Second on the Mount

"Let There Be Church" – Acts 2:1-4
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 2023. "How liberating it is to have removed from us the pressure of the responsibility to find on our own our own identity, create our own meaning, and establish our own significance… all of which would die when we die. But life has meaning even at death because it is a life shared with God."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/let-there-be-church/ 

"A Blessing" –  Luke 24:44-53
Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, May 21, 2023. "While God came to us in the flesh and blood of Jesus, the ascension reminds us that we cannot restrict God to any one place. Thus, Jesus’ ascension isn’t about his leaving—his disciples, us, the world—but rather it is about the simultaneous confession that God has chosen to be located in our physical world so that God may be accessible to us, and God refuses to be limited even to those important places. No building, no people, no book, no church can limit God’s ability to be accessible to others. Instead, the ascension it challenges us to ask ourselves, how are we witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ? How do we recognize Christ’s presence among us?"
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/a-blessing/ 

"Known Mystery" – Acts 17:22-31
Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, May 14, 2023. "Embrace the scandalous idea of eternal life, the scandalous idea that grace is more powerful than guilt, and that love has once and for all conquered death in Jesus Christ. And let us not be afraid to question, to explore, to challenge and be challenged, and to seek after God, the Creator God who is revealed in creation, a God who invites us into relationship, who wants us to seek after what our hearts most longs for."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/known-mystery/ 

"Body Memory" – I Corinthians 12:12-13
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, May 7, 2023. "We worship to build Body Memory so as to instinctively love God and serve the world. Serving the world looks different today than it did in Paul’s day. Then it was about giving alms, taking a collection from some members when other members are in trouble, giving a cloak away if one has two, providing a sojourner a meal and room to sleep in one’s home. Today, with the church’s expanded size and resources, it might look like:
an afterschool program for children,
a church or a hospital being built,
supporting a clinic providing mental health care to the underserved,
committing to efforts to overcoming class and race inequities,
sending thousands of dollars and teams of volunteers to disaster sites,
providing a temporary home for those with housing instability,
and supporting a seminary and maybe hosting symposiums to train future church leaders.
Paul would be amazed."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/body-memory/ 

"Write Your Life" – Genesis 1:1-3a, John 1, Rev. 14:13, II Corinthians 3:2-3, Colossians 3:12-17
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, April 30, 2023. "But the question that is asked of all of us, at whatever level we are capable of answering, is, 'What will be the story we tell in life?' 'Will the Word be heard through who we are and how we live, or not?' It is not a question about how successful you are, even in being able to do good in the world. Chance, opportunity, and freedoms play huge roles in how much good we are allowed to do. The question is really about how, within what is possible for us, we are going to live. What witness we make as we write the chapter that is our life."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/write-your-life/ 

"What Is Fair?" – Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, April 23, 2023. "We are quick to allegorize parables. We are quick to explain Jesus’ stories as all about heaven and salvation and glory and a kingdom to come, but he’s most often not talking about salvation or the life to come. More often than not, Jesus is talking about how we can sanctify daily living. He’s talking about the mess of daily life, our pocketbooks, our responsibilities, our ethics."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/what-is-fair/ 

"Shock and Awe" – Psalm 27:1-4, Mark 16:1-8
Sermon by Dr. Ed McLeod, Minister and Head of Staff at First Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, NC and facilitator of the Kitty Susan Trent Symposium, from Sunday, April 16, 2023.

"He Is Raised" – Matthew 28Part 7 of the Sermon Series "Lift High the Cross."
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023. "The realm of God is not bound by borders or legislated by a government. No, the ream of God is forever and today. It is Already-News. The realm is known in baptism when all allegiances give way to an allegiance to God that is then shown when one’s heart is for compassion, one’s agenda is justice, one’s motivation is gratitude, and one’s habit is reconciliation."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/he-is-raised-part-7-of-the-sermon-series-lift-high-the-cross/ 

"The Throne" – John 12:12-13, 19:1-22Part 6 of the Sermon Series "Lift High the Cross."
Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Palm Sunday, April 4, 2023.
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/the-throne-part-6-of-the-sermon-series-lift-high-the-cross/ 

"Carried" – Matthew 16:21-26Part 5 of the Sermon Series "Lift High the Cross."
Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, March 26, 2023. "If we can understand that all suffering and crucifixion is of the “one body,” then we are open to the crosses others carry, and it is then that we may join in the reconciling work of Christ’s cross for all. It is then that we realize that my salvation is a part of your salvation. It is then we realize that my liberation is bound up in the liberation of the other. It is then we realize that my reconciliation, is the reconciliation of all creation, through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/carried-part-5-of-the-sermon-series-lift-high-the-cross/