Sermon from Sunday, June 27, 2021. Summer Road Trip (Part 3). Acts 15:1-11. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Paul joins a council of church leaders in Jerusalem to decide under what conditions Gentiles are permitted to be a part of the family of faith. The result - an erasure of the boundaries that we create between us and others - cuts right to the heart of the nature of the Gospel the apostles are sent out to proclaim.

Sermon from Sunday, June 20, 2021. Summer Road Trip (Part 2). 1 Corinthians 1:10-15 & Acts 14:8-20. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Paul and Barnabas are mistaken for deities when they heal a man who could not walk. It is not really surprising that people reacted this way after witnessing a miracle; what is truly surprising is that the Apostles refuse to be deified. This tells us a lot about the gospel they preached.

Sermon from Sunday, June 13, 2021. Summer Road Trip (Part 1). Acts 13:4-12. The Apostle Paul confronts a magician who is attempting to turn people away from the truth of the gospel. The very idea of truth has grown increasingly complicated in our pluralistic world, so how can Christians embrace the truth of the gospel without presuming to be its sole possessor?

Sermon from Sunday, May 30, 2021. Spirit of God (Part 4). Genesis 8:6-12, 20-22 & Matthew 3:13-17. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. The fourth and final biblical metaphor of the Holy Spirit is the dove. When we connect the dove that descended upon Jesus at his baptism with the dove from the story of Noah, we discover God's spirit at work in bringing about something new in this world and in us.

Sermon from Sunday, May 23, 2021, the Day of Pentecost. Spirit of God (Part 3). Malachi 3:1-6 & Acts 2:1-13. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. The Holy Spirit descends as tongues of fire on the Day of Pentecost and the church is born. Fire reveals something important about the working of God's spirit, and it has everything to do with the gospel and the fledgling movement that began to share it.

Sermon from Sunday, May 16, 2021. Spirit of God (Part 2). Genesis 1:1-2 & John 3:1-9. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. God's spirit shows up at times in scripture as WIND. When we imagine the movement of God in the world as wind, we embrace unpredictability, discomfort, and mystery. The wind of God surrounds us, spooks us, and stirs us up.

Sermon from Sunday, May 9, 2021. Spirit of God (Part 1). Genesis 2:4b-7; Ezekiel 37:1-10; John 20:19-22. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. One important metaphor for God's spirit in scripture is BREATH. This breath shows up at a few key moments in the biblical story, and these moments reveal to us the foundational nature of the work of God's spirit for the life of faith.

Sermon from Sunday, May 2, 2021. Nothing Less (Part 5). Romans 8:18-25. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Is there a limit to hope? Does hope dwindle to nothing in the face of the truly hopeless? Or can hope be maintained even when there's no good reason left for hope? Hoping for the impossible - hoping against hope - proves to be the ultimate test case for the power of hope.

Sermon from Sunday, April 25, 2021. Nothing Less (Part 4). Matthew 25:31-46. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Hope is not just something we cast out into an uncertain future; hope is something that has - or at least ought to have - a profound impact on who we are and how we live today. And when we live hope-shaped lives, we help bring hope to others.

Sermon from Sunday, April 18, 2021. Nothing Less (Part 3). Isaiah 65:17-25 & Revelation 21:1-5a. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. It is not uncommon for Christians to assume that ultimately, in the end, God plans to toss this broken world on the trash heap (minus the faithful, of course). But this assumption ignores the consistent through-line in scripture of God's unwavering hope for the world and all that is in it.