What Did We Learn in 2025?
Over the course of 2025, we made our way through five major sermon series. Check out the full list below, with the date, scripture, preacher, and a quote (or two) from each sermon:
Brave Like Jesus (7 sermons)
1) March 9 | Luke 4:16–30 | Jacob
All Christian virtues require bravery: “What qualities do you think it takes to be a Christian? Maybe faith, hope, and love? Those are all good answers. But there’s another quality that’s baked into all of them. The quality of bravery. Christian faith, Christian hope, Christian love—they all take bravery.”
Bravery to disappoint: “Have you ever had to disappoint the people who raised you—your childhood friends, your classmates, your teachers, your youth group leaders, your neighbors, your mentors? Because they had one script for your life, and Jesus was calling you to a different one? What kind of bravery did it take to let them know you weren’t going to be who they wanted you to be?”
2) March 16 | Luke 5:27–32 | Michelle
Bravery to let go of control: “In my work on the community fridge, I’ve been feeling called to bravery. I have to let the fridge grow beyond my control. To let it grow into something by the community and for the community. Something larger than I can yet imagine.”
3) March 23 | Luke 6:20–26 | Jacob
Bravery to challenge: “If you spend any time with Jesus in the gospels, you come to the same conclusion. He challenges more than he comforts. Much more. He pokes. He prods. He disagrees. He debates. He leaves people troubled, stirred up, and angry more often than he leaves them reassured.”
4) March 30 | Luke 14:25–35 | Michelle
Bravery to love God first: “The point is that between your love for Jesus and your love for family, your love for Jesus needs to take priority. You need to get the greatest commandments in the right order. First love God. Then love neighbor. Even if it embarrasses your family. Even if it means rejecting something your family taught you. Even if your family doesn’t understand. It means following Jesus not just when your family says, “That’s awesome. We support you.” But also when your family says, “That’s foolish. Didn’t we teach you better than that?”
5) April 6 | Luke 19:36–48 | Jacob
Not brave like Jesus: “Are we brave like Jesus? No, we are not. Jesus is the Son of God, boldly facing down the powers of Sin and Death, and we are hiding under our blankets, waiting for the bears to go away. We’ll never be as brave as Jesus. In fact, we’ll never be as anything as Jesus. Not as brilliant, not as gentle, not as fierce, not as faithful. We’ll never say and do things that will still be changing the world 2,000 years later.”
The bravery of cowards: “Let’s not be afraid of each other. And let’s not be afraid of our neighbors. Instead, let’s blunder bravely forward in the way Jesus has gone. As we do this, we won’t be any better than the original bunch of cowards who followed Jesus. But maybe we won’t be any worse either. And those original disciples, after the resurrection, they were brave enough to go out and start a little thing called the Christian church. The bravery of cowards is why we’re all here today.”
6) April 13 | Luke 22:35–53 | Michelle
Bravery to suffer: “If we believe Jesus was fully human—as well as fully God—then surely the impulse to defend himself with violence was real for him too. He knows his opponents are coming for him. He doesn’t want to suffer torture and death on a cross. What if he could fight back with swords instead? What if he could bring God’s justice and judgment as a divine warrior instead of as a suffering servant?”
7) April 20 | Luke 24:1–12 | Jacob
All for love: “So far we’ve been telling the story of the cross as a story of Jesus’ bravery. A story of how he faces betrayal, rejection, and terrible suffering. But here in the quiet of Easter morning, when we can finally catch our breath, we realize what all the bravery was for. It was for love. What we’ve been watching has been a love story. This is who Jesus has been all along. He’s given his whole life to his people. When he’s been brave, it’s been for them. And now Jesus is dying as he lived, in love. For God so loved the world, friends. For God so loved the world.”
Love makes you brave: “You can be brave like Jesus when you love like Jesus. What I mean by that is that being brave tends to come with a cost. The definition of bravery is “showing the strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty.” In other words, when you’re brave, you are, by definition, doing something you think could harm you. You’re taking the risk of losing something, looking bad, getting hurt, even killed. So why? Why would you do that? Well, you’d do it because you have a love that’s stronger than your fear.”
