The story of Naaman starts with a shock. God blesses the enemy general, the man with a stolen Israelite girl working in his house. Then it keeps flipping the script. Two kings with all their money and power can’t do a thing. A little slave girl with no name knows where healing is found. Naaman’s servants talk him into stepping down into a muddy river. In a week of red and blue maps and people turned into cartoons, this old story asks us to look again at who God sees, and who God uses. Spoiler: it’s usually the ones nobody expected. The sermon is based on 2 Kings 5:1-15a.

We usually call the story of David and Bathsheba an affair or about adultery. The Bible tells a darker story. A king on his palace roof looks down, takes a woman who cannot say no, and has her loyal husband killed to cover it up. In this Reformation Sunday sermon on 2 Samuel 11–12 and Psalm 51, Pastor Matthew Best looks at what power does to people, how abuse gets protected by those around it, and how the church has sometimes been part of that pattern. He also looks at how God hears the voices the powerful try to silence, and how Jesus came down from the roof to make us fully human again.

What happens when our words say one thing and our actions say another? In Joshua 24, the people of Israel loudly promise to serve the Lord while their idols are still in their pockets. We all know that gap, in politics, in the church, and at home. Let's wrestle honestly with that gap and with the violence in the book of Joshua that so often gets skipped over, from the conquest of Canaan to today’s Christian nationalism. Let's tell the story and deal with it, while also telling the story of how God shows up and acts.

Solomon asked God for a listening heart, and the Bible tells us he became the wisest king who ever lived. Then the story keeps going. In this sermon on 1 Kings 3:4-28, we look at the over the top way Scripture introduces Solomon and ask why it sounds so much like a campaign ad. We also look at what happens when the bill for all that excess comes due. With Election Day tomorrow and the anxiety so many of us are carrying, this message asks where our hope really rests. It points to a King who will never be on a ballot, who forgave the empire that killed him and gives himself away. Take a listen, and bring your questions with you.

As we turn to Exodus 14 and the story of the Israelites at the Red Sea, we hear how Israel is confronted with two impossible challenges - the sea and the empire. Death looks certain. And in the midst of that, God shows up and flips the script defeating the evil of empire and the evil of chaos. The sermon is based on Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29.

We are at the end of our series on the Ten Commandments. The commandment may be the most difficult for us. It's about wanting what doesn't belong to us. The core of this is a message that tries to tell us that we aren't enough. Yet God reminds us that we are. The sermon is based on Exodus 20:17.

Each year, Jews gathers to retell the story of the Passover and Exodus where God set Israel free. It's not just a retelling though. It is an invitation for hearers to be in the story as if God set them free too. Christians also have a story that invites us in as Jesus sets us free. The sermon is based on parts of Exodus 12, 13, and 15.

In this third week on the series of the Ten Commandments, we turn our attention to how we are to live in relationship with our neighbor. The second set of the Commandments also dive deeper by addressing the injustice of enslavement in order to establish a better way to be community. The sermon is based on Exodus 20:12-16.