New Church Westville Weekly Sermon Podcast

Heaven is not just one amorphous place. It consists of countless communities of various sizes, each with its own character. These communities are arranged into three basic levels, a highest, middle, and lowest. This general division is perhaps an interesting bit of trivia about the afterlife; but when we realize that each level of heaven can help us understand a level of our own mind, it becomes m...

When Jesus’ disciples asked Him about prayer, He gave them the words that are now known as “The Lord’s Prayer.” This prayer is almost universally known in the Christian world. But it’s very popularity means we sometimes lose sight of its rich meaning. This Sunday we will slow down and appreciate the words of this prayer. It is not just universal because it is widespread, but because it contains th...

How can something true also be false? It seems like a contradiction but it is actually something we do all the time. A truth does not exist in isolation: it gets its quality from its connection with other truths and its application to a given situation. When a truth is removed from its proper context and used to justify evil, it is no longer true, no matter how much we'd like to defend our behavio...

No one likes to fail. We actively try to avoid failure (as we should!). But failure is also unavoidable: it is part and parcel of trying to live a better life. Our own failures are reflected in the Lord's apparent failure. On the first Easter morning, before anyone knew He had risen, it seemed obvious that Jesus had failed. And yet through that apparent failure the Lord had the opportunity to over...

The Old Testament prophets proclaimed that the Messiah would come to engage in fierce warfare against His enemies. And yet in the life of Jesus we see virtually no warfare! Even when He was arrested and crucified He did not resist. This is not because He was helpless; rather it was because the warfare that matter was a spiritual one: He resisted and conquered every hell, in His human life, and so...

In the Gospel of John, Palm Sunday is described in the context of the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. There were those who knew of this miracle and hated the Lord for it; there were those who knew of it but kept quiet from fear; and there were those who knew of it and so joyfully confessed the Lord as their king. It was this last group that welcomed Jesus with palm branches. This Sunday...

Shortly before His death, a woman poured a flask of precious oil over Jesus's head. This would have been a clear sign of love and esteem for Jesus. But the disciples felt the oil could have better been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. We might even imagine that Jesus would agree with them! Yet Jesus approved of the woman's actions. We see in this a lesson that while the Lord does require u...

In the midst of everyday life, it can be difficult to feel like things are truly getting “better.” But perhaps we can shift our perspective. Perhaps we can begin to see life the way God does—life not necessarily better in every moment, but always moving toward something better when viewed through the lens of eternity. 

Many of Jesus's miracles consisted in healing the sick. But in the grand scheme of things He was only able to heal a tiny fraction of the people who have suffered, constrained to a relatively small geographic area of the world. So why did Jesus spend so much time healing people? As with all His miracles, it represents something about who God is: He is always able and willing to heal, but in our ca...

Jesus teaches that the first will be last, and the last first. He also teaches that he who would be great must become a servant. To be meek and mild therefore seems like the goal we should all aspire to. And this is true! But sometimes our very pursuit of humility can be hijacked by pride and turned into just one more means of gratifying our pride. Humility can be falsified, and true humility may...

Often when we hear stories from the Word about the powerful enemies that conquered the Children of Israel and we read in the Heavenly Doctrine about the hatred of the devils in hell, we can think that our enemies and hell are formidable foes. But the reality is that hell has NO power at all. Come and learn why we do not need to fear the hells.

At the Last Supper, having shared bread and wine with His disciples, the Lord commanded, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Holy Supper is an opportunity to remember the Lord: to remember what He did for us in giving His life; to remember the Divine Love that He shares with us; to remember the Divine Wisdom that inspires us. But remembering the Lord is not just a matter of thought; it is a matter of...

The Word is written in such a way that every word and concept has a deeper spiritual meaning. These meanings are threaded through the entirety of the Word, tying together disparate and varied stories into one story with one message. This Sunday we will follow one of these threads by exploring sleep and wakefulness. In this theme we learn about the need to be vigilant and awake spiritually, as well...

Psalm 121 speaks of the Lord protecting your going out and your coming in. This speaks to times of transition, times in which it is especially crucial that we remain in the Lord’s care. A prominent example is the Children of Israel coming out of slavery in Egypt and going in to possess the Promised Land. But this story also illustrates the struggle of times of transition: between coming out of Egy...

There are moments when something so unlikely and unexpected, and yet so wonderful, occurs, that we cannot help but see is as the hand of God at work in the world. But if God intervenes so forcefully in the world sometimes, it serves to highlight the many times when He does not (apparently) intervene. Why is one person miraculously spared from cancer, while thousands of others are condemned to die?...

The central element of the baptism service is water. Water in general represents truth, and that is what it represents in baptism: just as water quenches thirst, the truth that is learned from the Lord and His Word quenches our desire for guidance; just as water washes away dirt, truth is the tool by which we wash away sin and evil. Conversely water represents falsity: just as a person needs to be...

The wisdom of God seems like foolishness to the world, and so following God's wisdom inevitably leads to us feeling foolish. The pressure to give in and embrace the "wisdom" of the world can be strong. Resisting takes sacrifice, from passing on a promotion, to ending a relationship, to letting go of ego, and beyond. But until we are willing to be seen as fools by the world, we are not able to full...

There is not just one “Christmas Story:” Matthew recounts Joseph’s dilemma, the arrival of the wise men, and the threat of Herod, while Luke recounts the annunciation to Mary, the infant Jesus being placed in a manger, and the shepherds coming to see Him. Keeping these stories separate in our minds helps us understand the spiritual significance of each one: Matthew has a lot to say about how we re...

We often talk about "The Christmas Story" as if it were one contained story. But really there are two: one in the Gospel of Matthew, the other in the Gospel of Luke. In the first, the danger of Herod looms large, Joseph has to work hard to keep the family safe, and wise men from the East bring gifts. In the second, Mary is central, there is no room for them in the inn, and shepherds come to adore...

The Christmas story begins with Zacharias receiving the astonishing news that his elderly, barren wife would give birth to a special child. Yet in the moment of his prayers being answered, Zechariah doubted; and so was made mute until the time of the child’s birth. How often do we do the same, doubting just when our prayers might be answered? It’s as if it’s too good to be true, and to protect our...

Christmas is a time of joy and happiness, or at least we try to make it so. Singing Christmas songs can be one of those fun ways to celebrate. But what makes the season truly joyful is when we look to the Lord and live His teaching. When we do those two things then the fun of all the other aspects can be deepened and enriched spiritually.

Part of living a good spiritual life is looking for the Truth that will guide you. The problem is that “truth” is a lot harder to come by then we might imagine. Every true thing we know, or think we know, has endless layers that remain obscure to us and countless nuances that are beyond our current comprehension. We never find the Truth itself in all its complexity. In spite of this, and in fact,...

We know that the Lord has created us to love others; but what about ourselves? Can that love also be from the Lord? All of us have needs that must be met but it can be hard to ask for help. We worry about putting a burden on others or opening ourselves up to criticism. Yet the Lord is clear that we are to love ourselves. If we cannot love ourselves enough to get the help that we need, we lose the...