June 14: The Freedom to Try

July 5 Sermon: Consistent Mercy on the Fourth of July.

As we celebrate the ideals and achievements of our country on one hand, many folks are wondering how we also hold remember the failures and missed ideals in the other. How do we remain Christian in a country where Christian Nationalism is so prevalent? When all feels loud, fast, and shallow, we remember that the real work of human dignity, justice, and mercy through Christ, is consistent, persistent and mysterious.

6/21 Sermon: Discipleship Continued

This week, we find Jesus continuing to teach about what discipleship looks like. More specifically, he has an honest conversation about what it costs. Echoing the words of the prophet Micah, Jesus warns that walking in the way of God—actually showing compassion to those most in need—may cost us something. "Those who lose their life for my sake will find it," Jesus says. So the question for us is this: What are we willing to let go of in order to truly know the Gospel?

June 14: The Freedom to Try

The day before this sermon, Well of Hope held a big and audacious fundraiser for New Beginnings, a congregation that meets inside the Denver women's correctional facility. This sermon was a debrief of that experience, but also an encouragement to explore the compassion and call of Jesus, to embrace vulnerability, and to be freed from our fear of failure. This text is a call to be pulled by compassion, to try things, to have grace with ourselves, and to reimagine "Success".

June 7 Sermon: Matthew's Story

We talk in Church a lot about Jesus' Love and His Way being for all people, but if we are honest, there is always someone we wonder about. Matthew the Tax Collector's story should challenge us to include those people as part of the movement of liberation that we might prefer to leave out. As a tax collector and former lackey to the Empire, Matthew's welcome into the movement of Jesus should stretch us to reconsider who can be included no matter what part of the table we find ourselves at.

May 31: The Trinity (and why it matters)

We are baptized into the Trinity (Creator, Son, Holy Spirit) and sent out to teach and make disciples and baptize other into the Trinity. Often times, a brand of "Coopted Christianity" that takes this sending out seriously looks like strands of Christian Nationalism. We rebuke that. Today we remember that we are baptized into community itself, love, and Mercy. That is who God is and how we try to live.