Text: Luke 4:18-19, Acts 1:8, 2:1-4, 38-39 One of the things that we have re-discovered and remembered this year is that church is not a building. We have a building, sure. But the church is the people. You and me. The body of Christ. In the same way, the presence of God is not confined…
Pentecost
The Breath of the Spirit (2.0)
note… the original sermon for Pentecost was written over 10 days ago because of staff vacations and our own pre-recording for worship in the age of Covid-19. But I couldn’t rest with this sermon and felt the Spirit keep nudging me to talk about how breath this past week has been stolen from so many……
What’s Mine is Yours
Later this morning, our church will welcome nine new members. These young people have been working hard all year long to learn more about the faith that we hold together. And they will stand before the congregation at our second service this morning and will confirm and profess that faith for themselves. While a few…
Spirit of Embodiment
Last week I talked a little bit about how I am trying to be more healthy and strong and one of the ways I am doing that is by going to the gym. I’m there four-five days a week and each time, while the majority of the exercises we all share together, there are a…
Spirit of Self-Control
Many of you know that I spent some time this spring focusing on my health. I joined a gym, worked out five times a week, and kept to a limited food plan focused on building lean muscle and burning fat. For the six weeks of the challenge, I practiced incredible self-control. And the week after,…
The Spirit of Goodness
We’ve heard of goody-two-shoes… Good riddance… Goodness gracious great balls of fire… Goodbye… Things can taste good, we like to read good books and tell good stories. We tell our children to be good and to get good grades. But what does it really mean to be good? The Random House dictionary has 41 different…
The Spirit of Community
This summer at Immanuel, we have been exploring how the Holy Spirit shows up in the lives of characters throughout the scriptures. Today, we find two men who have very different attitudes towards the work of God: the sorcerer and the eunuch. Philip is a deacon, a servant of the church, and he encounters lots…
The Spirit of Kindness
One afternoon when I was serving the church in Marengo, a young woman walked into the church and asked to use the telephone. Not a problem, I said. We talked for a bit and I learned she had just been released from the county jail, was 80 miles from home, and no one was coming…