Bethel Community Sermons

In this sermon Barnabas launches our new series by showing how Acts must be understood from within Israel's generational desires for peace, and how Jesus safeguards these desires from becoming violent utopian dreams. Barnabas encourages the church to reclaim this persevering hope for satisfied needs and safety, and shows that it will not be brought about by any new charismatic man, but by the Spir...

We close out our sermon series on "Together in the Spirit" with a time of hearing community testimonies about where God has been present and what the Spirit's work has been among us in this past season.  Elizabeth Sherwin shares on her experience of reading "My Body is Not a Prayer Request" by Dr. Amy Kenney and her learnings about disability justice (starts at 3:33) Jerry Yuan shares about h...

Pastor Michael continues our sermon series, "Together in the Spirit" by looking at the practice of singing (and not singing) together. He reflects on Psalm 137, and the ways that hanging our lyres is an act of protest in the face of Empire, and invites us into a wider breadth of communal singing that makes room for our grief, lament, resistance, and shared imagination. 

Pastor Erina continues our sermon series by reflecting on eating as a spiritual discipline. She talks about nourishment as a gift from God and shares the ways that eating is a reminder of God's divine provision, divine belonging, and divine delight. 

Climate. Economy. Politics. As everything declines, including our own bodies, how are we supposed to live as the people of God? Guest preacher, Barnabas Lin, walks through the story of Naomi to show how her life provides wisdom for life during times of sustained devastation.  Barnabas (he/him) has over a decade of ministry experience (primarily in Chicago, IL) and holds a Master of Divin...

Family Ministries Director, Jill Gidlund, leads our whole community through an intergenerational experience of Godly Play, on the exile and return. She tells the story of God's people, journeying in the desert and into exile, and how they encounter God's presence not just in the temple, but even in a foreign land.

Pastor Erina looks at the journey of Moses from Numbers 11 to discover God's vision for a community ethic based on shared burdens and interdependence. In honor of Disability Pride Month, she also shares the story of Disability Justice Culture Club and their model of interdependence as survival.

Guest preacher Peace Lee preaches from the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, and shares about the counter-song of liberation and love that is enfleshed in the marginalized, invisible women who make up Jesus' family line. Despite the prevailing forces of patriarchy, how does the communal practice of saying these names and remembering these women invite us to also say our own names and remember our p...

Pastor Michael preaches from Luke 19, and the story of Zacchaeus, to uncover a model for the practice of confession in the midst of our participation in oppressive and unjust systems. He led us through a corporate practice of confession at the end of his sermon.

Pastor Michael introduces our summer sermon series for us, focused on what it means to experience life in the Holy Spirit, together. He talks about what it means to be built up as the house of God, together, and invites us this summer to collectively imagine how to be and to belong in God's house.

Guest preacher, Nichola Torbett preaches to our community from John 16:12-15 about the truths we cannot yet bear. She shares about the Spirit's work in tearing down self-protection that keeps us from flourishing, as well as the Spirit's work in speaking truth and expanding our worlds to bring greater freedom to all of God's people. NOTE: We did have some tech difficulties at the end of the sermon...

Pastor Erina preaches from Acts 2 about the Holy Spirit who is poured out on all- the Spirit of radical inclusion and universal participation. She talks about the Holy Spirit birthing a movement that collapses hierarchies and oppressive social structures, and shares how she has witnessed similar movements in our church community during the last 3 years of revitalization.  She concluded her se...

Guest preacher Tracey Gee preaches from John 1:35-38 on a spirituality of questions. In a society that loves answers, she reminds us that Jesus comes to us in the questions, and chooses to build relationship with us through our questions, longings, and desires. She also leads us into a time of reflection, to name the questions we are living into right now.

Guest preacher Benita Isaac preaches from John 5:1-9 about how Jesus offers new life and healing for those who are on the outskirts of it, unable to access life through broken and inaccessible systems. How might Jesus draw near to us in our desires and offer us life in ways we don't expect?

As part of our community storytelling practice, church member Sarah Park shares about her journey living with chronic illness and what identity formation and resurrection mean to her. What does it mean for us to choose resurrection daily, in the midst of our lives that are so used to accommodating death?

Pastor Michael continues our sermon series for Eastertide, as he reflects on the story of the two men on the road to Emmaus. Through examining their experience and embodied testimony, Pastor Michael invites us to retell God's story and share liturgical practices that help reorient us to the truth of Jesus in a world that causes us to misremember.

Pastor Erina continues our Eastertide sermon series by preaching on Mary's encounter with Jesus at the tomb. On the first Sunday of APIDA heritage month, she explores the ways that Jesus both witnesses Mary's pain and calls Mary by name, while connecting the experience of Mary to the lived realities of those who identify as Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Desi American. What does it mean to...

Pastor Michael preaches for Eastertide on the apostle Thomas, exploring the nature of trust and doubt, and the realities of Thomas feeling abandoned in the midst of Jesus' death. While Thomas might be most famous for his "doubting," how might we see his desires and even doubts as holy? And how does Thomas teach us that trust is not just rational, but a relational and embodied force that resides in...

Pastor Erina preaches for Easter Sunday, about the complex nature of resurrection and why we are called to proclaim resurrection anyway. She reflects honestly about why resurrection might be hard for us to believe in these times, and yet draws strength from the women in Luke to share what the empty tomb means for her and invite us to do the same as we live  out our collective call as Easter p...

Jill Gidlund leads our community in an intergenerational experience of Godly Play for Palm Sunday, helping us to enter into the fullness of Jesus' life through the "Faces of Easter" story. How might we make room for the fullness of Jesus' birth, life, death, resurrection, and presence among us? Where might we find ourselves in this story, particularly in the midst of Holy Week? To see the images t...

Barnabas Lin shares an extended testimony for our Lenten "Dreams of the People" about his dreams for God's people to experience life abundant. In the midst of historical harm, abuse, and toxicity, what does it mean for the Church to reclaim its identity as a place of promise and miracle, a source of liberation for all? How might we continue to faithfully follow the new thing God is trying to do in...

On the 4th Sunday of Lent, Pastor Erina preaches from Luke 15 on the parable of the prodigal(s) and explores the simple yet radical truth of God's unconditional love and embrace. She names some of the forces in our world that make unconditional love difficult for us to believe in, while gently inviting us to return to the promise of love and the extravagant embrace of God. At the end of her sermon...

Guest preacher, Rev. Riana Shaw Robinson, continues our Lenten sermon series on "Making Room" by reflecting on God's invitation in Isaiah 55 and what is possible when we make room at the table of God. She shares about our need as the only prerequisite to come to the table, and invited us into a communal imagination exercise to help stretch our vision of who has access to God's freedom and abundanc...

Pastor Michael continues our Lenten series on "Making Room" by examining the mothering impulse of Jesus in Luke 13:31-35 and reflecting on the ways that we have rejected divine mothering throughout the generations. How might Jesus be wanting to gather us and remind us of who we are, in a world filled with violence, domination, and separation? And how might God be calling us to expand our narrow th...

Pastor Erina kick off the Lenten season with a sermon on the temptations of Jesus. How was the wilderness a place of formation for Jesus? How did his experience with temptation allow Jesus to grow deeper in his identity and vocation, even in the face of competing stories? And how might this Lenten season be a time when God invites us to make room- for truth, for goodness, for God's story- even in...