The Gift of God's Reign - Mark 9:30-37

The author of the Gospel of Mark did not offer us this story so we could look back at the foolishness of those first followers of Jesus. He knew that in his church and all the churches to come, we would continue trying to turn the gifts of God’s reign into projects of power. Mark knew with Jesus that welcoming children as radical gifts in our lives, and greeting them with wonder, is one of the best ways of keeping the church’s priorities in line with God's new social order.

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Ragan Sutterfield
Holy Silence, Holy Words - Proverbs 1:20-33; Psalm 19; James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38

The final verse of the Psalm 19 asks God to “let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” To the psalmist, our words and our hearts are inextricably linked, which suggests to me that when we are able to meet God there, it is in holy silence that we will find our holy words. Or as the author of the book of Proverbs puts it, Wisdom will pour out her thoughts and make her words know to us.

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Hannah Hooker
The Holiest of Places - 1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43

King Solomon, the highly skilled college freshman DIY-ers, and our own master plan are all pointing us to an important truth, which is that there is a difference between a house and a home, between a location and a place. Jennifer Allen Craft says that “places are the ground of shared human experience, as well as the product of shared human experience.... place is not just a piece of ground - it is the undeniable fact of our existence in relationship with the whole of creation.” In other words, a place, and in our context, a holy place, is not just an environment in which holy things happen, but an enlivened co-creator in that holiness. 

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Hannah Hooker
The Weather and the Whales - John 6:51-58

One of the invitations for us in these bread of life passages is to ask ourselves whether we are looking for the same old whales in our spiritual lives, as on a whale watching tour. Are we trying to confirm what we already know? Or, are we open to God showing us a new thing and a deeper wisdom?

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Kate Alexander
As Beloved Children - Ephesians 4:25-5:2

In watching Jesus, and imitating those who imitate him, we join in a great chain of discipleship—each of us learning to mix the recipe anew in our own bodies and lives. Like a good baker, who eventually leaves the recipe behind, knowing how to play with the ratios of ingredients, our life as disciples will move increasingly toward new expressions of the many facets of God.

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Ragan Sutterfield
Olympic Level Faith - John 6:24-35

Fair warning, the lectionary gives us a whole month with this particular “I Am statement,” so I’m not going to exhaust the interpretive reserves on week one. What’s unique about this week’s passage is that as he introduces the bread of life metaphor, Jesus criticizes the people not for their hunger, but for their method of pursuit, for the way that they chased him. Attaining the bread of life, we learn right away, is not like little league soccer. 

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Hannah Hooker
The Cautionary Tale of a Disastrous Birthday Party - Mark 6:14-29

Jesus throws a party of his own, the feeding of the 5,000, and it could not be more different than Herod’s birthday party. There was lust and murder at one party, but compassion, hospitality, abundance, and a life-giving miracle at the other. Everyone was invited. Mark seems to be asking, which party do you want to go to? Whose kingdom do you want to belong to?

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Kate Alexander
The Bodies of Christ - Mark 5: 21-43

Our relationships with our bodies are complicated and ever-changing, and all of us have experienced undue shame about them at one point or another. But as members of the Body of Christ, one of our responsibilities is to treat bodies the way Jesus does - our own bodies and others’. 

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Hannah Hooker
The Parable of Ricky Bobby - Mark 4:26-34

If you need to be reminded of good and holy things, take Jesus’ advice and look at the ordinary stuff in your life from a slightly different angle. The metaphors are endless, each promising that the kingdom of God is close at hand. And remember that even the smallest ones can bring great joy.

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Kate Alexander
Pondering the Trinity - John 3:1-17

In order to be cleansed from our sins, we know that we must gaze upon our savior, lifted high upon a cross. This act of bearing witness, gazing upon, sitting with, pondering, is part of our calling as people of faith. While Jesus might not expect us to make perfect sense of the Trinity on our own, we are certainly called to dwell with this mystery in heart and mind and spirit. 

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Hannah Hooker
God's Strange Logic - A Sermon for Ascension Day

The good news has traveled via human voice, person to person, in ancient times until now and far into the future, to the ends of the earth just as Jesus predicted. Given human imperfection, I would have called this a risky plan on God’s part, but it has worked miraculously well.

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Kate Alexander
Hi Friends - John 15:9-17

Our relationships here are something special. They are unique among the other relationships in our lives. Among the various kinds of friends - fun friends, useful friends, fair-weather friends, shoulder-to-cry-on friends, and many others, we are called to be friends in Christ.

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Kate Alexander
Non-Transactional Faith - Acts 4:5-12; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

This is one of the handy models Jesus offers in John’s Gospel for life in the resurrection. We call them the “I am” statements, and the Church usually reads through them during Eastertide. According to this “I am” narrative, Jesus loves his sheep, each and every one of us, unconditionally, no matter the cost to him, which was great, and no matter how we respond, which is often poorly.

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Hannah Hooker
Yard Signs - A Sermon for Easter Day (Mark 16:1-8)

Mark offers us two different possibilities on Easter. There is the plain sense of the account, in which a stone got moved, a guy gave a message, and the women left in fear, saying nothing to anyone. But there is also a miraculous way to see it. The angel is passing out Easter yard signs as we speak. No matter where you stand, there is a sign for you with a clear message: “He is risen.”

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Kate Alexander
Divine Lowliness - Mark 11:1-11 (Palm Sunday)

Palm Sunday is an opportunity to consider what kind of Holy Week we’re going to have. Will we imitate the disciples, ignoring Jesus’ warnings about what is to come, determined to set our minds on what is joyful, easy, comfortable? Will we dress up the journey to the cross with fancy clothes so as not to look too closely at it’s brutal nature? Or will we instead heed Mark’s warning and contemplate the stark reality of the crucifixion?

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Hannah Hooker
Beyond Spiritual Supplements - John 12:20-33

I imagine that many of us are like those Greeks in Jerusalem.  We are searching for truth, longing for a deeper spiritual life, and we have the means and ability to pursue it, even taking an exotic pilgrimage here and there. None of those are bad things, but we have to watch that they do not shut us off from the total transformation that Jesus is calling us toward, a transformation that requires us to stand before the cross, giving over whatever we are clinging to of our lives so that they will die with him. 

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Ragan Sutterfield
In Search of a Sign - Exodus 20:1-17; John 2:13-22

There’s a lot to unpack in these few short weeks of wilderness wandering. We’ve got the manna from heaven, the moaning about wishing they were back in Egypt, and the never-ending line of legal cases brought before Moses. Thankfully, there is some true genius in the organizational structure of the Ten Commandments, which can help us understand what’s really going on here. 

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Hannah Hooker