Second on the Mount

"Following: Loving, and so Following" – Mark 16:1-8 Lenten Sermon Series Part VII

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. "...so many cling to the resurrection hope in a desperate way, hoping for an out when death must come. Sadly, what often comes of this escapist hope is an escape from the moral demands of life. But a true resurrection hope is this: It is finding hope in God even after all other hopes...

"Following: Paul's Conversion and Call to Follow" – Acts 9:1-20 Lenten Sermon Series Part IV 

Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, March 10, 2024. "When the voice of God calls out to us, when the voice of the Lord calls us to follow, we enter into something bigger and deeper than individual salvation and vocation. Conversion is never an end in and of itself. It is a beginning. We step into something new for ourselves and for...

"Following: Jesus Is Being Followed?" – Matthew 12:9-14 Lenten Sermon Series Part III

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, March 3, 2024. "We all have biases. Even Jesus in our story has a bias. He clearly stated a bias in the passage. You heard it. He prefers compassion and mercy over the literal keeping of a law that would prevent a man with a need from receiving help. His bias is toward seeing the person in front of him...

"Following: Who Said She Could Follow?" – Mark 5:25-34 Lenten Sermon Series Part II

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, February 25, 2024. "Who says she can follow Jesus? Not the crowd. Not even Jesus who doesn’t know she is behind him. She follows Jesus because she gets it. She gets what makes it possible for any of us to follow Jesus, no matter how worthy we think we already are. 

"What she gets is grace. She knows that...

"Following: Peter, the Rock" – John 18:15-17, 25-27 and 21:15-19 Lenten Sermon Series Part I

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, February 18, 2024. "What is it that makes us chicken out—whether we’re 11 years old, 41 years old, or 81 years old? Why are we afraid to speak up? To live what we claim to believe? What is it that makes us vulnerable to this kind of behavior—the kind of behavior Peter shows on Good Friday?...

"Not Alone, but Lonely" – Mark 1:29-39

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, February 2, 2024. "We are all lonely sometimes. No one can reach those inner parts of you that only God can reach. I encourage you to embrace sacred loneliness. In being alone with God, become comfortable with being alone with yourself. . . . Find your identity in being alone with God. That is where your clarity and strength will come while being a...

"Truth: God Is Here" – Mark 1:21-28, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3

Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, January 28, 2024. "There are demons—whether they be personal, communal, global, or even cosmic—that draw us away from Jesus. Yet, with God’s boundary-breaking power and love made know in Jesus Christ, we can stand up to the demons and be freed. 

"How might we speak with authority to these demons just as Jesus did to the demon in the...

"Waiting Work" – Acts 1:13-26

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, January 21, 2024. "Prayer is sometimes dismissed as avoiding responsibility, such as when people who actually can do something about a problem say instead, 'Let’s pray about it.' But though prayer can be used to avoid the truth and dodge responsibility, it can also be a means by which to face the truth and deal with it. . . .

"Prayer is grounding oneself in...

"Come and See" – John 1:29-46

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, January 14, 2024. "The invitation to 'come and see' is an invitation to leave our comfort zones. To 'come and see' is an invitation to approach all of life with a grace-filled curiosity. To 'come and see' is to enter into the joy of being deeply seen and deeply known. . . .

"Is there anything that feels lonelier than the experience of being unseen? An...

"Under the Apple Tree" – Genesis 2:15-17, Romans 12:1-2

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Confirmation Sunday, January 7, 2024.

Can one believe what both science and the Bible have to say? Dr. Anderson explores this question by looking to epiphanies under the apple tree by Adam and Eve, Sir Isaac Newton, and Karl Barth. "Though God is a mystery beyond proof, I believe in God because I have had my own epiphanies of being known, ...

"Jesus’ Birth Certificate: (Father's Name)" – John 1:14-18 Advent Sermon Series Part IV

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Christmas Eve Sunday, December 24, 2023. "But, as I said before, in saying God, something more needs to be said. . . .  Something must be added to what is meant by God or we end up adding whatever we want God to mean. God can mean 'Merciless Judge' if the blanket is just a quilt of God’s demands. God can mea...

"Jesus’ Birth Certificate: (Place of Birth)" – Micah 5:2, Luke 2:4 Advent Sermon Series Part III

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, December 17, 2023. "The birth of the Messiah will be a sign to the world of healing and life. This child was born with a name, born at a time in history, born in a place we know. In Bethlehem, heaven has come down. In Bethlehem, House of Bread, we encounter the Bread of Life.

"Where we...

"Jesus’ Birth Certificate: (Date)" – Luke 2:1-7 Advent Sermon Series Part II

Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, December 10, 2023. "Jesus was born when Quirinius was governor of Syria and was charged with conducting the registration, a symbol of Roman authority and oppression. To this, Jesus was born as the Messiah who would overthrow the powerful and lift up the oppressed.

"In those days, Jesus was born, period. Against a...

“Jesus’ Birth Certificate: (Name)” – Matthew 1:18-25 Advent Sermon Series Part I 

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, December 3, 2023. "Let’s put a formal name on the certificate, and in that day, the most formal way someone was introduced was not only by name but also by relationship. So, let’s imagine Joseph answering the question, 'What is the child’s name?' in this way: 'Yeshua Ben Yosef,' or 'Jesus, Son of Joseph.' ...