The Local Church

In this Palm Sunday sermon, we repent of triumphalism—our desperate need for a God who wins—and discover what's revealed when those false images finally fall. We've all handed our hope to something that couldn't hold it, and called it faith. But the one who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey isn't heading for a throne. He's heading through death. And it turns out, that's exactly where the God who wa...

In this sermon, guest preacher Alyson Tiwari invites us into the most honest question grief ever asks: Where were you? Using the story of Lazarus—and her own profound loss—she explores what it looks like to bring our full, unguarded selves to Jesus, anger and all. Reenchantment, she reminds us, isn't relentless optimism; it's the kind of presence that can hold grief and hope in the same breath, an...

In this sermon, we ask what we might be missing when we get stuck pining for the past. Nostalgia is seductive—it feels like home—but it can blind us to what God is doing right now. We explore how the man born blind models a different way: not reaching backward, but saying hello to here. Part of our series Reenchanted: A Series for Lent on Believing Again. The past isn't a destination. It's evidenc...

In this sermon, part of our Lenten series Reenchanted: A Series for Lent on Believing Again, we follow Jesus to Jacob's well — where he crosses every line his world drew to sit with a Samaritan woman his culture told him to avoid. We explore how our habit of sorting the world into clean categories — insider and outsider, worthy and unworthy — is the fast track to disenchantment, and how Jesus move...

In our second week of the Reenchanted series, we talk about ditching the intellectual armor that keeps us isolated and stuck in "knowing" all the right answers. Stop trying to think your way to God, and start learning how to feel your way back to the wild, messy, embodied life you were meant to live. It’s time to repent of certainty and let your finite, beautiful body be the place where divine gra...

In this sermon, we explore the tension between our modern obsession with certainty and the ancient invitation to walk by faith. Using the story of Jesus in the wilderness, we see how the tempter’s demand for proof is a trap designed to replace intimacy with control. True reenchantment isn't found in five-star guarantees or "crystal stairs," but in the dark corners where we finally stop demanding d...

Special guest preacher Rev. Gail Song Bantum wraps up our series, "Building the Beloved Community."

In this sermon, we continue our series, Building the Beloved Community: A Blueprint from Dream to Reality, by diving into the structural integrity of the 'frame.' We move past the foundation of 'somebodiness' to see how the prophet Micah's call reveals the essential, non-negotiable components: to do justice, embrace hesed (faithful love), and walk humbly with God. These three elements are the core...

In this sermon, we launch our new series, Building the Beloved Community: A Blueprint from Dream to Reality, and dive into the faithful life that refuses to shrink the horizon. Drawing on the fierce wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the prophet Isaiah, we confront the lie that tells us we are nobodies, anchoring ourselves instead in the radical truth of "somebodiness"—our inherent, God-giv...

In this sermon, we dive into the disruptive power of Jesus’s baptism, revealing how it offers a new imagination for how we see the world. Jesus steps into the water to redefine righteousness—it’s not about maintaining purity or order, but about radical solidarity that shatters systems of control and exclusion. By claiming our first, revolutionary name as Beloved, we embody a vision in which justic...

In this sermon, we explore the stark contrast between the desperate, grasping control of King Herod and the open-handed, joyful trust of the Magi on Epiphany Sunday. Tired of the anxiety that comes with trying to manufacture, manage, and secure every outcome in your life? The Epiphany story is an invitation to receive the gift of God already present. Release your white-knuckled grip, surrender you...

In this special Christmas Eve homily, we wrestle with the chasm between the wide-eyed wonder of a child’s Christmas and the sleepless anxiety of adult logistics and existential uncertainty. We discover that the Christmas story is not a distant, sanitized tale but a radical, relatable gift of divine presence. It reveals God drawing near—Emmanuel—to stand in solidarity with us amid the pressure, gri...

In this sermon, we dismantle the myth that joy is a prize to be earned or a mindset to be curated. Digging into the Christmas story—from the animals who bear witness to the cosmic claim of John’s sarx—we discover that God has already pitched a tent in the fragile, biological stuff of creation. Joy isn't a reward for overcoming; it's an ever-present sign of God’s presence, which holds us through ev...

