God brings costly peace to ordinary people who are willing to say, “Here I am.” Mary’s life in Nazareth was humble and unremarkable, marked by simple dreams of marriage, family, and faithfulness. Yet God’s entrance into her ordinary story creates holy plot twists. Obscurity becomes holy—God delights in hidden places and chooses to begin redemption not in centers of power, but in forgotten spaces and people. Mary is not chosen because of her greatness, but because of God’s grace. The unearned is given—Mary is called “highly favored” not because of what she has done, but because God has already acted on her in grace. This is you. You're highly favored. This is a foreshadowing of the gospel that Jesus died for our sins. It's a gift: salvation and identity are received, not earned. Like Mary, we too are defined not by our failures, but by God’s gracious love, as children and heirs of God.

Luke 1:5–25 tells of Zechariah and Elizabeth, a faithful but childless couple who have carried long-standing disappointment. While Zechariah is serving in the temple, the angel Gabriel announces that God has heard their prayers: Elizabeth will bear a son, John, who will be filled with the Spirit and prepare God’s people for the coming of the Lord. Zechariah struggles to believe such unexpected hope, and Gabriel gives him a sign—silence—until the promise is fulfilled. Elizabeth soon conceives and rejoices that God has seen her and lifted her shame.Spencer reminds us in this sermon that we’re not just retelling an ancient story—we are stepping back into it as people who also wait for God’s arrival. This Advent, the church is entering the season as Pilgrims of Hope, journeying through growing darkness with trust that light is coming. Like the early Christians who understood a day as beginning at sundown, we move toward the winter solstice—the darkest days of the year—anticipating the dawn that follows. Three days after the longest night, we celebrate Christmas morning: the birth of light and the arrival of hope.

Christ the King Sunday is a bridge into Advent, emphasizing the surprising way Jesus enters history—not in royal power, but in humility and vulnerability. This contrast invites a posture shift: instead of adopting worldly ideas of strength and authority, disciples are called to embody the humble, servant-hearted posture of Jesus. The key question becomes: What is our posture within Jesus’ kingdom? Following Christ isn’t only about beliefs but about the way we carry ourselves—living with humility, openness, and kingdom-shaped vulnerability.

Matthew 5:10-12. These final beatitudes challenge the common expectation that following Jesus leads to an easier, trouble-free life. Jesus instead says that living His way may bring misunderstanding, insult, or persecution—and that this hardship is not a failure but a sign of faithfulness. The disciples likely expected blessing without suffering, just as many of us do. The sermon highlights how those assumptions can leave us unprepared for real life. Jesus calls His followers to a deeper way of living that remains faithful even when it costs something, assuring them that God sees and honors this kind of endurance.

In this beatitude, Mathew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers,” emphasizes that the Greek term for peacemaker combines eirēnē (peace) and poieō (to create). Peacemakers aren’t merely peacekeepers—they actively create peace as “little creators,” reflecting God’s image. Following Jesus means joining His core mission of reconciling all things, as described in Colossians 1:20, where Jesus “makes peace” through the cross using the same Greek words. As God’s children, we share this family resemblance: peace-making is part of our new nature in Christ. Though we struggle with sin, our deepest, truest self longs to bring peace, even when it feels small compared to anger. Christian peacemaking isn’t about manufacturing peace on our own but extending the reconciling peace God has already given us, allowing God’s love to move not only in us but through us to others.

Our Novembering service is when we gather as a community to remember those who are no longer among us and, together, invite God into our places of loss and grief. The context for our remembering is the Communion Table: the flesh-and-blood God - who struggled, just like we do, as He faced into death and separation - who surrendered His will to the Father, became obedient unto death, and died in order to bring us back to the Father and make all things new. In our culture, we don't always know how to deal with what we've lost. So, we intentionally make space to remember and, again like Jesus, enter into these gardens of struggle in the company of others. It is always a beautiful time together and something powerful happens when we, as a church family, take time to be together in our grief and loss.

n his sermon on Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God,” Dave Brickey explains that Jesus’ words are not a call to moral perfection but an invitation to recover the original vision God intended for humanity. The heart of this beatitude is that purity begins not with striving but with beholding—seeing God clearly. When read “backwards,” starting with “seeing God,” the verse re-centers us on God rather than on our own performance. Brickey contrasts this with how “purity” has often been misunderstood, especially during the 1990s purity culture, where the focus fell on external moral behavior instead of inner transformation. True purity, he teaches, is not about achieving a spotless record but about cultivating an undivided heart that is fully oriented toward God. As we behold God’s presence and goodness, our vision is restored, and our hearts become purified from the inside out. Ultimately, Jesus’ promise points both to a future hope of seeing God fully and to the present reality of encountering Him more deeply as our hearts are re-centered on Him.

Scripture: Matthew 5:4

Join us for a discussion of Matthew 5:7, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy". When Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful,” He wasn’t talking about weakness—He was announcing a new kind of strength. In a world that cancels and condemns, Jesus invites us into a kingdom built on mercy—where compassion restores what judgment destroys. Mercy tells the truth about wrong but refuses to let it have the last word. To show mercy is to join God’s creative work, bringing life where others expect death.

This sermon explores Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” – through a deeply personal and spiritually reflective lens, integrating practices like Lectio Divina to engage the scripture more fully. Kati and Dave reframe the word "blessed", and how Jesus’s use of it flips expectations – blessing is not tied to worldly success or power, but to spiritual dependence and vulnerability. This points to the upside-down nature of the Kingdom of God—where weakness becomes strength and poverty of spirit becomes fullness. It's a present invitation—to live counter-culturally, with open hands and open hearts, trusting that even in brokenness, we are deeply blessed.

Blessed are the Meek - Matthew 5:5

In the October 5, 2025 message titled "The Calm Beyond the Chaos", Pastor Dave Brickey explores Matthew 5:5 – “Blessed are the meek”. He reflects on how meekness is misunderstood in today’s culture and redefines it through the lens of Jesus’ teaching—as strength under control, rooted in trust and humility before God. We're encouraged as believers to embody this countercultural virtue, especially in chaotic times.