Sermons by Rebecca Messman (Page 8)
Encounter: The Struggle is Real
Genesis 32:23-32 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled…
Pieces to Peace: A Cultivated Life
This sermon series is called “Pieces to Peace: How God Puts us Back Together.” Adam preached about how God gives us a better story than the one we have been telling ourselves. I shared last week about how God puts an arm around those who have been demonized and heals the whole community. And this week, in a conversation about freedom and bodies and laws, Paul calls people away from reactivity to long-haul love of neighbor and other virtues called…
Pieces to Peace: Dispossessed
Luke 8:26-39 26 Then they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you,…
Slow Burn Pentecost
John 14:8-17 Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church: John 14: 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that…
Music Sets Us Free
Acts 16:16-34 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul…
Artist in Residence
In our sermon series, we have been focusing on Faith and the Arts. First, this series is about how art gets to places where words alone can’t… the creative, messy, holy places where we meet God. Second, this series is a way to think of today’s installation not so much as my being affixed into the church building like a Verizon box, but that we are part of an art installation, where God is doing something beautiful in this community.…
The Life Library
John 10:22-30 Today, we are continuing our series Faith and the Arts, with a focus today on poetry and prose. What books have shaped your faith? What novels, poems, short stories, or children’s books have given you language for God or the soul, that Mary Oliver calls that wild, silky part of ourselves? What literature has made you feel understood? Maybe a few titles have come to your mind. For me, I think of The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown and The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery…
Give It Time
Luke 13:1-9 1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you…
Even in the Desert
Luke 4:1-131 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not…
Blessed are the Unpopular
Matthew 5:1-2, 9-11 1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and…
The Great Reversal: Blessed are the Powerless
Matthew 5:1-2, 5-6 1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Let us pray. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable in your…
Blessed are the Spiritual Beggars
Matthew 5:1-4 5 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Let us pray. O Lord, uphold me that I might uplift thee. Amen. Today, imagine that I am a kind of journalist, giving you the who, what, when, where, why’s, from…