This sermon explores the often-overlooked story of Abraham and Sarah’s slave woman Hagar. She has her own story of promises from God to her descendents, and we do well to always ask “whose voice are we not hearing? Who do we need to listen to in order to be more faithful to a God who has plans for us all?”

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This week, our church kicks off the Fall by pivoting back to the Narrative Lectionary, the Bible reading plan for this year that tries to help us all weave the Bible together as one big story of God with us, pursuing us with love and guiding our life together. And today we start at the very beginning; examining the story of the first created people and the story of how what we now call “sin” entered into our world. What can we learn about sin in modern day pandemic times from this story? What does God have to say to us in these times in order to pursue right relationship with God and with each other?

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This year more than any other in recent memory reminds us that life can sometimes go sideways, and the unimaginable thing happens. Yet sometimes that unimaginable thing can be not just negative, but also beyond our most hopeful, joyful dreams. We use the story of so called “Doubting Thomas” after Jesus’ resurrection to think about how God unravels us in the face of these positive things that we could never have imagined.

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PART 1 (audio file of reading and sermon)

PART 2 of VIDEO WITH COMMUNION

This second to last week of our summer sermon series looks closely at one of our most universal human problems: the problem of suffering. What does it mean? Why does it happen? Why me? Why them? Where is God in all this? These questions are centered in the book of Job, when a righteous man and his friends seek understanding in the midst of Job’s whole world falling apart around him. Join us in the conversation.

LINK TO VIDEO ON YOUTUBE HERE

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This week explores when our very minds unravel. We are living in a time of pandemic when over a third of Americans are experiencing depression and anxiety; a time when isolation and decision fatigue and wrestling with painful unjust history has upended our sense of anything being normal. What can we learn from Jesus’ approach to people whose minds have been unraveled? How does Jesus’ care for us compare to the judgment of a world full of stigma and shame?

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