Second on the Mount

"Upside Down Kingdom" – Mark 10:17-31 Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, May 5, 2024. "Jesus’ love leads. It leads and redirects and corrects and turns us right around. It isn’t afraid to offend. Jesus’ love shows us what we really are, not to shame or defeat us, but to deliver us. Are we ready for this kind of loving gaze?" Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/upside-down-kingdom/

"Church: Seen and Unseen" – Matthew 18:15-20 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, April 28, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/church-seen-and-unseen/

"Owning Up or Doubling Down?" – Acts 4:5-22 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, April 21, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/owning-up-or-doubling-down/

"Seeing Good" – Acts 3:12-21 Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, April 14, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/seeing-good/

"It's Not About You, Thomas" – John 20:19-31 Sermon by Dr. Jacqueline E. Lapsley, President of Union Presbyterian Seminary, on the Sunday of the Kitty Susan Trent Symposium for Newly Ordained Ministers, April 7, 2024.

"Following: Loving, and so Following" – Mark 16:1-8 Lenten Sermon Series Part VII Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. "...so many cling to the resurrection hope in a desperate way, hoping for an out when death must come. Sadly, what often comes of this escapist hope is an escape from the moral demands of life. But a true resurrection hope is this: It is finding hope in God even after all other hopes fail you. . . . It is the hope that God will not let death and all it represents—injustice, toxicity, cruelty, despair—have the last word." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-loving-and-so-following/

"Following: The Crowds" – Matthew 21:6-15, 27:15-23 Lenten Sermon Series Part VI Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-the-crowds/

"Following: Following at One's Own Pace" – John 3:1-8, 7:50-51, 19:38-40 Lenten Sermon Series Part V Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, March 17, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-following-at-ones-own-pace/

"Following: Paul's Conversion and Call to Follow" – Acts 9:1-20 Lenten Sermon Series Part IV Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, March 10, 2024. "When the voice of God calls out to us, when the voice of the Lord calls us to follow, we enter into something bigger and deeper than individual salvation and vocation. Conversion is never an end in and of itself. It is a beginning. We step into something new for ourselves and for the community to which we belong. A new reality. A new chapter in the life of the church, a new initiative or mission, and a new life in Christ for the individual. Following Jesus is both individual and communal, you can’t have one without the other. The individual receives the call; the community affirms the call. "And in the conversion and call and life of Paul we see a reminder that following Jesus involves a series of conversions, a series of journeys, encounters, pilgrimages, and turnings as we venture into unexplored territory." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-pauls-conversion-and-call-to-follow/

"Following: Jesus Is Being Followed?" – Matthew 12:9-14 Lenten Sermon Series Part III Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, March 3, 2024. "We all have biases. Even Jesus in our story has a bias. He clearly stated a bias in the passage. You heard it. He prefers compassion and mercy over the literal keeping of a law that would prevent a man with a need from receiving help. His bias is toward seeing the person in front of him and acting in that person’s best interests. He shows it here in healing the man. He later says we need to do this even if the person in front of us is someone we would call 'an enemy.' "What would that bias look like in the way we follow those who have their hooks in us: our family, our friends, our enemies, those who are described by others as being a type (Jews, Palestinians, criminals, refugees, the poor, the rich) but which we know are human beings? What would happen if we stubbornly kept to • a bias toward empathy and understanding so the person can be seen, • a bias toward reconciliation over retribution, • a bias toward common good over what’s good just for me?" Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-jesus-is-being-followed/

"Following: Who Said She Could Follow?" – Mark 5:25-34 Lenten Sermon Series Part II Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, February 25, 2024. "Who says she can follow Jesus? Not the crowd. Not even Jesus who doesn’t know she is behind him. She follows Jesus because she gets it. She gets what makes it possible for any of us to follow Jesus, no matter how worthy we think we already are. "What she gets is grace. She knows that despite what anyone says . . . that she has a place in Jesus’ company. It is not because she is well or unwell, acceptable or unacceptable, guilty or innocent, clean or unclean. It is because God’s grace, which welcomes others, welcomes her. Jesus makes that clear to her when he says, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well.' The woman’s embrace of grace is the faith that has saved her—which, by the way is a better translation than 'made you well.'" Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-who-said-she-could-follow/

"Following: Peter, the Rock" – John 18:15-17, 25-27 and 21:15-19 Lenten Sermon Series Part I Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, February 18, 2024. "What is it that makes us chicken out—whether we’re 11 years old, 41 years old, or 81 years old? Why are we afraid to speak up? To live what we claim to believe? What is it that makes us vulnerable to this kind of behavior—the kind of behavior Peter shows on Good Friday? The kind of statements Peter makes in the courtyard that night? ". . . Jesus knows we are more than the worst things we’ve done (or left undone). He knows we are prone to choose wrong, and we are prone to shame and self-hatred. He knows how to meet us, to build the fire, and prepare the meal that will heal and restore." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-peter-the-rock/ Sung Prayer for Illumination: O Word of God Incarnate. TEXT: William Walsham How, 1867, alt. MUSIC: Neuvermehrtes Meiningiches Gesangbuch, 1963; adapt. Felix Mendelssohn, 1847. Public domain. CCLI Song #121971. CCLI #2642604.

