, but Christ alone.
Scripture: Col 2.6-16
Rev. Edward Hopkins
July 24, 2022
If there is one word that helps us understand Christianity as it flourished in the lands inhabited by the Celts in the first millennium, it’s peregrinatio or pilgrimage. It’s not pilgrimage in the way think about it now—a journey to a holy site. But it’s also not aimless wandering. It’s an understanding of our lives as a journey to God, and everything along the way as part of how we get there.
Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-10
June 26, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
Summer Series on Faith Communities Throughout Church History
Cappadocians & John 16.12-15
June 12, 2022
Rev. Edward Hopkins
Sermon from February 27, 2022
with Edward Hopkins
Thanks to Rev'd Dr. Samuel Wells for part of the prayer for Ukraine.