The Church We Hope For

September 22, 2024 | Maren Jo Schneider | Genesis 24 We've all heard that we worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but when you read Genesis like an English major, it's not hard to see that a better name would be the God of Abraham, Rebekah, and Jacob. The text designates Rebekah as a chosen one of God with main character energy, but commentators have struggled to notice because th...

September 15, 2024 | Nicola Patton | Joshua 2 The story of Rahab teaches us that morality is often a luxury but that God provides for the powerless. God is the God of radical inclusion and a border-crossing God who looks to tear down walls for us to belong together, not so that we can destroy each other. Keywords: Rahab, Belonging, Inclusion About: The Church We Hope For is a beloved community mov...

September 8, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Gen 16:7-16 Mother Hagar is the first human and first foreign woman to name God, the God who sees. This is in response to God naming her son, Ishmael, which means, God hears. She finds herself in a difficult predicament after being taken advantage of. Yet, God earnestly pursues her, provides a name for her son, and promises to his descendants. Keywords:...

August 18, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Matthew 5:9 Pastora Inés grounds reconciliation in the work of Jesus on the cross in Ephesians 2:11-22. She centers peacemaking within the context of the upside kingdom of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:9. Keywords: Reconciliation, Peacemaking About: The Church We Hope For is a beloved community moved by the Spirit to follow the life, love, and just...

August 11, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde and Nicola Patton | Hebrews 6:12-19 The Voice In this communal sermon, Pastoras Nicola and Inés hold a conversation about hope. Hope is a habit that grows in the dark and hope has a root system. We created a communal poem of hope with the congregation because hope is not just one thing and there is not one way to hope! Keywords: Hope, Community, Anchor Abou...

August 4, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Matthew 6:33 NRSV God is the author, architect and arbiter of justice. From the Old Testament to the New, we see that God always has protested injustice and has a preferential treatment for the marginalized. In the life and ethical work of Jesus, we are invited to live into the verbs of Jesus which are the seeds of justice. Keywords: Jesus, Justice, Margin...

July 28, 2024 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Luke 4 As we look at the love of Jesus, we see how God is not retributive, but a God who is radically forgiving, co-suffering, and sacrificial. A God who teaches us to love all, including our enemy. Jesus invites us to follow His expansive Cross-shaped love, first revealed in His Gospel of Julibee found in His hometown sermon in Luke 4. Keywords: Cruc...

July 14, 2024 | Bobby Harrison | Matthew 14 As we look at the life of Jesus, we see a God who draws near. And it’s the eyes of Christ, filled with compassion, that moves Jesus first toward us. May we be moved, as he was moved, to be the eyes of Christ to one another. Keywords: Church, Compassion, Familia, Holiness, Jesus, Love, Nearness About: The Church We Hope For is a beloved community moved by...

July 7, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde The Holy Spirit is life, light and speaks a language. Pastora Inés gives an overview of how we see the power and presence of the Spirit as the 3rd person of the Trinity who was here from the beginning giving life-giving breath to all. We see the Spirit as the light of wisdom that falls over ordinary people like prophets, prophetesses, and even Jesus to raise h...

June 23, 2024 | Bobby Harrison We begin a new series focused on our Vision as a church, starting with "We are a Beloved Community." Hear how we've embodied this truth over the years and aim to continue to live into it with the triune love of God as our center. Keywords: Beloved, Community, Grace, Identity, Hope, Jesus, Redemption About: The Church We Hope For is a beloved community m...

June 16, 2024 | Dr. Phil Allen, Jr. | Matt 11:28; Psalm 46:10; Luke 22:31-32; 39-46 The liminal spaces and seasons (the in-between), also called transitions, can be challenging, scary, and confusing, but also exciting and hopeful. Jesus’s life, from his birth to death, resurrection, and ascension, is thirty-three years of an in-between season in the broader human history. In his life and ministry...

June 9, 2024 | Bobby Harrison | Matthew 11:28-30 This past Sunday, I shared with our familia that I will be transitioning out of my role as Co-Lead Pastor. If you missed the message, I believe watching and hearing the story will be most helpful in holding the sacredness of the story. I also wrote a letter (https://thechurchwehopefor.com/pastor-bobby-harrisons-transition) about this movement in my...

June 2, 2024 | Nicola Patton | Acts 2:41-47 NRSV After Pentecost comes ordinary life in community among the believers. And within that community, we find unity that celebrates diversity. The differences among believers are not prerequisites for belonging but unique aspects that contribute to the beloved community. The group had everything in common and that looked like belonging together in safety...

