In this homily, from weeks past, Bob dives into the gospel of Luke. Here, Jesus is speaking to the disciples about both being ware and being forgiving. Join us as we explore what it means to forgive as Jesus does and continues to do.
Caleb says that he feels a responsibility to make Christianity seem modest, reasonable, not foolish. He also feels an obligation to retain some of the foolishness of the Christian faith. We are onto our third week of 1 Corinthians 1, where Paul contrasts wisdom and foolishness and embraces the foolishness of the Christian story, particularly the cross. What does it mean to allow our Christian faith to be foolish in today's complicated world? We'll think about this question together in this homil...
In this homily we will be interacting with Paul’s concerns about two issues with which this particular church struggled: the cult of personality and being impressed with form over content with regard to the preaching of the gospel. The culture of the city of Corinth was not unlike ours and the struggles they faced as a church to follow Jesus instead of the spirit of the age are similar to our temptations today.
At the second Sunday after Christmas Caleb wonders that if anyone else has trouble contemplating the significance of the birth of Christ during the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. John 1 is the text for this homily. This is one of the richest, simplest, and most layered texts in all of scripture. In this homily he wonders the question, “How then shall we live?”.
We are getting nearer and nearer to Christmas! This week, we will hear Matthew's account of Jesus' birth and we will light the fourth Advent candle. The theme running throughout Sunday's service is Emmanuel, God with Us. What does it mean for God to be with us? For Joseph and Mary, this news brought frightening circumstances in the form of an unexpected pregnancy. For the wisemen, it meant falling into the clutches of Herod. God is with us. Yet this good news is cloaked immediately by a broken w...
This lesson was the the Second Sunday of Advent. The text for the homily is Matthew 3 where we are introduced to John the Baptist. John the Baptist has one main focus: to get people ready to meet Jesus. What does it mean to get ready to meet Jesus then and now? That's what we will ponder during this lesson.
On Christ the King Sunday we celebrate that Jesus is the rightful King of this world and that one day his reign over the world and all people will be realized fully. The image of a sovereign ruling over people is a tough image to get excited about given humankind’s history. However, Jesus’s rule is fundamentally unlike the deeply flawed and downright evil rulers that we have known. Jesus is the King that says: trust me because I have no agenda that is other than your well being. Jesus is never w...
On Baptism Sunday churches all over the world celebrate Jesus' baptism. When Jesus comes for baptism, John the Baptist is shocked. He thinks that Jesus should be the one baptizing him. John's is a baptism where people are coming to confess their sins. Jesus is the lamb of God without sin. But Jesus will go into the water along with the mass of broken humanity not because he needs to but because of his oneness with us. In this way, the baptism of Jesus is a continuation of the incarnation: God wi...
You choose your friends. You don't choose your family. One of the pillars that we settled on during our branding process was: Grace is committed to cultivating a community that feels like family . But family is hard. Maybe we should just cultivate community that feels like friends? Do we really want to "feel" like family? This week's text from 2 Thessalonians is a complicated one dealing with the complications of living among people who were chosen for you. Together we'll consider what it means ...
Each week we confess in the creed that we believe in the world to come. What do we mean when we say that? How does the promise of the world to come inform us in the here and now? We will address these questions as we look at our homily text from Revelation 21.
This week, guest and friend, Rick Hunter explores a text that may be familiar to many. Here we explore the story of Zacchaeus found in the book of Luke and what we can learn from a man who pushed through the opinions of the crowd.
You'd think that summing up this week's short parable from Luke 18 would be as simple as saying, "Be Humble." For better or worse, it isn't. The pharisee is the classic antagonist, looking down on others. The tax collector once again plays the protagonist, humbly praying to God. Unfortunately, we don't fit into either role neatly. And actually, I'm not sure the pharisee and tax collector do either. Let’s explore the simple complexity together.
The text for this homily comes from Luke’s gospel. In the reading from Luke 17, Jesus instructs his disciples about the importance of forgiveness. Here is an excerpt from the text: “... if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive. ”Forgiving those who have wronged us is perhaps the most powerful way that we can be imitators of God. Arguably, it is also the most powerful demonstration that God is at work in the wo...
The text for this homily is from Luke 16. In this text, Jesus tells a bizarre parable about wealth that ends with the familiar verse, "No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." This text is about financial wealth, which we will touch on. But its truth gets at something more fundamental. We often feel so divided? How can we live a life singularly focused on the things t...
The text for this week is from Jeremiah 18. In this passage, the prophet Jeremiah is brought to the studio of a potter where he watches a potter working a piece of clay. It becomes a metaphor for God's people being shaped in the hands of God. It is at once both a frightening image of God's power and control over all people, and an encouraging image of a God who won't give up on any piece of clay. Caleb offers a way to think about how the image of God as a potter and we as clay is both encouragin...
Keep the faith. This week's homily comes from the 11th chapter of Hebrews. We will be focusing on the second half of chapter 11 where the author names a handful of men and women who have kept the faith before us, leading to the iconic verse: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every weight that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." What is faith? What does it feel...
In the third chapter of Colossians, Paul sets a fairly lofty bar for the Colossians in terms of what their lives ought to look like. We will think about whether Paul's admonitions are relevant for us and how they translate into our day to day.
From time to time at Grace we have made the point in our teaching and preaching that God loves YOU - the real you and not the idealized version of you that one often imagines one needs to be in order to be lovable. This spectacularly good news is at the heart of the gospel and is simmering just below the surface in these remarkable words that Paul writes to the Colossians about Jesus and us: “.... in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him.”
Caleb continues in the book of Colossians this week with the book's most well-known passage. This iconic text offers us a beautiful vision of who Christ is and what the impact of Christ's identity is for the entire world. How do the words of Paul in Colossians offer us hope in a broken world? We will carefully consider that question together.
This week we hear Paul's opening words which are intimate and personal, though he had not even met the Colossian church at this point. He longs for them to walk in the light, away from darkness and into the kingdom of the beloved Son. The pastors will lead us to deep dive into Colossians over the next four weeks and walk alongside of the Colossians in that same direction.
Caleb preaches a sermon using Bob's notes on Paul's famous passage from Galatians. What does it mean that social distinctions are leveled by the gospel?
Caleb shares about his trip to Uganda and explores Proverb's definition of wisdom, which is vastly different than our dictionary definition.
Pastor Bob explores the mystery of the ascension and explains why this is a significant Christian holy day...and good news, too!
Pastor Bob reflects on a passage from Ephesians and the constant work that the early church finds itself doing: keeping up with the hospitality of God.
In this homily, Bob ties Psalm 23 to a passage in Acts 9 wherein Tabitha is raised from the dead. Tabitha is a leader in the church. God provides miraculously for the provision of the church by raising her from the dead. God provides a way forward for the community of faith throughout time.
Caleb preaches on Saul's conversion, a story that shows that even when we position ourselves against God, God does not regard us as enemies.
Has Easter really happened? In this homily, Caleb explores the response of the disciples to Jesus and tells a story of resurrection hope.
Bob explores the resurrection by looking at the impact it had on his closest followers. Primarily, Bob notes how the resurrection was the first fruits of God's extravagant love that does not show partiality.
This beautiful story from John's Gospel paints a picture of authentic and honest worship. Bob explores the imagery and the outrage of the disciples.
