Sermons from Oak Church

04/26/2020 Luke 24:13-35 Christian DaPonte   Godly Play at Home Download Songs for Good Friday by Oak Music   More resources for the sermon and season: Reading Scripture in Light of the Resurrection (chapter in the Art of Reading Scripture) by Richard B Hays (and Ellen F. Davis) Can These Bones Live?: A Theology in Outline by Robert Jenson Miracles […]

04/19/2020 John 20:19-31 Chris Breslin   “When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. But he put his right hand on me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I’m the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, but look! Now I’m alive forever and always. I have the keys of Death and […]

Five years ago (4/16/15) we hosted C. Christopher Smith for a talk and potluck conversation (sponsored by Duke Divinity School’s Thriving Rural Communities Initiative ). Chris Smith is editor of The Englewood Review of Books, and a member of the Englewood Christian Church community on the urban Near Eastside of Indianapolis.  Englewood is one of the churches whose experiences gave root to th...

04/12/2020 Matthew 28:1-10 Chris Breslin   “I’m neither an optimist nor a pessimist, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!” -Lesslie Newbigin   Slides from April 12, 2020 Godly Play at Home Jason deCaires Taylor (underwater sculptures)   More resources for the sermon and season: Reading Scripture in Light of the Resurrection (chapter in the Art of Reading Scripture) by […]

Video version available via Youtube Slides of Featured Artwork Presentation Song: “Daughters of Zion” By Isaac Wardell, Erin Rose & Paul Zach Art: Daughters of Zion by Sayde Laine Welcome Chris Breslin (Oak Church) Congregational Song: “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” By Sadhu Sundar Singh Station I. Jesus is Tempted. Station Scripture: Matthew 26:36-46 Service Reading: Matthew 26:36-39 Reader...

04/05/2020 John 12:12-19 Kurt Bubalo Testimony by Jessica Farmer   Godly Play at Home   More resources for the sermon and season: Crafted into Christlikeness (2020 Oak Church Lenten Devotional Guide) Mythical Me: Finding Freedom from Constant Comparison by Richella Parham (RTN Theology #15 podcast) Where Goodness Still Grows: Reclaiming Virtue in an Age of Hypocrisy by Amy Peterson (RTN...

03/29/2020 Isaiah 58:5-10 Chris Breslin   “The self-denial involved in the period of Lent isn’t about just giving up chocolates or beer; it’s about trying to give up a certain set of pictures of God which are burned into our own selfish wants.” -Rowan Williams   “People should feast so they do not forget the grace and blessing of the […]

03/22/2020 Lamentations 1 Amy Peterson   Amy Peterson is a writer, teacher, and postulant living in Durham, NC. Her writing explores the intersections of faith, language, and culture. In 2020 she released Where Goodness Still Grows. Amy believes that research is a form of love and that fiction can tell the truth. Her work has been featured in Image, The […]

03/08/2020 1 John 1:1-9 Richella Parham   “The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with Himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.” -Dallas Willard   “‘In confession there takes place a breakthrough to community. Sin wants to be alone with people. It takes them away […]

03/01/2020 Philippians 4:4-9 Chris Breslin   “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” -Karl Barth   More resources for the sermon and season: Slides from March 1, 2020 Crafted into Christlikeness (2020 Oak Church Lenten Devotional Guide) Mythical Me: Finding Freedom from Constant Comparison by Richella Parham (RTN Theology […...

02/23/2020 Psalm 99 & Matthew 17:1-9 Chris Breslin   “The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.” -Walter Brueggemann   “As ‘God-with-us,’ Christ served his fellow human beings by proclaiming God’s coming in word and deed; he alleviated the plight of...

