Exodus Part 34: Teaching Trees

Sermon Text:

Exodus 15:22-27

As the Israelites wander in the wilderness they encounter their first major obstacle - lack of water. When they finally find water the people find that it is undrinkable. The people grumble but YHWH provides by “teaching Moses a tree” Rejecting the traditional interpretation which focuses on the grumbling and lack of faith among the Israelites, we look at the unusual language being used to arrive at a more profound point about what YHWH is trying to teach his people. YHWH is crafting the people into a new kind of society completely opposite of the Egyptians who had enslaved them.

Exodus Part 33: The Song of the Sea

Sermon Text:

Exodus 15:1-21

Today we look at one of my favorite texts, the Song of the Sea. This is one of the oldest passages in the Bible and also a Hebrew nerds dream. We look at the structure of the song and some Hebrew poetic devices (though not as many as I would like). Along the way we learn more about the identity of YHWH. We also conclude by learning about grammar - specifically the difference between the perfect and the imperfect. It sounds boring but it actually leads to a really important point about worship and how we live our lives as a community of followers of Christ.

Exodus Part 32: The Parting of the Sea of Reeds

Sermon Text:

Exodus 14:10-31

In the face of the understandable terror of the people of Israel as they find themselves trapped between Pharaoh’s army of charioteers and a large body of water, Moses delivers a message from YHWH. The people are told to fear not, stand firm, and wait for the salvation of the Lord in silence. Its very churchy advice, but what do we actually do with it? We seldom find ourselves pursued by large armies. Yet when we look at the world we see one that is hopelessly broken built on structures and systems that seem impossible to change. How are we do to enact Moses’ advice in such a world where our fear and despair can get the better of us? We look at these issues along with an examination of the Biblical view of sin in order to recover a greater vision of the church’s mission in a world that continues in the violence, oppression, and exploitation of Egypt’s Pharaoh.

Epiphany Part 2: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About The Magi

Sermon Text:

Matthew 2:1-12

Today we study the mysterious magi. Who were these people and why does Matthew include this story in his gospel? What would the details of this story meant to his audience? More importantly what possible relevance could a group of Zoroastrian astrologers possibly have for us? Along the way we will touch on a lot of history and also a Resurrection Church favorite - numismatics!

Epiphany Part 1: Born of the Holy Spirit

Sermon Text:

Matthew 1-18-25

After giving us a long genealogy about where Jesus came from, Matthew tells us a completely different and contradictory story about where Jesus comes from. Why does Matthew do this. As we learn in this sermon, Matthew loves to mess with us in order to make a point. Today’s sermon explores the importance of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation and why it is absolutely key to the whole gospel of Matthew.

Advent Week 3: Motherhood & New Things

Sermon Text:

Luke 1:39-56

Today’s sermon looks at the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth which is one of the most unusual and incredible scenes in all of Scripture. This time our focus will be less on Mary’s song but what happens when Mary and Elizabeth meet. Particularly the attitude of Elizabeth, the wife of a priest toward her cousin Mary. Here we learn that newness can come into the world and that what is represented by motherhood is the best expression of that hope. Birth and newness are God’s answers to the brokenness of the world.

Advent Week 2: Broken Genealogies

Sermon Text: Matthew 1:1-17

For our second week in Advent, we look at the introduction to Matthew’s gospel. Matthew gives us a genealogy spanning from Abraham to Jesus. The list of names is long and tedious, and so Matthew helpfully divides the genealogy into three sections of 14 generations. However, the last section only has 13 generations even though Matthew tells us there are 14. Did Matthew make a mistake or is the missing generation actually the point? Find out the answer to this question and more as we learn more about the brokenness of the world and how Jesus comes to fix it.

Advent Week 1: Eating Grasshoppers

Sermon Text:

Mark 1:1-8

In this first Sunday in Advent, we look at Mark’s introduction as Mark begins to tell us how Jesus comes to fix a broken world. The idea of fixing a broken world will be the theme for Advent this year as we look at how the world is broken and how it is that Jesus fixes it. In order to do that, we look at some Easter eggs from the Hebrew Bible as Mark sets us for the coming of Jesus in this weird character of John the Baptistizer. As we will soon learn, far from being the weird aesthetic that we imagine with his camel hair shirt and his bizarre diet, John is doing something much more interesting and revolutionary that we miss. Learn how eating grasshoppers and honey does not mean what you have always thought or been taught it means and what this has to say about the vision of a new beginning Mark wants to present to us.