Own Your Faith

Listen in as Byron Davis opens up our new series called "Feel." Mercy or compassion is something we must feel for those among us who are hurting, broken, wounded. We ought to feel in the same way we want others to feel our woundedness. Mercy is not weakness, it is a display of power.

One of the most powerful messages preached by Monica Miller on Esther and what it means to speak from a place of power and from the margins. Listen in as Monica unpacks Esther's story and inspires us to see beyond ourselves, see beyond our moment, and to see beyond the probable. She shares her own perspective at the intersection of gender and ethnicity just like Esther. She speaks from a place of power as a white person and from the margins as a woman. A necessary message! Esther 4

Listen in as Tracy Weaver transparently shares what God is showing him passive complicity to systemic/structural racism. He lays out rich doctrine of the Trinity, ecclesiology, and the imperative that we all must engage in God's work to unify the body of Christ to be a witness to the world. Ephesians 2:13-16

Listen in as Inés Velasquez-McBryde unpacks the experience of a woman in the Gospel of Matthew who is herself marginalized by society in her day encounters Jesus. She speaks from the margins and Jesus hears her. Inés teaches us that from the margins we can see, speak, and seek! Matthew 15:21-28

The Israelites were instructed to march around Jericho for six days and not to utter a word until the seventh day. God expected them to use both their voices and their bodies as God met them in their obedience to bring down the walls of Jericho. This is a lesson for us today. To tear down walls of injustice with our voices, but also with our bodies. Joshua 6.

In this message we examine the events around the fall of the walls of Jericho. God instructed Joshua to have the people use their voices to shout as part of the divine plan to conquer Jericho. Power can come from the margins. We just can't be afraid to speak out of the combination of truth and love. But fear cannot continue to silence voices that demand justice. Joshua 6

God's response to the injustice that sin perpetrated upon humanity (disruption of fellowship between God and humanity and between human beings) is the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Now, as the "body of Christ" knit together by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22) we too ought live resurrected lives, lives that reflect the living God. What does the disciples' post-resurrection encounters with Jesus teach us about how we are to live resurrected lives in the Spirit? Luke 24

The greatest (universal) injustice we know of is what sin has done to disrupt fellowship. Sin disrupted interrupted fellowship between God and humans and between human beings as illustrated in Genesis 3. Jesus being the sacrifice to suffer and die of the sins of humanity and restoration of all of creation is God's response to that injustice.

Jesus says that God is seeking true worshipers and that those who worship God will do so in spirit and in truth. There is power in worship because when we posture ourselves in reverence and submission to God, God responds to us and moves in and through us in ways that show worship reflected in how we live ethically. Not only should this be our individual calls, but if we consider ourselves a Christian nation, it should be our collective call (at least that of the church). Listen to Pastor Sy exhort us to worship in spirit and in truth! John 4:23

To conclude the series with an emphasis on who we belong to and the inherent worth assigned to every human being. God reminds Israel and us today that to be holy and by extension reveal God's holiness is seen in how we treat other humans among us. We have been given worth that no person or institution has permission to diminish. Leviticus 19