Explore the Sermon Archive
2023
| Seeing the Miracle Do miracles simply exist in ancient stories or do they still happen today? Spoiler alert: They still happen today. We focused on the story of Simeon. And when Simeon saw the baby Jesus for the first time, he grabbed him, lifted him up, and sang praises to God for having seen the miracle of the Messiah. What does it take to be open and ready to see miracles? Some faithful study, the Holy Spirit's leading and the eyes to see. Then we may be able to spot even the smallest of God's miracles in our world today. view sermon |
| For Unto Us a Child is Born The prophet Isaiah tells of the birth of a child born for us; a son given to us. Authority will rest on his shoulder, and he will have four names: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. These names resound in the magnificent chorus of Handel’s “Messiah.” Through the Sundays of Advent, Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka will explore each of these four names and how Jesus embodied them in his birth and life among us. view sermon series |
| Spiraling Out Everywhere we turn, human beings seek to define who is and who isn’t part of the community of God. But the promises that Christ embodies often go one step past what feels comfortable for us. Even the very human Jesus sometimes encounters this discomfort, as he did when he rejected the Canaanite woman. Fortunately, she believes so deeply in the promises of God that she refuses to allow human categories to keep her daughter from a miracle. There is an extended metaphor here, if we have eyes to see it, about God’s love being a spiral with no end, rather than a tightly drawn circle of who belongs and who does not. view sermon |
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| The Gospel According to Pixar Pixar Animation Studios is an American computer animation studio that has produced 27 feature films and has won numerous awards and recognitions. Ultimately, Pixar is known for finding and developing great stories and using computer animation to tell them. The Gospel (gospel means “good news”) of Jesus Christ is the great story of Jesus of Nazareth who shared the good news of God’s love for all and helped people love God and love each other. The story of Jesus has changed the world. In this preaching series, Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka will explore how four Pixar films (Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Inside OutandUp) demonstrate Jesus’ Gospel truths for our lives of faith today. view sermon series |
| In Joy Human beings need joy. Joy can result from the positive circ*mstances in our lives, but if positive circ*mstances are required, then joy will be elusive. No life escapes disappointment. No life escapes suffering. Yet, Christ teaches us that aided by courage and some practice, joy can find us even in hard times. To be in Christ is to learn to be in joy. Rev. Tom Are preaches this sermon series. view sermon series |
| Why Church? The Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life reports that nearly a quarter of American adults report that they have no religious affiliation, an all time high. The majority of these persons say they are “spiritual, but not religious.” American young adults, persons in their 20s and 30s, share common critiques of “organized religion.” A majority of them say the church is full of people who are judgmental and hypocritical. Further, they say the church is anti-gay, anti-women, and anti-science. In this preaching series, we will explore these criticisms as we seek to answer the question: Why Church? view sermon series |
| Do I Have a Story for You! In this series, we will walk with God “at the time of the evening breeze.” We will see what we can learn from a talking snake. We will discover how familiar the first brothers can be to us. And we will discover the risk to us all when “the whole earth had one language and the same words.” After all these generations, these first Biblical stories still reveal truth about ourselves that we need to know. view sermon series |
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| Get a Life: Walking in Peter’s Footsteps This Lent we will journey with the Apostle Peter, the first disciple to be called and among the last to fall away. He had moments of brilliance as well as utter failure. The invitation of Jesus, to all he encountered, was to live a particular life. Peter had the courage to follow this invitation and he discovered that Jesus eventually gave his life that we all might get a life… a life that God intends for us. view sermon series |
| Stay & Pray: God’s Invitation to Human Connection view sermon |
| I Am…Bread. Light. Way. Life. view sermon series |
2022
| Hopes and Fears of All the Years view sermon series |
| Gratitude Does This week we’ll likely gather around tables with people we care about, and if we’re successful in remembering why we’ve gathered, we’ll recount our lists of gratitude. Our story for today takes us to another table. Perhaps like ours, not everyone around this table agreed with one another. But here, instead of talking about gratitude, Mary Magdalene startles everyone at the party by giving us a radical example of what gratitude looks like. Two thousand years later, this story continues to invite us to consider what gratitude “does.” View Sermon |
| The Good That is Ours to Do There was a time when the church was convinced that we would conquer the world. Maybe whoever Luke was, who wrote the book of Acts, had such a confidence. Western Christianity certainly did as recently as 100 years ago. But we are different now. We know that, in our time, there are more conversations about the church’s irrelevance. While we at Village are blessed with remarkable strengths, we know that we often feel that our strength can seldom match the demands and needs of the world in which we live. The gift of such a position is that it reminds us of our dependence on God. We choose to do the good that is ours to do and see what God will do with that. View sermon series |
| Sometimes We Need to Ask for Directions If you desired your faith to grow and to be in a different place a year from now, to make the coming year a year of spiritual journey, what would you need to do? How would you start? This series will reflect on some practices and possibilities for such a journey. For our faith journey to continue, sometimes, we need to ask for directions. View sermon series |
