JR.'s Sermons

Like most people, we look for God in super-spiritual places, on mountain tops. But the good news of the Transfiguration is that God leaves the mountain to live among us, on the ground, in the tensions of our every day world.

Should we be permissive or rigid when it comes to laws? We tend to err on one side or the other because living with the tension between the two is difficult. But we find that tension in Scripture - God refuses to give us easy answers because God wants to live in the tension with us.

We struggle to understand the connection between the rules of faith and the love of God. Is God’s love conditional? Or are the rules suggestions without consequences? Psalm 119 and Leviticus 19 help us see that God’s love and God’s law are not opposing poles in tension with each other. Rather, God’s law flows from God’s love, and leads us to God’s life!

How often have we heard we are to fear God? Many of us think of God as someone to be feared – we keep our heads down and try to keep from being noticed. But when the Bible talks about fear of God it’s more about awe. What does it mean to say that the creator of the universe loves us? How does this awe transform everything from our religious practices to our daily lives?

Should the Church focus more on personal holiness or social justice? The question plagues many Christians, but it’s a false dichotomy. This week’s prophet and poet help us discern how we embody both by living in a covenant relationship with God.

Nobody likes change, but change is inevitable. Fortunately, the God we worship does not leave us to figure out a changing world or life circumstances on our own. Rather, God embraced the pain of change to become human and die for us. We can trust God to be faithful, to walk through change with us!

When we're struggling, we need a community where it's safe to grieve, ask questions and be vulnerable. Unfortunately, Church is often a place we have to fake it. But God invites both thanksgiving and lament - both are vital to our spiritual health. So how can we be a community that tells the whole story of God?

We struggle to understand where faith fits in our busy lives. But God offers us a vocation: to be God's image in the world, to join God in the restoration of all things. This calling transforms every aspect of our lives.

2016 was a difficult year for many of us. In the wake of a difficult season of life - or even in the midst of one - how do we get up and keep going? New Year's is the perfect time to look back and realize that the God of our present is the God of our past... and our future!

Why do we sing at Christmas? Because song is the natural way we celebrate God becoming one of us. On Christmas we sing because the battle has been one and God is making all things new!