Haverhill Commons Church

For the past month we’ve been looking at the hope we have because of Christmas. Stronger than a wish. Deeper than good vibes. Tougher than “thoughts and prayers”. The hope we have as followers of Christ is like that, strong and tough. It’s strong because it’s anchored in the one whose life and death holds the weight of our salvation, the world’s restoration. Our hope is tough because of the way Go...

The writer of the Gospel of Matthew doesn’t tell us much about exactly who the wise men are or where exactly they’re from. These Magi were not Jewish. So, they had not been waiting around for over 400 years to hear from God, like the Israelites had been. But it seems they had done enough research to know that the star they saw rising in the sky wasn’t just any old star. It awakened hope in their h...

Some religious traditions teach that we suffer because we have desires. If we want to avoid suffering, we should eliminate our desires. Stop longing, stop wanting, stop hoping. A lot of people think that not caring is the smarter way. If caring hurts, and hurting is bad, then maybe it’s better not to care. If we don’t care, we don’t hurt. What have you stopped caring about? Where in your life have...

Many of us are familiar with Charles Dickens’ short story, a Christmas Carol. The story centers on Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy, grumpy old man. Every time someone says “Merry Christmas,” Scrooge replies “humbug.” In other words, “Liar, that’s fake!” To Scrooge, things aren’t merry. Scrooge thought Christmas was a lie and maybe we’ve got a little Scrooge in us. In Luke 2, the shepherds are invited...

What does it look like to have hope in a world that doesn’t always feel hopeful? Advent reminds us that we’re invited to hope in what God has done and what God is going to do. But hope is often hard to find, misplaced, or misunderstood. Hope is one of those gritty, active, deep words that culturally we’ve gutted. Too often, we’re sold a shallow version of something rich and beautiful. There’s a wh...

The implication of the words “deliver us from the evil one” is that Christ’s followers were facing a severe and pressing danger. To combat such evil, it might be tempting to pick up a sword, or a gun, but here’s the problem: swords only work against human beings. Paul says that our fight is not against flesh and blood, not against human beings, but against the powers and principalities. And swords...

According to the World Health Organization, more than 90% of human beings live in places where we breathe contaminated air. That dirty air gets into our bodies and the consequences are terrible. Respiratory problems are the second most common cause of death worldwide. We can’t see it, but air pollution is out there—and then it gets in here—and it’s killing us.  Which reminds me a lot of the insidi...

What does it mean to pray “forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us?” And what does it mean to pray “forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who owe us something?” The story of Zacchaeus, a despised, traitorous tax collector, shows us that this clause of the Lord’s Prayer is about what forgiveness does to us and for those around us. While we don’t know exactly what...

Today, the verbs change. The first half of the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that God is a good father who loves us, that God’s kingdom is good, and that God’s is trustworthy. Our requests of God come after, and in the context of, a trusting relationship with God. But now, we get three direct, second person appeals: “please give us,” “please forgive us,” and “please rescue us.” So, when we pray, “Give...

When Jesus was asked by a lawyer “What is the greatest commandment” he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.” Our neighbor is the person neigh unto us.  The one in the cereal aisle next to us. Or in the ditch on the other side of the road from us. Or the Samaritan outcast, who showed what loving one’s neigh...

Trust is part of the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, “May your kingdom come, may your will be done.”  As we talked about last week, the grammar here is important. It reads closer to “help us do your will” and implies some action on our part. When we pray your kingdom come, your will to be done, we’re choosing to admit that our understanding, knowledge, and perspective is limited, partial, incomple...

Have you ever felt in your body that you were somewhere special?  Call it awe or reverence. You knew, deep down, that the ground beneath your feet was was special. Different. Sacred. That’s what’s happening when Moses encounters God in the burning bush. God assures Moses that he can go to Pharaoh because God promises that he will be with him. This assurance is embedded in God’s strange, wonderful,...

The very first recorded words of Jesus as a child when he was found in the temple were, “Why are you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Now, as the son of God, Jesus easily could have reserved the title of Father to refer to God for himself. He invites us to pray to “Our Father”, not just his Father. With just a word, Jesus grants us permission to access the prese...

