Living Hope: Suffering Savior

Wesley's Wisdom: Sanctification

Jesus says "be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect," and it's tempting to hear that as an order to pitch a perfect game of morality, no errors allowed. Wesley taught something different, that Christian perfection isn't an unblemished record but a heart so shaped by walking with Jesus that love becomes our first instinct instead of our last resort. So this week we're asking ourselves where we've actually grown in grace, where we're still stuck, and where love still isn't getting first place in our lives.

Wesley's Wisdom: Social Holiness

Could you live a holy life alone on a desert island, free from anyone to lie to, steal from, or be jealous of? John Wesley would say that's exactly the problem, because he believed there's no such thing as solitary religion, only social holiness, the kind that gets worked out in real relationships with real people. This week Matt walks through Wesley's two-part vision of social holiness, connection with other believers and compassion for the world, and makes the case that a faith kept entirely between you and Jesus is missing something it was never meant to live without.

Wesley's Wisdom: Grace

Everybody in the Christian faith talks a big game about grace, but John Wesley meant something specific by it, and this week we dig into what grace actually is: God's free, undeserved favor poured out on everybody, all the time, no matter what. Walking through Wesley's vision of prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace in Ephesians 2, we see that grace was never the church's to ration out, and that the God who is rich in mercy made us alive while we were still dead in our trespasses. The invitation is to stop asking whether we are worthy of grace, because our worth has nothing to do with it, and instead to become ambassadors of that grace toward the very people we are most tempted to withhold it from.

Wesley's Wisdom: Means of Grace

What's actually happening when we take communion or get baptized? In this week's Wesley's Wisdom, Matt traces his own journey to a sacramental understanding of baptism, exploring how John Wesley taught that God is the primary actor in the sacraments, lavishing grace on us through ordinary bread, water, and juice. Because the table belongs to God and not to us, it's open to everyone: babies, seekers, and yes, even the people we're mad at.

Trinity Sunday: Go And Grow

Trinity Sunday has a reputation for making preachers nervous, but maybe that's because we've been trying to explain God instead of experience God. From the ruach hovering over the chaos in Genesis to Jesus sending his disciples in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Scripture shows us a God who has always worked through connection and relationship. The Trinity was never meant to be solved; it was meant to be lived, and that means we go and grow disciples by creating spaces where people can breathe, belong, and discover they are more loved than they know.