Sermons

Join Glen Miles each Sunday during the months of June and July to hear The Gospel According to the Beatles sermon series.

From Let It Be to The Long and Winding Road the music of The Beatles is filled with reflections on universal themes like love, grace, regret, hope, forgiveness, sorrow, peace, and more. This summer we will take a look at the Gospel through the lens of their iconic songs. This light-hearted series will be a fun way to hear some great old music while also reflecting on life lessons from the pages of the Bible.

 Triple Threat: The Three 2020 Crises. The inspiration for the series comes from an interview on NPR with filmmaker Ken Burns. He wonders if the year 2020 and the three viruses we faced, COVID-19, white supremacy, and misinformation, are among the most challenging crises in our nation's history. It was a hard year, but there is hope in naming the pain

The Green Road Bible study will invite us to listen to the ancient words of scripture, emphasizing how they instruct us to care for all of creation. The reality of the global climate crisis is overwhelming, but our faith invites us to seek ways to sustain and heal the land. 

In Lent, we’re reminded that, again and again, suffering and brokenness find us. We doubt again, we lament again, we mess up again. Again and again, the story of Jesus on the cross repeats—every time lives are taken unjustly, every time the powerful choose corruption and violence, every time individuals forget how to love. With exacerbation we exclaim, “Again?! How long, O God?” And yet, in the midst of the motion blur chaos of our lives, God offers a sacred refrain: “I choose you, I love you, I will lead you to repair.” Again and again, God breaks the cycle and offers us a new way forward.

This theme provides a clear invitation in a time when much is unclear. Even if worshiping apart, we come to God again and again with our prayers, our dreams, our hopes, and our doubts. Even if from a distance, we will continue to be community to one another—especially when it’s hard—by choosing each other over and over again. We will continue to love God with the same persistence God chooses and claims us. Our sub-theme, A Lenten Refrain, speaks to the ways God can make music of our lives. “Refrain” also reminds us that Lent is a season of abstaining from certain practices in order to take on new rhythms and habits.

In this season, we need rituals—both old and new—to remember and be transformed. Embodied practice builds muscle memory. Repetition helps retrain our neural pathways. We need the 46 days of Lent because this season shapes us into more faithful disciples. Join us this Lent as again and again, we bring all of who we are to God and trust that God will meet us, time and again, along the way.

commentary by: rev. t. denise anderson | guide by: rev. lisle gwynn garrity |sanctifiedart.org