Rev. Riana Shaw Robinson delivers a forthright word as she addresses the wounds that only family can inflict on us through the story and stoning of Stephen. She invites the Holy Spirit to help us face the story that we have in pursuit of individual and collective healing and insists that nothing and no one can tell us we're not a part of God's family.

Guest speaker Sara Kwon continues our sermon series on Acts by looking at the power of complaint to transform community in Acts 6. She illustrates how the language of complaint, grief, and pain can help us find clues to the work of the Spirit and to where the Church needs to be disrupted. Who is being overlooked in our systems, theologies, and programs? Who of us have we forgotten, even in our already earnest efforts to include? Whose complaints and stories need to disrupt us and this world, again and again?

Pastor Michael continues our sermon series on Acts by looking at the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. He takes us through the various emotions he feels engaging this text- from troubled to fine to sobered- and challenges our impulses to conform to Empire through acts of performative faith and justice.

Guest speaker Rev. Dr. JJ Flag talks about the ways that Acts 3 has typically been interpreted while addressing the problems of ableism in the text. He leaves us with asking the question: What do we have to give?

Pastor Erina continues our sermon series on Acts by talking about competing visions of community for the Early Church and describing how the Spirit births a new community that resists the impulses of both diaspora and Empire. How might the Spirit similarly be stirring  among us, to move us from patterns of survival to sharing, and from competition to cooperation? How might the Spirit be restoring our hope in and for the Church despite all of our disappointment?

In this sermon Barnabas launches our new series by showing how Acts must be understood from within Israel's generational desires for peace, and how Jesus safeguards these desires from becoming violent utopian dreams. Barnabas encourages the church to reclaim this persevering hope for satisfied needs and safety, and shows that it will not be brought about by any new charismatic man, but by the Spirit who organizes and empowers imperfect communities to birth shalom.

We close out our sermon series on "Together in the Spirit" with a time of hearing community testimonies about where God has been present and what the Spirit's work has been among us in this past season. 

Elizabeth Sherwin shares on her experience of reading "My Body is Not a Prayer Request" by Dr. Amy Kenney and her learnings about disability justice (starts at 3:33)

Pastor Michael continues our sermon series, "Together in the Spirit" by looking at the practice of singing (and not singing) together. He reflects on Psalm 137, and the ways that hanging our lyres is an act of protest in the face of Empire, and invites us into a wider breadth of communal singing that makes room for our grief, lament, resistance, and shared imagination. 

Pastor Erina continues our sermon series by reflecting on eating as a spiritual discipline. She talks about nourishment as a gift from God and shares the ways that eating is a reminder of God's divine provision, divine belonging, and divine delight. 

Climate. Economy. Politics. As everything declines, including our own bodies, how are we supposed to live as the people of God? Guest preacher, Barnabas Lin, walks through the story of Naomi to show how her life provides wisdom for life during times of sustained devastation. 

Barnabas (he/him) has over a decade of ministry experience (primarily in Chicago, IL) and holds a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, where he is now working on a PhD in Theological Ethics. His academic focus is on reclaiming theology for public good (language, economics, and non-violence) and developing the theological agency of all Christians. He currently serves as Bethel Community's "Theologian-in-Residence."