How Sweet the Sound – April 11, 2021

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Scripture: Esther 4: 12-17

Esther found herself in a situation where her life was at stake, her reputation on the line, and her people depending on her. We, like Esther, are privileged to be the body of Christ for such a time as this, and through God’s grace we will be able to find our way through all the in-between times we find ourselves in. Our Easter Hope is in the grace of God…we will dig into the life of grace together this Easter season by walking the path of the exiles.

An Oddly Perfect Ending – Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021

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An Oddly Perfect Ending – Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021

Scripture: Mark 16: 1-8

The oldest existing manuscripts of Mark’s gospel ended at verse 8. It’s unlikely that was how Mark intended to end his gospel. The evidence suggests that somehow an early copy lost the original ending. However, even as it stands in those manuscripts, Mark shared the most vital news. Verse 6 said Mary and her companions heard the central message of that resurrection Sunday: “He has been raised. He isn’t here.”

My Savior’s Love, A Musical for Holy Week

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For Christians, there are no more significant events than those of Holy Week Reflecting on the life, date, and miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ is overwhelming-but true! Join the Desert Skies choir as they present, “My Savior’s Love”, a musical of Holy Week that breathes musical breath into this incredible story.

A Suffering Gospel – March 21, 2021

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Scripture: Mark 5:1-2, 9-13 (NRSV)

Suffering is a critical component of Jesus’ message. Richard Rohr defines suffering as losing control…how does suffering play into the gospel message as we understand it? . How can we begin to see this as a part of life, part of the gospel, and not something that is negative and to be overcome?

Do You Still Not Understand? – March 14, 2021

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Scripture: Mark 8:14-21

From healing to prayer to power to suffering, the disciples truly have a hard time understanding Jesus’ teachings as they applied to real life, their life. Looking at our own measures of success today, we STILL struggle with understanding Jesus. Why is it so hard?

A Question and a Calling – March 7, 2021

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Scripture: Mark 8:27-36

“This story is unique in the New Testament in that the healing happens in two stages. Mark’s account, however, has an important, symbolic significance as well: Clarity about Jesus’ mission comes only after confusion.” Right after the story of the blind man’s healing, Mark showed Peter’s great confession of Jesus as “the Christ” (the anointed one in Greek, equivalent to the Hebrew “Messiah”), followed immediately by Peter’s confused effort to “correct” Jesus’ explanation about what it meant to be the Christ. Glimpsing the truth, but only in a fuzzy image “like trees…walking around,” Peter couldn’t yet grasp that Jesus truly meant that his mission involved rejection, suffering and execution.

 

Who is This, That Even the Winds and the Waves Obey Him – February 28, 2021

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Who is This, That Even the Winds and the Waves Obey Him – February 28, 2021

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

The parables in Mark 4, culminating in this powerful witness of Jesus’ power, give us insights into who Jesus was and what was important to him. Opening our ears to hear his message is as important now as it was in his time.

 

The Beginning of the Good News – February 21, 2021

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Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner Preaching

Scripture: Mark 1: 1-20

Scholar and pastor Eugene Peterson caught Mark’s urgency: “Mark wastes no time in getting down to business—a single-sentence introduction…. There’s an air of breathless excitement in nearly every sentence he writes. The sooner we get the message, the better off we’ll be, for the message is good, incredibly good: God is here, and he’s on our side…. Mark, understandably, is in a hurry to tell us what happened in the…life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—the Event that reveals the truth of God to us, so that we can live in reality and not illusion.”

A New Way of Seeing Jesus – February 14, 2021

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Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9

As Christians, we are constantly discovering new ways of seeing Jesus and his gift to the world. As our filters  change, so does our understanding of scripture and how we have experienced the world. As we celebrate our awareness of the biases we have studied over this series, we allow ourselves to see things from a different point of view than one we may have always held. The disciples thought they knew Jesus, until they saw him differently. We may think we know our biases, the systems in which we live, the right way to think about anything…until we see them differently. Praise God for open hearts and open minds.

What You Focus on Determines What You Miss – February 7, 2021

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Scripture: Isaiah 40:21-31

The next three biases look at the social-political dimensions of seeing: Comfort/Complacency/Convenience Bias: Our brains welcome data that allows us to relax and be happy and reject data that require us to adjust, work, or inconvenience ourselves. Catastrophe/Normalcy Bias: Our brains notice sudden changes for the worse, but we easily miss slow and subtle changes over time. We think what is now normal always was and always will be. Our brains are wired for what feels normal. Cash Bias: It is very hard to see anything that interferes with our way of making a living. Our brains are wired to see within the framework of our economy, and we see what helps us make money. . Isaiah’s words, “Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?…help us focus on what is right and good and true.