Vessel Houston

It was a blessing to welcome guest preacher, Malia Palmer, who beautifully led us through the challenging story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. When God tests and commands, he provides and resurrects. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Genesis 22:1-14 Psalm 24:1 “God is shown to be fully sovereign just as He is graciously faithful. That God provides shows His gracious faithful...

In a world exhausted by violence, division, and fear, Jesus sends ordinary people into the wounds of their communities—not to build empires, but to cultivate gardens of healing, peace, and hope. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Matthew 9:35-10:23

On Pentecost, we’re reminded that the Holy Spirit cannot be controlled or confined by religious institutions, but moves through all people, and in unexpected places, even behind prison walls. The Spirit calls us to deep listening; recognizing the voice of God as one of unfailing, dignifying love. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Acts 2:1-18 Numbers 11:24-30 1 Corinthians 12:3-13

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. The blessed pasture to which God calls us is not hidden behind four walls, it’s out in the world; the shepherd’s loving voice our constant guide. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations John 10:1-10 Acts 2:43-37 John 6:52-53

In an age where cynical charlatans perform certainty in the name of power and control, the true resurrection life travels directly through the honest, humble, faithful experience of doubt. Join us in exploring this illuminating encounter with fresh eyes. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations John 20:19-31

Seeing resurrection can be a complicated thing amid the ceaseless crises gripping our human family. But as we return in the dark of the morning with Mary to the tomb, we remember the enduring hope who emerged from that hopeless place, and the story still being written. It’s not a war story, and it’s not a horror story. It’s a love story. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations John 20

With Easter on the near horizon, we reflect together on another resurrection story as prelude. Divine Love is calling us ALL back to life; not merely for our own sake, but for the unbinding of one another. Also, why does Pastor Mike have a mustache? (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations John 11

We follow Jesus to a well on the “wrong” side of town, where radical, boundary-shattering love and the promise of living water upend our ever notion of “us” and “them.” A story we need now more than ever. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations John 4:3-42

“Can these bones live?” The season of Lent isn’t about self-improvement, but communal life renewal. We follow the prophet Ezekiel into a desolate valley, which becomes the unlikely, fertile soil of resurrection. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Ezekiel 37 God simply keeps reaching down into the dirt of humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we dig for ourselves through vio...

Responding to the vaguest of invitations, four men become the first to follow Jesus. As we witness them suddenly depart from their families and livelihoods, we consider the “follow me” which that same Divine Love whispers into our lives today. Even now, he stands upon the shoreline… (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Matthew 4:17-22

The long-awaited Messiah descends into the waters of the Jordan, God declares that belovedness precedes fruitfulness, and hope cascades outward as a ripple over all the nations. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Matthew 3:13-17 Acts 10:34-48

As this sacred season nears its culmination, we explore the compassion, trust, and faithful action of Joseph. From his unique perspective in the manger scene, we discover how God meets us in the midst of the stories we didn’t ask for. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Matthew 1:18-25 “The heart of this story is about a just man who wakes up one day to find his life wrecked: his w...

A pair of prophetic voices; one, a pregnant teenager on the margins. The season dares us to re-imagine holy gentleness in a world structured around disordered notions of power and strength. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Isaiah 11:1-10 Luke 1:39-56

Our entry into Advent marks the beginning of a new year in the Church. But before we step once more into the journey of anticipating Jesus’ arrival, we recognize the “end”… or rather, the One who makes a new beginning from every ending. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Luke 23:33-43 Luke 4:9-11 John 12:24

The Apostle Paul pens a second letter to a freshly planted church within a diverse and prosperous city. Amid the countless idols of the empire, and a wave of troubling misinformation, how is this new and fragile people to discern and stand firm in truth? (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17

Between doubt and faith, exile and home, sorrow and renewal, what is and what is yet to come; God is here. The words of the prophet Jeremiah help us to maintain a vision of hope glimmering through the wrath of our age. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Jeremiah 14:7-10,19-21 Jeremiah 31:31-34 …It would be more significant to say that,  like us , Jeremiah lived in an age of w...

Even in Babylonian exile, even behind prison walls, God the “Director” has cast each of us in this ever-unfolding human drama. Looking to the prophetic word of Jeremiah, and in Luke 17, a grievously afflicted group encountering Jesus on the road, we see how transformation happens when we draw near to God by fully inhabiting the space and moment in which we live, especially those we did not choose....

A “religious” leader emerges through the dark, seeking to understand this mysterious, troublemaking rabbi. The two share a nighttime encounter illuminated by a universe shifting claim, one which our world of outrage and malice needs more than ever. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations John 3:1-17 John 19:39-40 God’s freely given grace is a humiliation to the ego because free gifts s...

A healing encounter on the Sabbath ignites a fury of backwards religiosity, reminding us that following Jesus often means embracing a holy disobedience in the face of injustice and neglect for those suffering under the many afflictions of our world. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Luke 13:10-17 ... for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; a...

Our world will never be transformed from a place of endless conflict and worry through greater control, but by communities who move toward the rupture, joining God in co-crating the just, equitable, and loving alternative. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Isaiah 1:10-20 Luke 12:22-34 - God is not impressed by our rituals - When life is only about what you have , everything...

We resist prayer to the same degree that we resist relationship. As a herald of hope to a world in turmoil, Jesus calls us the Church to a deeper embrace of both; each strengthening the other. Prayer is not a static set of words to parrot, but an invitation into loving and honest dialogue wherein we gain new sight for God’s activity in the world and within our own hearts. (sermon begins at 01:00)...

Revisiting the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we are drawn once more into the simplicity and endless mystery of this story which Jesus chose to tell (and to whom). May the blessed actions of the outsider lead us to lament and rethink more than simply our conditional definitions of belonging on earth, but the ways that we allow fear, self-interest, and need for retribution to extend that distorted...

It was a thrill to have our friend Ericka Graham join as our guest preacher this weekend, inviting us into a dense and evocative story. Across the sea, Jesus approaches a man with a grave affliction; an encounter revealed to be more than merely an exorcism. Jesus guides us ever to the margins, rejecting the hollow power of empire, liberating the oppressed, and empowering us all to bear witness to...

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came rushing down as wind and fire, reversing the “curse” of Babel, and calling all of humanity to the truth that we are made to exist in diverse and inter-reliant community. As lines of demarcation and othering, “US” and “THEM” continue to be drawn, and immigrant communities terrorized across the country, followers of Christ must be a part of proclaiming justice and...

Two strangers encounter one another along the road. By all religious and social custom they are not to interact, and yet they depart as siblings in Christ. To understand why is to understand who we are as those who claim to follow Jesus in a world of man-made borders. (sermon begins at 01:00) Scripture & Quotations Acts 8:26-40 Isaiah 56 Perhaps Philip, on the basis of his experience in Samari...