02/16/2020 Psalm 119:1-9 & Matthew 5:21-37 Chris Breslin   “Only the cross as God’s truth about us makes us truthful. Those who know the cross no longer shy away from any truth.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer   “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” -G.K. Chesterton   Slides from February 16, 2020   Season Resources: Joy is for […]

02/02/2020 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 & Matthew 5:1-12 Chris Breslin   “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” -James Baldwin   “The church doesn’t have a social strategy, the church is a social strategy.” -Stanley Hauerwas   Season Resources: Joy is for Epiphany, too by Miroslav […]

01/26/2020 Psalm 27 & Matthew 4:12-23 Chris Breslin   “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.” -Flannery O’Connor   “To add insult to very substantial injury, the Ninevites prospered; for an excruciatingly long time (three centuries or more) they fared too well for any savvy Israelite not to wonder about the justice […]

01/19/2020 Genesis 1:26-27 & Philippians 1:27-2:12 Stephanie Holmer   Sermon Resources Slides for January 19, 2020 Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu (On Being) video Starting point for reading Dr. King:  Strength to Love Don’t Forgive Too Soon by Dennis, Matthew, and Sheila Linn Paul Piff’s TED Talk: “Does Money Make You Mean?” Brown eyes/Blue eyes Study (a shorter summary)   Season [...

01/19/2020 Testimony Christian DaPonte Ecclesia Network

01/12/2020 Psalm 29 & Matthew 3:13-17 Chris Breslin   “Love is holy because it is like grace–the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.” -Marilynne Robinson, Gilead   Slides from January 12, 2020   Season Resources: Joy is for Epiphany, too by Miroslav Volf (Christian Century) Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by […]

12/22/2019 Psalm 80 Dave Crispell   This Sunday’s Songs Do You Hear What I Hear? by Regney/Baker Little Drummer Boy by Davis/Onorati/Simeone The First Noël by Traditional What Child is This? by Dix Jesus, What a Beautiful Name by Riches He His Among Us by Piercy/Wardell/Swinton/Palmer/Zach Doxology   Further Reading for Advent Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer […]

12/15/2019 Songs of Hope & Joy Matthew 11:2-11 Chris Breslin   “Joy builds on the past and borrows from the future.” -Eugene Peterson   “True joy is freedom from fear and alienation. Real joy is knowing that we are loved and nurtured…practices like fasting prepare us for joy because they turn our self-serving into self-offering ways that nurture, celebrate, and […]

12/01/2019 Isaiah 2:1-5 Chris Breslin   “To practice Advent is to lean into an almost cosmic ache: our deep, wordless desire for things to be made right and the incompleteness we find in the meantime. We dwell in a world still racked with conflict, violence, suffering, darkness. Advent holds space for our grief, and it reminds us that all of […]

11/24/2019 Colossians 1:15-20 Chris Breslin   Macrina the Younger  (c. 330 – 19 July 379) was a nun in the Early Christian Church and is a prominent saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches. Her younger brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa (along with friend Gregory Nazianzus) were key contributors to the Council of Constantinople and […]

11/17/2019 Philippians 2:5-11 Christian DaPonte   Rich Mullins was a Christian music singer and songwriter born in Richmond, Indiana. He died in an automobile accident in September of 1997. Mullins is best known for his praise choruses “Awesome God” and “Step by Step”, which have been embraced as modern classics by many Christians. He was heavily influenced by St. Fran...

11/10/2019 Galatians 2:20 Chris Breslin   Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, underground seminary-founder, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. He died in 1945 in a concentration camp in Flossenbürg.   Slides from November 10, 2019 Bonhoeffer episode of the Road to Now (RTN Theology #10 podcast) Entry Bonhoeffer Life Together DB at his...

11/03/2019 Luke 18:1-8 Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove   Ann Atwater was an American civil rights activist in Durham, North Carolina. She became an effective activist and leader when advocating for justice and is best known as one of the co-chairs of a charrette in 1971 with klansman CP Ellis (on which the book and movie, Best of Enemies is based) to reduce school violence and ensure […]

10/27/2019 Isaiah 61 Chris Breslin   “Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is […]