New Life Downtown

On Easter Sunday, we conclude the Conversations Series by looking at the story of Jesus and the disciples on the Emmaus Road. With downcast faces, dashed hopes, and dull hearts, they were walking away from the cross; yet Jesus drew near to them and joined them on their journey. Preaching the sermon in two segments, with a time of worship in between, Pastor Glenn Packiam calls us to see that Jesus joins us on our journey, becomes the Host at the Table, and opens our eyes to see with a new holy imagination, the resurrection life of God at work in the world.

Good Friday is one of the most important dates on the Christian Church's calendar. Join pastor Daniel Grothe for a church-wide candlelight service to remember the sacrifice, suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, who bore sin and death in his body for the life of the world.

On Palm Sunday, we turn our hearts to the God who has come to save. But the nagging question is, "Whom does He save?" Is it possible to have done too much or be too late? Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches from Luke 23 about Jesus' conversation with the criminal on the cross, a man who is literally on the outside--left outside the city to be killed--and nearly out of time. Yet the beauty of the Gospel is that because Jesus is with us in the place of the Skull, we can be with Him in the place of renewal, Paradise. Only with Jesus do we get out back together, re-membered.

Speaking from Luke 8, Pastor Daniel Grothe helps us to see a Jesus who asks our name and comes to us across a great chasm, restoring us and setting us right. Not only are we the ones restored, but we are invited into this story, calling others to this Jesus as well.

What's it like to be stuck? Whether wrestling with a habitual sin or simply living with a sin nature, we are often reminded that without Christ we lack the desire and the ability to be different. Like the man laying by the pool, we need Jesus to see us and speak words of life to us, "creative" words that call us to get up, pick up our "mats" and walk. Pastor Glenn Packiam leads us to a spiritual reading of this text, helping us hear these words of Jesus and imagine what they may mean for us today.

As we continue to "journey with Jesus to the cross" during Lent, we take a closer look at the Samaritan woman that Jesus stopped to talk with at the well. Glenn Packiam helps us see how Jesus restored her dignity, rescued her destiny, and re-centered her identity on Him. Jesus calls us to lay down our water jars - the things of the world that we look to for satisfaction - and the come to Him as the Fountain of Living Water.

With whom do you eat and drink? Often, it's with people who are just like us. Meals-- table fellowship--had very special significance in the world of the Gospel-writers, which is what made Jesus's choice to eat and drink with "sinners" controversial. Yet part of following Jesus is learning to invite and include others in to a Great Banquet, at which Jesus is both the Host and the Feast. Teaching from Luke 5:27-32, Pastor Glenn challenges us to see that the only way we can truly begin to love "sinners" is not by being "irreligious" and throw the rules out or by making it another "religious duty." We must, instead, recognize that we are sinners too, and let God's grace begin to change us from the inside out.

There are two ways to live: as an orphan or as a slave, as a relativist or a moralist. Each way deeply affects the way we experience the two great themes in life - the pursuit of virtue and the pain of suffering. But Jesus offers us a different way. Because God has come to us, because Jesus has done for us what we could not do for ourselves, we don't have to live as orphans or slaves; we can be sons and daughters. Pastor Glenn calls us to see the generous grace of our Father as he explores these themes in Jesus's famous parable of the "Prodigal Son."

What makes marriage glorious? In a word, intimacy-- the joy of being fully known and fully loved. Yet, as Pastor Glenn Packiam explains, even when we learn to turn our desires into requests, there are times when our spouse will fail us. Sin is at work, bending us into selfishness, and pulling our relationship apart. Only in Christ do we truly begin to come together. When Jesus becomes our source and our center, we are able to take our requests to God, forgive one another, and give sacrificially to each other.

Friendship builds on commonness, exclusiveness, and multiplied joy and virtue. Yet all three can get distorted and relationships become ugly. The uncomfortable truth is that we do not truly have the friends we wish we could have, and we cannot be the kind of friend we wish we could be. Pastor Glenn Packiam shows how these unfulfilled longings point us to Christ, the true Friend who laid down His life for us even when we treated Him as our enemy. When we recognize Jesus as the source of Joy, the fountain of Divine Love flows through us, transforming our approach to friendship, freeing us to love whole-heartedly and forgive quickly.