Category: Sermons

Time for Reflection

The end of a year is always a time to look back at the highs and lows of the last year. This practice has profound spiritual value as well. Isaiah shows us how looking back reveals God’s pattern of salvation: God imagines new possibilities for us, then is present with us to walk into those new possibilities. How can we prepare ourselves for God’s presence in the new year?

A Dream of Family

Holidays bring a lot of family stress. If anyone can relate, it’s Joseph. Matthew tells us how God challenged Joseph to imagine a bigger definition of family than he was comfortable with – and how that changed the world forever. How can we find family where we may have least expected it?

Hope as Resistance

Hope isn’t automatic. To be a person of hope means to live into the “maybe”. Maybe things will be better if we act. Isaiah invites us to rejoice as an act of hope.

The Diptych of Hope

The Christmas season is all about hope, but for a lot of folks these days, hope feels like a pipe dream. The prophet Isaiah offers two pictures of hope – one that feels impossible, and one grounded in history. He reminds us that when we hope for what’s right, our hope is not in vain because God is with us!

Wanting What’s Right

The Christmas season is in full swing! With Black Friday behind us and the steady march toward Christmas Day begun, our wanting engines are warming up. But how do we know what the right things to hope for are? Isaiah invites the people of Judah to want God’s justice and salvation: a gift for the whole world!

Pilgrimage

There are ways we just can’t know God when we stay in our comfort zones. Jesus invites us to follow him out of the places we call home to discover the new and surprising ways we can grow in our faith when we dare to leave.

Discipleship

Discipleship is about more than just learning the right information. It’s about pursuing a transformed life. We must continually employ practices that help us know the story of Jesus so that it becomes our story.

Diversity

Diversity is essential to God’s work in the world, but as a rule, churches are bad at real diversity. In John 4, Jesus’ disciples illustrate what’s at stake when we don’t make a point to practice diversity.

Friendship

Four big ideas are shaping Catalyst. First: Friendship. What did it mean that Jesus was called a ‘friend of sinners’? What implications does that have for our relationships (or lack thereof)?

Building Together

We tend to think of the project of faith as one that we do primarily alone. But according to Paul, we can’t do faith alone. We need each other. And we need each other to be different. That’s a lot harder, but it’s necessary. How do we engage in this level of community?