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Text: Matthew 25:31-46 Description: Pastor Krista shares about her experience of seeing Jesus in those experiencing homelessness in downtown Racine.  We are all called to love those in need, for they all bear the image of God.  As mentioned in the sermon: Lady Preacher Podcast: Rev. Mahogany Thomas: Imagining a New Love Ethic https://www.dancingpastor.org/ladypreacher (also can be found on all podcast apps)

Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30 Description: In so many ways right now what we have is not enough. What we can do is not enough. What does God call us to while we wait for things to get better?

Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13 Description: At MPLC we celebrate an extended Advent season, focused on what it means to live in faith in this “in between” time…between Jesus’ birth and his coming again to usher in God’s kingdom. How can we be fired up and ready for that day…which is closer than it has been in two thousand years?  

Text: Matthew 5:1-12 Description:  What does it mean to be a saint? A saint is a follower of Christ. What does it mean to be blessed?  Being blessed is about who you are, not about what you have. 

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46 Description: God’s people have been here before—amid rapid change, division, and fear of the future. Yet God has always seen us through. Listen for how a new framing of our work as a church can help lead us forward on an unpaved road!

Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22 Description: When Jesus got pinned down by a tricky, lose-lose question in a hostile crowd, he could have taken the bait and no one would have blamed him. Instead, he turned it back on his opponents with a word for us, too: Give back to God what is God’s. What does that look like, exactly, if we were to put it into practice?

Reading: Philippians 4:1-9 Description: Christians are called to be unified.  Even in times of division or separation, we are called to rejoice in what have in common- Jesus Christ.   

Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14 (CEV) Description: It’s all TOO MUCH! Our brains and spirits aren’t made to function on high alert all the time. When the heaviness of the world makes us feel like it’s all up to you, remember that it’s really up to God. Take a moment to breathe in God’s grace for you. A Prayer by Thomas Merton, from “Thoughts in Solitude” My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Text: Philippians 2:1-13 Description: It is completely normal to hit a wall during sustained crises like the pandemics we face now. Paul reminds us to stay united in Christ and put other’s before ourselves. 

Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16 (NLT) Parable of the Vineyard Workers 20 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay the normal daily wage[a] and sent them out to work. 3 “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. 4 So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. 5 So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. 6 “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ 7 “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’ 8 “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. 9 When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. 10 When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11 When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 12 ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’ 13 “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’ 16 “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”

Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35 Description: Get out a pencil! Today’s Gospel reading includes some tricky math calculations and the problem of forgiving those who sin against us. How can we learn to do math the way Jesus does it? What might it feel like to stop keeping score?

GOSPEL: Matthew 18:15-20 [Jesus said to the disciples:] 15“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

Text: Romans 12:9-21  Description: We’re all tired, sad, angry, and feel threatened…but for various reasons. And we’re all stuck in a culture that pushes us to react instead of listen. How are we going to get through the next cycle of events together? Links: The word cloud images displayed during this sermon were taken from this survey: https://www.axios.com/axios-surveymonkey-poll-dnc-bounce-fa6029f2-a0d2-4013-8331-bf2256a1b915.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top

Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20 Description: Jesus gives Peter the keys the kingdom because of his faith. Though the church (not a building, the people) has been through a lot over the course of history, it has always survived and will always survive because the church is built on the strength of Christ’s love.   

Gospel: Matthew 15:10-28 Description: When Jesus encounters a bothersome Canaanite woman while traveling, he responds in a way that seems out of character for him. How we make peace with that tells us something about how we make sense of Jesus as both a human being and the Son of God.

Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33 Description: Peter makes a questionable move when he sees Jesus walking across the water. But Jesus is already there, ready to grab his arm and rescue him. Wherever Jesus is, there is calm amidst a storm. Pastor Beth Ann swimming as a child:

Gospel:  Matthew 14:13-21 Description: Jesus feeds the crowd.  Even in the midst of his own grief, he doesn’t send them away hungry.  With all the hunger and collective trauma we are going through, Pastor Krista suggests we all deserve to brought a casserole.  

Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Description: God’s rescue mission (aka the kingdom of heaven) is found in the little things that grow into big things where all are cared for and included in God’s family.  When God reveals it to us, we respond by going all in. 

Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 What’s more powerful than a frontal attack? Getting your enemy to destroy itself from within. Listen to Jesus’ parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, and why we should let God worry about the final harvest (instead of us).

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Time for a soil test! Which kind are you today…the beaten down path, the shallow-depth kind, the crowded, weedy sort, or the ready-to-grow kind? To see a 48-row planter in action, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfxGd4p9hcY