“Changed in the Waiting: Joy”
Text: Luke 3:7-18
John the Baptist’s words of preparation can seem frightening at first, but his call to “produce fruit” is paired with the promise of Jesus coming with a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. This movement in our lives that changes, redeems, and restores us is able to remove the things that get in the way of us living the way Jesus modeled and is ultimately allows us to make the shift in the season from expectation to joy.

“Changed in the Waiting: Love”
Text: Luke 3:1-6
The second Sunday in this season of Advent focuses on love. Love is not just found in our emotions and feelings, but it can also be a way in which we interact with each other. Advent is a season of waiting, and we remember that even in the midst of dark times – in the midst of struggling and waiting – God’s steadfast faithfulness is present and is an example of that love.

“Changed in the Waiting: Hope”
Text: Jeremiah 33:14-16
We enter into Advent, a season of expectation, with words from the book of Jeremiah. God’s promise to establish the peoples Judah and Israel – a nation that had turned away from God – and raise up an eternal line of David provides hope that is grounded in His covenantal faithfulness. In this season, let us ask that God would take residence in our lives, find restoration, and recognize even when besieged by all that is wrong in the world that He is still faithful to His promises.

Text: Mark 13:24-37
On this Christ the King Sunday, we wrap up our year-long study of the book of Mark. Jesus says to those who follow Him – His disciples then, and us now – to keep watch and be alert. We are called to be future-focused followers and to allow that, and not the fears and worries imposed on us by the world, to dictate how we live.

Text: Mark 13:1-23
In the penultimate sermon of our series on the Gospel of Mark, we study Chapter 13; a passage that has often been used to teach us to be fearful. As we read the passage in its original context, we hear Jesus calling for His followers to be faithful in the midst of hardship and to continue proclaiming the Good News to all nations.

Text: Mark 12:35-44
Today’s passage from Mark contains the familiar story of a widow giving her last two coins to the Temple as an act of sacrificial giving. It comes after Jesus warns against those in power who cause injustice by taking advantage of others, including widows and their possessions. The story shows us that there will be times when we must remember to be faithful to the Lord in the ways we love our God and our neighbor, no matter what might be taken away.

Mark 12:28-34
To be close to the Kingdom of Heaven is to embrace the radical call of love that God has put on our life. This love is not only for the God who changes, redeems, restores, and liberates us from the power of sin, but it is also a love that forces us to not gloss over the people around us but instead to see them precisely how God has made them to be.

Text: Mark 12:1-27
In today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is recognized as one with integrity and a sense of imparitiality, yet the Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus with questions of loyality to Rome, the controlling power in the world. In the current day, we are in the midst of a political season where the powers of this world similarly try to pull us in with rhetoric that is designed to make us hate one side or the other. As Christians, we have to be people who remember that our identity as who we are is found in Christ, and not in an either/or party system.

Text: Mark 11:11-13
We continue our study of the Gospel of Mark after Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which we typically read on Palm Sunday). In this passage, Jesus curses a fig tree that looks healthy but does not produce, despite being out of season. This fig tree represents the brokenness of what happens when who we are as the people of God is about power, wealth, and influence instead of being aligned to the mission that God has for us and serving as an example to the nations.

Text: Mark 10:46-52
Throughout our study of the book of Mark, Jesus often shows that the grace of God moves in powerful ways in and among the people who have been dealt a bad hand in life. In today’s passage, Jesus heals a blind beggar named Bartimaeus and is called the “Son of David” for the first time. Just like Jesus’ disciples, who left everything to follow Him, Bartimaeus leaves his cloak on the side of the road to follow Jesus. Can we also set aside what prevents us from following Jesus and letting him be the primary focus of our hearts?