Re-Placing Friendships

Oak Church Sermons

09/23/2018

Acts 16:13-34

Chris Breslin

“It’s easy for us to see what our church or neighborhood or city could be, to see all the things it’s not and dream of other places. But what if our sense of what could be is not an invitation to leave and find that elsewhere? What if it’s an invitation to shape our place? Anyone can complain about what is or pick up and move to a fully-formed place. It takes imagination and creativity and patience to be the ones who start making something new. It’ll be hard and we’ll need God and each other. But that’s okay. That’s why we have the Church.” -Mandy Smith (from a Missio Alliance post, Our ‘Not Going Away’ Party)

“Things begin with strange friendships in unexpected places, and they also continue in this way. But perhaps we should not find this entirely unexpected. it is, of course, how God incarnate in Jesus Christ has befriended us.” -Douglas Campbell

“It is no accident that she is drawn to these disciples, because the enslaved are often drawn to those who are religious, either as an echoing sign of their own enslavement, deepening further the power of that captivity, or as a hopeful possibility of emancipation.” -Willie James Jennings

“Being friends with Jesus and with those who are poor requires us that we give up being friends with “the world.” – Christopher Heuertz & Christine Pohl (from Friendship at the Margins: Discovering Mutuality in Service and Mission)

“Hope is a song in a weary throat.” -Pauli Murray

“We must become the gospel in its fulness by participating fulling in the life of God manifested in Christ.” -Michael Gorman

“Father, remind us you are here with us. Show us your heart for this place. Give us courage to stay. Give us what we need to be faithful to your call to be here.” -Mandy Smith

Scripture:

Mark 5

Philippians 3:8-10

Philippians 2:5-11

Songs for Today’s Worship Gathering:

Brother by Gungor/Cron/Arndt

For the Beauty of the Earth by Pierpoint/Kocher

You Carried Me by Reagan

I Shall Not Want by Assad/Brown

Our God is Present by White

I Am For You by Meek/Anderson

Doxology

Series Resources:

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicalsby Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, & Enuma Okoro

Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Missionby David Fitch

Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growthby Richard Foster

Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Lifeby Tish Harrison Warren

Slow Churchby C. Christopher Smith

The New Parishby Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens & Dwight Friesen

The Art of Neighboringby Jay Pathak & Dave Runyon

No Home Like Placeby Leonard Hjalmarson

Where Mortals Dwellby Craig Bartholomew

Race and Placeby David Leong

Seeing Jesus in East Harlemby José Humphreys

Making Neighborhoods Wholeby Wayne Gordon & John Perkins

Roadmap to Reconciliationby Brenda Salter McNeil

The Power of Proximityby Michelle Ferrigno Warren

Making Roomby Christine Pohl

Reconstructing the Gospelby Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove