Roseville Covenant Sermons

In the centuries that followed the New Testament, the Christian church grew like wildfire across the Mediterranean world. The good new of Jesus transformed lives and communities in profound ways, but as the church grew, there was a persistent point of contention and debate in Christian theology: who exactly is Jesus of Nazareth and how do we describewho he is? What does it mean to call him "the So...

At the risk of over-simplifying things, there are two great misconceptions about Christian faith: Some misperceive Christianity to be just a system of morals (e.g. doing good, being nice) while others will misconceive Christianity as simply a system of doctrine and dogma where one just checks off boxes of right options. Christian life is more than both of these. Christian life includes both belief...

Recent decades of brain research has discovered something fascinating: learning a new language can literally rewire your neural pathways. Language is elemental to our thoughts. How we speak influences how we think. So while smart-phones might offer new tools for instant translation, communicating across different languages can still leave us struggling to understand one another. On a biological an...

Unjust imprisonment is a frequent prompt of great works of literature. Think of classics like The Count of Monte Cristo, the works of Dostoyevsky, or even the novels of Stephen King. Wrongful incarceration is not just a tool for compelling storytelling, it is an all too common reality for those who live under totalitarian regimes (even in our own country this is not fantasy or fiction). Sometimes...

Memorial Day weekend is Minnesota's official start of summer. Many of us like to celebrate with cabin trips, grill outs, or hikes after our long Minnesota winter and spring. But, Memorial Day is really about remembering, memorializing, those who have died in service to our country. We are grateful for those sacrifices that have allowed us to become the country we are --- one where, in many ways, w...

The world is changing quickly. More so every day. A person who starts high school next fall may find the world a totally different place in 4 years when they graduate. The cultural, social, and technological transformations are enough to make your headspin. Yet there remain traditions that endure and are handed from generation to generation. For two thousand years, followers of Christ have "handed...

There was a motto that used to circulate among tech moguls back at the dawn of the 21st century. To spur innovation and accelerate growth, developers and entrepreneurs were encouraged to, ‘move fast and break things." When you think of the ways technology has transformed the world over the last 25 years, it's tempting to see the appeal of the method.  But is what worked for Google good for the chu...

A sense of fairness and justice lies at the heart of what it means to be a human being. Scripture tells us human beings are created in the image of God and worthy of fair treatment. Children are especially good at noticing when they have been treated unfairly — just try refereeing an Easter egg hunt! Most of us have a pretty good instinct to speak up when we've been overcharged, denied something d...

There is a phrase we often use when tragedy strikes. Whether it's suffering an injustice, grieving a death, or experiencing a betrayal; I will often hear a person describe the feeling this way, "my world fell apart." It's an apt phrase. We live our lives with a certain set of expectations that the world should work with a certain amount of order. We count on a certain amount of predictability. Wor...

A meditation for Palm/Passion Sunday on the suffering of Christ, faith, hope, and love.

About mid-way through the gospel of Mark, we read a story about Jesus that feels strangely out of character. After many chapters of documenting Jesus' compassionate care and healing for many people, Jesus is approached by a foreign woman with a request to help her daughter.  Shockingly, it first looks like he refuses to help her and then even seems to refer to her as a  dog  (Mark 7:24-27). When d...

Idioms can be a fun form of speech used to exaggerate a response. For example, if a friend shares an outrageous account of something that sounds almost unbelievable, you might say “Yeah, right! When pigs fly!” Well, our story in Mark’s gospel is exactly this kind of account. It is outrageous and certainly presses against all kinds of things we believe, and in the end, some pigs actually fly right...

When William Golding wrote his famous 1954 novel about a group of school boys marooned on a desert island who turn on one another in chaos and violence, he borrowed the book's title from an old biblical demon called, "Be'elzebub" (2 Kings 2:1-3). The name roughly translates to "The Lord of the Flies." There is a moment in the story of Jesus that religious leaders are so outraged at Jesus they call...

One of the challenges with sharing the Good News of Jesus in today's world is that some of our Biblical language about the gospel is foreign to modern ears. For instance, what does it really mean to say, "your sins are forgiven"?  Many struggle to understand what exactly "sin" is or what "forgiveness" means. There is a story early in the book of Mark that helps vividly illustrate the meaning of th...

It seems for many people our idea of Jesus revolves very much around his teachings. We often think of him as a guru, philosopher, or mystic who gives us guidance for better living. This is certainly a significant part of his life and work, but it is far from the only thing Christ came to do. It's been said among the four gospels, Mark's account of Jesus' life is the most "action-packed." Mark fixa...

I recently ran across the book 'Christian Atheist' by Pastor Craig Groeschel on an office bookshelf. I didn't read the book but the tagline piqued my curiosity: 'Believing in God but living like he doesn't exist.' It's always easier to say something than live something. And, with something as all-consuming and counter-cultural as being a disciple of Jesus, it's no wonder we sometimes fall into lif...

I suspect people don't enjoy surprises as much as they used to. We like to know what's coming. I've fallen into this thinking myself. When planning a trip I do extensive advanced research. What is it like where we're going? How long will it take? What should I expect? How should I pack? We might have a preference for things like predictability and control, but there is a Biblical theme that runs a...

When it comes to city life, two members of our family love the buzz and action of the city. Two members of our family do not. While these affinities are largely driven by personality, we find a story on the pages of Genesis that offers a very different commentary on city life.  The story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 is a curious turning point in scripture that describes how cities function...

"Life is a miracle!" Sometimes we say these words at the birth of a child, a profound moment of awesome wonder, or a sight of incredible beauty. Yet scripture  tells us it's not just the extraordinary moments of life that are miraculous. Rather, the breath of God sustains each moment of creation; mundane or otherwise (Psalm 104:30). Chapter seven of the book of Genesis tells the story of the great...

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asians fled Vietnam and surrounding countries out of fear for their lives from political retribution. Many of them boarded boats in desperate attempts to cross the seas.  Horrifically, tens of thousands died in the attempt to escape. The term given to these refugees was, "Boat People." Their story has been repeated in refugee cri...

Perhaps the bitter cold days of midwinter are not the best time to read the stories of Genesis 3-11 , they tell a sad story. Fairly quickly in the book of Genesis we read an extended account of humanity's descent into sin and destruction.  Last week we read of the exile from the garden; the beginning of the descent, but unfortunately it was only the beginning. This week we turn to the next generat...

Some of the earliest lessons we learn as toddlers have to do with touching and tasting. Some things are sharp or hot: don't touch! Some things can make you sick or choke: don't put that in your mouth! It can be tempting to read the Bible's story of Eden as a simple lesson about obey rules: don't touch, don't taste (Genesis 3:2). Yet when one reads carefully and closely, we see in the stories of Ge...

One of the reasons I love the book of Genesis is that it tantilizes us with some of the deepest questions of the human heart: Where did we come from? Why are we here? What went wrong? What are we meant for? How will we get back? The first page of Genesis looks at the cosmic scale of God's creative work, climaxing in the creation of humanity in the final verses of the first chapter. The second chap...

Meditations on the Magi, Simeon, Hospitality, and Crossing-Culture. Recorded at the All-Church retreat at Covenant Pines Bible Camp.

This Sunday we look further at the Christmas story and its darker "Second Act" from Matthew 2:1-18. The massacre of the innocents is an important part of the gospel story that reminds us of the sin Jesus came to rescue us from, and his compassion with our suffering as we seek to escape the tyrany of fear and vanity.