In today's sermon we take a look at the idea of Jesus meeting us in our prejudice.  The scriptures tell us we were created in God's image, but our prejudices are the tools we use to return the favor - create God into ours.  However, if we are willing to follow God at all costs, our prejudices can be the place God meets us to change us. 

In this week's sermon we take a look into John's prologue. Often this beautiful text is reduced to a few doctrinal statements, but we think John is doing way more than creating dogma, he was showing the diverse group of Ephesus how all things point to Jesus. 

As we begin the new year as a church, we just wanted to take a moment and set our intentions for the year.  Easily stated, to be more like Jesus, or to use the season of Epiphany, we want to be the manifestation of Jesus in our world.  To do this, we are going to take a glimpse into The first chapter of John's gospel and set our intentions on becoming the flesh of Jesus to the world around us. 

This week we wrap up our Advent series with the final chapter of Ruth.  The Story of Ruth is important to the Advent of Jesus.  According to Christian tradition, without the Ruth story, we don't get the Jesus Story.  Through the story of Ruth we learn of the divine hospitality of God for his people.  Through the story of Ruth we are encouraged to show the hospitality of God like the Moabites did to Abimelech's family; like Boaz did for Ruth and Naomi, and like the Trinity did for us. 

This week's sermon on Ruth chapters two and three highlights how God works through ordinary, everyday decisions—seemingly "by chance" moments like Ruth gleaning in Boaz's field, his noticing her, and Naomi's plan. In addition to those chance moments, we see our three characters —Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz—taking significant risks. 

In this week's B Side, Matthew addresses a few questions inspired by the latest telling of the story of Ruth, especially as it relates to the timing of the book and time stamps.

This week we dive deep into our first retelling of the Ruth narrative. A story about subversive love and hope, a story about a family brave enough to leave the comfort of the place they knew as home for a new life.  A move that brought tragedy, but also hope.  A story that would change the trajectory of a line resulting in Jesus. 

This week we begin our journey into a one of the most important, and yet neglected Advent stories, a story so important that without it we don’t have the story of Jesus. 

Before we get into our Advent series, we wanted to take a moment and talk about the prominence of the unlikely messenger throughout Scripture.  Throughout the entire history of Israel, God's plan is moved forward through the most unlikely of messengers. 

Since the Great Reformation, the church as a whole has slowly removed itself from the very heart beat of the church loving God and loving neighbor.  We have traded it for confessional doctrines that unfortunately end up being an inch deep.  The problem with this is, well, Jesus.  Jesus never talks this way - every.  Jesus came to build a church of doing.  A church that actively loved their neighbor and enemy.  A church that embraced and cared for the stranger.  This is the church of Jesus, a church of doing.