Second on the Mount

Matthew 25:31-46 Part VI of the Advent Sermon Series "Once Upon an Advent" Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from the First Sunday of Christmas, December 28, 2025. "There is a temptation to sentimentalize the Christmas season—to wrap it in nostalgia and soft lighting and comforting music. But Jesus won’t let us do that because Christmas has consequences. Christmas, at its heart, is the declaration that God has chosen to be found not in power, but in presence. Not in domination, but in dignity. Not in abstraction, but in flesh and blood. If God has truly taken on human flesh, then every human body matters. Every person is an image bearer. Every life carries divine weight. "The Word became flesh—and that flesh looks like you and me and the neighbor who needs help today. This is not an easy truth. It disrupts our assumptions about who is deserving and who is not. It challenges the narratives we tell ourselves about poverty, incarceration, addiction, immigration, and illness. Jesus does not ask us to decide whether the person who is hungry earned their hunger or the person in prisoner earned their sentence. He simply says, 'That’s where I am.'" Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Luke 2:1-20, John 1 Part V of the Advent Sermon Series "Once Upon an Advent" Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Christmas Eve, December 24, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Luke 1:26-38, I John 4:7-12 Part IV of the Advent Sermon Series "Once Upon an Advent" Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 21, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Isaiah 35:1-10, Luke 2:8-20 Part III of the Advent Sermon Series "Once Upon an Advent" Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from the Third Sunday of Advent, December 14, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Isaiah 9:2-7, Luke 3:1-6 Part II of the Advent Sermon Series "Once Upon an Advent" Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from the Second Sunday of Advent, December 7, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Isaiah 11 (selected verses), Luke 1 (selected verses) Part I of the Advent Sermon Series "Once Upon an Advent" Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from the first Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2025. "No matter where we are or how we feel this Advent Sunday, God is still telling the same story: • Hope doesn’t wait for perfect conditions. • Hope grows in unexpected places. • Hope shines through ordinary things touched by love. • Hope is God’s quiet, stubborn insistence that the story is not over." Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Luke 23:33-43 Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Christ the King Sunday, November 23, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

II Corinthians 1:3–7 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, November 16, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

John 14:1-3 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from All Saints' Sunday, November 2, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

I Samuel 8:4-22, Galatians 1:6-9 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, October 26, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Luke 17:11-19 Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Preschool Sunday, October 19, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

John 1:6-9, II Corinthians 4:5-7 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Commitment Sunday, October 12, 2025. "The one essential fact about light is that it is separate from what bears it. • The light of the sun isn’t the sun itself. • The light of a fire isn’t the wood that burns. • Even the glow from a candle or a bulb isn’t the wax or the filament. "Paul echoes the same truth in his own way. He’s not speaking of John, but of all of us who call ourselves Christians. He is even speaking of every congregation: 'We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus as Lord… We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power to save is of God and does not come from us.' "We are not the flame—we are the candle. We are not the light—we are the lantern. "That’s worth thinking about as a congregation on Commitment Sunday." Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Luke 5:27-32, 17:7-10 Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from World Communion Sunday, October 5, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

***This sermon was originally intended to be a visual experience. We encourage you to watch the original live streamed recording of this sermon on YouTube.*** Video: "The Light We Shine" Thank you to Andrea Boone, Jane Winders Frank, Ginger Poole Avis, and the wonderful staff and technicians at Mill Mountain Theatre. . . . Matthew 5:14-16 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, September 28, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Mark 1:21-39, Acts 17: 24-28 Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, September 21, 2025. "You are the living church when you forgive in a culture of vengeance. You are the living church when you speak truth in the face of lies. You are the living church when you love your neighbor more than your comfort. You are the living church when you sow compassion in a world that rewards cruelty. You are the living church when you refuse to bow to fear and choose hope and generosity instead. "This is what it means to pray and live “Thy kingdom come.” May we follow Christ even when it leads us beyond the maps. May we be the living church in a world that needs it now more than ever." Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Isaiah 53:2-3, Philippians 4:8 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, September 14, 2025. "In the aftermath of [Charlie Kirk's] shooting—as with so many other publicized acts of violence, and the countless unseen ones—we all should be asking ourselves: Do our words carry the same ugliness we say we condemn and are we contributing to this dangerous climate? "Whether you're a leader, a public voice, someone on X, or with a Facebook page, or an Instagram account, or a loud voice in the neighborhood or at the dinner table— If you speak of those you disagree with as enemies… If you repeat wild claims that stoke fear and cast others as villains… If you talk like a war is starting… You’re not calling out violence. You’re contributing to it. "...I don’t want to preach a gospel that takes partisan sides and becomes another form of ugliness. I want to preach the beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ—the one who absorbed the world’s ugliest violence and answered it with love, grace, and peace." Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Exodus 14:10-16 Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, September 7, 2025. "The ways in which God is calling you to show your faith might surprise you. It might require courage. It might require you to risk comfort and convenience for the sake of love. It might require you to silence the bickering noise of the world and courageously take one step forward—and then maybe another." Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Matthew 4:1-11 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, August 31, 2025. "The temptations Jesus faces may sound distant from our lives—turning stones to bread, leaping from a tower, bowing to the devil—but what they represent is very real, and just as present in Roanoke as they were in the wilderness. . . . Just as a tuning fork causes an internal string to vibrate, these three temptations strike chords within us as they did with Jesus—our desires, our fears, our arrogant self-righteousness, our certainties, our longings for significance, control, or reassurance." Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Matthew 5:13-16 Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from our Rally Day Picnic on Sunday, August 24, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/

Scripture: Luke 12:49-53 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, August 17, 2025. Read the manuscripts of our latest sermons at: https://www.spres.org/worship/sermons/