How Do I Talk about My Faith? (6 sermons)
1) January 12 | 2 Timothy 1:6–14 | Jacob
You can speak words of power: “You’re not just blundering around by yourself, trying to figure out what to say. The Spirit of Jesus is in you. And that means that when you open your mouth to talk about your faith, somehow, in some mysterious way, the words aren’t yours, but God’s. You can speak words of power. Something you say about your faith can be what someone else needs to hear. Your story can help someone else make sense of their story. Your words can do what God’s words do, which is to say, they can heal, they can liberate, they can save, they can correct, they can forgive, they can bring justice, they can change lives.”
2) April 27 | Acts 17:16–34 | Michelle
Share faith and expect a mixed response: “How does the crowd respond to Paul’s speech? Some people ridicule him for believing in resurrection. Others are curious. And a few join him and believe in Jesus, and their whole lives are transformed. When we talk about our faith, we can expect these reactions too. Some people might tell us we’re stupid or foolish. We’ve got to be brave enough to take that rejection. Other people will be curious and ask to hear more. And we’ll have to be brave enough to continue the conversation. And others will come to believe. And we’ll have to be brave enough to see that Jesus’s power really can change people.”
3) May 4 | Isaiah 6:1–8 | Calenthia
Share faith even though you’re not perfect: “When the wine came and I began to sip, the British woman yelled at me across the table, “I can’t believe you! You’re a fake. How can you drink wine after preaching such a good sermon? Your words mean nothing now. That’s the problem with all you fake Christians. I can’t listen to a word you all say.” I was so stunned, I didn’t know what to say. Finally, I just mumbled something like, “I don’t think it’s sinful to drink a glass of wine but I’m sorry if I offended you. I’m glad you liked my sermon but I’m not perfect. I’m not even holy. I’m just a sinner but God uses me sometimes.” I’m a woman of unclean lips, who comes from an unclean people and every now and then I’m awed by that fact that I get to share God with people.”
4) May 11 | 1 Peter 3:13–18a | Jenny
Share faith in relationship: “I do much better one-to-one than speaking in front of a large group. I hardly ever speak about my faith in any way without some sort of trigger, either in the form of a question about it from someone, or an inward sense that makes me think God wants me to talk about it. Usually when I do this, it leads to an ongoing relationship of some kind, sometimes short, sometimes long, with the person I’m responding to. But I often don’t know the long-term effect, if any, that my words have had on the other person.”
5) May 18 | Exodus 4:10-16 | Ellen
God will give you what you need: “And then it dawns on Moses. “Wait, WHAT? You want me to do WHAT? No, not me, God! Get someone else to be the spokesperson, not me.” Moses argues fervently with God. And God tells him he’ll be given everything he needs, including someone to do the talking for him.”
6) May 25 | Revelation 22:16-21 | Jacob
Invite others to the water you’ve found: “What brought you to Jesus? What did you find in him that kept you here? Because whatever it was, whatever it is, that’s what you need to talk about when you talk about your faith. Those are the stories you need to tell. They don’t have to sound like my story. Or anyone else’s. Just tell your own true story, and trust that someone else needs to hear it. When you talk about your faith, you’re saying, “I see you’re thirsty, like me. Now come with me to the water I’ve found.””
How Do We Disciple Each Other? (10 sermons)
1) June 15 | Matthew 28:16-20 (Michelle)
By being a teacher and a friend: “Maybe a disciple is right where student and friend intersect. Jesus’s first disciples started out as apprentices. They called him “Rabbi,” which means “teacher,” and then at the end of his life Jesus calls them “friends.” So we disciple one another both as teachers and as friends.”
2) June 22 | Acts 9:10-20 | Jacob
By being there for someone whose faith is falling apart: “You can be that voice of faith for someone else in this congregation. When they hit a wall, when they get knocked down and blinded, when they can’t see what’s next, you can do what Ananias does in our story. You can go to their house, lay a hand on their shoulder, say gently, “brother” or “sister,” and help them to see again. And friends, it might not be easy. You might need to be strong to do it. You might get hurt and need to offer forgiveness. Because one of the things that can happen when someone is really lost is that they can have a lot of questions about their faith. It can look like they’re turning away from God completely. And they might be really angry and lash out at you.”