May 19, 2024 | Janette Hur Ok | Acts 2:1-13; 1 Corinthians 12:12, 21-26 Diversity is both a gift and a challenge because embracing difference is incredibly difficult. We need the continual presence and power of the Spirit to unify our diversity. The Spirit's Christ-centering power empowers us to divest ourselves again and again of any power that hoards resources and opportunities and devalues,...

May 12, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Joel 2:23-29 Before the wind of Pentecost, we find the waiting of the prophetic fulfillment of Joel 2:23-29. The promises are for the restoration of all things, beginning with the soil, the animals, and humankind. God sees our devastation and promises to restore the years that the locusts have stolen. Keywords: Eastertide, Joel, Locusts About: The Church We...

April 28, 2024 | Bobby Harrison | Deuteronomy 38-40 This sermon looks at the relationship between death and resurrection, particularly by looking at the end of the life of Moses. In his story, we see ways we may be led to resist death alongside paths of receiving death. And this just may inform how we can live into these realities in our own lives. Keywords: Death, Resurrection, Peace, Resistance,...

April 21, 2024 | Salena Marie Scott | Earth Day – Eastertide Salena Scott shares her unique journey of how caring for creation began to care for her disabled body in return, and why she thinks Jesus calls us to commune with the land we live on. Salena is a poet and an advocate of renewing the California indigenous story through native plants. Keywords: Creation, Earth Day, Healing, Indigenous Jesu...

April 14, 2024 | John Williams | Matthew 5:6 The sermon explores the concept of Restorative Justice and its vital role in building a beloved community. Through the framework of the Sermon on the Mount, the address invites congregants to embrace deep humility, courageous listening, unintimidated speech, and the amplification of the stories of the racially oppressed. Keywords: Restorative Justice, R...

April 7, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Luke 24:36-43 After the revelation at the table at the end of the road to Emmaus, Jesus again appears to his disciples and introduces himself saying, “Peace be with you”. Through a wordcloud exercise, Pastora Inés invites our congregations to a communal reflection of Scripture asking what keywords, emotions, images, and phrases stand out to us from this pas...

March 31, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Luke 24:28-35 After the resurrection, Jesus goes searching for his friends and listens to their dashed hopes on the road to Emmaus. The disciples don’t recognize him until he takes the bread, gives thanks, and shares it. Resurrection is a road and a ritual where Jesus’ presence comes after us so that we may see him. Keywords: Road to Emmaus, Resurrection,...

March 29, 2024 | Mondo and Salena Scott, Mike Hale A contemplative liturgy of sight, sound, and solidarity as we center a table of remembrance and reflect on the cross of Christ. This Good Friday Observance included musical, poetic, and visual exploration where we meditated on the unjust crucifixion of Jesus and sought solace in the divine mystery of our God fully revealed in Christ crucified. Sta...

March 24, 2024 | Bobby Harrison | Mark 11 In our bilingual Palm Sunday service, we reimagined the biblical narrative of Jesus riding in on a donkey through the eyes of a little girl and her family. May this immersive, imaginative tale bring new eyes and ears to a familiar pillar of our Easter experience. And in it, may Jesus be revealed to you again and anew, as a King who cries. Keywords: Story,...

March 17, 2024 | Sandy Lee Schaupp | Matthew 26:26-29, Revelations 7:9 This sermon explores the question, "What keeps us from pondering heaven?" Sandy vulnerably shares her own journey with how the fear of death or assumptions about who gets to be in heaven blocked her from pondering heaven. She invites listeners to actively nurture a robust vision of heaven which would increase our hope...

March 10, 2024 | Bobby Harrison | John 12:23-25 In this sermon, we look at the invitation Jesus gives us in the Gospel of John to release our whole lives unto God in order for the fullness of God to have its way with us. Keywords: Hope, Surrender, Release, Redemption, Life, Healing About: The Church We Hope For is a beloved community moved by the Spirit to follow the life, love, and justice of Jes...

March 3, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | John 6:1-14 In the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, if we count women and children, Jesus actually fed about 15,000+. Jesus sees the marginalized and hungry crowds and invites his disciples to provide. A young boy brings his sack lunch that maybe his mom baked and his tio caught the fish. Jesus gives thanks for the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish and miracul...