As a Christian community, called to peacemaking and reconciliation, we affirm that people of any race, ethnic identity, gender, who are gay or straight, of any ability, age, or economic status, are welcome to full participation in our congregation.
Scripture: Mark 1:4-11, Acts 19:1-7 To what baptism have you been baptized? The story in Acts talks about Jesus’ followers being baptized in the Holy Spirit. This baptism gave them, among other things, the power to stand up to powerful and dangerous interests. In baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit to enter into this life […]
John 15:14-15 & Acts 8:26-38 Ann Roberston shared two of the favorite songs of her father as our summer series continued. She spoke of learning from him how he loved the songs “In the Garden,” which many of us know better as “He Walks with Me and He Talks with Me,” and “What a Friends […]
Acts 2:1-21 Just before Melissa’s message we watched a video portrayal of today’s scripture passage. The sermon ended with us listening to “Ella’s Song” sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock. This was a terrible week leading up to Pentecost Sunday, with a White woman making false accusations about a Black man, the police murdering […]
Acts 18:1-4 I Corinthians 1:10-18 In the scripture passages for today we see the early church is in disarray. There is division and tumult. But Paul urges the church in Corinth to keep their focal point on one place: on Jesus. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but […]
Acts 17:1-9 In our city and in our country protests have been taking place that are tinged with “rights” language, including the right for churches to hold gatherings. But a few thousand years earlier a different scene played out that also concerned the state and religion. Paul and Silas and the other Christians have disrupted […]
Acts 3:1-10 There’s something new in this familiar scene for Peter and John as they encounter a beggar in front of the temple gates. Unlike many times they have walked this way before, they stop and acknowledge this lame man. They really see him. With new eyes, through the Holy Spirit. It’s an invitation for […]
Acts 2:1-4, Romans 8:14-39 Rachel draws from Trevor Noah’s memoir Born a Crime to recount the power of understanding many languages. Pentecost calls us to welcome others, to be changed, to be vulnerable, to learn new languages. “The promise of Pentecost is that we are being made into a people, speaking many languages, to praise […]
Acts 16:16-40 RMC has been part of an interfaith group that spends time at the NC women’s prison, celebrating birthdays and sharing times of worship. Prisons are created to get people out of the way. They did in the day of Paul and Silas, and they do so today. As Willy Jennings has said, prisons […]
Acts 15:1-29 While the passage is specifically about whether male Gentiles who followed the Way of Jesus needed to be circumcised, Melissa explains this really speaks to the broader decision-making process within the early church. We think we have difficulty coming to a consensus as a church; this was a much more volatile issue! Note: […]
Acts 9:1-19 Melissa’s retelling of the story of Saul on the road to Damascus brings a fresh perspective. Experiencing Jesus changes us. God is no longer a set of propositions, no longer a belief system that needs to be defended by logic. Instead, faith is seen in how our life is lived.
This Sunday Rachel told the story of Tabitha, in Acts 9:36-43, but from the perspective of one of Tabitha’s widowed friends in Joppa. Tabitha shows how our whole life can be defined by little resurrections, little renewals of life, little affirmations that death, sin, division and brokenness do not have the last word. Her story serves […]
Claire Unruh provided the sermon this Sunday based on the story of Paul and Silas’s imprisonment recounted in Acts 16:16-34. They were jailed after casting out a demon in a slave girl. Claire used the story as a springboard to recount other stories of people who have been imprisoned because of their beliefs as conscientious […]
Melissa preached from Acts 9:1-19 about Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. However, it wasn’t only Saul who had an unexpected experience with Jesus. God involves Ananias in Saul’s conversion, even though he really wasn’t needed. Ananias also needs to be able to see. Saul is turned from a predator to a liberator, but […]
