Revelation 4-5 (esp. 5:11-14)

Jeremy Richards        

I’m no art connoisseur, but I like art. When Brie and I visit other cities, we often like to go to the art museums, even though we’ve never been to the Portland Art Museum, if you can believe that. But in New York we went to the Met and MOMA. In Italy we went to the Borghese Gallery. And then, every church in Italy was basically an art museum as well. While I’m not so into gold and gaudy decorations, I think it would be great if churches started looking like art museums again (maybe we could start with our church?). Our faith is too cerebral these days. In Amsterdam we went to the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum. We’re total novices when it comes to art appreciation, and we have no real experience or talent when it comes to the visual arts, but every time Brie and I visit an art museum, we end up wishing we went more.

Revelation 1:4-8

Jeremy Richards        

Audio recording: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/04-28-19-revelation-a-line-in-the-sand-jeremy-richards/id1479727299?i=1000453170333

After our daughter Esther’s birth at Legacy Emmanuel, Brie and Esther were wheeled to a beautiful room in Randall Children’s hospital. The two hospitals are connected, so we never went outside. When we got to our room high up in the hospital, we had a beautiful view looking out over green treetops against a blue sky. It was like we were in another world. We had nurses caring for us, Brie had food delivered, and, of course, we had this new human, this new child. Our entire family had changed. Our whole world had changed. No longer were we two, we were three.

Luke 24:1-12 | 1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Jeremy Richards

Easter is arguably the most important holiday in the Christian calendar, second only, maybe, to Christmas. It’s a day of victory; the tomb is empty! Death has been defeated! We sing “Crown him the Lord of life, who triumphed or the grave, and rose victorious in the strife for those he came to save.”

Psalm 126 | John 12:1-8

Jeremy Richards

Audio recording: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/04-07-19-filled-up-poured-out-jeremy-richards/id1479727299?i=1000449402368

As many of you know, Brie and I were both English majors which means, among other things, that we love stories. We love to read them in books, to watch them in plays and movies, and even, occasionally, to write them ourselves.

Ben Dillon

Isaiah 55:1-9 | Psalm 63:1-8 | Luke 13:1-9

Audio recording: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/03-24-19-we-need-to-talk-ben-dillon/id1479727299?i=1000449402367

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 | Psalm 27

Jeremy Richards

 There’s a theme running through our two readings today, and running through most of Scripture that stands out to me. And it stands out to me because it’s so present in our readings, and so present in the whole of Scripture, and yet so often absent in my own life. And that theme is a real belief that God is present and active in our lives, and more than that, that we can depend on God. In the story from Genesis, Abram is completely dependent upon God to fulfill God’s promise and give him an heir, and God shows up and has a conversation with Abram about it. Psalm 27 is 14 verses of trust in God, who the psalmist is sure will never forsake him.

Luke 4:1-13

Jeremy Richards

Last Sunday Esther and Brie were in Sacramento, so I actually got to go to a movie theater and see a movie. I’d been wanting to see Free Solo for a long time and knew I wouldn’t have another chance to see it in the theater, so I went to see it at Laurelhurst Theater. It did not disappoint. 

Acts 8:26-39

Jeremy Richards  

The first episode of my favorite TV show, The OC, opens with young teenager Ryan Atwood stealing a car with his brother Trey. They’re quickly caught by the police and Ryan finds himself in jail. He’s assigned an attorney by the state, Sandy Cohen. Sandy gives Ryan his card and tells him if he ever needs anything to give him a call. When Ryan’s mom kicks him out and no one will take him in, he inevitably calls Sandy. Sandy takes him from the dirty streets of Chino to a posh gated community in Newport Beach.

Jonah 1:1-6, 12, 15-17; 2:10; 3:1-5, 10; 4:1-4, 11

 Jeremy Richards

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah…” Can we just stop right there? We’re not even a verse into the book, but hold up. How nice would that be? How many of us, at one point or another have asked for a word from God, have asked for direction, only to get…mixed result? Some of us are asking those kind of questions right now. Life seems uncertain and we want to know what we’re supposed to do next. As a church, this is the question we’re asking as we go through this sermon series: where are you leading us, God? We’re asking for a word from God, and here, in the first line of the book of Jonah the word of God just comes to Jonah. What a luckily guy! Or at least that’s what we would think.

Acts 9:1-19a

Jeremy Richards 

For the last 4 Sundays we’ve been talking about journeys. We’ve been talking about how we’re on a faith journey, as individuals and as a church, and we’ve been looking at stories in Scripture about people who travel from one place to another.  From these stories we hope to learn something about ourselves and where God is leading us.

So far this theme seems to resonate with all of us, it’s easy to see ourselves on a journey. We all believe we’re going somewhere, spiritually speaking. We’re travelling from one place to another. But today’s reading asks: what happens when we are, indeed, on a journey, but we’re going the wrong way? What happens when we get the message wrong, when we’re zealous, but our zeal is misplaced. What happens when our faith isn’t healing but is hurting, isn’t helping but hindering?