Advent begins with Jeremiah’s promise to exiles: God will raise a righteous branch who brings justice and righteousness. This sermon contrasts airport-style optimism (“maybe 20 more minutes…”) with true hope—honest about the dark, stubbornly communal, and aimed at justice. With stories of labor, ordination, and the Stockdale Paradox.

On Christ the King Sunday we don’t get a triumphant coronation—we get Jesus before Pilate. This sermon contrasts Pilate’s grasping for control with Jesus’ letting go, and asks what it would look like to loosen our grip on power, nostalgia, and image to receive the kingdom Jesus embodies.

Joseph has no money and no freedom—yet he still practices stewardship. In prison he offers what he does have: attention, energy, and a God-given gift for interpreting dreams. This sermon widens stewardship beyond dollars to “everything on the table,” with a nod to Apollo 13 and the holy work of using what we have for the good of others.

If our passion is mostly about protecting comfort, control, or the way we’ve always done it, we’ll end up guarding doilies while sending kids back into the streets. But if our passion is the common good—the house of prayer that welcomes and restores—then some plaques may get scratched, some tables may get repurposed, and, yes, some tables might get turned, but love will abide.

Palm Sunday isn’t just palm branches; it’s a question: Will we hush the parade to keep the peace, or let creation sing and join Jesus in remaking his house for prayer and community repair?

We often reduce belief to intellectual agreement: collect information, decide yes/no, done. Christians sometimes reinforce that with a single “decision moment” that proves faith forever. Decision matters—but John 3:16 lives inside a story: Nicodemus sneaks out at night to find Jesus. He already believes Jesus is from God, but he doesn’t yet trust Jesus with his whole life. Jesus calls him (and us) beyond agreement into trust—the kind you put your weight on.

Post-exile neighbors show up ready to help rebuild the temple—“Let us build with you”—but are shut out. Isaiah answers with God’s counter-vision: a house of prayer for all peoples. There's a difference between tolerating people and truly including them—moving from “everyone’s welcome” to “we built this with you in mind.”

Jesus, Mark 9, corrects the disciples’ gatekeeping—“Whoever isn’t against us is for us”—and calls us to become teammates in the kingdom rather than competitors. On World Communion Sunday we remember the global table, tell the story of the “man with the golden arm,” and practice being a church that sets more places instead of building more gates.

The “dishonest manager” in Luke 16 might be Jesus’ trickiest parable. Rather than praising corruption, Jesus spotlights one redeeming quality—shrewd creativity—and invites his disciples to learn how to love even “unlovable” people. A sermon about love in real life: parking-lot scammers, childhood bullies, and the practice of finding one thing to love.

Biblical justice notices when something is off—and then seeks to make it right. Pastor Sarah on John 5.

Kids have a fierce sense of “fair.” (Some of us once measured juice to the millimeter!) But our adult “justice” can still shrink to protecting our interests and punishing others. Scripture’s imagination is deeper: justice is putting things right—noticing what’s off and actively mending it. John 5 gives us a living picture through four movements in Jesus’ ministry.

In famine and grief, Naomi reads her life as a curse from God. Ruth refuses that script, clinging to Naomi with stubborn, embodied love—“Where you go, I will go.” This sermon invites us to stop looking up for rescue and start looking over to the hope God plants in our relationships, with a companion story from Viktor Frankl.

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