Haverhill Commons Church

In Mark 10, Jesus asks a rich young ruler to make a choice. A choice to either continue living with a divided heart, loving his money and possessions, unable to love the Lord with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength, and therefore forfeiting eternal life. Or to choose to love God and God alone. To choose to live out of his joy, not his fear and discomfort. To accept the gift of abundant and...

In a recent article, American author Xochitl Gonzalez argues that empathy is at an all time low because we’ve lost so many basic human connections. We can live most days without seeing another person. Why go to the office when you can zoom from home? Why go to school when you can take classes online? Why get together with friends when you can text whenever you want?  This lack of genuine connectio...

It’s clear that part of what it means to be human is to have a deep desire to connect to one another, to live in community, to have and feel a sense of belonging. That shared desire means that we all also know what it means to feel as if we are out of place. Constantly trying to figure out where we fit in. What happens when you believe you’ve found that place of belonging just to realize that you...

Have you ever found yourself in that kind of situation - things were different, unexpected, uncomfortable…and within minutes you knew that you didn’t want to be there anymore? We steer clear of what makes us uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to heed that instinct, but other times, we’re uncomfortable because we’re having to deal with someone else’s grief and pain.   Laments are prayers, born out of...

In Esther 1, a woman resists. When Queen Vashti heard the king’s order, “she refused to come.” “And this made the king furious, and he burned with anger.” Her reward for having courage and maintaining her dignity was to be silenced and to be shamed. Put back in her box, forced to wear a scarlet letter.     This is the insidious, relentless oppression of patriarchy. Women who go along with the syst...

Unconscious biases are stereotypes about others that we can form without even knowing that we’re doing so. We don’t design the environments, but maybe the environments are affecting us in ways that we don’t know. Pharaoh’s daughter finds the Hebrew baby in river, but instead of adhering to her  “us and them” worldview, she instead has compassion on him. Spares him. Protects him. All because of the...

We are invited to fear the LORD above all else, to revere God more than we revere the power structures of this world.  Like these midwives, we are invited to use whatever positions we have, even if they are not big or grand or powerful, to do what is right, even when there is intense pressure to do what is wrong.  And we’re invited to believe that in that, we will experience the freedom and the go...

The situation shows us that while we all experience the groaning common to creation, we do not all experience it the same way. Some people, through no fault of their own, experience more suffering. And some people, through no merit of their own, experience more privilege.  How we chose to use the privileges we have bears witness to our priorities and values.

How do we respond to injustice when we're not sure where to begin?

Ah…Leviticus. It’s hard to make sense of it all. It can come across as archaic, even barbaric, an often unrelatable. It can be natural for us to skim through Leviticus or avoid it altogether because it’s hard to interpret. How are we supposed to glean anything from a book that seemingly doesn’t apply to us? Yet the core concern of Leviticus is one we recognize: How can human beings connect with Go...

What if there is a better way to solve conflict than fight or flight? A way for us to “pass the peace” to and from each other. And not just peace in the sense that we often think of it - a peace that resolves conflicts - but a peace that more fully resembles God’s shalom. A peace that establishes wholeness to what was once broken. A peace that restores relationships, and seeks the flourishing of l...

In the letter the Philemon, Paul asks a slave owner to do something that doesn’t make sense by societal norms. But it makes sense in light of the gospel.

We can all feel like imposters - that we’re not the right person, that others are better or more qualified. In this sermon, we look at how the Lord encourages Gideon to step forward even though he doesn't think he’s the right person for job.

As we conclude our series on the book of Ruth, we retell the story of God’s love as we’ve experienced it in our own lives. Each chapter of Ruth is accompanied by art and a LifeStory shared by a member of our community and a song that responds to each theme. Our prayer is that as we sing these songs, hear these passages, and share these stories, we are each reminded of the ways that we have seen Go...

In the story of Ruth, Boaz, a man of wealth and privilege, sacrificed his time, money, and reputation to take care of the Moabite in his field. This is a picture for us of how God uses power. In God’s hands, power is never used to take advantage of someone or gain more power for God. God always uses power for others. Admittedly, the example is pretty extreme. Boaz married Ruth. That’s a giant comm...

You've wrestled and you've prayed and you did the thing. You left your job. You decided you’re going to tell our small group about your addiction. You moved your family across the country. You went through foster care training. You went to counseling. You asked that person out. You got up and you exercised. And now, you're waiting…waiting to see what, if anything, God will do.

What do you do when there’s no easy answer, but you need an answer, a solution, a direction, something, because where you are isn’t working anymore?

Where do we find seeds of hope when our path feels like a long uphill slog, when things aren’t working out, when we feel obscured, neglected, unseen?

We don’t always feel, see, or hear God. Does that mean God's not there?

There are a lot of reasons we end up feeling alone. For some, it’s taking pride in self-reliance. For some, it’s a lack of trust. For some, it’s a trust issue. Trust has eroded in recent years while fears have multiplied. All of that fear can seep into our relationships: we keep others at a distance, we establish boundaries, we reject them before they have a chance to reject us. Plus, the pandemic...

When the resurrected Lord appeared to his disciples, the first thing he said was, “Peace be with you.” The world is full of conflict, internally and external. We’re overwhelmed, we’re exhausted, we’re conflicted, What do we do!? Please Lord tell me…we’m scared to mess this up. We still need the peace that only Jesus can give. Give us peace. We long for peace.

Names aren’t just words or sounds. Names are important. They enable us to make sense of the world. Names are how we talk about things and people. When you want to get someone’s attention, you say their name. When you want to wake someone up, you say their name. In our passage this Easter, we see just how powerful a name can be. Mary is at Jesus’ tomb after his crucifixion, and she is distraught an...