Sunday, December 25, 2022

Reflecting on the reality of Christmas, we hear the story of Christ’s birth in the shadow of a pagan, oppressive empire. The story reveals a contrast between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. 

Resources:

Timothy Mackie, “Isaiah and the Messianic King,” April 22, 2017, https://bibleproject.com/blog/isaiah-messianic-king/.

John Oswalt, “For to Us a Child Is Born: The Meaning of Isaiah 9:6,” Zondervan Academic Blog, December 20, 2018..

John Chrysostom, “Homilies on Titus 5”

N.T. Wright, “The Government Shall Be Upon His Shoulders,” NT Wright Page, December 24, 2008, https://ntwrightpage.com/2016/03/30/the-government-shall-be-upon-his-shoulders/.

Sunday, December 18, 2022

On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we hear the Good News that God does not meet humanity in our strength but in our weakness. This is grace.

Resources:

Jerome, “Against Jovinianus.”

Brené Brown, “Brené Brown on Empathy,” RSA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw.

Michael F. Bird, Romans (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016).

N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Romans, Part 1: Chapters 1-8 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004).

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 1.

Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline (London: SCM, 1949).

Ben Myers, The Apostles Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism (Bellingham: Lexham, 2018).

Sunday, December 11, 2022

On “Gaudete” Sunday (The third Sunday of Advent), we explore the good news of Christ’s restoration, the beauty and frustration of patience, and how Jesus responds to John’s doubts.

Rowan Williams, Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 204).

Flannery O’Connor, Letters of Flannery O’Connor: The Habit of Being, (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1979).

Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018).

Sunday, December 4, 2022

On the 2nd Sunday of Advent, we explore the role of judgement in this season and the ways in which the Church lives God’s future world here and now.

Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018).

Jeremy Seifert, “the church forests of Ethiopia,” Aeon, March 4, 2020, https://aeon.co/videos/how- hundreds-of-small-gardens-of-eden-guard-against-total-deforestation-in-ethiopia.

Stanley Hauerwas, “Stanley Hauerwas—Why Religious Diversity is a Bad Idea—Program 5015,” 30 Good Minutes, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sViQjvFITPc.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, (New York: HarperCollins, 1952).

Sunday, November 27, 2022

The first Sunday of Advent.

Sunday, November 20, 2022

This Sunday, we acknowledge and celebrate the kingship of Christ. But what does “kingship” mean in a world suspicious of power?

Resources:

Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir, (New York: HarperCollins, 2011).

Scot McKnight, The Jesus Creed: Living God, Loving Others, (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2004).

Simon Chan, Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshiping Community, (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2006).

Wright, Luke for Everyone, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001).

Fleming Rutledge, The Undoing of Death, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005).

Sunday, November 13, 2022

This Sunday, our readings call us to imagine the promise of God’s new world. 

Resources:

Walter Brueggemann, Peace, (Danvers: Chalice Press, 2001), 15-16.

John N. Oswalt, the Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 657-662.

Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), 154-157.

Wright, Luke for Everyone, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 250-253.

Sunday, November 6, 2022

This Sunday, Bishop Beth Owen preaches on the significance of the Sacrament of Confirmation and the Feast of All Saints.

Sunday, October 30, 2022

How do we hold together the reality of human goodness and human brokenness? This week, we look at the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) and what it speaks to us about Christ’s mission.

Resources:

Martin Buber- I and Thou, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1958).

Fleming Rutledge- Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018).

Ben Witherington- 1 and 2 Thessalonians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006).

Augustine, On Grace and Free Will 1.18.38.

The Allender Center, “Gratitude and Repentance, Part One,” The Allender Center, https://theallendercenter.org/2019/11/gratitude-repentance-1/.

John Wesley, “On Family Religion,” https://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/sermons.vi.xli.html.

Gordon Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 244-251, 263-267.

Augustine, “Sermon 174.3.”

Sunday, October 23, 2022

This week we ask what will last? Does anything I do matter? If so, what are those things? How do we find them, or identify them?

Resources:

John Goldingay, Daniel and the Twelve Prophets for Everyone, (Louisville: Presbyterian Publishing, 2016)

Tertullian, “On the Resurrection of the Flesh,” New Advent, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0316.htm.

Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, (Grand Rapids: Intervaristy, 2016).

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