Today we explore one of the central figures of the Epiphany season, John the Baptist, and ask ourselves, how we, like John may become the epiphany of Jesus in our world.   

As we begin the new year, we want to engage the idea of God - who is God?  How do we know?  Why?  Because what we believe about God shapes who we become and how we engage the world.  The way we all engage people, especially those who are different from us, says more about what we believe about God than our stated doctrines.  

We wanted to take time to close out the year with a message about the Nativity.  A symbol of Jesus' birth, but even more so, a symbol of God's character and nature.  The nativity has been the victim of culture wars from both sides of the aisle, but if we really knew what it was about we may allow it to speak for itself. 

This year, rather than a full series, we are offering one Advent message. In it, we focus on what lies at the heart of Advent—and at the heart of Christianity itself—the defining characteristic of Jesus and of everyone who seeks to follow him: love. 

This week, we reflect on Judah’s life after the Temple’s destruction. God sends them, as His children, into exile—but even there, He calls them to live out the covenant: to be a blessing to the world. This call is not easy. We naturally seek security, comfort, and certainty before turning outward. Yet God reverses that order, inviting His people to find peace and prosperity by seeking the peace and prosperity of their host nation.

This week, we examine the posture and attitude of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms—attitudes that ultimately opened the door to their destruction. They mistook wealth, military strength, land, and even the Temple as signs of God’s blessing. In truth, these were not blessings of approval, but expressions of God’s patient mercy. He had not destroyed them…yet. He had warned them, but they would not listen.

This week we make our way through King Saul and David, and spend most our time time talking about Solomon.  Solomon, often referred to as the wisest man in the world, is also the King responsible for the fall of Israel.  But Why?  This week we look at the very things that drew Solomon's affections away from God and toward the glories and riches offered by empire.  

In our Journey to Advent, this week we cover what it was the the Jews so faithful to the purity and holiness law kept missing that caused them to continually miss the life of their covenant calling.  

Today's story brings us to the end of Abraham and the idea of Covenant.  We explore what scripture means by covenant and how it is, those of us who are in covenant with God are called to approach the promises of God. 

In this week's bridge talk we are going to take about thirty minutes to cover 600 years of Biblical narratives, bridging where we left off with Abraham and connecting the next part of our story with Moses.  In addition we are going to highlight many of the repeated patterns within these stories and the significance of those patterns.  

Today's story brings us to the end of Abraham and the idea of Covenant.  We explore what scripture means by covenant and how it is, those of us who are in covenant with God are called to approach the promises of God. 

This week we jump from the tower of Babel and we are introduced to our new man or character, Abram.  Abram, is a man who understood God, like most of us, according to the myths of his home society.  In our story today, we learn how God begins to change Abram's understanding of who God is, to make him into the man ready to live into the covenant. 

In this week's bridge talk we bridging the story between Babel and Abram, but we are doing this by looking all the way back at repeated motifs being told at larger levels of graduating magnitude.  We first see the same theme in the opening scene of scripture before there are humans, then we see it again in the first family, and so on.  Abram, begins God's new humanity called to live differently.

This Sunday, we continue our new series leading us toward Advent. Together, we’ll look at Scripture’s first picture of empire—Babel—and see how even the mightiest power collapses when it’s built on pride and set against God’s way. Then we’ll turn inward, asking where the seeds of that same impulse might be taking root in our own hearts.

This episode is meant to cover some ground between each of our stories.  Two things are happening throughout this series: (1) we are covering a lot of ground in a short amount of time, and (2) I'm assuming an interpretive lens in my storytelling.  In this second bridge talk, I cover both the distance between last week's sermon and next, Babel, and talk about civilization, patterns, and genealogies in the text.

This week we continue a new series that will carry us through to Advent. This week we begin to look at the seeds of empire and how they arose from the first sin, and continued until their natural production and foundation of violence gave way to the flood that destroyed it all. Destruction is never the end; it is sort of a built-in self-purification, and so as throughout all of scripture, sin and chaos never have the final word.

This week we begin a new series that will carry us through to Advent. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be telling the story of the Hebrew Bible—the Old Testament. We’re doing this for a few reasons. First, many of us as Christians aren’t sure what to do with the Old Testament or why it matters. Second, we want to paint a picture of the world that made a Messiah necessary—or, put another way, the world into which Jesus was born. And finally, we want to rescue the Old Testament from being seen as a one-dimensional historical record and instead breathe life into it as a story—not just a story that was told, but a story we find ourselves in. This week, we begin with Creation.

This week we begin a new series that will carry us through to Advent. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be telling the story of the Hebrew Bible—the Old Testament. We’re doing this for a few reasons. First, many of us as Christians aren’t sure what to do with the Old Testament or why it matters. Second, we want to paint a picture of the world that made a Messiah necessary—or, put another way, the world into which Jesus was born. And finally, we want to rescue the Old Testament from being seen as a one-dimensional historical record and instead breathe life into it as a story—not just a story that was told, but a story we find ourselves in. This week, we begin with Creation.

In the final sermon of our Liturgical Theology Series, we turn to the familiar subject of Word—Scripture itself. This week, we’ll examine some common but unhelpful (and at times even destructive) ways of approaching the Bible. From there, we’ll build a healthier framework for engaging Scripture—one that honors what it claims for itself and leads us deeper into the life it points toward.

In this week’s sermon, we turn to the familiar subject of Prayer. Before prayer is about receiving answers, it is about realignment with God. Like every liturgy we’ve explored, prayer is a practice of formation—shaping us to live more fully in God’s way. In a world driven by wants and needs, Jesus invites us through prayer not to get more, but to become more—more like him.