Sermons and sounds from Northaven Church
An uninvolved, transcendent God is not going to help us. What we need is a God who will take on flesh and get down in the messiness of this world where people are struggling to find hope. What we need is a God who will scoop us up and breathe holy breath into us again and again. That’s a God who will not remain aloof, but will inspire us!
The disciples faced challenges. But they eventually got it. They followed their trusted guide, and somewhere along the way they embraced at least a mustard seed of faith. They shone with the power of love and grace and handed on to us the truth of the gospel. And now it’s our turn to shine.
There will be times when you are called to keep the celebration going; times when you are called to turn water into oceans of wine and crumbs into an abundance of bread; there will be times when you are called to stand alone, to be courageous. Remember that the God incarnate provides extravagant grace that every one of us will be is called to reveal in service to life, abundant life.
Northaven is choosing life and stepping into an unknown future with a good God, trusting that God is continually creating possibilities for a faithful future.
If we nurture our relationship with God on the inside, we will do what God requires on the outside through our commitment to justice and steadfast love.
The starting point for the wealth of generosity that came out of the Macedonian church is the grace of God. Grace comes first and out of that grace remarkable things happen: a church in “extreme poverty” is able to give a “wealth of generosity.”
As sowers of seed we need to know about the soil in which we plant; we need to know about the religious landscape in which we strive to be the church God is calling us to be.
I think what we want from our faith at Christmas time is what people have always wanted: people want to believe that something good can happen. People have always wanted to believe that no matter how bad it gets or how grim reality seems to be, God can redeem it.
In this season of Advent, we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Jesus, our Messiah. Let us not forget that we also celebrate the rebirth of our own messianic character as the Christ who lives within us is reborn.
The only power strong enough to free them, and to free us, is love. Love is the way towards freedom for us. Being made in the image of God, we all have that love within us.
If in fact we believe we are God’s beloved, called by name, then we can trust that we are not alone.
Forgiveness is the way we can untangle the knot, move past the pain so that the offense against us does not become a tight knot in our stomachs that causes us continued pain and ruins our lives.
In his book All Saints, Robert Ellsberg reminds us that “Saints are not perfect humans. But in their own individual fashion they become authentic human beings…Saints are those who realized the vocation for which all human beings were created...” that is, to be authentically human, connected with a God.
For Jesus this story is about a faithful woman who was a widow, one of the most vulnerable people in the first century because she had no means of survival except for by the care of the community. The community was bound by their covenant with God to provide this care. So, when this widow demands justice she knows she is right to do so. She knows the judge is wrong. And the judge, he knows she’s right too. One of the most deeply rooted expressions of faithfulness to God is the care of the widow, the orphan, the poor, the immigrant, those who were powerless. Everyone knew that.
The fact of the matter is that we are very capable of not doing the right thing. It seems we have an unrelenting self-interest that stands in constant tension with our most natural and authentic self.
It is not practical to be like Jesus. Jesus was a boundary crosser, a radical, a revolutionary. Practicality was not the point for the One who was crucified. The theology of Jesus is fierce because, at its heart, it calls for an ethics of higher righteousness.
Our identity as the church has to do with sharing everything we have learned about being human, about being in relationship with God, about being salt and light.
I’m convinced that we have to reimagine the house to include our neighborhood and our world and all of those who will not likely enter the front doors of this church, but may come to a book study or an enneagram workshop, an animal blessing or a trail walk. Extraordinary things happen when the people of God gather, regardless of when and where that gathering takes place because all who feast on God’s grace are compelled by that grace to share it with the world.
As a church, God is calling us to stand up to our full height so that we can see the beauty of creation, but also have perspective on the suffering of the world. It’s easy for us to look down and see only what is right in front of us. But God calls us to acknowledge the gap and mind the gap.
Rev. Jack Soper brings us the message “Thoughts and Prayers”
Here’s the thing. I simply don’t know if I can sustain an attitude of love towards my enemies. And I would have a hard time telling little Magdalena to love those who took her parents away from her. And so I am grateful for the words of Martin Luther King who declares that “love is so much more than emotional bosh.” If it were all about our emotions, I would despair of ever claiming to love my enemies.
There are occasions in life when the experience we have with another human being or with God is so extravagant, so bold, so precious that we have to use exaggerated language to talk about it truly. The Bible is full of stories that are too good to be true, almost-but-not-quite-believable stories of miraculous, mysterious events. Rachel Held Evans calls these “fish stories.”
In the Kingdom of God goodness shows up, grace shows up. And grace changes us. Weeds may always be weeds but people can be transformed. So, we are called to let go of our judgment and refrain from plucking out the possibility of transformation. If we leave anyone out or if any one of us feels unwelcome then we miss the opportunity to cooperate with the grace of God to influence positive change.
We will not be immobilized by the constant barrage of negativity and division. Like Isaiah we will look upon the destruction caused by such hatred and be reminded of God’s promise to create a new heaven and a new earth.
The wisdom of Job tells us that God struggles with them. Their chaos is God’s chaos. Job learned that God created a complex world. In the order of creation there is chaos that God struggles with alongside us, never giving up the struggle, always committed to life.
The antidote to hostile texts of the Bible is more Bible. As Christians we read all stories through the lens of the cross. As Rachel Held Evans describes it: If God became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus, the cross proves that “God would rather die by violence than commit it.” Jesus bore the brunt of human cruelty and remained faithful to the God of love.
One of our primary tasks as the church today is to be witnesses to God’s “yes.” When small children are held in cages or when they lose their lives trying to make it across the river; when there is a tragedy that cannot be explained; when there is suffering that seems to be endless, we each do our part to announce God’s “yes” to the world.
Part of our maturation, spiritually and psychologically, is the process of embracing some origin stories while rejecting others. Our work is one of selective remembrance.
Rev. Mike House is our guest preacher this week preaching from Acts and shares some of Peter’s story.
The church is a community that gathers “altogether in one place.” The church is a community that opens itself up and allows the Holy Spirit to enter. The church is filled with all kinds of people who get caught up in the power of the Spirit so that they begin dreaming dreams, big dreams, God dreams. The church is a place where God’s dreams and visions are proclaimed.
In the time of Jesus there was no one but this small band of committed disciples, including women like Jesus’ mother and including his brothers. In the time of Luke, there was no one but his community, which is believed by scholars to have been the poorest of the poor. These were not people gifted with power and wealth, but they were inspired by the Spirit of God. If these common people had not chosen to be witnesses, we would not be here today.
Rev. Jack Soper preaches on what it means to be “Clothed In Christ.”
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