"Reimagined: Prayer" – Mark 14:32-42

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, November 14, 2021. “In [Mark 14:36 Jesus] joins all of us who have prayed to escape suffering, prayed for healing, prayed for a way through, only to face the very suffering, disease, or dead end we feared. ‘Yet not what I want, but what you want,’ Lord. Jesus comes to want what God wants. Perhaps here we have an image of prayer changing the one praying rather than changing God or external circumstances. Prayer changes the person offering the prayer.”

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-prayer/

"Reimagined: Anointing" – Mark 14:1-11

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from All Saints Sunday, November 7, 2021. "It is the extravagance of hope, of faith. When the woman breaks the alabaster jar and anoints Jesus’ head, she is letting something out. She does something physical to express something personal. Sometimes we just have to do that because we are symbolic creatures. Theologically speaking, we are wired sacramentally. Sometimes we have to show the world what is in us."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-anointing/

“What's Love Got to Do With It” – Mark 12:28-34

Sermon by guest preacher the Rev. Dr. Brian K. Blount from Sunday, October 31, 2021. Dr. Blount is President and Professor of New Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA and Charlotte, NC. He is a renowned New Testament scholar and author of a commentary on the Gospel of Mark.

“To love God is to pull yourself out of your focus on you and what you have, who you are and who is around you, to value something bigger than yourself, more than yourself... and then it requires that you treat others with the same ferocious attention and care.”

"Reimagined: Commitment" – Mark 10:17-31 

Sermon by The Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, October 24, 2021. "Transitions are hard. Transitions involve change, and change involves loss, and loss involves grief. But the thread of God’s love runs through it all. Love is the basis of commitment. Love is the call. To love through change, to love through loss, and to love through grief. Love then carries us to commit again to depend on and trust in God."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-commitment/

"Reimagined: Inheritance" – Mark 10:13-16 

Sermon by The Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, October 17, 2021. "Brothers and sisters, we have work to do. . . . Our Lord Jesus says, 'Let the little children come to me. Do not stop them.' It is our job to do the same. To welcome those children, to welcome their questions and wonder, to protect them, to pray for them, to look to them as exemplars of joy, trust, and possibility."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-inheritance/

"Reimagined: Confession" – Mark 8:27-38

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, October 10, 2021. "Then, Jesus asks them a second question: 'Who do you say that I am?' That’s when Peter blurts out what we, the readers of Mark have known since the very first verse, but no one in the story has said out loud. Peter blurts it out: 'You are the Christ.' A suspicion turned into a confession; an opinion becoming a proclamation."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-confession/

"Reimagined: Meal" – Mark 6:30-44

Sermon by The Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, October 3, 2021. "By reimagining meals as an experience of the divine in community, our meals might look more like this great banquet—a meal where all are welcome, just as they are, just as you are, a meal to remember and do, a meal of thanksgiving, a meal to give and a meal to be fed. A meal where our Savior is present, seated beside you, forever extending compassion and love."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-meal/

"Reimagined: House" – Mark 2:13-17 

Sermon by The Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, September 26, 2021. "Wherever Jesus goes, he turns norms and expectations upside-down. From the outside, Mark’s house might look simple―but looking in, as the Pharisees saw, it is a glorious scene not just of a hodgepodge banquet table way back then―but of a Table to come."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-house/

"Reimagined: Call" – Mark 1:14-20, 2:13-14

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, September 19, 2021. "...we can remember that being called by Jesus is being called into fellowship with him and with each other. It is to be in fellowship with a cause: to live by, and witness to, the good news of God’s grace, however that is possible given the moment."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-call/

"Reimagined: Baptism" – Mark 1:1-11

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Rally Day Sunday, September 12, 2021. "The moment of Jesus’ baptism at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel has the shape of Jesus’ ultimate destination in the Gospel; the shape of the cross. . . . During the rest of the story of Mark’s Gospel, the vertical love of God for Jesus shines horizontally as Jesus teaches, heals, and sacrifices for others. This love which seems uniquely for Jesus ends up being love shown through Jesus for all."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/reimagined-baptism/