We can experience joy at many times and in many different ways, but often it sneaks up on us when we weren’t quite expecting it. Joy isn’t something we conjure up, hoping if we can just figure out how to escape our sadness, change our situation, or figure out an easier way forward, then we’ll finally grasp joy.   The key to joy is knowing God.  It’s a deep, fundamental acknowledgement that God is...

We can experience joy at many times and in many different ways, but often it sneaks up on us when we weren’t quite expecting it. Joy isn’t something we conjure up, hoping if we can just figure out how to escape our sadness, change our situation, or figure out an easier way forward, then we’ll finally grasp joy.   The key to joy is knowing God.  It’s a deep, fundamental acknowledgement that God is...

Experiencing anxiety and doubt are part of what it means to be human. The Psalms invite us to be honest to God about what we think and feel. Hiding behind showered bodies, shaved faces, and spiritual facades can be a barrier for God to enter and act, and closes the door to meaningful relationships with one another, inhibiting transformative change. As followers of Christ, a particularly distressin...

This Sunday, Ethan May, Pastor of Community Life and Outreach at Anchor Bay Church, joined us to remind us that God’s love and mercy removes any perceived distance we feel from God. While “confession” isn’t quite a big feeling as much as it’s an act, it’s still an important theme that we see throughout the Psalms. And, the idea of confessing does often bring with it other big feelings or thoughts....

The Psalms take us through the fullness of the human experience, from deep, soul aching grief and despair to exuberant joy and thanksgiving.  This series is an invitation for all of us, each and every one of us, to bring all of us, the fullness of our being, as an offering to God.  To see in the Psalms a model for worship, not just a song sung on Sunday morning, but worship as we see it in Scriptu...

When believers hold different convictions, practice different ethics, or believe in different theological convictions, they face a choice: stay together…or go their separate ways. This is what Paul is addressing in these final chapters of his letter to the Roman church. Our positions matter, they do, but so does our posture: our approach, our attitude, the way we engage and communicate. If our pos...

Most Americans hear “Trump” or “Biden” and run for cover. In fact, when it comes to politics, one of the strongest dividing lines in America is between those who care a lot…and those who don't. There were also plenty of reasons for the believers at the church in Rome to disconnect from their governing authorities, too. In Romans 13, Paul urges believers not to disconnect, but to engage. In this se...

Why difference does theology make? All the difference in the world. It starts with our minds: upending the destructive patterns of the world and replacing it a pattern that builds up and encourages. A pattern that offers wholeness to our souls as we seek to conquer evil by doing good, and put our trust in God that His righteousness and justice will prevail in every aspect of our lives and in the w...

In Romans 11, we see Paul wrestling with one of the great tragedies of his life. His people had rejected him and rejected Jesus, but Paul found meaning in that loss. God was able to use Israel’s transgression, their rejection of Jesus, to bring the rest of the world to faith. It’s almost as if the rest of the nations were watching Israel from the sidelines, and Israel, play after play, kept stumbl...

What happens when you hold onto your plan so tightly that you almost miss the new thing God is doing in your midst? In Romans 9, Paul begins by lamenting that Israel had chosen the sense of safety and security provided by the Law over faith in Jesus. God’s plan for the Israelites was for them to experience new life in Christ and to share that new life with others. The Law was not a bad plan. After...

When we’re talking about the current activity of God in our lives and on the earth, we’re talking about the activity of the Holy Spirit. If we’re in Christ, then the Spirit lives within us. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives within us. When we put our trust in Jesus, we are changed. We are no longer slaves to sin but alive in the Spirit. One of the ways Paul tries to convey the...

Each of us has a story of shame. We feel shame for the wrong we’ve done, but we also feel shame for the wrong that’s been done to us. The horrible truth is that sin is indiscriminate. It hurts and shames the one who is guilty and it hurts and shames the one who is innocent. Adam and Eve were given a commandment: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Incredibly, they were nake...