In this sermon we dive into Mary’s song by looking at the woman who came before her: Hannah, Deborah, Jael, and, of course, Miriam. Prophetesses and barren woman who singing similar songs and make room for God in similar ways. We see in Mary an image of what it means to be the church. We consider the question of what is God trying to bring into the world through us? 

In this sermon we talk about joy. We consider joy as a sign of the existence of God, the difference between lower-case joy and upper-case Joy, joy as the practice of embracing cynicism by going further than it, joy as an act of resistance, and what that octopus documentary teaches us about joy.

In this sermon we talk about peace and wilderness. We consider John the Baptist as a reliable guide into the wilderness that Advent calls us into. We consider how peace is found when we do not struggle to be anything other than what God made us. We understand that confession and repentance is the work we are called to do in the wilderness. We come to see that growth happens as we are pushed to the edges of our self. 

In this sermon we set the stage for Advent. We consider how Advent is pregnant time, what it means to live in the time between the time, and how the beginning of Advent is always apocalyptic wherein God wants to mess with our reference points.

In this sermon we look at what it means to say that Jesus’ death somehow enacts God’s forgiveness of Sins, what it means confess that God is in the flesh of the crucified body of Jesus, and how we as the church are to bear witness to these things by embodying the same forgiveness in the same way. 

In this sermon Pastor Jeffrey Purganan offers a wonderful pre-election sermon about who God is and what it means to be the church today, about how to navigate our way through political division, and what it means to put our trust in God.

In this sermon we consider the role that questions play in the life of faith, that questions are how we come to esteem the sacredness of life as we learn how to see God in all things and all things in God. We consider how the problem was not that the Pharisees and Sadducees questioned Jesus, but that they’re weren’t actually questioning him. They had already decided what they think, thus closing themselves off from God. Their questions are actually questions we should never stop asking as we pursue the way of faith.


“Part of what I’d like to reflect on today is that perhaps these particular questions that they ask of Jesus are in many ways questions that we should never stop asking. The question of paying taxes to Caesar is a question about idolatry and ones allegiance to God over everything. The question about the resurrection is a question about God’s provision and our hope for a future. The question about the greatest commandment is a question about ones purpose in the world. Even Jesus’ question to them is a theological question about who we say that he is. These are questions that we never stop asking. And as we’ll see in a moment to stop asking these questions is like showing up to a wedding in the wrong clothes.”

In this sermon we consider the prophetic words and ministry of Jesus speaking not just to God’s people in first century but to a divided church today living in a culture of us versus them. We consider how this chapter challenged us in our settledness about who we think God is and what it means to be God’s people.

“I can’t think of a better time than an election year to read this chapter in order to remind us that we are Christians, not Republicans. We are Christians, not Democrats. Our politics are determined by the way of the cross. Our allegiance is to Christ, not America. We don’t have a legislative agenda because everything has already been accomplished by the work of Christ on the cross. Our work in the world is simply to bear witness to that by how we love and serve the people around us for his sake, and by taking our cues from the prophetic witness of Jesus to be about faithful worship and to purse just and equitable relationships.”

In this sermon we talk about spiritual transformation of learning how to see. We consider how the envious laborers and power-hungry disciples are focused on first-half of life questions (thank you Richard Rohr). We consider how maturing into the second half of life (which has nothing strictly to do with age) is about moving away from the mode of self-interest, individualism, consumerism, etc. and towards a real posture of love and joy in God’s creation. In the end, we see this journey of learning how to see as the real work of contemplation that Jesus has always called us to.