3) July 13 | 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 | Jacob
By loving across differences: “In America, in politics, in the culture wars, each side tries to shout down the other one. To crush it. To prove that it’s not only wrong, but probably evil as well. In the church though, each side depends on the other, and tries to understand and learn from it. This is called love. Later in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul gets to his famous passage about love—the one you hear read at weddings. You know, ‘If I speak in the tongues of mortals or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.’ That passage. But these words aren’t actually addressed to newlyweds, who are already bought in on loving each other. They’re directed to enemies. Specifically, to the Jewish and Greek Christians who’ve been brought together in the church, but who are predisposed to hating each other’s guts. So when Paul says, ‘Love is patient, love is kind,’ he doesn’t mean, ‘to the people you already want to be patient and kind with.’ He means, ‘to your enemies.’ And in the same way that Jesus in his day called Jews and Greeks together, he is in our day calling together conservatives and progressives—people with wildly different opinions about what’s good for this country and how we should get there.”
4) July 20 | Acts 13:1-3 | Michelle
By laying on hands and praying: “We pray for each other and bless each other’s work. And this is part of our discipleship journey together. We help each other to hear what work God has given each of us to do. And we send each other off into that work with prayer. And not only prayer from far away. Also prayer up close with hands on each other’s shoulders.”
5) July 27 | Acts 18:24-28 | Michelle
By befriending instead of shaming: “From Priscilla and Aquila we learn to avoid shaming other Christians. Instead, we welcome one another as friends before offering corrections. We put the relationship first. We honor each other’s gifts. We build trust. We make it our job not to shut people down but rather to equip them for further ministry. And from Apollos, we learn to humbly receive further teaching. We don’t assume we know it all, no matter how well-educated, intelligent, or prominent we are.”
6) August 3 | Acts 16:11-15 | Jacob
By being in each other’s lives: “The early church grew out of the homes of believers like Lydia. It grew because the first Christians went through the rhythms of their everyday lives together. They met every morning for formal discipling classes, which they called “catechesis.” But they also did informal discipling at all hours of the day and night. They talked about Jesus over the meals they shared every evening, and in the spare moments between one thing and the next. They shared their space with each other. They shared their stuff with each other. And over the course of those hours and hours spent together, they densened and thickened and deepened their relationships with each other and with Jesus.”
August 10 | Hebrews 10:23-25 | Michelle
By considering what will motivate each other to do good: “Hebrews 10:24 says, “Let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds.” In other words, let’s not just focus on the love and good deeds—though they’re important! Let’s start by considering each other. What in particular will spark love and good deeds in Eden? Or Nick? Or Don? Or Avi? Is it the same thing? Or is it different for each of them?”
August 17 | 2 Timothy 3:14-17 | Jacob
By reading scripture together: “Last Wednesday night, Rick, Kendall, Dale, Randy, Morris, Les and I gathered around the Martins’ dining-room table to read the Bible. We read three verses, and talked about them for an hour. What difference did it make? I don’t know yet. None of us said, “Aha! Because I read these verses, I’m now going to depend less on money and more on God in this concrete way.” Or, “I know exactly how to resolve this financial dilemma I’ve been wrestling with.” Or, “I know what my particular role is in fixing the unjust class system in this country.” But I think we all heard God tugging on our hearts as we read those verses. God planted a little seed inside each of us, and if we’re willing, God will keep growing that seed until one day it becomes a tree bearing good fruit that’s visible to everyone.”
August 24 | 1 Thessalonians 5:11-28 | Jacob
By acknowledging each other’s work: “Paul says we need to be doing three things: encouraging each other, building each other up, and acknowledging the people who work hard among us. In other words, at a base level, our job here is supporting each other. And, when we see someone else doing good work for Jesus, we tell them so. We say, “Hey friend, you’re doing some awesome Jesusy stuff around here, and you’re inspiring me by your example.” So this morning, I want to actually do that. I want you to think about who in this church you see working hard for Jesus. And then you’re going to tell them, out loud, that you appreciate them.”