In this sermon, we venture into the dark fields alongside the shepherds, discovering that the first announcement of the Incarnation was entrusted to those on the margins. We explore how the angelic proclamation disrupts our fear, revealing a joy that is not a scarce commodity for the pious, but a generous, cosmic invitation for all humanity. This is a story about a God who breaks through the silen...

In this sermon, we dive into the revolutionary idea that joy is a muscle, not a mood. The daily practice of "Repeating the Sounding Joy" offers us a different path at the crossroads of control and trust, training our hearts for resilience instead of despair. We explore how Mary's defiant Magnificat—a song rehearsed over a lifetime—kickstarts an "upward spiral" of hope that disrupts the "downward s...

In this sermon, we dive into the third week of our series, In Good Company: A Series on Saints, by meeting John Wesley—a restless striver who felt compelled to earn his destiny. Discover how Wesley's relentless pursuit of holiness gave way to an inexplicable moment of surrender that radically transformed his life and launched a movement. The relentless pressure to be "enough" melts away when we re...

In this sermon, the second in our In Good Company series, we dive deep into the extraordinary life of Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Her childhood lessons about the sacredness of the wild fig tree rooted a life of radical faithfulness. We explore how her seemingly small act—planting seven trees—grew wild and untamed, like the kingdom of heaven itself, becomi...

In this sermon, we explore how St. Ignatius of Loyola—once a vain soldier obsessed with glory—discovered that faith isn't about achievement but friendship with God. Through his story and the encounter between Jesus and blind Bartimaeus, we're invited to consider Jesus's tender question: "What do you want me to do for you?" This first installment of the In Good Company series reminds us that when w...

In this sermon, we scratch the record on apathy and tune our ears to the Spirit’s invitation to dream again. We confront the haunting script that “nothing matters” and pivot toward a defiant, embodied hope—where God restores what locusts devour and empowers all people to imagine and co-create a more just, beautiful world. Expect honest lament, bold re-imagining, and a summons to actionable faith t...

In this sermon, we confront the haunting fear that darkness will devour us. Through Jacob's midnight wrestling match with God, we discover that darkness isn't something to run from—it's a doorway to transformation. Wrestling with God in our darkest moments isn't a sign of faithlessness, but an invitation to experience divine presence and emerge changed, even if limping. Based on Genesis 32:22-31,...

In this sermon, we confront the haunting narrative of isolation and loneliness plaguing our modern world. Pastor Meg Greto challenges the "pandemic of loneliness" by diving into Jeremiah's powerful letter to the exiles, revealing God's unexpected prescription for healing: plant gardens, build community, and seek the shalom (complete peace and flourishing) of the place where you are. Through practi...

In this sermon, we reimagine salvation not as a fear-driven, one-and-done transaction but as God’s healing and wholeness breaking into real life—personal and communal, present and active. We move from private assurance to public restoration, learning to “work out” salvation together through justice, mercy, and everyday mending. Where the world feels frayed, we become agents of repair, embodying Je...

In this sermon, we confront the heavy religious baggage many of us carry around prayer and discover a liberating alternative. Through Jesus's radical teaching of the Lord's Prayer, we explore a transformative framework—Attend, Align, Act—that moves us from empty ritual to revolutionary practice. Instead of treating prayer like a spiritual vending machine, we're invited into a dynamic rhythm that a...

In this sermon, we unpack the loaded word "evangelism" and discover a fresh perspective that moves beyond pressure-filled conversion tactics to something more life-giving. Pastor Brent challenges us to reimagine evangelism not as a two-seater transaction but as a communal journey where there's always room for one more – complete with our questions, doubts, and full humanity. Through the lens of Ph...

In this sermon, we wrestle with that universal ache of unfinished business—from summer bucket lists to life's deeper longings. Drawing from personal experience and the ancient wisdom of Hebrews 11, we discover something liberating: faith isn't about checking off every box, but about trusting God in the midst of our incompleteness. Through the story of Abraham and Sarah, we learn that the divine of...