Sermon Text: Isaiah 42:5-12; Matthew 9:14-17

We celebrated our students' return to school, and we wondered about God's work in new places. We asked the question:  where is God and what is God doing? God is not an old man on a throne judging, but is living and active, taking us to new places, making all things new.

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Sermon Text: Daniel 3; Matthew 16

When faced with grief, society gives us two options: succumb to fear, or puff out our chest in bravado. Perhaps there is a third way, a way that roots us in faith? The story of Sharach, Meshach, and Abednego tells a story of three guys who stood at a real hell and lived to tell the story. When in grief, we discover God is in it with us. And Jesus says that the Church is to be the place where we trust in God's presence always.

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Sermon Text: Matthew 5:20-26

 As we explore grief, anger seems to be a strange but constant companion. Anger reveals something about our desires, and if we aren't careful, we can use that anger to defend ourselves from others, when the spiritual reality is inside of us. So "lay your weapons down, there are no enemies in front of you."

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Sermon Text:  Matthew 14:22-33

From a religious point of view, "Totem" is a chaotic song, with all of its religious references. In this way, it's a lot like grief - in challenging times, we grasp for solutions to ease the pain. When we do that, we become spiritually confused. Where do we actually put our trust in times of grief?  In the story of Jesus walking on the water, we are invited to keep our eyes fully fixed on Jesus even in the most difficult moments of our lives. He's got us, and we can trust him.

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Sermon Text:  Psalm 77; Matthew 8:1-4

In Week Two of Turntable, we turned to the grief of others.  "Born in the USA" is the dark story of a Vietnam veteran. The beauty of the song is the in the tension of the struggle in the verses and the triumph in the chorus. When we encounter people with grief, what can we offer? Jesus shows us the gift of dignity, that our grief and suffering does not have to define us.

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Sermon Text:  Psalm 137; Luke 9:18-25

Turntable Gospel will center on grief, so we started with the genre that does that best:  country. Country music thrives in its specificity, to bring you into the story. In faith, grief is what starts our journey towards God, but we must be specific about our grief and name it.  In doing so, we discover that our Savior joins us in that grief. Whatever you are carrying, it is a good place to seek the Savior.

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Sermon Text:  2 Samuel 6

We wrapped up a week of VBS by asking the question we asked the kids all week:  What is at the core of YOUR faith?  For so many of us, it's really fear.  But the Bible says, "Fear not."  In Christ, we can know a joy deeper than our circumstances.  Joy is not a requirement of discipleship, but is rather the by-product of it. We experience that joy as we walk in the way of Christ. 

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Sermon Text:  Exodus 19

In our final installment of this series, we talk about the United Church of Christ. At the heart of the UCC is a commitment to covenant - an exchange not of goods or services, but of people. In the UCC, we are not connected by laws or authority, but by deep relationships to one another. That empowers our work to proclaim the gospel, work for reconciliation, and to seek justice and liberation for all.

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Sermon Text: John 21:3-19

We are built for community, which means that as soon as we start following Christ we find ourselves in a community of believers, and Christ calls us to care for them, "Feed my sheep." We don't do that as "volunteers," but as "disciples" who are carrying out God's purposes for our lives. To help us do this, we have structures at St. Mary's that lead us, structure our work, and call us to our best selves.

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We're covering the basics of membership in our Sunday worship. Today, we talked the heart of membership - discipleship of Jesus Christ. When we join a church, we don't join an organization, but an organism. At the heart of the church is the story of Jesus - his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. And his most basic call to us is, "Follow me."  And we're given some important tools - prayer, scripture, and sacrament - to guide us on good and faithful paths.

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