August 31 | John 13:34-35; 1 Corinthians 13 | Kiva
The Lord’s Prayer (7 sermons)
1) September 28 | Matthew 6:9a | Michelle
We pray together: “When Jesus says, “Here’s how you should pray,” he begins, “Our Father in heaven.” If I were to preach this sermon without reading Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen, I’d focus on the second word: “Father.” But our early church friends ask me to think about the first word: “Our.” Cyprian goes on and on about the word, “our.” Because this is not a private or individual prayer. We’ve got to come together as the church to pray this. Even when we pray it alone, we’re still praying in the company of one another and Christians around the world. We seek to be of one mind with the church.”
2) October 5 | Matthew 6:9b | Michelle
We pray for God to work in us and in everyone—even our enemies: “Cyprian says we pray “Hallowed be thy name” not because these words change God but because they change us. This is a prayer that God’s name be made holy in us. Because we need to be made more like Jesus every day. Our prayer is all wrapped up in our living. And Tertullian takes this even further. He says we’re not just praying that God will further God’s good reputation through us. We’re praying that God will do this in all Christians, and in all people—even our enemies.”
3) October 12 | Matthew 6:10 | Jacob
We pray for heaven on earth: “Heaven is where God is. It’s somewhere not quite here and somewhen not quite now. But in that place and time, everything has already been made right. God is honored there, ceaselessly, by the saints and creatures and angels who sing, “Holy, holy, holy is your name.” There’s no fear. Everyone has enough. Every tear has been wiped away. Everyone knows God is king, and everyone does what God asks of them. All of that is already happening in heaven, where God is. And so, when we say, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” what we’re doing is calling together heaven and earth. We’re saying, “God, bring that here too. We want an outbreak of heaven on earth. All of that goodness and rightness that happens around you and because of you—we want it here.”
4) October 19 | Matthew 6:11 | Michelle
We pray to be filled in body and spirit: “Praying for “daily bread” includes praying for sustenance for our bodies. But we can be so focused on the physical food that we don’t recognize this as a prayer for spiritual food as well. Most of you are pretty familiar with your need for physical food. And you know what happens when your physical needs aren’t met. But what happens when you skip praying? What does it look like when your spirit is hangry? Do you recognize that? Maybe you forget about grace—for yourself or those around you. Maybe you start to feel like it’s your job to fix the whole world. And maybe coming to Jesus for daily bread through prayer would fill you up for whatever it is that you’re doing.”
5) October 26 | Matthew 6:12 | Jacob
We pray to release as we are released: “Jesus comes to people who are suffering for a lot of different reasons. They’re poor or sick; they have physical disabilities or chronic conditions; they’re in financial debt; they’re possessed by unclean spirits; they’ve been condemned by their neighbors for real or perceived sins. For Jesus, it makes very little difference. He sees people who are suffering and he aphiemies them all. So when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we’re asking Jesus to have that same all-encompassing mercy on us. We ask to go from being bound to being released. And, friends, the promise of Jesus is that even as we ask for this, we’re already beginning to receive it. But Jesus goes further. “Forgive us our debts” is only the first part of our scripture for this morning. The second part— the counterweight on the other side of the scales— is “as we forgive our debtors.””
6) November 2 | Matthew 6:9-13 | Emily
7) November 9 | Matthew 6:13 | Michelle
We pray for patient endurance: “Our early Christian friends knew the extraordinary power of prayer. They called prayer both a shield and weapon. They read the stories in the Bible where, through prayer, God rescued people from fire, wild animals, and starvation. Yet after Christ, they said, prayer is even more powerful. How can prayer be more powerful than rescuing people from the fiery furnace or the lions’ den? Tertullian says that now, through prayer, God does not remove suffering but instead gives us the patient endurance to get through it.”
