Second on the Mount

"Settle In" – Jeremiah 29:1, 4-11Part IV of the Lenten sermon series, "Found in Exile."
Sermon by Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, March 20, 2022. "Sometimes, exile is a statement of geography, and sometimes it is a condition of the soul. It is whenever we are thrust into an unfamiliar and uncomfortable place. When the darkness feels too deep. When the unknowns loom too large. When you would give anything for just a little peace of mind. It was to those people enduring that sort of situation that Jeremiah says, 'Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Grow a family, create a community, and care about the city all around you, even if it isn’t the home you remember.' In other words, 'Keep going, as best you can. Life will still emerge, even from the strangest and least likely of places.'"
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/found-in-exile-settle-in/ 

"The Good Ole Days" – Psalm 137, Matthew 9:14-17Part III of the Lenten sermon series, "Found in Exile."
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, March 13, 2022. "Today, I want to talk about the first step of the journey—the moment-after-the-moment—the moment after the initial shock of the world changing, and the understandable longing for it never to have happened, and to go back to the way it was. It is the moment following a death, a relationship ending, a job lost, a business failing. It is the moment after economic collapse, or a war beginning, or a pandemic shutting a world down. It is after reality sets in and now you are dealing with the fantasies that are defined by emotion—grief maybe, or anger. How is one to react?"
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/found-in-exile-the-good-ole-days/

"The Moment" – II Kings 25:8-17, Lamentations 1:1-7aPart II of the Lenten sermon series, "Found in Exile."
Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, March 6, 2022. "Again and again throughout the history of God’s people, and in the person of Jesus, we are reminded that God is with the victim. God is on the side of the oppressed, the outcast, the alien. Even in the dark moments and hours of fear, loss, and destruction, God is there. Judah need not worry about God’s presence without the Temple still standing. We need not wonder whether God sees evil and cares what becomes of us. God was there in the exile. God is here in this exile."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/found-in-exile-the-moment/

"It's Happening" – Jeremiah 6:13-15, Luke 19:41-44Part I of the Lenten sermon series, "Found in Exile."
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Transfiguration Sunday, February 27, 2022. "'Open your eyes and face it because it’s happening!' is [Jeremiah's] message. And right now, he offers no 'but.' It is not the time to jump quickly to, 'We’ll get over it.' It is not the time to speak of how lemonade is made or how a smile is the reverse of a frown, or how when a door closes a window might be found open. Yes, our whole sermon series will be about wonders and blessings that can be found in loss. But at the point of denial, the true prophet’s best work is to inspire grief over what was thought to be eternal… but is not. This hard moment can be the beginning of the miracle of a healing, and the beginning of a journey to real peace."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/found-in-exile-its-happening/

"Merciful Love" – Luke 6:27-36
Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, February 20, 2022. "Forgiveness is not forgetting. Praying is not an abstract gesture. Lending is no longer irrational. The call to love our enemies is not a passive or submissive stance. It takes courage. Moving toward a person in mercy is the first step to love that is revolutionary. It is a choice. A difficult choice, but one that embodies the now and not-yet reality of God’s beloved community."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/merciful-love/ 

"Love Hazard" – Romans 5:1-11
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, February 13, 2022. "And what is God’s love according to Paul? What he says is in keeping with those poets who know what risk is taken when one fully loves, and what cost can come from having loved another fully. God’s love is Agape love―the full, vulnerable, selfless love of one who does not calculate the risk and accepts the cost. . . . That love is transformative. We are loved in that way, Paul is telling us. And we can love others in that way, he is telling us. And by such love, hearts are broken and remade, lives are transformed, and salvation comes."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/love-hazard/

"We Are One" Youth Sunday Sermons 2022 – Galatians 3:23-29, John 13:31-34
Sermons by graduating seniors Elizabeth Moore (2:53), Isabel Blackshaw (5:45), Ann Foust Bailey (8:45), Patrick Clevenger (12:32), Caroline Moore (16:27), Silvia Wardell (18:53), and Philip Smith (23:02) from Youth Sunday, February 6, 2022. Our Youth Group theme for the year is "We Are One." May our shared identity in Christ draw us closer to each other and to God. For we are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord.

"Bible Struggle" – Luke 4:14-30
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, January 30, 2022. "Confirmation bias is something we all bring to the Bible. If we are going to get past reading scripture and get to scripture reading us, then we need to realize from the get-go that we bring that bias with us. When we accept that we always have an internal editor on call―then we are ready to accept that a Bible Study sometimes needs to be a Bible Struggle."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/bible-struggle/ 

"Full" – John 2:1-11
Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, January 23, 2022. "Yet, something incredible is revealed in this moment. It’s not a revelation of awe or judgment. But a revelation, a miracle of abundance, surprise, and delight. Jesus’ first miracle, his sign, of abundance is revealing God’s glory—and then follows the miracle that the disciples believed. This miracle, this sign, points to God revealing God’s self in Jesus. This is the kind of work God is about. It’s more than a story about how great God is, it’s also a story about how when God is revealed, there is laughter, astonishment, joy."
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/full/ 

"The Joyful Harvest of a Tearful Sowing" – Philippians 3:4-14
Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, January 16, 2022. "The psalm frames a question for us when we face difficult times: 'To sow or not to sow?' Though I’m playing off of Hamlet’s question, I do not mean to be frivolous in asking it. When facing challenges like getting through a pandemic, or facing difficult issues like the legacy of racism in America, or a terrible tragedy like the death of a child, the major question is about stewardship. Is one going to be a steward of challenge, loss, and pain? Sometimes there are lessons to be learned from what is lost (the prophets made that clear to the exiles), and sometimes terrible things happen because that’s the risk of life (the book of Job made that clear to the exiles). But always there is… for lack of a better word… a choice to be made. Am I to find reasons to live forward with hope and faith…or not?"
Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/the-joyful-harvest-of-a-tearful-sowing/