| What Was Intended for Harm If you know about Joseph in the Bible, you know life does not come without challenges, difficulties and trauma. As we look at Joseph we can draw out some insight about how we work through those difficult seasons, and we find a God who is willing to work both in us and for us, even in our darkest days. View sermon |
| Sensing Faith Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit and by God’s grace, comes to us through a variety of ways. Sometimes faith comes through something we hear: a song, a sermon, a conversation. Sometimes faith comes through something we feel: a gentle touch, a hug, a fresh breeze on a hot day. In this sermon series, Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka will explore how faith comes through taste, sight and smell. View sermon series |
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| I Have a Question... View sermon series |
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| Life in the Wilderness Three decades after the ministry of Jesus, life was chaotic for Christians in the Roman empire. Serious earthquakes occurred. Christians became scapegoats for the disastrous fire that destroyed much of Rome, and as a result were rounded up and put to death by the most horrific means. A Jewish revolt was put down by the Roman Army, leaving the temple in Jerusalem destroyed again. During this tumultuous time, someone we call Mark wrote the first Gospel. He tells the story that changes the world. In this series, we will travel with Mark from the beginning to the resurrection. Life 2,000 years after Jesus remains chaotic, but perhaps this story will change us. Mark bears witness that there can be abundant life even in the wilderness. View sermon series |
2021
| Joy When You Need It Most This is the season when we light the candles of Hope, Peace, Love and Joy. This year, perhaps more than most, we need a little joy. When spirits are battered and the heart is bruised, when life is wearying and hope is fragile, joy can seem hard to come by. But joy is a strong disposition. Joy is both a gift and a spirit that is pursued. It is an experience of grace and also the fruit of discipline. This Advent we will rehearse once again the story that is the source of joy to the world, as well as joy to us when we need it most. view sermon series |
| Christian DNA: A Series on Faith, Hope and Love view sermon series |
| The World God So Loved is This World We see the consequences every day—fires, floods, droughts, storms. The financial and human costs continue to rise as homes are destroyed, lives are lost, and millions are made refugees. When the conditions for human life on the planet are stressed, it becomes a matter of conscience for people of faith, who are called to love the neighbor. There is a lot of bad news, and the science indicates that things will get worse before they get better. But we live in hope, because the earth is a great place to live, and it is a world that God loves. view sermon series |
| Finding God—This Place and On the Move view sermon |
| The Church: An Already/Not Yet People What is a church good for? Why did God decide the world that God loves needs a church? Well, there are several responses to such questions. A few centuries ago, the Presbyterian Church identified some grand purposes to describe what the church is for. These purposes are called the “Great Ends of the Church.” There are six Great Ends. They describe the life of the church as it is, at least to a point. But they also are aspirational and describe what the church should be. In that sense, they describe the church as it already is, while at the same time, they describe the church as it has yet to become. Rev. Are will explore each of these ancient statements. They are hopeful. They are challenging. They are relevant, perhaps more relevant today than they were when they were drafted centuries ago. When the church chooses to live toward these Great Ends or Great Purposes, there may be no other place you would rather be in/among these already/not yet people. view sermon series |
| Practical Wisdom from James In this sermon series, we will explore four ways that faith is lived according to James. Together, we will see how James, the brother of Jesus and leader of the early Christian church in Jerusalem, provides practical wisdom for how we follow Jesus today. view sermon series |
| Choose the World You Want to Live In Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven as Matthew identifies it. It’s not heaven; it's life lived genuinely and authentically in this world. But it is also like stepping into a foreign country where the culture and foods and music and expectations are different, because this kingdom is God’s, not ours. Jesus showed us what that kingdom looks like by the way he lived his life. But he also taught us about that kingdom by telling particular kinds of stories we call parables. The parables were descriptive, but they were also invitational. Each telling invites us to choose which world we want to live in…the world we have structured, or the kingdom of heaven? view sermon series |
| Tell Me a Story We are, both as Christians and as humans, a story people. We enjoy stories, we learn from stories; but over the view sermon |
| You’ve Got a Friend Jesus was accused of being a friend to the wrong people. He also had high expectations for friendship, as once he said the greatest love is in one who lays down their life for a friend. One of the ordination vows proposed to elders, deacons and pastors is this: Will you be a friend among your colleagues in ministry? Friendship is important. Over the year, we have had to get creative in how to practice friendship with one another. In this series Rev. Tom Are will explore why friendships matter and identify barriers that some friendships must overcome. view sermon series |
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| The World Turned Upside Down The beatitudes launch the teaching of Jesus that describes the life that God intends, that God blesses and that God creates for us. The beatitudes describe the blessed life. But there is little question that the blessed life depicted in the beatitudes stands in tension with the pursuits of life defined by both ancient and modern cultures. And yet, blessed are you. view sermon series |
| What God Can Do With Dust It’s from dust we came, and to dust we shall return. And yet, the story of scripture reminds us just what God can do with dust. From creation, to restoration in resurrection, God hasn’t needed more than what we already are to do amazing things. view sermon |
| 2020 Was My Teacher (Lessons Learned During a Hard Year) What have we learned from a very hard 2020? We can’t afford to waste a crisis. What has 2020 taught us that we should carry forward? Rev. Tom Are offers some modest proposals to address that question.Revs. Melanie Hardison and Sally Wright co-preach on how to find rest in these hard times.Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka concludes the series with “When God is Absent.” For many of us, there were moments in 2020 when it seemed as if God was absent. That is exactly what Job wondered. Facing the loss of his family, friends, home, livelihood, and honor, he asks why God has abandoned him and is absent. Together, we will explore what we do when it feels like God is no longer with us. view sermon series |
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2020
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| Close to the Water Shipwrecked view sermons |
| Village Being Village Sounds silly enough, but the most important work of the church is to be the church. The gospel is not an idea or a program, but a community. When we give, it seems so individualized. There is that element. The money I give comes out of my bank account, which for most of us, except trust fund kiddos, comes from the fruit of my labor. But that individual choice makes possible the communal reality in the world. Apart from this, the church evaporates from the ground. God is calling the church in our day to be a community of redemption, grace and peace. view sermon series |
| Road Trip Leaving home is a common hunger. To escape an overbearing parent, to search for a missing loved one, to find excitement, or to find ourselves and live an authentic life. These road trips take a few different forms…some stories are prodigal stories. We leave so that we can come back home again for the first time. A favorite of our time is there is no real destination, the journey is the road. Some are refugee journeys…leaving what you thought was home is search of a place to belong. view sermon series |
| These, Too, Are Water Sometimes, the things right in front of us are the hardest to see, even when they shape our lives every day. Right now, we are as a country coming to terms with one force that has hidden in plain sight for centuries: white supremacy. We’ll look at how this sin, and others, deceive us, and how we might see, and challenge it as God’s people. view sermon |
| Being The Church It has been five months since we have joined together in worship. We miss singing together, praying together, and greeting one another with smiles, handshakes and hugs. Yet in this time of all times, we are reminded that the church is not bound by our buildings. In the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the believers in Corinth, he describes three images for the church. None of these images are dependent upon a building. As the summer draws to a close, it is good for us to remember that we will never change the world by just going to church. We will only change the world by being the church. view sermon series |
| Summer Reading: Great Stories of Faith A good story can encourage and inspire as well as instruct. The stories that we tell and the stories we remember can give shape to our lives. The Bible is filled with wonderful stories that time and again open our souls to a deeper understanding of God. This summer we will listen to some great stories. Some of them funny. Some of them challenging. But through each of them, we will listen again for that word that stands forever. view sermon series |
| How Long, O Lord? Rev. Tom Are preaches from Psalm 13, one of the many psalms of lament. In his sermon message, Rev. Are said that George Floyd is just one person who has succumbed to this disease of systemic racism that has infected our lands from the time the first Pilgrims disembarked on our sandy shores until this very hour. As we grieve the killing of George Floyd and so many other African Americans, like the psalmist, we cry out to God for justice and hope. view sermon |
| There’s a Call for You The Bible is full of stories where God calls individuals, and sometimes groups, to live in a certain way or perform certain tasks. God calls Abraham to a journey. Jesus calls fishermen to come and follow. Christ calls Saul to become the Apostle Paul. Does God still call people? More to the point, do you have a call — or maybe a collection of calls from God? Rev. Tom Are’s series will explore this question. We will ask, how does faith in the risen Christ influence every aspect of our lives? To what is God calling you? view sermon series |
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| What Freedom Looks Like Freedom is important and something that we should not take for granted. But what does it mean to be free? There iscertainly a political way to answer that question. There is also an economic way to express freedom. But human freedomis first a spiritual category. How does Christianity understand what it means for a person to be free? What would it take forus to live toward freedom in our day? view sermon series |
| Who Do People Say That I Am? The birth of Jesus comes with many claims regarding his identity. Who is this child? The Angelic choir called him the messiah. Gabriel called him God’s son. Some preferred the name Immanuel. All this and more to describe the child ofmanger straw. But how do we describe Jesus now? Jesus asked his own followers, “Who do you say that I am?” There’s not one answer to that question. Oh, it’s possible to answer it by quoting the creeds “his only son, our Lord.” But a surveyof the Gospel writers reveals that each gospel writer speaks of Jesus differently. Over the next few weeks, we will listen to each Gospel writer’s response to the question, “Who do you say that I am?” We will end the series reflecting on how ourunderstanding of who Jesus is influences our understanding of who we are to be. view sermon series |
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