Sermon

Christmas Day 2016. Lead pastor on Matthew 6:24 — ‘no one can serve two masters.’ Born into a manger because there was no room in the inn, Christ asks at Christmas the same question he asked in the desert: who, really, do you serve?

Lead pastor on Matthew 5:3-11, the Beatitudes — Jesus’s surprising blessing of the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry, the merciful. Suffering and healing are not opposites in the Kingdom of God; the wounded are exactly those who are blessed.

Pastor Chung on Luke 8:43-48, the woman with the issue of blood. Twelve years of bleeding, twelve years of doctors, twelve years of being unclean — and one moment of touching the hem of Christ’s robe. Healing comes not in spite of suffering but in the courage to reach toward Jesus from within it.

Pastor Timothy on Matthew 3:1-12, John the Baptist’s call to repentance. A queer-Christian reading of the prophet’s voice in the wilderness: ‘come out’ — out of hiding, out of self-denial, out of the closet — ‘for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.’ The reign of God begins where we step into honesty.

Rev. Phyllis Wong on Luke 15 — the parable of the prodigal son. Who, really, is the prodigal? The younger son who left, the older brother who stayed in resentment, or perhaps the father who runs out to embrace them both? A reading that invites us to see ourselves in each of the three.

Jason Ho on Mark 4:26-32 — the parables of the growing seed and the mustard seed. Every believer is a seed created by God — small, planted in the earth, growing in ways the gardener does not entirely see. Trust the growth.