Acts 1:15-17 | Psalm 1 | John 17:6-19
Jeremy Richards
Last week I told you that Jesus is out in our world, working, and all we have to do is find him and partner with him, and today we open our Bibles and Jesus says, “…I am no longer in the world” (v. 11). Last week I told you we need to immerse ourselves in our communities and build lasting relationships, and today Jesus says of his disciples, “they do not belong to the world,” (v. 16). Come on!
Acts 10:44-48 | Psalm 98 | 1 John 5:1-6 | John 15:9-17
Jeremy Richards
The year after I graduated from college, when Brie was still a Junior, we decided we wanted to try a different church. We’d been going to a large church that was great in many ways, but we felt like it was just too big. Most Sundays we sat by people we’d never met before.
We wanted more connection. We wanted to know people in our church, and we wanted them to know us.
Psalm 23 | 1 John 3:16-24 | John 10:11-18
Jeremy Richards
I’d like to begin with a question: Where are you this morning?
This might seem like an odd question, since you’re sitting right in front of me. I’m looking at you. Obviously you’re in our church building. Maybe my question isn’t so much “Where are you?” as “Where else are you?”
Psalm 4 | 1 John 3:1-7 | Luke 24:36-48
Jeremy Richards
Our Gospel reading this morning begins with disbelief. Most of the disciples do not yet believe that Jesus has been raised from the dead. While many modern day churches want to get to Easter as quickly as possible – want to celebrate the resurrection and leave behind Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday – the early followers of Jesus weren’t so quick to celebrate Easter. They found it too good to be true. They didn’t believe so easily.
Isaiah 25:6-9 | Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 | Acts 10:34-43 | Mark 16:1-8
Jeremy Richards
Brie and my first vacation as a married couple was to Yosemite National Park. We went in the spring, when it wasn’t peak tourist season, but we never would have guessed that. We had to book our campsite months ahead of time, and it seemed that no matter where we went in the valley there were crowds everywhere. The hikes were still fun and the views breathtaking, but it was hard to get a photo without 2 or 3 other people showing up in the background.
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 | Mark 11:1-11
Jeremy Richards
Our reading today tells the story of Jesus’ “triumphal entry,” which is celebrated every Palm Sunday. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem as a king, albeit a humble king. As Jesus descends the Mount of Olives on the back a young donkey, he is greeted by a group of “many people” who spread cloaks and leafy branches on the ground ahead of him, and they cry out “Hosanna (which means “God save us”)! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” It’s not hard to see why this is referred to as a “triumphal entry.” Everything’s “coming up Jesus” in this story – from the free colt to the cloaks spread across the road to the shouts of Hosanna, this is triumphal.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 | Psalm 51:1-12 | John 12:20-33
Jeremy Richards
One day in the year 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen, a little known professor of physics at the University of Wurzburg in Germany, was doing some experiments, as scientists tend to do. Roentgen was playing around with electrical currents, passing them through vacuum tubes. He noticed that the currents caused a fluorescent screen across the room to light up, despite the fact that there was a cardboard barrier between them.
Numbers 21:4-9 | Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 | Ephesians 2: 1-10 | John 3:14-21
Jeremy Richards
Today we hear one of the most famous verses in Scripture, if not the most famous verse in Scripture: John 3:16. Many of you know it I’m sure. If you do, say it with me now: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This verse has become so rote that we probably don’t even stop to think about what it says.