Melissa continues her three-part series on Jesus' discourse about bread. The bread of life, as Jesus talks about it in John 6:51-58, isn't a pill you swallow or compass giving directions. It's a feast that you get into. It's messy and visceral and fleshy. Jesus wants to get into our lives and become a part of us. Jesus wants to give us life and giv…

Scripture: Exodus 16:4-8, 13-21 and John 6:35, 41-51 We, along with all the creatures of the world, are invited to be the fullness of our created being. The passages from Exodus and John tell a story of trust, a dependence on God. Jesus also reminds people about all of the non-human creatures who depend on the Creator for life. The story of manna a…

2 Samuel 11: 1-5 Melissa Florer-Bixler's invites us to consider King David's abuse of power over Bathsheba, which mirrors abuses of positions of authority we now see in churches, businesses, and other institutions, especially since the beginning of the #MeToo era. The triumphant king in last week's sermon that danced with joy before God and her cho…

Psalm 23, Jeremiah 23: 1-6 What does it mean to wrestle with our faith when the word calls us not be afraid or reassures us of God's imminent just resolution to injustice? In their first sermon at RMC, intern Katie Magnum explores the connections between Psalm 23 and Jeremiah 23, which are vastly different in tone, but convey a message of God's int…

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 What does David dancing with abandon, Jesus' life and suffering, a famous New York City gay nightclub, the subversion of toxic masculinity in modern Christianity, and the role that joy plays in the spiritual life of the church and the knowledge of God's character all have in common? Melissa Florer-Bixler ties all these dispar…

Susan and Hans provided a sermon dialogue based on the passage from Mark 5:21-43 of the woman with the hemorrhage and Jairus, a chief rabbi in the synagogue, whose daughter was deathly ill. They portrayed these two characters who met Jesus, allowing us to picture ourselves in the story. Through this imaginative retelling, we can be touched by the s…

Susan Scott brought the message this morning from the book of Job. The story of Job is a literary construct. It's about faithfulness in adversity and raises a lot of questions, with no easy answers. Suffering often prompts a crisis of faith. It's okay to be angry at God; God can take it. Ultimately, God's love is bigger than our questions.…

Scripture: Mark 4:26-34 In this Sunday's message, Melissa wove together the parables of the sower scattering seed and of the mustard seed growing with the tremendously destructive dispensationalist theology made popular by Hal Lindsey. Dispensationalism is a reading of scripture that is the basis of Christian Zionism, a violent anti-Semitic, litera…

Matthew 19:1-12 and John 1:14-16 Melissa wraps up the series about questions the congregation has asked this Sunday, focusing on the question of sex, and intertwines it with the need for grace. Just before his conversion to Christianity the saint and theologian of the church, Augustine of Hippo, is in a garden and he prays a prayer. "God, give me c…

Jeremiah 29: 1-9 Isaac Villegas guest preaches in our ongoing sermon series "I'm not so sure about that" on the topic of pacifism. Isaac explores the concept of peace through the lens of prisons. Using the above passage in Jeremiah, Isaac compares the exile of jews in Babylon to the exile that takes place within modern prisons as well as the awkwar…