Seeing God in a Kernel of Wheat

Missionary, advocate, and truth-teller Alison Witt steps into the Eucharist pulpit to offer some honest and challenging thoughts about following the Jesus who falls to the ground like a seed.

To download the sermon, right click on the word download above, and click on "save link as..." - you can also download using a podcast app.

Purity: Glass of Wine, Glass of Urine

2015.11.29 - Kevin Makins - Sexuality & Incarnation

Purity: Glass of Wine, Glass of Urine

Click here to listen (right click and “save link as…” to download)

Luke 8, Leviticus 15, Numbers 19

When you think of Advent and Christmas, what comes to mind?

Mangers? Sheep and oxen? Snow and hot chocolate? God with us?

All good answers. But we’ve talked about that stuff before! Let’s face it, after years and years (and years) of Advent, we could be tricked into thinking we’ve mined the depths of the season, and there is nothing left to discover.

But this, of course, would be a huge mistake… because there is always more to discover.

Advent is about the anticipation of GOD taking on FLESH. God coming entering into God’s creation, taking on our skin, purifying our world, and birthing something new in the midst of it.

And there’s something… deeply sexual about the whole thing!

So what if we explore that for Advent 2015? What might we learn about our relationship with God, with one another, with the creation and with our own bodies?

And how might it fill us again with wonder: Wonder at the Divine Mystery of the Incarnation!

This week we start with what it means to be pure and holy, and how it relates to sex, to God, and to Christmas!

"But I'm Not Concerned About That Now"

2015.02.08 - Stephen Edwards - The Church Calendar

“But I’m Not Concerned About That Now”

Mark 1:29-39

Click here to listen (right click and “save link as…” to download)

Isn’t it weird to think that Jesus was human? Like a REAL flesh and blood human who had to work, and pray, and get up early, and ask the hard questions about what it mean to do God’s work.

What does it mean to be fully human like Jesus?

The text:

Mark 1:29-39

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him.
37 When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38 He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Unclean Spirits

2015.02.01 - Kevin Makins - The Church Calendar

Unclean Spirits

Mark 1:21-28

Click here to listen (right click and “save link as…” to download)

The live sermon recording failed this week, so instead of having no podcast (which is a bummer) or re-preaching it to no-one-all-alone-in-my-room… I called up Susan Littleton! Sue is a part of Eucharist and was happy to sit down with me and play the role of our whole congregation in the sermon.

And we couldn’t have picked a stranger one: the text this week is about unclean spirits, and exorcisms! HA!

It’s easy to want to write off this sort of talk in scripture as superstitious nonsense, but in many ways the stories of Jesus reveal a part of reality that our culture has forgotten: that there are very real spiritual powers around us, and that they can be unclean!

What does Jesus do with these unclean spirits, and what does it mean for us? Let’s dive in.

The text:

Mark 1:21-28

21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Plastic Cow

image

2015.01.04 - Kevin Makins - The Church Calendar

Plastic Cow

John 1:1-18

Click here to listen (right click and “save link as…” to download)

What do we mean when we say GOD?

Are we talking about a giant white man on a throne in the sky? Are we talking about a physical being at all? Are we talking about a crowd freaking out at a spots game?

And what does it mean to have a relationship with this Divine-Creator-Sustainer-Energy-And-Life-Behind-All-The-Cosmos?

Well, it’s kind of like a plastic cow.

The text:

John 1:1-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
…
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
…
16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

Brian Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat - The Epic Wilderness Sermon

image

2014.02.23 - Brian Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat

The Epic Wilderness Sermon

Click here to listen (right click and “save link as…” to download)

Brian and Sylvia, authors of “Colossians Remixed”, happened to be preaching at Eucharist Church on our last week at St Paul’s Presbyterian, a church building we have been meeting in for a year and a half. They took the opportunity to present us with the grandest, most epic “wilderness” sermon you can imagine!

Moving through the entire biblical narrative, Brian and Sylvia told over a dozen stories, and gave us Spirit-filled reflections on community, wilderness, home, and God.

We followed our gathering with a huge potluck under a big tent in the back hall.

At the end of the podcast there is a recording of Hannah Essex, who gave us a closing reflection and led us in a blessing for St Pauls.

We also sang a massive medley that we used to say “goodbye” to the building. It can be found at soundcloud.com/eucharistchurch