"Fan the Flame" Youth Sunday Sermons 2024 – 2 Timothy 1:3-7 Sermons by graduating seniors Trevor Waters (2:00), Claire Thielecke and Caroline Kepley (7:09), and Ellen Mikkelson (13:21) from Youth Sunday, February 11, 2024. Our Youth Group theme for the year is "Fan the Flame." May the flame of faith that lives inside of you burn brighter and become a guiding light in the world!

"Not Alone, but Lonely" – Mark 1:29-39 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, February 2, 2024. "We are all lonely sometimes. No one can reach those inner parts of you that only God can reach. I encourage you to embrace sacred loneliness. In being alone with God, become comfortable with being alone with yourself. . . . Find your identity in being alone with God. That is where your clarity and strength will come while being among others as one who follows Jesus... the one who calls for justice, shows mercy, and works for reconciliation in the world." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/not-alone-but-lonely/

"Truth: God Is Here" – Mark 1:21-28, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, January 28, 2024. "There are demons—whether they be personal, communal, global, or even cosmic—that draw us away from Jesus. Yet, with God’s boundary-breaking power and love made know in Jesus Christ, we can stand up to the demons and be freed. "How might we speak with authority to these demons just as Jesus did to the demon in the synagogue? Well, for starters we can name them. We can acknowledge the truth of their reality; thus, we recognize they exist. We name the demon of unbelief, and we continue to name others we encounter: racism, inequality, religious and ideological intolerance, nationalism, classism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, bigotry, violence at home and at school, bullying, poverty, greed, war, human trafficking, terrorism, globalization for exploitation, information manipulation, media-infused fear. This is certainly not an exhaustive list. "'But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.' We should do well to name not only our demons, but also our privilege." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/truth-god-is-here/

"Waiting Work" – Acts 1:13-26 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, January 21, 2024. "Prayer is sometimes dismissed as avoiding responsibility, such as when people who actually can do something about a problem say instead, 'Let’s pray about it.' But though prayer can be used to avoid the truth and dodge responsibility, it can also be a means by which to face the truth and deal with it. . . . "Prayer is grounding oneself in God and remembering you are not alone. It is reminding oneself of God’s love; It is asking to be forgiven and it is asking to forgive; It is seeking some guidance, and asking for patience while waiting for the guidance; It is listening for some truth that so far hasn’t been heard; It is asking for a path forward that so far cannot be seen... Prayer is Waiting Work." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/waiting-work/

"Come and See" – John 1:29-46 Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, January 14, 2024. "The invitation to 'come and see' is an invitation to leave our comfort zones. To 'come and see' is an invitation to approach all of life with a grace-filled curiosity. To 'come and see' is to enter into the joy of being deeply seen and deeply known. . . . "Is there anything that feels lonelier than the experience of being unseen? And is there anything more lifegiving than the experience of being seen for who we truly are? "'Come and see,' Jesus says." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/come-and-see/

"Under the Apple Tree" – Genesis 2:15-17, Romans 12:1-2 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Confirmation Sunday, January 7, 2024. Can one believe what both science and the Bible have to say? Dr. Anderson explores this question by looking to epiphanies under the apple tree by Adam and Eve, Sir Isaac Newton, and Karl Barth. "Though God is a mystery beyond proof, I believe in God because I have had my own epiphanies of being known, loved and claimed by God. Intellectually, I can’t prove it; I even doubt it sometimes. But my being loved and claimed by God defines me. I can’t prove it, but I’m trying to live it. That is my witness." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/under-the-apple-tree/

"Jesus’ Birth Certificate: (Mother's Name)" – Luke 1:26-38 Advent Sermon Series Part V Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, December 31, 2023. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/jesus-birth-certificate-mothers-name/

"Jesus’ Birth Certificate: (Father's Name)" – John 1:14-18 Advent Sermon Series Part IV Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Christmas Eve Sunday, December 24, 2023. "But, as I said before, in saying God, something more needs to be said. . . . Something must be added to what is meant by God or we end up adding whatever we want God to mean. God can mean 'Merciless Judge' if the blanket is just a quilt of God’s demands. God can mean 'Absent Creator' if the blanket is only the idea that someone had to make the universe and keep it running. God can mean 'Me' if God is defined in my image. Then I can pick and choose passages to line up with what I already think and want. Narcissists love that sort of blanket. "What we have written as 'Name of Father' will work fine as long as we remember that it is on the same birth certificate with the 'Name of Son.' John says that Jesus, as God’s only son, makes God known. The Gospel presents Jesus as God’s spitting image. Jesus is the blanket that the Gospels use to throw on the mystery that is God to give the mystery shape." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/jesus-birth-certificate-fathers-name/