Redemption HOU podcast

Few passages in Scripture have generated more controversy than 1 Peter 3:18–22. But underneath debate lies a single, staggering claim: the resurrection of Jesus is Christ’s victory announcement. Whatever in your life and this world feels permanent and immovable — systems, empires, powers, addictions, fears — Christ has put them all on notice.Journaling Prompts:What dominions seek to make a claim on your life right now — not just what you are afraid of, but what do you find yourself subjected to?However we understand Peter’s words, the image he points to claims Christ’s work means there is no where anyone can go that is beyond God’s redemptive reach. Where is this hardest for you to believe — in the world, in your own life, in someone else’s?Peter is not offering a coping strategy or escape — he makes a cosmic claim to encourage continued faithful resistance. What would change if you took seriously that the domains that threaten you and the world at large have already been defeated.Practice — Liturgy as Lab:The practice of Baptism becomes a prominent anchor Peter invited the church back to over and over again. It is the whole of our life in Christ, enacted in a single moment. What we are, and what we are catching up to.If you’ve been baptized: What would it look like to wake up each day and live into your baptismal identity as faithful resistance? Each day a death and a resurrection. Where do you find Hell and its domain acting as if it hasn’t lost attempting to claim your allegiance?If you’ve yet to be baptized: What story have you been told about what baptism is? What story is Peter telling? Sit with the difference. For Peter baptism isn’t a religious decision — it is conscription into Christ’s life and His New Creation. What would it mean to consider it on these terms?For everyone: Sit with one person this week and tell them what your baptism (real, anticipated, or questioned) means to you right now. Listen to theirs.To explore baptism with a pastor head to redemptionhou.com/baptism

At the edge of baptism we bring with us narratives — chosen narratives, inherited narratives, and narratives that have been imposed on us. But God consumes these stories, immersing us into Christ's life and story — a people given a new name, a new story, a new destiny. This new story is the beginning, the middle, and the end — our starting point, our ending point, and the pilgrim road we walk in between. A baptism into a people made wholly other by a God who is wholly other.Journaling Prompts:- Where does the identity Peter names — priest, temple, holy nation, chosen people — most press against the story you’ve been telling about yourself? What’s that story, and where does Christ’s story give you a better one?- Peter assumes the gathered church’s visceral enacting of the Gospel — the words spoken, the bread torn, the water surrounded, the songs sung — is how God encounters and forms us as God’s people. How does this challenge what you’ve previously believed church is for?- God’s action forms our identity: birthing us, naming us, storying us in Christ. What would change in your week if you woke up each morning and lived into this baptismal identity?Practice — Liturgy as Lab:The practice of Baptism becomes a prominent anchor Peter invited the church back to over and over again. It is the whole of our life in Christ, enacted in a single moment. What we are, and what we are catching up to.Sit with baptism this week — whether you’ve been baptized or if it still remains a question.If you’ve been baptized: What would it look like to wake up each day and live into your baptism? Each day a death and a resurrection. Where do you find the old story still attempting to lay claim to you?If you’ve yet to be baptized: What is the story you’ve been told to believe about baptism? What story is Peter telling? What would it mean to consider baptism not as a religious decision, but as being immersed into a story that consumes the one you’ve been living?For everyone: Sit with one person this week and tell them what your baptism (real, anticipated, or questioned) means to you right now.Listen to theirs.To explore baptism with a pastor head to https://www.redemptionhou.com/baptism

God is not at work to reform or tear down our institutions. He's doing something far more radical and far more dangerous — building a people who live in the world where sin, suffering, and death have already lost. What emerges is an entirely other way of being and moving in the world. A way that looks a lot like Jesus.Journaling Prompts:What if culture wars on all sides are missing the point? Where is your outrage, your fear, your hope dictated by forces that have already been defeated?What would change about your own suffering and the injustice you see if resurrection isn’t only a future hope but a verdict already delivered?What practices of the Church in gathered worship — confession, praise, the table, listening — might be training you to live as exiles and strangers, a people of the resurrection, wherever you find yourselves?Practice — Liturgy as Lab:Last week’s practice remains this week’s practice — resurrection doesn’t produce a new practice every week, it produces a people formed into a certain shape.Liturgy—the form of our gathered worship—is the place where we are encountered and formed by God. Where we embody God’s new way of being.We gather with those we might not otherwise gather with.We listen for God to speak in a world that tells us the answers are within us.We respond to whatever God has said.We feast at Christ’s table where we are met by Him and leave changed.We are sent to love a world God has not given up on.These movements are formative. They are not just what we do on Sunday—they are forming us into a community that does them everywhere—a people of the resurrection.Consider how our worship trains you to live from a reality the world can’t comprehend. Where could you live this week as though that reality is already true?

In a so-called age of anxiety, the last thing we need is more fear. Yet, one of Jesus' more problematic disciples tells the Church to "Fear God." Within this audacious command is the perspective of a community whose life and imagination have been gripped by resurrection. In week three of our Easter series People of the Resurrection, we continue walking through 1 Peter to discover that perhaps fear is where freedom begins.Journaling Prompts:What are you afraid of? Why?What does this fear reveal about where you might be tempted to find security, hope, life?Where does the act of our gathered worship press against this temptation most for you? Practice — Liturgy as Lab:Liturgy—the form of our gathered worship—is the place where we are encountered and formed by God. We don’t just learn new ideas—we embody God’s new way of being. We gather with those we might not otherwise gather with.We listen for God to speak in a world that tells us the answers are within us.We respond to whatever God has said.We feast at Christ’s table where we are met by Him and leave changed.We are sent to love a world God has not given up on.These movements are formative. They are not just what we do on Sunday—they are forming us into a community that does them everywhere—a people of the resurrection. Sit with the movement you named above. What would it look like to practice this beyond Sunday? Make a plan to do it.

We are being made new, swept up into the living hope. An invitation to be made new as a community of believers, a holy resistance, knowing that because of the resurrection death will not win.

Easter deeply matters, not as an escape from the oppression and darkness of the world, but as God's response made in the face of it. Today we are invited to inhabit a whole new reality, being whole new people, people who refuse to give way to despair — resurrection people.

Palm Sunday exposes our desire that God conquer on our terms. But in our turn towards Holy Week we finally begin to see God. A God who reveals an entirely different Kingdom altogether, a people of a different shape, different logic—a people who exist as a different politic. Journaling Prompts:Where do you see the ancient account of sin as an attempt to grasp and possess what God offers as gift in order to secure your life expressed in your desires, beliefs, and life? What are you reaching for and what do you believe it will give you?At Christ’s Table we behold and participate in God’s life. In what ways does Christ’s table reshape your imagination for what success and the good life are? What does Jesus invite you to desire instead?If Christ is our Politic—the shape of our common life offered as an alternative to the world, how does this shape your imagination of what Church is for? What would it look like for Redemption to live this way? In what ways does this implicate you personally?Practice — Contemplation:We do not arrive at Easter without passing through Holy Week. This is the week that exposes us — our desire to seize life on our own terms, and the way our grasping unmakes the world around us. And it is here we behold God most clearly as we see Jesus move towards the cross. This week, journey with Jesus through Holy Week.Monday — Mark 11:12–25 | Tuesday — Mark 11:27–33Wednesday — Mark 12:1–11 | Thursday — Mark 14:12–25As you read each day, sit with the question:Where is Jesus refusing what I would have chosen for Him?

Lent invites us to get honest. Honest about longing, grief, doubt, and the dead places in our lives. In Jesus’ encounter with Lazarus, He meets Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in deeply personalized ways revealing that the God we often wish to keep at a distance is the one who knows us completely and loves us fully. Journaling Prompts: God created us uniquely, knows us intimately, and relates to us accordingly. In this season of your life how has God encountered you? If you struggle to formulate a response take this prompt as invitation to get curious and honest.Historically have you found the idea of being known (especially being known by God) more comforting or scary? How might the story of Lazurus inform your feelings around being known going forward?Practice: Notice the flowers.Spend some time outside. Sit at a park or go on a walk. Try doing this without headphones in and be present with the world around you. In this season of Spring what might nature have to say to you about decay and rebirth? What conversation might you want to have with God?

In John 9 Jesus heals a man born blind, and suddenly everyone has to reckon with what they now see. Including themselves. The light of the world does not expose to condemn, but to love.Journaling Prompts:What parts of you and your life are you afraid of being fully seen by Jesus? What would it mean for you to accept that Jesus sees this and loves you in it?Where has grace changed something in you you didn’t necessarily ask to have changed?What or where has God’s grace cost you? What have you lost or what are you afraid of losing?Practice — Confession:Take some time this week to name before God the things done and the things left undone in your life. As you do, know that in this act God sees you, knows you, and loves you.After naming these, ask for God’s grace to transform and remake you. End in a moment of thanking God for his forgiveness and promises rooted in Christ’s faithfulness. Take a moment of silence in God’s presence knowing that you are carried by God.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The God revealed in Jesus is scandalously present among those we’ve written off—and that love dismantles our assumptions about who God is and what God is doing in the world.Journaling Prompts:- Does the grace Jesus displays here — forgiving, gifting, transforming — feel refreshing to you or scandalous? Take a few moments to explore why that might be.- Who, in your mind, seems most on the fringes — most undeserving of Jesus’ gift? What does Jesus extending God’s generosity to someone like them stir in you?- In what ways are you on the fringes? What might you need to confess here? What might you need to trust that God is doing for you?Practice — Attentive Intercession:This week's practice is called "Attentive Intercession." The invitation is to pay closer attention to those you encounter this week. Notice who seems most on the fringes. What would being present with them look like?Commit to pray for them throughout the rest of Lent. Set a reminder in your phone, write their name on a sticky note, or place it somewhere you’ll see each day. Pray for them regularly, asking God to bless them, care for them, draw near to them, while also praying for your own heart towards them. Remain attentive to simple ways you might be present with them.And as Easter approaches, consider whether inviting them to join you for Easter Sunday might be a natural expression of that presence and care.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Beholding God will mean undergoing death—of ways of life, of ideas about God and ourselves, of things we think will save us. And for this God death ends in resurrection.Some call it conversion, others repentance.Jesus calls it “being born again.”And it is God’s work. Journaling PromptsWhat would a new way of being in the world mean for you? What would you lay aside, what would you take up?Consider your responses above. What frightens you about this? What feels like it could be liberating?How does the notion that the Good News is God’s work and is good news for the poor strike you? Where do you want to wrestle with this and why?Practice — PrayerThis week carry a simple prayer with you.“Lord, I am yours, may your will in me be done.”Set a reminder in your phone. Jot it on a card and carry it with you in your pocket. Set it to memory.Whatever method you decide works for you, pray this as an act of surrender and dependence on God’s work in you. Allow it to interrupt your day, or moments where you may feel the urge to operate in non-Jesus centered ways.Any thoughts, objections, or bursts of faith that arise while praying this, take to God in prayer.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

This sermon begins the season of Lent. It concentrates on one psalm, Psalm 32, traditionally labeled a "penitential psalm," and it holds out God's promise not only of forgiveness but also of instruction. Repentance involves release from the past as well as learning a fresh new way of life.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the body of Christ, heaven and earth meet, and the transfiguration invites us to witness that glory. Let us marvel in it. Let us be warmed by it. And let us listen to it.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t hand us a list of rules. He names our identity. Salt. Light. A city on a hill. A people whose life together makes the invisible God visible right here in Houston. Journaling Prompts:Reflect on the notion that “y’all are salt, y’all are light.” How does this shape what a Jesus-centered life means to you?What might a Jesus-centered life mean for the people you encounter each day?What might a Jesus-centered life cost you? Not in theory. Keep this real.In Jesus, you already have everything you need. Sit with this for a moment. Where do you resist this? Where are you drawn to it?Practice — Attentive Reading:Spend the week with the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). Read as an act of listening—not study. Consider reading it aloud with others.As you read, notice what stands out. After each reading, pray. Be honest with God about what you’ve just heard.If you miss a day, just return the next. Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Are we in the middle of a silent era from God? A look at world events and our personal lives makes a strong case for the affirmative, but the scriptures invite us to engage with a living God - especially in times when this God seems distant and removed.Journaling Prompts:Have you ever been surprised by a living God? What was that experience like?Where in life are you tempted to take on God’s work as your own?God loves us and shows us the way of love. How can you put this into practice this week?Practice - pray. The world is quite noisy at the moment. Make a plan to be still before God this week. Perhaps you have 5 minutes or maybe 35, but make a plan and set aside distractions for a specified amount of time. Spend some time in silence. There is no need to produce anything in these moments. Pray the serenity prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can,And wisdom to know the difference." From there, just talk to God. Bring your burdens to God; God cares for you.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Your search for God may have brought you here—but Jesus turns and asks: What are you seeking? In John 1, Jesus does not extend tidy conclusions, easy answers, or spiritual certainty, but an invitation: Come and see. A journey centered not on arrival or mastery, but on Jesus Himself.Journaling PromptsWhat are you seeking? Sit with Jesus’ question for a moment and answer honestly, without editing or spiritualizing your response.How might Jesus’ invitation to come and see reshape what you are seeking? How might it change what you believe Jesus is offering you?What would shift in your life if you moved toward “coming and seeing” Jesus? What obstacles—internal or external—stand in the way?Practice — PrayerBegin by returning to the first question above. Sit with it slowly. Notice what arises in you without judgment.Now hold Jesus’ invitation—come and see—alongside your answer. Sit for a few moments in silence and stillness, allowing both to remain present.Notice what images surface, the posture or disposition of Jesus, and any emotions that arise.Bring whatever you notice to God in prayer.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

What do you believe God is like—and where did that belief come from?In the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3), God reveals something shocking about who God is. This sermon opens the Epiphany series Manifest by asking a simple but life-altering question: What does God really think about you?Journaling PromptsWhen you reflect on your baptism, how are you continuing to discover what God has done—and is still doing—in those waters?What does Christ’s solidarity with humanity in its lowest places stir up in you—gratitude, resistance, relief, discomfort? Where do you think that response comes from?What assumptions about God does the baptism of Jesus challenge or disrupt for you? Where do you think those assumptions came from?What does Jesus’ baptism reveal about the story God invites you into? How does this resonate—or clash—with the story you currently find yourself living in?Practice — Baptism.In baptism, we step into what God has already done in Christ. We are cleansed of sin, met by God’s Spirit, and named God’s beloved.Any Sunday is a good Sunday to be baptized. If you have not yet been baptized and feel drawn to Jesus’ invitation into the waters, take time this week to pray and consider that invitation. When you’re ready, we would love to [email protected] you have already been baptized, take time this week to remember what God has done—and is still doing—in your life. Consider how baptism continues to shape a life of dying, living, and loving in Christ.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Matthew shows us the unsettling heart of Christmas—a God who refuses to be confined by our expectations. Born in obscurity, made known to outsiders, and missed by insiders, Jesus is revealed as the king whose presence reshapes power, worship, and the whole of our lives. This Christmastide sermon invites us to consider a God who shows up in ways that resist our categories and reorient our lives. Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

You and your life have been taken up into Christ so that God can be with you.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Into the darkness a light has dawned.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The baby in the manger is the reigning Messiah, the very crucified Jesus who will come again in glory, that the one who is to be delivered up is the one who will dispose of all earthly power and authority with imperial ease. This very God who is not against us, but for us in an upside down kingdom.Additional Readings: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 , Romans 1:1-7, and Matthew 1:18-25Songs of Waiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tla4bHwi9fQGenerosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In a world ruled by entropy, God promises a new world where desert wastelands erupt into flourishing life. But what do we do when we feel disappointed, discouraged, and even doubt that these promises will ever come true?Advent names our disappointment and carries our doubt, while training our eyes to see—right in the midst of our waiting—that God’s future is already invading our exhausted present. Additional texts: James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11, Luke 1:46-55Songs of Waiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tla4bHwi9fQ&t=1sGenerosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Everything seems to be collapsing, our certainties are gone, and it feels like the whole world is on fire—so what now?Advent dares us to hope an incomprehensible hope—a dangerous hope.Not a hope rooted in our wins or losses, but in a relentlessly faithful God.In Isaiah 11:1–10, the prophet dares us to believe that God can pull peace from the wreckage, light from utter darkness, life out of death—and calls us to be a people who actually believe this will be true.Songs of waiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tla4bHwi9fQGenerosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Advent begins with Isaiah’s vision of God’s mountain—an unshakeable kingdom of peace inviting us to walk in the light of its God.Songs of Waiting - follow this linkGenerosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The Church offers the world the gift of knowing and being known by God—the gift of what it means to be a human fully alive.The Song of Songs reminds us that beyond all, the God who created the world is the God who delights in it–delights in us–and longs for all of creation to enjoy God together. Journaling PromptsWhat might it mean for you to enjoy God, enjoy others, and enjoy creation? Where might God be inviting you here?How and why does the idea of delight as spiritual practice resonate with you or confront you? What assumptions are challenged and what hopes does it offer?If God’s mission is to be with the world, and the Church exists as an embodied experience of that reality, how does that reshape what you imagine Church is for?What shifts for you personally? What shifts in how you imagine our community’s life together?Practice — FeastThis week, feast as a spiritual practice. 
Wherever you are—and whoever you may find yourself with—take a moment to see God’s gifts which surround you. And dare to enjoy them.Whether you’re sharing an extravagant meal with people you can’t imagine life without—or a less than ideal spread with someone you don’t see eye to eye with—receive whatever is before you as gift.Let this be a week of feasting that embodies the joy God has for you—and for the world.Generosity https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

God’s story ends not with rescue from the world, but with God making the world His home.Revelation gives us a picture of the world made new—a world with God. When we forget that ending, we forget who we are and what God is up to in and among us.Journaling PromptsSit with the idea that God is the First and the Last, the Arche and the Telos, the source and the point, the means and the ends. Spend a moment writing your reflections.How does the idea that God’s mission in the world is to be with us affirm and challenge your ideas of the Gospel? If the Church is both a recipient and conduit of God’s withness, how does this shape your understanding of the point of Church? What are some common ways you’ve seen the church stray from this purpose? In what ways have you seen God fulfill this purpose through and maybe in spite of the Church? Practice — ShareThis week, what might it look like to join in the work of providing communion and encounter with God through Redemption Church?If you’re new to Church consider that your next best step is simply to show up—to participate in what God is doing in our gathered worship.
Your presence—sharing yourself—is what God desires most and is your most profound act of sharing. What might it mean for you to commit to showing up through the end of the year?Or maybe you want to contribute to the ongoing work of Redemption—
by supporting our work financially,
by inviting a friend or neighbor to join you next week,
or by joining one of our teams that helps make our Sundays what they are.Take some time this week to pray about what it might look like to join in God’s work of presence happening in and through our community.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The God who refuses to be without us forms us into a certain sort of people—a subversive alternative to the world’s divisive norms, where Christ’s table becomes participation in holy resistance. In Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus, we glimpse God’s new world: the sinner becomes a site of salvation, and divine welcome initiates a new social order.Journaling PromptsThe God who refuses to be without us draws us in and forms us into a people. What hallmarks of that people—what ways of being—might most subversively reflect this sort of God in the world? Which of these feels exciting for you, and which feels challenging?Christ’s nearness reorders Zacchaeus’s entire life.Where might Jesus be rearranging some of your furniture? In what ways are you resisting this—or being invited to trust it?Which patterns of Christ’s table—inclusion, forgiveness, unity, embrace, and others—most challenge the way you want to relate to others, especially those unlike you?How might the simple act of sharing Christ’s table become an act of holy resistance in your corner of Houston? Don’t let this stay theoretical—get practical here.What might it look like for you to extend Christ’s welcome to someone through a shared meal—one rooted in enjoyment, not expectation or agenda?What’s holding you back?Practice — FeastThis week, share a meal with others.Grab lunch, host a dinner party, or invite someone new to family dinner—perhaps someone outside your usual circle, of a different generation, political ideology, or socioeconomic background.As you eat, practice delight.Be curious. Listen.No agenda, just enjoyment.Let the table you share act as an extension of Christ’s table—slow down, create space, be together.Break bread as an act of holy resistance.Generosity https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The story the Church tells is the story of a God who refuses to be without us—the poor, the helpless, even those who’ve made God our enemy. In the story of David and Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9), we see the heart of God: a God of communion. And we realize the table God sets is a table of strange friendships.Journaling PromptsIf God’s work in New Creation is all about communion, what kind of world is God making? What might that world feel like, look like, sound like? What could participation in that world look like for you now—and what obstacles stand in the way?If God’s desire is to be with you, not use or fix you, how does that change the way you imagine what God is up to in your life and what responding to God could look like?When we consider that God’s communion involves strange friendships, who might be missing from the table and what keeps them (or you) from sitting together?Practice — FeastThis week, share a meal. Consider someone who might represent a “strange friendship”—someone outside your usual circle, perhaps someone of a different generation, political ideology, or socioeconomic background. As you eat, practice delight. Be curious. Cultivate a friendship rooted in enjoyment of who they are, not what they do for you (or you for them).Let the table you share be an extension of Christ’s table—a place of presence and enjoyment. Who knows, this may be the beginning of something beautiful—a strange friendship in the making.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

How’s your prayer life? If that question makes you sigh, you’re not alone. Maybe prayer isn’t something to perfect or dutifully perform. Maybe it’s the life-giving response to the God who is already with you.Journaling PromptsWhat portion of the Lord’s Prayer challenges you the most right now?What might it mean for Redemption to become a community that inhabits the Lord’s Prayer? What would this mean for you personally?How might asking even though God already knows make prayer more approachable and practical for you? In what ways might you begin to awake to God’s presence through approachable prayer?Practice — PrayRead the Lord’s Prayer slowly.Find a phrase or refrain that feels important for you to speak back to God right now (ex. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us). Take some time to repeat that portion of the Lord’s Prayer multiple times back to God.Share with God whatever else is in your mind. Speak freely. God already knows.Conclude your time praying the Lord’s Prayer.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

How’s your prayer life? If that question makes you sigh, you’re not alone. Maybe prayer isn’t something to perfect or dutifully perform. Maybe it’s the life-giving response to the God who is already with you.Generosity:https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In a world crowded with our words, preferences, and interpretations, Recovering the Bible means listening to the voice of the risen Christ who still speaks to us here and now.Journaling PromptsHow does the idea of Deus Dixit—that God has Spoken—challenge your understanding of the Church, the Bible, and what God is up to in both?Has there been a time in your life where your engagement with the Bible looked different? What changed, and why? What do you think this could look like in this phase of your life?What might it mean for you to engage with the Bible sacramentally—as a means of encounter of the Risen Jesus who still speaks?Practice — ListenDo the following alone or with a small fellowship of others.Slowly read Job 38:1-40:5 & 42:1-6. Let the text speak for itself. If there are things you don’t understand or questions that arise, set them aside for now—or jot them down and come back to them later. For now let the text read you as much as you are reading it.Don’t read looking for takeaways but read anticipating that God speaks through these words still.To be clear. You will likely not feel anything. You are not broken. You are not doing it wrong. God’s speaking in the scriptures often works in us and on us slowly—often imperceptibly.Consider sharing how the practice went with those you read with or with someone you trust after the fact.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

What is the Bible for? Many of us have a complicated relationship with Scripture—it has been misused as a tool of exclusion, harm, and control. But what if Jesus is right, and the Word of God is actually a good gift meant to give us life? Recovering the Bible begins with receiving God’s word, not as a weapon, but as a locus of divine encounter where we are formed into a liberated people of hope.Journaling PromptsWhat does your relationship with the Bible look like right now? Why do you think this is? What do you wish it looked like? What would a small first step in that direction be?In what ways do you see yourself reading the Bible to gain information? In what ways is this helpful? In what ways is it restrictive?Does the idea that the Bible is a gift of God for the people of God resonate with you? Why or why not? In what ways does this challenge or change what you expect from the Bible?Practice — Lectio DivinaDo the following alone or with a small fellowship of others.Lectio: Read Luke 4:1-13 slowly, notice any words or phrases that stand out.Meditatio: Pause and ponder what God might be bringing to your attention.Oratio: Respond to what’s been unearthed in prayer with your own words, desires, hesitations, or questions.Contemplatio: Rest in God’s presence by sitting in silence, receiving His love and peace as a generous gift.Consider sharing with those in your group or with someone later what God impressed upon you through meditating prayerfully on this passage.Generosity⁠https://www.redemptionhou.com/give⁠

In God’s gift of worship, we are caught up in a counter-liturgy that makes us a different kind of people — a political alternative to the world.Journaling PromptsWhere have you seen the Church lose the plot of Jesus’ story in the way it shows up in the world? Where have you seen it offering a hopeful alternative?What might it look like to center “worship” on strange fire—forms of worship that seem more powerful or practical but deviate from the story of Jesus? Which of these more common forms are you tempted toward—ideology, morality, vibes, something else?In what ways does our gathered worship serve as “an embodied counter-vision” of your life in the world? Are there particular moments you find compelling and others you find challenging? Why might this be the case?Practice — Reflection and CommunityRead Hebrews 11-13 and notice the story these chapters place us within.Take a few moments to ask where living into Jesus’ story in gathered worship resonates with your vision of the world and where it disrupts your vision of the world.
Take some time either at a Redemption Table, or over a meal with a friend, unpacking what you noticed. Listen to their reflections as well.Spend a moment praying with and for one another. Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give⁠

Recovering a vision for what Church is meant to be begins and ends with Jesus.Journaling PromptsWhen you hear the word worship, what pops into your mind? Where, if at all, does Christ being our High Priest fit into that picture? Consider why that might be.
What is your relationship with “Church?” How does the claim that the Church is necessary as a worshipping community compatible or incompatible with that current relationship? What resistance to this idea do you feel? What relief?How does worship being something Christ does for us rather than something we do for Christ help you begin to reimagine worship’s place in your life?Practice — Silent PrayerSet aside a few minutes of quiet. Draw your attention to Christ mediating you to God and God to you—to the commune you have with Godself in Jesus.As you are able hold this reality in your mind: in Christ, you are being offered to God, and in Christ God is being offered to you.Simply sit in that reality. God is with you and you are with God in Christ. In this moment you need not do or say anything, have nothing to prove, nothing to perform—just be with the God who is with you.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the midst of manipulation and deceit, God sees Leah, hears her, and listens. God elevates the otherwise overlooked.Generosity https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In a world devastated by famine the Widow of Zarephath shows us what it means to be in the care of a God of abundance.Prompts A World of Scarcity
Where does your life feel like it’s lived in a world of scarcity? Where do you feel stretched thin—stressed, afraid, or at the edge of what you can give?A God of Generosity
How does it strike you that God doesn’t just deal with scarcity from a distance but actually inhabits it? In what ways might this challenge your assumptions about what God asks or desires from you?A Life of Feasting
God doesn’t promise to solve every problem right now, but God does promise to be with us in them—inviting us to live from that place of “with-ness.” How might God’s presence reframe how you see God’s provision and your own scarcity?Practices:Living into GenerosityConsider the places where you feel most stressed, overwhelmed, or stretched thin. What might it look like to live into God’s vision of abundance in that very place?This week is there something small worth sharing—an hour, a meal, a kind word, a resource—with someone else you might otherwise want to hold on to? Rather than tending to your scarcity, consider a small way you can give in an act of entrusting yourself to the God of abundance who is with you.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Eve is best known as the Bible's Original Sinner—but she is also and more importantly the Bible's Original Believer. In the face of loss and hardship, she continues to recognize and testify to God's goodness and God's help. She names her son Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the Lord" (Gen 4:1).Generosity:https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The little-known story of Zelophehad's daughters reveals a God who hears and responds to the vulnerable and overlooked.Journaling PromptsA God who sees, hears, and reconciles. How does this story invite you to believe that God sees and hears you—and is including you in the reconciliation of all things?Justice as relational wholeness. How does this shape your understanding of salvation and what God is up to in the world?Joining God’s work. What would it look like to join God in what God is doing, given his heart for the marginalized and vulnerable?PracticeExtending the TableTake a moment to consider who around you might feel like they are on the outside—overlooked, unseen, or unheard. Extend hospitality to them by sending a text, grabbing a coffee, or sharing a meal. Do this not as an act of charity, but as an act of communion—extending the embrace of the God who sees and hears them.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

It can feel as if nothing can stand in the way of tyrants and empires. Yet Shiphrah and Puah remind us that God sees the oppression, sees us, and invites us to join the emancipating God—even in small acts of resistance.Journaling PromptsWhere and how do you see “empire” at work today? Where do you believe God is most present in what you’ve named?What are the “little bits of good where you are”? How can you show up there as one shaped by the reign of Christ?Shiphrah and Puah’s resistance was a tremendous act of justice, yet it did not stop the empire’s plans. How does that tension sit with you? How do the larger stories of the Exodus and Jesus help you place this tension in context and speak to your present experience?Do you struggle to believe that Jesus reigns over all powers, authorities, rulers, and empires? In what ways do you embody this—and fail to embody this—in your daily life?PracticeListenSit with the claim that Jesus reigns over all powers, authorities, rulers, and empires. Ask Christ to open your eyes and heart to the spaces and opportunities for Christ-like resistance—however seemingly small or significant—in your life right now. Write down what comes to mind, then end with a few moments of prayerGenerosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

We like to think life with God is neat and quiet. But Tamar shows us otherwise. She refuses to stay in her place or accept her lot—and in the drama, the scandal, and the silence, God is with her, bringing about a story more redemptive than she could have imagined.Journaling PromptsWhat did it feel like to see a woman like Tamar featured in God’s story of cosmic redemption?
What assumptions or biases did this challenge in you?How does the injustice in Tamar’s story—and God’s blessing of her—speak to the responsibility of the community?
What might this reveal about God’s heart for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized?
Who might be a modern-day equivalent, and how are you being called to care for or include them?Is there a part of your story that feels “too messy” for God to work with?
How does Tamar’s story invite you to believe God might be at work—even there?
What doubts or fears come up when you consider that possibility?Who have you believed God couldn’t be working in or through?
What would it mean to expand your sense of God’s mercy and presence to include them?
What hesitations or boundaries do you feel around that?PracticeRespond.Take a few moments to name the places in your life that feel especially “messy”—complicated, painful, or unresolved. Ask yourself: Do I believe God could meet me here? What emotions or resistance rise up?Then, spend a few minutes in silence, resting in the presence of the God who sees you, stays with you, and does not turn away from the mess.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Money can be all consuming, a never ending cycle of desire. But Jesus invites us into a way of living free from greed, reflecting God’s divine philanthropy as the church. Journaling Prompts:“The alternative to the world of greed is a people capable of participating through worship in the love of the Father for the Son through the Spirit.” - Stanley HauerwasReflect honestly on your relationship with money - do you feel like you never have enough? Do you save to avoid being without? Do you spend out of enjoyment? Be honest and vulnerable before God. He can handle it and loves you through it. In God’s upside down kingdom, where we share out God’s goodness in giving us what we need - Where do you see opportunities? Practice:Gather together and share where God is working, ask the tough questions, listen and pray with one another. We are not meant to do this journey alone.Generosity:redemptionhou.com/give

A Jesus centered life moves our concern from possessions to people.Journaling PromptsMoralism and communityHow do you see the idea of putting ourselves at the center of things giving way to moralism at play in your lived experience? What might this look like in a religious context?Transactional or loving community?In what ways are you tempted to approach church as a transactional community versus one of love? How might this be an extension of how you think about God?A Jesus Centered People.What does a Jesus life look like for you right now? What might further direct your imagination towards that reality in this moment of your life?PracticeGather.Take some time this week to gather with the church over a common table to enjoy one another, share life, and share a meal.

Gather some old friends or make some new ones and share a meal together. Generosityredemptionhou.com/give

Jesus invites us to reimagine our relationship to money and how we spend our lives.Journaling Prompts“You cannot serve God and money.”What is your reaction to Jesus’ words? What might be the reason for this reaction to Jesus’ teaching here?How do you view your work?What would it mean for you to consider your work as an avenue of serving God verses making money?God abundantly and generously gives us all we need and more—even God’s very self.What might living as if this were true cost you? What would you possibly gain? What might be holding you back from letting go and inhabiting this reality? Explore what might be at the heart of this.PracticePrayer.Explore the roots of your resistance to letting go, is it security, status, coping, something else? Bring this part of yourself to God in prayer. Be real, be raw, be vulnerable. God can handle the real you, that’s the you God loves.Meaningful Conversation.This week or next gather with one or two others to sit down and openly share your resistance, questions, desires, and whatever else might have come up for you in reflecting on Jesus teaching.Consider other practices of gathering, generosity, or thanksgiving which may help you cultivate a Jesus centered life.Generosityredemptionhou.com/giveResources: Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, William CavanaughThe Great Gatsby, F. Scott FitzgeraldBeyond the Limits, Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, and Jørgen RandersFully Alive, Elizabeth Oldfield“It’s Just a Water Bottle,” Amanda Mull in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/01/stanley‑cups‑valentines‑day‑target‑starbucks/677190/“The Transhumanist Question,” Miraslov Volf in Christianity Today: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/transhumanism-faith-miroslav-volf/

In John 10, Jesus reveals that he will sacrifice his body for the sake of his sheep. Let's spend this morning marveling at simplicity. We get to be God's sheep because we have a good shepherd.Generosity: Redemptionhou.com/give

This sermon explores four stories in Acts to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the active and living Lord of the Church. He is the one leading the mission. His challenge and summons to the Church is: Catch up with what I am already doing.Eunuch Acts 8:26-38Paul Acts 9:1-16, 26-27Peter Acts 10:9-20, 27-35, 44-45; 11:1-4, 17-18Antioch Acts 11:26; 15:1-19Generosity:redemptionhou.com/give

In the face of the human concern of image curation, God fully knows us and calls us beloved (not cursed).Generosity:redemptionhou.com/giveResources:Breeze, Jacob. “Jacob Breeze.” Church on Morgan, 25 Feb. 2025, Spotify,https://open.spotify.com/episode/2l9rny8GTTdQEi4GVBPoed?si=ee4503f6499e4877.Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books, 1959.Kierkegaard, Søren. The Sickness Unto Death. Translated by Alastair Hannay, Penguin Books, 1989.Koester, Craig R. "The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1–11): Reading the Text in the Cultural Context of Ephesus." Faculty Publications, no. 28, 2017, http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/faculty_articles/28.N.T. Wright Online. “Made in God’s Image.” YouTube, uploaded by N.T. Wright Online, 5 Apr. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8gtYZpnG1Y&t=219s.Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Project Gutenberg, 11 July 2001, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1523.Wells, Sam. “Being with.” YouTube, uploaded by St. Martin‑in‑the‑Fields, 2 Aug. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Zci7KBXms.

For so many of us the assumed relational ideal is marriage and kids. But is that where Jesus is taking us?Journaling Prompts“In the resurrection, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage…” (Matt. 22:30)How does Jesus’ statement challenge or comfort you? What does it reveal about your deep longing for love—and how Christ is making all things new?What is it about your current relationship status (single, married, divorced, widowed, dating, celibate, etc.) that feels like an obstacle to being with God?In what ways might this part of your life—the thing that feels like a barrier—actually be the place God is encountering you?PracticePray across relational difference.Think of someone in our community whose relationship status differs from yours. Take a few minutes to pray for them:• for their flourishing.• for their sense of belonging in our church.• that God would meet them in their specific vocation and desires.Ask the Holy Spirit to reshape your vision of the church—not as a collection of similar life stages or statuses, but as a communion of people held together in Christ.Resources:James V. Brownson. Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013.Robert Song. Covenant and Calling: Towards a Theology of Same-Sex Relationships. London: SCM Press, 2014.Jacob Breeze. “Why the Church Calendar? (Parts 1 & 2).” Hymnistry Podcast. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://open.spotify.com/episode/4wEpkY9J1ep30pdOiRr0Fd?si=PZGKF0QmQo2N1IA_ynjcRg.Sam Wells. “Baptism–not marriage.” https://andygoodliff.typepad.com/files/a-sermon-by-sam-wells.pdf.

Is there such a thing as a healthy Christian sexual ethic? Many of us have shed shame-based teachings, but are still searching for something life-giving. What does sex look like in light of resurrection?Journaling PromptsWhat is your relationship with your body in general—and your sexuality more specifically? How has your theology shaped that relationship, if at all?From abstinence to activity, what does healthy sex mean to you?What might a healthy sexual ethic look like within a new creation community?PracticeTake a few minutes to become aware of your body in God’s presence. Find a comfortable position. Take a few deep, slow breaths. Bring your attention to your body. Starting at the top of your head and slowly moving down to your feet, notice each part of your body and how you feel in it.Then, slowly move back up from your feet to your head. As you do, become consciously aware that God’s love includes your body—all of it. Every part. God loves you. All of you. Take a moment of stillness to sit with that in God’s presence. What comes up for you in this practice?ResourcesBooks & Book ChaptersBrowning, James V. Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013.Bretherton, Luke. “Chapter 12: Intimacy.” In A Primer in Christian Ethics: Christ and the Struggle to Live Well, 213–230. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.Oldfield, Elizabeth. “Lust.” In Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, 151–168. Michigan: Brazos Press, 2024.Articles and EssaysWilliams, Rowan. “The Body’s Grace.” Lecture presented at the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, London, 1989. https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/the-bodys-grace.pdf.Rienstra, Debra. “Rowan Williams for Dummies: On Human Sexuality.” Debra Rienstra (blog), September 15, 2016. https://debrarienstra.com/rowan-williams-for-dummies-on-human-sexuality/.Magazine & Online Articles“Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse.’” Vanity Fair, August 6, 2015. https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/tinder-hook-up-culture-end-of-dating.“Why There’s No Such Thing as Casual Sex.” Time, March 31, 2022. https://time.com/6160096/rethinking-sex-christine-emba-review/.Generosity:You can contribute to our work at https://redemptionhou.com/give

Let’s navigate a hard conversation about sexuality and the Church—one marked by generosity, curiosity, and deep engagement with Scripture. Our hope is to cultivate an imagination for what a Jesus-centered life looks like within a global Church that is fracturing under the weight of theological disagreement about LGBTQ+ inclusion.Journaling Prompts:What does being named and embraced as God’s beloved child stir up in you—resistance, hope, shame? Where does this come from?What has your experience of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church been? Where does it seem like God is present, where does it seem like God might be absent? What does your experience begin to teach you?What does a Jesus-centered life look like in the midst of disagreement? How might I contribute to unity without demanding uniformity?This Week’s Practice:Read Romans 8:14-17 slowly and spend about 5 minutes in God’s presence, reflecting on the truth that in Christ you are a child of God.Notice what thoughts, feelings, or prayers arise during this time, and bring them honestly before God.Close by reading Romans 8:14-17 once more and pray: “Spirit of God, lead me.”Resources: Historic ViewWashed and Waiting, by Wesley HillPeople to Be Loved, by Preston SprinkleThe Bible and Homosexual Practice, by Robert GagnonProgressive ViewCovenant and Calling, by Robert Song. Bible, Gender, Sexuality, James Brownson.Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships, by Karen Keen.

A resurrected Jesus means that life with God begins right here and now. So what does it mean to tap into that?Text: John 17:20-26 Resources: Peterson, Eugene. Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006.Bondi, Roberta C. “Learning to Pray: An Interview with Roberta C. Bondi.” The Christian Century, March 20–27, 1996. Reprinted on Religion Online. https://www.religion-online.org/article/learning-to-pray-an-interview-with-roberta-c-bondi/Roberta Bondi, "What is Prayer and How to Begin," On Being with Krista Tippett. Podcast audio, 33:33. May 22nd, 2025. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rhbdK64PwkUCFnfIvjMD2.