Sermons

Reasons to Rejoice Pentecost Fourteen, 9/14/2025 Bob Stillerman Luke 15:1-10 Bulletin | Sermon Text Luke 15:1-10 15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. 15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 15:3 So Jesus told them […]

If we are going to choose life, Millbrook, that is, if we are going to be a people covenanted to God and neighbor, our lives cannot continue to be lives defined by the things, the people, and the lands, and even the ideas we occupy. Ours must be lives, defined by the things, and the people, and the places, and the ideas that are experienced AND shared together in God’s presence. In other words, the land of promise can have no borders, can have no barriers, can have no limitations, if it is indeed one that reflects the God who offers it.

Station-Centered Worship on a Weekend of Rest Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost, 8/31/2025 Jesus reminds Matthew’s community, and ours as well: 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and […]

We must be alert to the people and places in our daily lives marginalized by unjust systems. We must model a lived and practiced empathy for everyone and everything in our ecosystems that results in a felt compassion by our neighbors.  And we must act. We must act in ways that make our neighbors seen, heard, valued, and credentialed in every capacity. 

Just like the Acts Community, we are living through unparalleled change. And just like them, we find our resources stretched, our structure challenged as we seek to be fed by the Word, to share in the fullness of life with one another, and to help bring about the kin-dom Christ bid come.  And just like the Acts Community, we have leaders, deacons, with gifts, and voices, and love to help us discern our needs, and better still, allocate our spiritual resources to achieve our desired end.

Here’s what Jesus is critiquing: Greed and apathy. Jesus frowns on those who hoard abundance.  The rich farmer’s entire value system is inwardly-focused. He gathers his resources without gratitude for the God that provides such abundance, without acknowledgement of the sharecroppers he’s exploited to accumulate his wealth, and without any intention to use such resources to better the lives of his neighbors.