Despair and Hope (6 sermons)
1) November 16 | Matthew 26:36-46 | Mike
2) November 23 | Isaiah 53:1–12 | Jacob
Even our suffering is in God’s hands: “We who are Christians know that the suffering servant does come to the people of Israel, in the person of Jesus Christ. But not for a long, long time. He doesn’t come in the 8th century, while Isaiah is still alive. He doesn’t come to rescue the people from armies of Assyria and Babylon. He doesn’t come when they’re carried away into exile, and he doesn’t come after they return. Instead, the people wait for the one they’ve been promised for somewhere between 500 and 700 years. And what’s remarkable to me is that, during those hundreds of years, they don’t lose hope. Not entirely. They have prophets who just keep saying that somehow this—even this— is happening under God’s eye. Even this is in God’s hands.”
3) November 30 | Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 | Michelle
People have endured this before: “The way I read Ecclesiastes depends so much on my circumstances. When things are great, it isn’t much of a book for hope. But when things are terrible, when I’m swept up by despair, I hear quite a bit of hope in this ancient wisdom. Think about the phrase, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Do you hear that as a statement of despair? Or of hope? When life is great, it can sound like a downer. But I remember in 2020 when everyone kept using the word “unprecedented.” An “unprecedented pandemic.” The “unprecedented lockdowns.” Pretty much everything seemed “unprecedented.” We all felt like we were living through something brand new, something no one had ever experienced before. And that was terrifying. But Ecclesiastes disagrees. “There is nothing new under the sun.” In 2020, this was a word of hope. Humans have endured pandemics before. Just a hundred years earlier, the Spanish flu. Before that, the black death. These were times of terrible suffering to be sure. But whatever the crisis, looking back at history tells us that we’re not the first to go through this.”
4) December 7 | Lamentations 3:1–33 | Jacob
God’s long work in history: “The astonishing conclusion the writers of Lamentations come to is that, somehow, even after all this, God still rules the world, and God is still good. It’s not all they say. And they don’t say it easily. But right in the middle of Lamentations, in the passage we read earlier, there’s this simple, quiet confession of faith. “But there’s one thing I keep in mind. One thing that gives me hope. God’s faithful love hasn’t ended.” That’s the heart of Lamentations. It’s as if the people are waking up under their makeshift tents, looking around at what used to be their city, and saying, “We didn’t see God’s goodness yesterday. And we can’t see it today. But we know that God loves us. So we’re making the choice to hope.” And that’s what they do. For the next 500 years, they hope. Through occupation by the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. For the next 500 years, they hope that God will bring a kingdom where they can live in peace. And friends, that is, in fact, what God does. Because, over the next 500 years, the fall of Jerusalem and the exile in Babylon have ripple effects that change the course of history. You can trace a line from the fall of Jerusalem to the compiling of the Bible, the coming of Jesus, and the spread of Christianity. And even to Ambler Mennonite Church.”
5) December 14 | 2 Kings 6:8–17 | Michelle
There’s more than we can see: “What I love about the story of Elisha and the chariots of fire is that it reminds us of what we can’t see. If our hope is only based on what we can see, then some circumstances will make it impossible to hope. To human eyes, Elisha and his servant are in a hopeless situation. The enemy has surrounded their city, and they’re done for. But God is working beyond what they can see.”
6) December 21 | Matthew 2:13-23 | Jacob
Can you see the angels?: “God was doing something special on Christmas night. God was coming to us in a way that hadn’t happened before and hasn’t happened since. But the world that God was coming into was not some other world. It was our world. The Christmas story takes place among ordinary people living their ordinary lives. A pregnant teenage girl. A baby born into poverty. Homeless guys. Taxes. Government agents raiding houses in the night. Refugees fleeing across the border. It was happening then, and it’s happening still. When you take the angels out of it, it’s easier to recognize that Jesus was born into the same cruel, cold, confusing world that we know so well. And, having said all that, I very much believe that there were angels all around Jesus’ birth. I believe that God was sending messages to earth, speaking to people in dreams, steering and guiding then, protecting their little ones. And I very much believe that all of that is still true. It’s not the the Bible sees angels where they aren’t. It’s that we fail to see angels where they are. And knowing that is the difference between despair and hope.”