Ekklesia Church at Raleigh

On America's 250th birthday, what would God never say to us — but what have we quietly come to believe? In this Independence Day homily — using a device from author William Paul Young (Lies We Believe About God) — we examine three statements of Jesus from Matthew 6:19 -24 about our treasure, our eyes, and who we serve.

As people of faith, it’s easy to get caught up in the lie that God expects big and grand things from us. But the simple and liberating truth is this: spiritual growth is a result of the little ways of discipleship. In this week’s sermon, we explore Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:1-18 to learn what it means to practice a spirituality that is small, simple, and sincere.

Jesus gave three brilliant examples of creative nonviolent resistance — and then demanded something even harder: love your enemies. In week four of Summer on the Mount, we explore why that command matters more than ever in a culture built on conflict.

What do high school graduation, the You’ve-heard-it-said passages in the Sermon on the Mount, and the classic animated movie Monsters, Inc. have in common? That is the question we ask this graduation Sunday.

In this week's passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses the images of salt, light, and the law to describe a life of discipleship. But what exactly do these three concepts have in common? As Pastor Greg suggests, these images work together to teach us this important truth: to follow Jesus is to live incarnationally.

Ordinary Time begins the Sunday after Pentecost. It's the longest season on the church calendar — and the quietest. In this opening sermon of Summer on the Mount, the case is made that the Beatitudes are exactly the right text for ordinary time: a portrait of the slow, Spirit-shaped work of learning to see the world the way Jesus sees it.

This Sunday is Pentecost, the day we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. With violent winds and tongues of fire, this is a wild story, but the bigger question is, “What does the Spirit do in our lives now that we have it?”

Matthew includes a strange detail in the final story of his Gospel. The eleven are standing on the mountain, looking at the risen Jesus — and he writes "but some doubted." This message explores what it means that the Great Commission was given to a group that still contained doubt — and why that might be the best news you've heard all week.

In the gospel of John’s final resurrection appearance, Jesus has a conversation with Peter on the shore of the sea of Galilee. What can we learn from this intimate exchange, as Jesus speaks into Peter’s shame and failure?

We’ve called him Doubting Thomas for 2,000 years. But what if we’ve had him wrong the whole time? What if his doubt wasn’t a failure… but something deeply faithful?

Today in our resurrection appearances series, we turn to the Gospel of John — and the first story John tells is Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene. When understood in context — inside a Gospel deliberately patterned after Genesis — this story reminds us of one of the great paradoxes of our faith: that Jesus is both immense and intimate.

What do you do when something feels too good to trust? The disciples had testimony stacking up from every direction, and still couldn’t hold it when Jesus actually showed up. This message explores scar tissue, embodied faith, wounds that don’t disappear, and why resurrection might be too good to understand — but not too good to be true.

This week we begin our series on the resurrection appearances of Jesus. Our first story is the story of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Why did Luke choose this specific encounter to lead his narrative? Join us as we explore what we can learn from this powerful story of revelation and the "breaking of the bread.

Between the crucifixion and the resurrection, there is a day with no miracles. No angels. No word from heaven. Just silence. This Good Friday, we sit with stations 13 and 14 of the Stations of the Cross — and ask what it means to wait in the dark when the story seems to be over.

Peter denied Jesus three times, wept bitterly, and disappeared into three days of silence. And then the angel at the empty tomb said something that must have stopped his heart. "Tell the disciples — and Peter." This is a message about grace and resurrection that refuse to let shame, failure, or disillusionment have the last word.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day we celebrate the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As we walk through the stations of the cross throughout Lent, Palm Sunday poses a challenging question for us. How do we reconcile the hopeful excitement of Palm Sunday with the tragic darkness of Good Friday?

Stations 9 and 10. Jesus fell a third time. And they stripped him of everything. This is what God chose to enter. And it changes what we thought we knew about shame, failure, and what it means to belong.

This week we crossed the halfway point in our series on the stations of the cross, with stations 7 (Jesus falls a second time) and 8 (the women of Jerusalem). When looked at in historical context, each of these stations has a lot to teach us about power, violence, and how we live in the world today.

This week in our Lenten series on the Stations of the Cross, we meet two unlikely people on the road to Golgotha — Simon of Cyrene, who was forced to carry the cross, and Veronica, who isn't even in the Bible — and find ourselves in both of them.

This Sunday we discuss stations 3 (Jesus Falls) and 4 (Jesus meets his mother) in our Journey through the Stations of the Cross. Neither of these stations is explicitly in the story of Scripture. Does that make them less “real,” or do they have something unique to teach us?

We begin a seven-week journey through the ancient Stations of the Cross. In this opening homily, we stand in Pilate's courtyard, watch a crowd choose the wrong kind of power, and follow Jesus as the cross is first placed upon his shoulders — carrying the weight of more than a wooden beam.

The Intentionality of Time: What can a 12-year-old boy in a temple teach us about slowing down? Through the story of Jesus lingering in Jerusalem while his parents rushed toward home, guest speaker Dr. Sarah Boberg invites us to consider how rituals shape us, how children see what adults miss, and how the journey itself—not just the destination—is where faith comes alive.

As we wrap up(ish) this series on time, we discuss our perspective on time. How can the more ancient concepts of Kairos Time and Memento Mori help us live in time well now?

What does soul care actually mean—and why does it so often feel exhausting instead of life-giving? In this homily—pre-recorded because of winter weather, so you won't hear our usual congregational participation—we explore how spiritual practices are not about performing for God, but learning to notice that God is already present in the ordinary life we’re living right now.

In this series, we’re learning not to just organize our schedules differently, but to see differently. This Sunday's message—pre-recorded because of winter weather, so you won't hear our usual congregational participation—explores how the universe was made for communion, not competition and consumption. What does it look like when we realign our lives around that principle?