IMAGE CREDIT: Paint Background Nyc Grunge Design, by Brenda Johnson (2015) [https://pixabay.com/en/paint-background-nyc-grunge-design-621098/

THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO?

July 8, 2018
Pentecost 7B
Mark 6:1-13
Brookside Community Church
8 East Main Street
Brookside, NJ 07926
brooksidechurch.org

When the Bible is turned into a tool to justify violence, faithfulness to God requires us to reread it, contest it, or even resist portions of it.

Sermon notes are available here, either in pdf or epub format.

IMAGE CREDIT: Modern Contemporary Art Design A, by Devalei, Pune/India (2016) [https://pixabay.com/photo-1894068/]

RESURRECTING THE BIBLE AS THE PEOPLE'S BOOK!

July 1, 2018
Pentecost 6B
Mark 5:21-43
Brookside Community Church
8 East Main Street
Brookside, NJ 07926
brooksidechurch.org

Truly inclusive Christian communities have the audacity to wrestle with the Bible. That is what it looks like to act with faith in God. They do this by joining with the generations before them and inspiring those who will come after them in the struggle to become faithfully human.

Sermon notes are available here, either in pdf or epub format.

IMAGE CREDIT: XYZ Axis. Cincinnati, Ohio (2011), by Matt W. Moore. [http://mwmgraphics.com/murals_diamonds.html]

WHAT ARE WE AFRAID OF?

June 24, 2018
Pentecost 5B
Mark 4:35-41
Brookside Community Church
8 East Main Street
Brookside, NJ 07926
brooksidechurch.org

Truly inclusive religious spaces are those that say, “We long for you to be included among us because we cannot fully encounter the mystery of God without you.”

Sermon notes are available here, either in pdf or epub format.

IMAGE CREDIT: Parable of the Mustard Seed, by A painted window at the YMCA training center for German leadership in Kassel. Photo by tin.G. , 2000. Courtesy of wikioo.org, the Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55890]

SEASONS OF LOVE

June 17, 2018
Pentecost 4B
Mark 4:26-34
Brookside Community Church
8 East Main Street
Brookside, NJ 07926
brooksidechurch.org

Love is messy. Love is uncontrollable. For most of us, our ability to love grows in seasons. We move from charity to solidarity, and then conversion. We realize that our salvation is caught up in the salvation of others, and then it becomes a force to be reckoned with. Let us be like Jesus, planting seeds of the “kin-dom.”

Sermon notes are available here, either in pdf or epub format.

Peace Dove, from Street Art and Graffiti in Santiago de Chile (Part 1), by Yasha Langford and Juergen Klein. [http://dare2go.com/street-art-graffiti-santiago-de-chile-1/]

A Covenant of Peace

May 6, 2018
Easter 6B
John 15:9-17
Brookside Community Church
8 East Main Street
Brookside, NJ 07926
brooksidechurch.org

Covenants are not just contracts, exchanges of property or actions. Covenant are about binding two parties together in a way that creates a new identity. God’s covenant with us is rooted in a promise of peace, since from the very beginning humanity was created to live in covenant partnership with God.

Sermon notes are available here, either in pdf or epub format.

[Image: pxhere.com/sv/photo/1205441,  CC0 Public Domain

Abide With Me
April 29, 2018
Easter 5B
John 15:1-8
Brookside Community Church
brooksidechurch.org

We are truly at home in the places we are fully loved, where we are fully animated by love.The Resurrection frees us to be at home in God’s love. In God’s love we discover who we truly are!

Sermon notes are available here, either in pdf or epub format.