Christ our Unity

The slides for this sermon can be downloaded here.

Written in the first decades of the early church’s life, the epistle to the Colossians holds out a vision of life in Christ that is simple, hopeful, and above all, good. In our exploration of this text, we aim to celebrate the way of Jesus that bears good and beautiful fruit—wisdom, unity, fullness, life—and that opens doors to encourage ongoing discovery of ever more goodness. Our hope is that this series helps us to hold our lives with joy, peace, gratitude, simplicity and hope.

Christ our Wisdom

Written in the first decades of the early church’s life, the epistle to the Colossians holds out a vision of life in Christ that is simple, hopeful, and above all, good. In our exploration of this text, we aim to celebrate the way of Jesus that bears good and beautiful fruit—wisdom, unity, fullness, life—and that opens doors to encourage ongoing discovery of ever more goodness. Our hope is that this series helps us to hold our lives with joy, peace, gratitude, simplicity and hope.

Inadequacy

The word “disappointment” refers to the sorrow that we often feel as a result of our unfulfilled hopes or expectations. But is sorrow the only outcome of disappointment? According to the Season of Lent and way of Jesus, difficult human experiences—even death itself—are imbued with unexpected surprises and possibilities. During this Season of Lent we’ll explore the life of Moses and his many disappointments. We’ll make space to lament our own experiences of disappointment while being intentional to consider the potential gifts that disappointment affords. Our desire is that this series grows our capacity to hold both sorrow and hope, in the midst of the sincere disappointment that we all encounter.

Abandonment

The word “disappointment” refers to the sorrow that we often feel as a result of our unfulfilled hopes or expectations. But is sorrow the only outcome of disappointment? According to the Season of Lent and way of Jesus, difficult human experiences—even death itself—are imbued with unexpected surprises and possibilities. During this Season of Lent we’ll explore the life of Moses and his many disappointments. We’ll make space to lament our own experiences of disappointment while being intentional to consider the potential gifts that disappointment affords. Our desire is that this series grows our capacity to hold both sorrow and hope, in the midst of the sincere disappointment that we all encounter.

Atonement

Throughout its long history, the Christian community has pondered a set of mysteries drawn from the life of Jesus. Mystery—this word, in its ancient sense, points toward something hidden, a dawning awareness that unfolds only slowly through musing, reflection, pondering. In this sense, these Christian treasures—Incarnation, Atonement, Resurrection, Trinity—are not fixed dogmas with singular meaning. In this series we will explore how these evocative images continue to disclose new meaning today, illuminating our lives as we hold the story of Jesus in conversation with our evolving understanding of justice, goodness, and reality itself.