This week Pastor Mia guides us through Luke’s account of the events leading up to the Crucifixion. During those five days in Jerusalem, Jesus preached about peace to an audience who didn’t get the point of his teachings. Jesus’s message didn’t sink in for his disciples as well. “Do you understand what I am saying to you,” he asked them during the Last Supper. Jesus wants us to answer that question as well. How will we respond?

This week, Pastor Mia takes us on the journey Jesus made from Galilee to Jerusalem. Luke’s account of the trip includes many great stories. In one narrative, Jesus cures ten lepers and in another he sees the pure heart of a despised tax collector. In both of these encounters, Jesus doesn’t scorn the outcasts. Instead he takes opportunity to heal and set free.

Luke’s Gospel includes sixteen stories in which Jesus uses familiar examples to make a spiritual point. The characters include righteous Pharisees, rich men, tax collectors, the homeless, and ungrateful children. And in story after story, Jesus describes how the sinners get it right and the religious folks don’t. When we hear the parables, Pastor Mia encourages us to ask the question, “Which character am I?”

We absorb sexism, even when we don't want to, but Jesus wasn't like that. In Luke 7:36-50, a nortious sinner barges into a dinner party so she can annoint Jesus's feet with valuable oil. In this story, Jesus doesn't see the sexism. Instead he sees the dignity and worth of a person showing up for her faith. This story isn't Luke's only example highlighting the prominence of women in Jesus's ministry. This week, Pastor Mia calls attention to stories about women that you won't find in any of the other Gospels.

The Gospel of Luke includes stories in which Jesus lifts up the lowly. In one, Zechariah and Elizabeth, a couple well beyond their years, were blessed with a pregnancy and their son grew up to became John the Baptist. In the other, a teenage girl named Mary learns that she will give birth to Jesus. These stories are just two examples of God performing great acts through people who are “not right.” This week, Pastor Mia explores reasons why God works in ways that lift up the lowly.

Blinded by grief after the death of Jesus, it seemed like things were going to get worse for Mary Magdalene. When she went to visit Jesus’s tomb, she discovered it was empty. She thought someone stole the body. Then Mary saw the resurrected Jesus, and her grief turned into joy and hope. In this Easter message, Pastor Mia shows that in resurrection, the worst thing is never the last thing.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem and it drove him to holy action. We also lament and it drives us to holy action. Following Jesus pattern: 1) we lament our sorrow & grief & brokenness, 2) we pray for guidance and vision, 3) and then we act. What do you lament, and how it driving you to take action?

This week Pastor Mia talks about a controversial topic — the death penalty. It's controversial because Christians reach different conclusions. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says, “But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you.” Challenging words that could glorifying victimhood. Or perhaps Jesus was saying that there’s something worse than being the victim of violence.

In this week's sermon, Pastor Mia explores the reasons that people support and oppose the death penalty, along with stories of murder victim's families. It's not easy, and God knows that.

Lament and surrender occupied the heart and mind of Jesus as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was both reluctant and willing to go to the cross, and he had a deep and honest conversation about God with his feelings. In the end, Christ trusted in the will of God. This week’s guest speaker Randall Feaster examines the Christian practice of lament, and he helps us face the challenge of surrender.

You might’ve been told that there is something wrong with lament, that you should only be in praise and gratitude of God. Lament, however, is a way of connecting with God. When we lament, we share our grief and sorrow with God in honest prayer. In this message, Pastor Mia shows how lament is a spiritual discipline that is okay because God always accompanies us in our hardship.