Isaiah 55:1-13

Buy it quick before it runs out! One day sale only! Maybe I should get two just in case. We are trained from an early age by society and by advertising to fear that if we don't purchase something, it will not be available to us in the future or at that price, and we will suffer somehow for not owning it. People are good at manufacturing the fear of scarcity despite the fact that we are surrounded by an abundance of stuff and things. Jordan Morehouse, reflecting on the scripture from Isaiah, contends that in the face of abundance we are so conditioned to scarcity that we don't know how to trust that there is enough. Our fear of scarcity drives us to work longer hours or side hustle for more money, and reduces our capacity to build community with family, friends, and other believers. This in turn reduces our available social safety net, which leads to more fear, which leads to more work, in an ever-tightening spiral. The powers of the world use the threat of less to justify war and cruelty, and the whole system would collapse if everyone views what they have as abundance. Tyrants fear abundance, but God delights in it. God brings manna, loaves and fishes, and salvation through Christ all without cost. To combat this sinister mindset of scarcity that constantly robs our lives of joy and community, our church bodies must lean in to a culture of radical, reflexive generosity, giving more than we expect to ever receive, without strings attached. These small kindnesses will quietly build, multiply, and produce unimaginable abundance as God's love has already shown us through Christ's example

John 11:14-27 Ezekiel 37:1-14

Susan Scott's sermon starts us with Israel's period of exile in Babylon, where Jerusalem has fallen, the temple is destroyed, and the people feel like God has abandoned them without hope. Ezekiel reminds the Israelites that God has not forgotten them. God keenly knows their suffering and Showed Ezekiel a vision of hope in the valley of dry bones that could be made to dance. God is greater than death and Israel will live again, even though that will still take decades. Eventually God's people return, rebuild, and there is a revival of the people. We see the same theme 600 years later in the John scripture with Jesus's resurrection of Lazarus. Jesus waits until after Lazarus dies to come back a perform a miracle. Jesus, like God to Ezekiel, speaks words of hope and faith to those mourning Lazarus and regretting Jesus's delayed response. We too, much wait patiently with faith and hope that God will make good on their promises even when our circumstances appear bleak. Remember that God is greater than death, greater than our problems, and when God is at work there is always hope.

Daniel 3:1, 8-30

Due to some technical issues, the beginning of Susan's sermon was cut off.

On this first Sunday of Advent 2025, we were introduced to the theme for Advent: "Be Amazed!" This week's focus was on the three youths, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who refused to bow down to the image of King Nebuchadnezzar. As a result, they are thrown into the fiery furnace. Yet God protects them.

(Image of the fiery furnace by artist Konstantinos Adrianoupolitis, in the public domain.)

2 Timothy 1:3-7, Philippians 1:3-4,7

Ann Robertson brought the message this Sunday prior to Thanksgiving. She reminded us of the importance of being grateful for the people in our lives who have made a difference and reflected on the ways that gratitude benefits us. Ann also provided some solutions to address times when we might not be so grateful, three of which were portrayed humorously by Hans.

As Paul told the church in Philippi, "I thank God every time I think of you."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

As we approach Thanksgiving, Susan provided suggestions for how to live into a life of gratitude.

The book of Thessalonians is said to be the oldest writing in the new testament. The letter is written to a church facing persecution, with the people fearing for their lives. Yet the writer tells them to, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in all circumstances."

Gratitude isn't just a practice for the good times.

Because the important thing is not just to think about gratitude, but to do it, we were provided an opportunity to reflect on things we're grateful for and share at least one of those things with our neighbor. Susan also provided some ways to practice gratitude and incorporate these habits into our daily lives.

Proverbs 3:9-17

Our guest speaker this Sunday was Franco Salvatori, an Everence stewardship consultant. Due to flight cancellations he couldn't be with us in person, so he shared his message via Zoom.

Consumerism is a unifying religion in America. It's the thing that makes you wish you just had more. But as Christ's followers we're called to worship only one God, and it's not consumption. It's easy to fill our lives with stuff, but still be empty.

The path toward an overflowing life is through wisdom and generosity. Honoring God with our first fruits is the practice of recognizing God's hand in providing the resources that we have.

God calls us to give of our first fruits not because God needs it, but because it actually changes us. It changes our hearts and helps us focus on the giver. As we practice that discipline it creates an attitude in us that Franco called wealth. If we've developed an action of giving and of generosity, because we are seeking wisdom and we're seeking God, then it's the exact opposite of consumerism. And Proverbs tells us that is the pathway to an overflowing life.

Ephesians 1: 15-23 Ephesians 3: 14-21

When you pray to God, what underlying assumptions about God do you bring to the interaction? Do you believe God to be: loving? trustworthy? concerned with your life? These assumptions, and honestly our biases, fundamentally shape how we pray, the nature of our prayer life, and a good portion of our spiritual journey as a whole. Susan Scott preached on the prayer that started in Ephesians 1, was interrupted, and finished in Ephesians 3. What can we learn from this prayer? God is knowable, worth knowing, and stands ready to impart the wisdom and most importantly, the hope that we need. This hope is not for riches or aggrandizement, but rather that God will do what they have promised to do and to aid us in our calling. This hope allows us to wait patiently for the things that God has promised that we do not yet have. Ultimately, this hope is that God will reconcile all things in heaven and earth through Jesus. Hope give us the ability to endure the feelings of helplessness and despair when the world around us seems dark and unredeemable: when all of our efforts to bring light and salt appear futile. Remember that God wastes none of the work that they call you to do and that is all a part of a plan of redemption that started even before Christ appeared.

Matthew 4: 8-10

Mauricio Chenlo preached on Satan’s temptation of Christ, offering him all of the kingdoms of the world. Similarly, often we depend on the kingdoms of the world to deliver the kingdom of God. Mauricio related his experiences growing up in Argentina where he experienced Christian faith expressed in the nation’s politics swing wildly from right to left as the government went from a dictatorship to a Marxist government. He even heard the preaching on liberation theology about the kingdom of God from the dictator Ortega of Nicaragua in the 90s. Politics is the process by which people make collective decisions about how to live together by distributing power, responsibilities and resources. So, who gets to define these priorities? In this country it seems that we are told to change our politics every four years. Likewise, the Church historically has been tempted to align with political ideologies. Jesus, however, brings a different kind of politics. Jesus rejected alignment with any of the political ideologies of his time. The role of the Church is to be a witness and an extension of the kingdom of God in this world, because we still must be in the world even if we are not of the world. We cannot just focus on feeding people’s bodies (not on bread alone); we must also nourish people spiritually. We must not manipulate God’s word, love, or message to gain power or popularity.