Sermon from Sunday, July 12, 2020. Grace in the Wilderness (Part 4). Numbers 14:1-10, 19-23. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. God delivered Israel from captivity. God provided them with food and water in the wilderness. God covenanted to be faithful to them. Yet when the people of God reach the borders of Canaan - the land of God's promise - they balk. They struggle to trust that the God who has brought them this far can carry them any further. The wilderness can be an obstacle to faith or it can be the crucible in which deep, lasting faith takes shape.

Sermon from Sunday, July 5, 2020. Grace in the Wilderness (Part 3). Exodus 16:2-21. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. The Israelites become anxious that there will not be enough to eat, not believing God capable of providing for them in the wilderness. As it turns out, receiving from God is about more than opening up our hands to the abundant gifts of God; it is also about letting go of our worry and trusting that what God provides for today is enough for today.

Sermon from Sunday, June 28, 2020. Grace in the Wilderness (Part 2). Exodus 17:8-13. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. The Israelites do battle in the wilderness against the Amalekites, and their fortunes rise or fall with the arms of Moses, which hold the staff of God aloft. It is ultimately by God's own power that Israel prevails, but their victory would be impossible without the help and support that Moses receives from his fellow Israelites.

Sermon from Sunday, June 21, 2020. Grace in the Wilderness (Part 1). Exodus 19:1-14. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. God did amazing things for Israel in Egypt, but it was not until they were in the wilderness that they were granted a direct encounter with the living God. In the midst of the uncertainty and fear of our own wilderness experience, we prepare ourselves to encounter God.

Sermon from Sunday, June 7, 2020. Origins (Part 8). Genesis 11:1-9. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Humans come together in a great city and dream of a tower that reaches to the heavens - a clear symbol of human ambition. But when our ambitions send us skyward, the people around us tend to disappear. God sees what humans are doing and scatters them, frustrating their high aspirations. Instead of reaching up, God wants us reaching out, extending compassion to the people around us, whoever they may be.

Sermon from Sunday, May 31, 2020. Origins (Part 7). Genesis 8:13-22; 9:1-17. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. When the flood waters recede, Noah and his family leave the ark and re-enter the world. After the destruction of the flood, this moment marks a new beginning not just for the human race, but for creation as a whole. We find in this story a God who is determined to see God’s good purposes realized. From ark to people to prophet to messiah to church, this God will work incessantly to see the goodness and beauty of this world finally carry the day.

Sermon from Sunday, May 24, 2020. Origins (Part 6). Genesis 6:9-22; 7:11-24. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. The notion of any god - never mind our good, loving, and just God - obliterating human and animal life in anger or remorse just doesn’t wash for most of us today. However, we can find much in the story of Noah and the great flood to help us understand what grieves the heart of God and what it is that God really desires for this world that God has made, beautiful mess that it is.

Sermon from Sunday, May 17, 2020. Origins (Part 5). Genesis 4:1-16. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Cain and Abel are the first sons of Adam and Eve and the first to try their hand at life outside of the Garden of Eden - it does not go well. Cain grows angry when God does not favor his sacrifice and lashes out against Abel, murdering his own brother. We, like Cain, often find anger an easier route than love, and wind up doing harm to ourselves and others. But this story not only shows us the damage we are capable of doing to the fabric of human community; it also shows that God cares for us even so.

Sermon from Sunday, May 10, 2020. Origins (Part 4). Genesis 3:1-24. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. The serpent wreaks havoc in paradise, bringing a swift end to Adam and Eve’s ideal existence. As the first couple is sent away from Eden, we are offered explanations for some of the hardships of life and the most basic alienations of human existence. These explanations do not need to convince us of the actual origins of what they describe; but they should convict us as we see in this scene our own alienated existence and our desire to be drawn into more meaningful communion with creation, one another, and our creator.

Sermon from Sunday, May 3, 2020. Origins (Part 3). Genesis 2:4b-25. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. God provides a lush, fruitful garden for Adam and Eve to enjoy, gives them a job to do, and also sets up a boundary which they may not cross. All of these - permission, vocation, and prohibition - are part of what it means to live a fruitful life in God’s good creation. While God’s prohibition is an element of life in the garden, it is only one part of the whole.