This week, we begin our Advent sermon series:

Light of Grace: Reflecting on 250 Years of the Beloved Hymn
It may be a season of favorite Christmas carols, but this year also marks the 250th anniversary of one of the most beloved Christian songs of all time: “Amazing Grace”. During this short Advent season, we will focus our attention on the extravagant free gift of God’s Son, Jesus; born as one of us. What does grace look like at Christmastime, and what will it look like for the whole year?

This week, we explore the story behind the hymn and consider what it holds in common with how our church remembers the announcement of Jesus coming into the world. Before the quaint and nostalgic nativity image, every year Advent begins with the wild and unpredictable prophet John the Baptist preaching repentance out in the wilderness. Where is the grace there? How can grace be found in places that seem so stark and harsh and challenging? Dive in with us together! Grace is at the heart of the Advent / Christmas season!

Link to readable sermon PDF

On this very special Sunday, there is a spirit of joy and anticipation! It is the new year’s eve of the Church! It is the last Sunday before Advent, known as Christ the King Sunday. It is a Sunday where we reflect on the reign and lordship of Jesus. Jesus is a radically different kind of ruler from any ruler in our world, and yet Jesus is Lord of every time and season: the seasons which feel warm and full of life and the seasons that may feel cold or barren.

In this special service, we will read and sing our way through each of the Church seasons from Advent to Ordinary Time, considering how each one can contribute to our spiritual growth on the journey with Christ.

Link to readable PDF of lessons about the church seasons

This is our final week of our mini-series exploring what the larger Church ought to be like in the world. What clues do we get from our Biblical story about what God intended for people of faith as they organized into communities and movements worldwide? This week, we get really real: in a world filled with crippling poverty, gruesome wars, toxic division, and fear-fueled discrimination, what should the church be like? This feels like an urgent question, but one that can make us freeze in inaction. We do not have to have all the answers. In fact, Jesus Himself warned us that none of us can know everything about what is to come. Predictions about end times are futile and not what we are expected to do. What we ARE expected to do as Christians is to be ready—ready for God’s Kingdom to break into what we have gotten used to as worldly life and change everything as we know it! Being ready means paying attention and staying alert; responding to God’s presence in all the hard and hurting places. People get ready, Jesus is coming! Thanks be to God!

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This week in our short series, we are continuing with our zoomed out view of Church beyond COA. What should communities of faith be like? What message are we sending to the world by the ways that we behave together and the dreams that we pursue? This week, we continue to examine Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church and we see two metaphors in one short passage: Paul compares himself as a leader among them to both a “nursing mother” and an “urging and encouraging father”. These two things may seem to be in conflict, but how DO we challenge each other and give each other courage using the gifts and strengths we’ve got? How can many different ways of expressing our faith all point to the same God and the same calling? One thing we know: as the African proverb once said “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. We are in this together.

Link to readable sermon PDF

This Sunday, we begin another short mini series:

FALL SERMON SERIES: Church is Like That: Exploring Our Witness Through 1 Thessalonians

Using one of Paul’s epistles to the church at Thessalonica (a Biblical book we seldom hear from), we will consider what our witness can be to the world. What are we like in their eyes? What are we like in God’s eyes? Are we communicating what we intend to say about what Jesus means to us? Join us in this ongoing journey of inner and outer transformation.

Because this Sunday is also All Saints Sunday, we will focus on 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 , where Paul reassures the early persecuted church about an unshakable assurance of life in Jesus. All Saints is a good day for us to reflect on areas of life where we have felt grief and loss; to remember all of those who have gone on before us, but to also do as Paul says and grieve with hope! What does that look like?

Link to readable sermon PDF