Sermons by Rebecca Messman (Page 7)

John 14:8-17 Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church: John 14: 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that…

Acts 16:16-34 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul…

In our sermon series, we have been focusing on Faith and the Arts. First, this series is about how art gets to places where words alone can’t… the creative, messy, holy places where we meet God. Second, this series is a way to think of today’s installation not so much as my being affixed into the church building like a Verizon box, but that we are part of an art installation, where God is doing something beautiful in this community.…

John 10:22-30 Today, we are continuing our series Faith and the Arts, with a focus today on poetry and prose.  What books have shaped your faith? What novels, poems, short stories, or children’s books have given you language for God or the soul, that Mary Oliver calls that wild, silky part of ourselves? What literature has made you feel understood?  Maybe a few titles have come to your mind. For me, I think of The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown and The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery…

Luke 13:1-9  1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you…

Luke 4:1-131 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not…

Matthew 5:1-2, 9-11 1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and…

Matthew 5:1-2, 5-6 1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Let us pray. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable in your…

Matthew 5:1-4 5 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Let us pray. O Lord, uphold me that I might uplift thee. Amen. Today, imagine that I am a kind of journalist, giving you the who, what, when, where, why’s, from…

Luke 5:1-11 5 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from…

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a    12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, “Because I am…

Matthew 4:5-42 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew,…