There Ain't No Grave (May 12, 2024)

Sunday night’s message:

We’ve all held something we couldn’t restore—a plan, a relationship, a season of life that’s gone dry—and kept clenching it anyway, as if sheer will might put flesh back on the bone. Naomi knew that feeling: she went away full and came back empty, and the Book of Ruth shows what God does with that kind of emptiness.

Keep Feeding the Starter (April 28, 2024)

This week’s sermon:

Believing that God will ultimately triumph over the grave is one thing; knowing what to do with yourself in the meantime is another. Ruth 3 presses that question through people who have lost everything and choose to prepare rather than wait it out—and what their ordinary faithfulness looks like, in the daily grind before the story resolves, may be more unsettling and more freeing than expected.

We See a Risen King (March 31, 2024)

This week’s sermon:

The disciples at first saw an empty grave, but not a Risen King. We can find ourselves doing the same.

Planting Banana Trees (March 3, 2024)

This week’s sermon:

We’ve all looked at this world and thought, it just doesn’t seem like God’s will is being done. Underneath that thought is a deeper fear that God’s reserve of will and ability runs dry the way ours does. That fear is exactly what Jesus targets when He teaches us to pray “your will be done.”

Check the Postmark (December 24, 2023)

This week’s sermon:

You open what looks like a personal Christmas card and it’s just a pitch for insurance. There’s always the something being snuck by us, isn’t there? Jesus faced that same suspicion — how can we know He is really who He says He is?

I Will Never Cast You Out (December 17, 2023)

Sunday night’s message:

Deep down, even people who come to God carry a fear that He will eventually give up on them — that sooner or later they’ll be shown the door. That fear is exactly what Jesus meets head-on in John 6.

Where Is Jesus? (April 9, 2023)

This week’s sermon:

On Easter, we celebrate God’s great reversal, yet many of us still carry wildernesses where things feel anything but right. Mary Magdalene was in such a wilderness in John 20 as she wept outside of the tomb. In the wilderness, we often cannot see when Jesus is right in front of us.

Ash Wednesday on the Doorstep of War

An Ash Wednesday reflection in the shadow of war:

It’s 3 a.m. and I’m on Twitter impatiently refreshing, looking for news from Ukraine. I check over on Ukrainian President Zelensky’s account, too, looking for signs he’s still alive and Russia hasn’t managed to find him yet. Probably a lot of you reading this are doing the same. Death looms large this Ash Wednesday, situated amidst the first global-level conflict of the Internet era.

The End of the (Real) Cold War (April 26, 2021)

As we wrap up “alive,” we find that the resurrection speaks to more than just us having a body again: it speaks to restoration for the world.

What is a Resurrection Body? (April 19, 2021)

What does it mean to be resurrected? We have lots of ideas, but are they what God is actually promising? As we continue through 1 Corinthians 15 this week, we get to that central point — and struggle — with the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. It’s so important to understand so that we can approach life and death with the hope God gives us.