Cocktails with Beers

Pr. Matt takes the mic solo to introduce a new mid-week series, Dark Night of the Soul.  He reflects on what Lent means for us during a pandemic, how lent 2020 has yet to end, how much it looks different from years past, and what remains the same.  

Pr. Matt and Merry reflect on our need to take breaks in life.   This week, they chat about listening for God's voice in moments of silence and solitude.   Along the way, Pr. Matt talks about his experience getting the Covid vaccine, Merry reminisces about working at the JC Penney catalogue department (what's a catalogue?), and they chat about the importance of President's day by remembering all t...

Pr Matt and Merry come to you live from halftime of the super bowl.   The reminisce about halftime's from the past when music made more sense to them.   They also talk about our need to take breaks to recover, reenergize, and connect with God and one another.   This is especially true after Living Water's recent food/fundraiser.   And, they also remember a great ol' hymn called Leaning on the Ever...

Matt and Merry talk like hippies when they advocate that everyone should have enough.   They also talk about some newcomers who taught the same thing.   Their names are James, John, Peter, a punk named Paul, and some guy named Jesus…all people who proclaimed the good news of God's dominion by, first and foremost, making sure everyone had enough.  

Matt and Merry sit down to chat about the end of one era and the birth of a new one.  There are events in life that change the course of history, whether our personal history or our culture's history.  We can think of those big events; 09/11, sudden loss, the current pandemic, those events that change things for us.  We are living in one of those times right now.  One era is passing away, and anot...

Matt and Merry chat about a guy named Philip who shared the good news by giving away food.  How ought we to share the good news today?  They also chat about how depressing Lent is, vacations to Civil War battlefields, and struggling over feeling thankful during a rough year. 

Matt and Merry update on our Souperbowl food/fund raiser to support local food banks.  They also talk about the end of the world as we know it.  When and how will the world end?  And what is our role in it? 

Pr. Matt and Merry give us an update on our souperbowl food/fund drive competition with our church friends down the street, Centerpoint.  Who is in the lead?  And by how much?  They also look at a few things coming up on The Water this winter, like the series How to become a 21st Century Church.  

Pr. Matt and Merry wrap up our December series, Christmas Isn't Cancelled.  This week, we look at one of our favorite Christmas movies...the many versions of A Christmas Carol.  Which one is the best?  Which one is our favorite?  And where does the moral of A Christmas Carol intersect with the good news in the original Christmas story?

Pr. Matt and Merry review another favorite Christmas movie for many of us...Miracle on 34th Street.  For the characters in the movie, Kris Kringle confronts them with a new reality...that he is the real Santa Claus.  We see people's hearts changed, folks lives enriched, and a city living into the fullness of life.  It is similar to the new reality the angels confronted the shepherds with.  A new k...

Pr. Matt and Merry continue our series, Christmas Isn't Cancelled.  This week, chat about the popular Christmas movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  They also reflect the good news for us in the Christmas Story told through the eyes of Jospeh.  Along the way, they talk about charity competitions, something called the "souperbowl," the current shutdown, and why ninjas will be present in t...

Matt and Merry open their December series, Christmas Isn't Cancelled.  This month, they watch some classic Christmas movies, and give you their take on it.  This week they watch White Christmas.  What is the lesson in that movie?  And does it overlap with the true meaning of Christmas?  While they answer these questions, they reminisce about Seinfeld episodes, talk about upcoming birthdays, and ex...

Pr. Matt and Merry finish up our series, Reformation: Being Lutheran Today.  They ask where the church is, and where God is at work in the world.  Is it through an institution, or through our own lives?  They look at what Martin Luther had to say about all this.  Along the way they chat about turkey shaped turkey loaves for Thanksgiving, how excited they are for Christmas this year, some holiday t...

Matt and Merry encourage you to "sin boldly."  But wait!  What does that mean?  We explore what Martin Luther meant when he wrote that, and what that means for us today.  Along the way they talk about cheesy Christmas movies, cat adoptions, and Henri, le Chat Noir.  

Matt and Merry talk about being stuck between two worlds, the world as it is now and the world as it's going to be.  Along the way, they chat about listening to Christmas music already, what our holidays will be like in the chaos that is the year 2020, and the fate of Schrodinger's cat.

Pr. Matt and Merry continue our series, Reformation: Being Lutheran Today, with part 2.  We talk about the recent election, our frustration at potential winter shutdowns from covid, and even discuss the nuances of the Minnesota accent.  We then chat about Lutheran's obsession with grace without works, and talk about what God expects of us in return for grace.  Grace is a gift, to be sure.  Yet, Go...

Matt and Merry kick off their November series, Reformation.  Over the next five episodes, we will look at what it means to be a Christian in our modern world.  This week, we talk about Martin Luther's call to reform the church of his day.  That happened 500 years ago, but the call to reform continues to this day.  We are asked to reform ourselves, our institutions, our societies, our cultures, our...

Pr. Matt and Merry give us a preview of what's coming to Life on the Water between now and Christmas.  

Matt and Merry wrap up their fall series, Life on the Water.  They chat about running 5k's, baseball playoffs, and folks who support us through thick and thin.  This week, Jesus sends out messengers before him as he makes his way to Jerusalem.  Knowing they will have failures along with successes in their mission, he sends them out in pairs so they always know someone has their back.  Find out the...

Matt and Merry keep going with their series, Life on the Water, with part 5, Jesus calms a storm.  They chat about infomercial stars like Billy Mays, The ShamWow guy, and the most famous of them all, Ron Popeil.  Matt refuses to believe Merry has never heard of him, and then recalls the time Ron P. convinced him to buy a set of knives with his "Wait! There's more!" routine.  Jesus' disciples have...

The quickest way to someone's heart is through their stomach.  This is certainly true of the large crowd that were fed by Jesus many years ago.  After a fine meal, they wanted to make him a king.  Matt and Merry talk about why so many people ended up hiding in the desert so many years ago, what they thought of their political leaders, and why they wanted to make a change.  Along the way, they also...

Pr. Matt and Merry talk about feeling normal again, trips to target, the chaos of shopping for kids clothes, and current events.  They talk about what "liberty and justice for all" means for us today, especially in light of death of the Breonna Taylor.  They also chat about God being a God of liberty and justice. and talk about the day Jesus discovered this when a woman asked for help with her dau...

Pr. Matt and Merry chat about books and stories that didn't make it into the Bible.  This time, they look at a 2nd century book called The Acts of John.  An exciting book, there are more resurrections than you can count, a tale of self castration, a love triangle between two men and a dead woman, and bedbugs that obey John's command.  And the reason this one didn't it into the Bible is?.....

Every time we make plans, life laughs in our faces.  You may even have heard it said, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy."  Pr. Matt and Merry talk about that today.  They chat about times in their lives when they made the best plans but had to adjust when life happened.  Pr. Matt talks about coaching a JV soccer team, and Merry recalls an embarrassing moment teaching in China.  They t...

Pr. Matt and Merry kick-off their series called Life on the Water.  In the series opener, they chat about when they felt normal for the first time in 2020...a week filled with football and golf.  They then chat about this week's story about the time Jesus met Peter on the shore of the lake in Galilee.  Both embark on a brand new way of living in community in the midst of a rough time in history.  ...