First Baptist Church of Asheville Podcast

April 14, 2024. Third Sunday of Easter. Year B.

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Mack Dennis

Worship with First Baptist Church of Asheville. Sundays: Bible study at 10:00 a.m., worship at 11:00 a.m. · 5 Oak Street, Asheville, NC · fbca.net

April 7, 2024. Second Sunday of Easter. Year B.

Preacher: Rev. Doug Murray

Worship with First Baptist Church of Asheville. Sundays: Bible study at 10:00 a.m., worship at 11:00 a.m. · 5 Oak Street, Asheville, NC · fbca.net

March 31, 2024. Easter Sunday. Year B.

The arc of Mary Magdalene’s story in John 20 carries her from community with others in the reality of death (“we do not know where they laid him”) to grief and loneliness (“as she wept” … “I don’t know where they laid him”) and finally back to community (“[She] went and announced to the disciples”). Mary’s journey mirrors Christ’s own path of fellowship, abandonment, and communion. She also mirrors our path of faith. For we too experience times of both profound loneliness and nourishing communion on the pilgrim way. This Easter we follow Mary to the risen Jesus, and trace the arc of the gospel from loneliness to communion, from death to life, from grief to joy.

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Mack Dennis

March 24, 2024. Palm Sunday (Passion emphasis). Year B.

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani. To hear Jesus’ visceral last words is to get hit with a Scriptural supernova, where God’s personality, identity, and mission warp and weft at dizzying speed. What horror is this, that the Son of God questions “My God” about his divine abandonment? But as Gregory of Nazianzus wrote, “That which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.” It is good news that God knows what it means to be godforsaken. Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101 to Cledonius the Priest Against Apollinarius

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Mack Dennis

March 17, 2024. Fifth Sunday in Lent. Year B.

Psalm 51 zooms in on one lonely, desperate, (and familiar) human being whose heart is in conflict with itself (Faulkner). We hear our own voice in her direct plea to God for mercy and a chance at a new life. We identify with her remorse, and feel more than a little relief to know someone else feels the way we do when we’ve hit bottom. With contrite hearts in common, we also pray with confidence in the God whose love is steadfast and whose mercy is more than generous.

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Mack Dennis

March 10, 2024. Fourth Sunday in Lent. Year B.

Sometimes I want to reach back through time and hush the Israelites before they induce God’s wrath with their complaints. “Shush or there will be snakes!” But we get just as fed up with the wilderness as they do. Nevertheless, even in the wilderness—or maybe because there’s no other option the wilderness—God provides a means of healing derived from the precise source of our pain. God provides for his people even in the immediate presence of their enemy. Fretheim commentary Hatchet – the boy is saved through experience with toxic berries, then dreams, memories, one tool Strange title. Strange sermon. Strange text. Strange God. Awful God. Loving God. Saving God.

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Mack Dennis