First Presbyterian Church of Santa Rosa

We live in a society where the echoes of Athens still entice us to believe that we can shape the world according to our own sensibilities. Across the ages, Paul reminds us that God loves us far too much to leave us abandoned to a fractured world formed in our own fractured images.

Christ’s suffering makes a way out of the mess for us and sets us free to care for others.

Like Saul, each one of us needs to be confronted with a revelation from beyond ourselves and led by the hand into receiving the ministry of others and discovering new ways of seeing.

The great good news is not just that Jesus conquers the grave, it’s that he comes and speaks to us by name, seeking us out and inviting us to new life.

While the crowds in Jerusalem initially shouted "Hosanna" in hopes of a political conqueror, Jesus revealed a different kind of "upside-down" power: the power of humility, forgiveness, and sacrificial love.

During his trial, Jesus is revealed not just as the victim unjustly humiliated, but as the judge who judges humanity with kindness, mercy, and infinite love.

God’s perfect love meets us in our brokenness, freeing us from fear and forming us into a community that practices love imperfectly yet faithfully.

The kingdoms of this world are challenged and ultimately defeated by the truer kingdom of divine origin, which is represented by and ushered in by Jesus.

Because human beings are prone to follow, wander, and be led astray, we need a shepherd we can trust. Jesus is that shepherd: the one who knows us by name, lays down his life for us, and is the gate into abundant life.

More than a dramatic display of power, the raising of Lazarus is a sign that reveals the heart of Christ, who weeps with those who grieve, is not bound by our timelines, and declares, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Even in places that feel sealed and lifeless, his voice still calls forth life.

In giving sight to the man born blind, Jesus disrupts our usual conversations and challenges us to respond to what God is doing here and now.

Faith is an active, humble trust in Jesus’ life-giving power, even without visible proof. This trust is vindicated in Christ, the One who meets us in both our hope and our heartbreak.

In Christ, God seeks out our real, flawed selves and invites us to make Jesus the source of our lives. The living water Jesus offers satisfies our deepest longing and calls us into a transformed life beyond all established barriers.

Jesus invites us to surrender control so we can receive God's mercy and lovingkindness.

When Jesus cleanses the temple, he liberates us from “business as usual” and establishes a new reality where he is the true temple: the true intersection of heaven and earth.

Jesus is one with the Creator who transforms lack into abundance. When we “do everything he tells us," we experience transformation by God's renewing work in us.

Jesus invites those who would be his disciples to follow him. By abiding in him, we experience Christ himself as the place where the divine breaks into our world.

John the Baptist expected a powerful, judgment-bringing Messiah, but the Gospel of John shows Jesus as a loving Savior who chooses the cross to take away the world’s sin.

The good news of Jesus’ birth is that “to you” — to each of us — God has sent a Savior, bringing joy, freedom, and belonging for everyone.

In Christ, God makes a home among us in order to bring us home. Because Jesus is the logos, the life, and the light breaking into our world, we get to be born as a new kind of people: as sons and daughters of our creator God.

God offers an open invitation to all who thirst for spiritual fulfillment, reminding us that true abundance is found in a relationship with God through Christ.

The God who breathes life into creation has the power to revive us with new life, even when we are past hope.

In this first Sunday of Advent, we celebrate God’s promise to send a Savior, fulfilled in Jesus, who rescues us from sin and restores our relationship with God. Just as Isaiah foretold 700 years before Christ’s birth, we are called to receive this Good News with joy and share it with the world.

Even in times of struggle, God is doing a new thing in and through the community of people whom God loves. To be part of it, we invest in the place we find ourselves, seek God wholeheartedly, and work for the thriving of those around us.

God does not always spare us from the fire, but God is with us in it.

The prophet Amos reveals that true worship of God cannot be separated from seeking the good of others.

We often hope our stories will show constant progress, but faith’s real journey includes highs, lows, and God’s steady presence guiding us forward through a still, small voice -- and nourishment for the road.

God often chooses the overlooked, the ordinary, and the unlikely to accomplish God’s work — culminating in Jesus, the humble shepherd-king whose reign redefines power and brings God’s kingdom into our world. We must learn to see not with human eyes that seek outward strength and success, but with God’s heart that values humility, faithfulness, and love.

Calling isn’t for a select few—it’s for all of us. We can understand where God is inviting us by making space to listen, being available, and discerning in community.

Just as God provided “bread from heaven” to the newly liberated people of Israel, God sustains us with true nourishment in Christ, one day at a time.

When Moses discovers a burning bush, he encounters a God who is both bigger than we could possibly understand, and closer than we could ever imagine. In Jesus, we encounter the one who is ultimate mystery and who chooses to draw near to us in relationship.

On her last day on staff, Colleen shared how God calls us to venture far beyond our comfort zone in serving others -- and how God equips us along the way.

Jacob was on the run—alone, guilty, and far from home—when he stumbled into a place he never expected to meet God. Even in the wake of our failures, God’s promise holds: "I am with you. I will keep you. I will bring you back. I will not leave you."

Even when we don’t understand how God is working, we know who God is – God keeps promises, and God makes a way out of no way.

The same God who spoke light into the darkness at creation has entered our chaos as Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, to bring life, order, and hope—and that Light still shines, undefeated, even now.

Director of Youth Ministries Cory Myers explores how we connect personally and communally to the commandments of God as revealed through Moses and Jesus.

In the new creation, we will find the culmination and consummation of the work we do. Though this reality is not yet fully here, Christ’s resurrection is a promise that those who believe in him will one day experience the perfect fulfillment of all our work.

Work and worship become one in the act of joyful giving, which reflects our identity as God’s people, demonstrates trust in God’s provision, and serves as a gospel witness to the world.

We find the life we’re truly longing for when we join Christ in loving and lifting up those in need as fellow image-bearers of God.

Just as the newly liberated Israelites built a dwelling place for God by offering their work to God, we celebrate our freedom in Christ by offering our own work to God.

We fulfill God’s purpose for us when we bear God’s image and likeness in the world by working for the flourishing of the place God has assigned us to.

Jesus said, "God's most important instructions are 'Love the Lord your God... and love your neighbor....'" But what does genuine love look like? John's letter helps us understand how to love in real life and encourages us to put it into action.

Through Jesus Christ, God overcomes the powers of death and chaos to rescue and sustain us. In Christ, we are freed from fear and can trust that no matter the storm, God will bring us safely to shore.

God works through our longing for the sacred to draw us to worship the God who is both our Creator and - in Christ - our righteous redeemer and judge. That longing is a clue that the unknown God we’re searching for may be nearer than we think.

When deep divisions threaten to derail the early church, the Jerusalem Council shows us a better way: moving from discord to discernment. In this episode, we explore how they listened for what God was doing in the moment, rooted their decisions in the larger story of Scripture, and came together as a true community to find a path forward—together.

The Spirit calls us to go into unexpected places and toward unexpected people. The church is on God’s mission when we follow the Spirit in joining with outsiders and inviting them to new life in Christ.