Salt House - Sermons

Curses! If we're talking about blessing, we also got to talk about the flip side, because a lot of times life doesn't feel very 'blessed'. The struggle is real. Our origin story includes that, too. This Sunday, let's look at the ancient curse that we all experience as we make our way to the cross and continue our exploration of original blessing.

Last week, Pastor Sara invited us to reimagine our origin story in the Bible not as “original sin” but as “original blessing.” This week, Intern Pastor Zach will take us through the Ancient Near East poetry of Genesis 1 as we consider God’s original blessing for creation.

As we begin the season of Lent, this 40 day march toward Jesus' death and resurrection, we recognize the necessity for examining who God is and who we are. Today, Pastor Sara examines the original blessing we receive as good and worthy of love and juxtaposes this against the doctrine of original sin.

We are on the cusp of the two-year anniversary of covid - we'll pause to look back, considering where we've been, especially in the rollercoaster of the last six months, both individually and as a community of faith who is on this ride, together. Then we'll also turn to look forward. We'll launch the vision for our Lenten series, leaning into our journey to the cross and resurrection in these next weeks as a time of rich potential for growth and connection.

Feeling wise yet? We're coming to the end of our Sunday exploration of wisdom and we end with "Jesus, the foolish wisdom of God," as St. Paul puts it. In Jesus' life we see the Proverbs embodied, and in his cross we face our suffering and discover the loving gaze that heals our patterns of hurt. Sound crazy? It is.

In our journey Seeking Wisdom, we have come to know the wisdom of Proverbs, of Ecclesiastes, and Job, the three biggies of the biblical wisdom tradition. This Sunday, we dive into one last book from the Hebrew scriptures considered a wisdom honorable mention, because no life well-lived would leave out the wisdom of love. Join us Sunday for a scandalously good time with the erotic love poetry of Song of Songs - wisdom, indeed!

If you think last week's sermon sucked, wait till you hear this one. There are some things that Proverbs doesn't tell you about wisdom. It cannot be learned, it must be lived. And it's only the second half of life that can initiate you into a wisdom such as this. This Sunday we hear Job's story as we pursue wisdom.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes bad things happen to good, wise people? And sometimes really foolish, wicked people get rewarded? What’s up with that?!?! We continue our search for Wisdom this Sunday by turning to the book of Ecclesiastes. Intern Pastor Zach will lead us through the dark truths Ecclesiastes has to offer, as we consider the wisdom found when life isn’t fair.

Last Sunday kicked off our new sermon series: Seeking Wisdom! At a time when information is at our fingertips, yet quality of life is plummeting, we're realizing that it takes more than knowledge to live a good life. It takes wisdom. This Sunday we'll meet Proverbs, who like a brilliant young teacher, poetically lays out generations of collected wisdom that can be used to discern the path of wisdom. Come and join the search!

We have a whole world of knowledge at your fingertips, and yet Baby Shark is the most watched video of all time. What we need is not more knowledge, it's wisdom. But how do we get it? This week we start our Winter sermon series on Wisdom in the tradition of the Bible. It will take us through Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Song of Songs (just in time for Valentines Day) and the foolish wisdom of the cross. In a time when we have no shared reality, let's set out together on a journey for wisdom.