Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2019

Sermon, "The Story, Part I: Wandering with the Law," Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Sermon 9/29/19 Deuteronomy 6:1-9 The Story, Part I: Wandering with the Law We’re skipping ahead in the scriptures today, as we continue our journey through The Story of the Bible. Last Sunday, as we read from Exodus, the Israelites were on the brink of leaving Egypt, being emancipated from their generations of slavery, and now they’re not far from reaching the Promised Land, this place described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” It’s a land of abundance, a land that will be their long-term home. But in the interim, between then and now, forty years have passed, and all this time, the Israelites have been wandering through the wilderness, led by Moses. And over these years, besides the grumbling and complaining that they do about their long, meandering journey, and besides the times they really screw things up and forget where they’ve come from and where they’re going, they’ve also been learning about the laws that will guide and shape them as they enter the Promise

Sermon, "The Story, Part I: Covenant & Emancipation," Genesis 17:1-9, Exodus 13:3-16

Sermon 9/22/19 Genesis 17:1-9, Exodus 13:3-16 The Story, Part I: Covenant & Emancipation Today we’re tackling two themes, two scriptures, as we continue our journey through the Bible: Covenant and Emancipation. It might seem a little like we’re smushing two separate stories together, and we are , but hopefully by the end of our worship you’ll see how these themes go hand-in-hand. It also might seem like we’re spending an awful lot of time in our journey through the major themes of the Bible right up front - three weeks in Genesis when our whole series is only so long. But the first books of the Bible are ones that are meant to set the tone for the rest of the scriptures, and so the first books lay out for us many of the themes that we return to again and again. Creation, The Fall, and now Covenant and Emancipation.  Let’s take a look at our texts for today. In Genesis, God appears to Abram, a spry ninety-nine year old. Abram has already been following God’s call. G

Sermon, "The Story, Part I: Creation," Genesis 1-2

Art by Alana Correa, 2017.  Sermon 9/8/19 Genesis 1-2 The Story, Part I: Creation Today, as we begin a new season together - back to our “regular” worship time and space, back to school, back to Sunday School, returning to some of the rhythms that drive our congregational life together, we’re starting a new sermon series that will be our focus for most of our fall. It’s called, “The Story” - and the story is the T he S tory, the story that unfolds in the scriptures, the story of God and God’s people. We’ll be looking at this story from Genesis to Revelation, beginning - at least the recorded beginning - to one writer’s vision of an end. Of course, since the Bible is thousands of pages long, and includes 66 books, we won’t get to stop at every plot point. But we’re going to see if we can draw out the major themes of the Bible.  Our first stop on this journey through the text is right at the start, word one, page one, book one, chapter one, verse one. Today, we’re thin