The Church We Hope For

April 21, 2024 | Salena Marie Scott | Earth Day – Eastertide

Salena Scott shares her unique journey of how caring for creation began to care for her disabled body in return, and why she thinks Jesus calls us to commune with the land we live on. Salena is a poet and an advocate of renewing the California indigenous story through native plants.

Keywords: Creation, Earth Day, Healing, Indigenous Jesus

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April 14, 2024 | John Williams | Matthew 5:6 The sermon explores the concept of Restorative Justice and its vital role in building a beloved community. Through the framework of the Sermon on the Mount, the address invites congregants to embrace deep humility, courageous listening, unintimidated speech, and the amplification of the stories of the racially oppressed.

Keywords: Restorative Justice, Racial Reconciliation, Community Building

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April 7, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Luke 24:36-43

After the revelation at the table at the end of the road to Emmaus, Jesus again appears to his disciples and introduces himself saying, “Peace be with you”. Through a wordcloud exercise, Pastora Inés invites our congregations to a communal reflection of Scripture asking what keywords, emotions, images, and phrases stand out to us from this passage. Our road to resurrection is still ongoing and our people are the teachers.

Keywords: Road to Emmaus, Resurrection, Peace

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March 31, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Luke 24:28-35

After the resurrection, Jesus goes searching for his friends and listens to their dashed hopes on the road to Emmaus. The disciples don’t recognize him until he takes the bread, gives thanks, and shares it. Resurrection is a road and a ritual where Jesus’ presence comes after us so that we may see him.

Keywords: Road to Emmaus, Resurrection, Ritual, Table

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March 29, 2024 | Mondo and Salena Scott, Mike Hale

A contemplative liturgy of sight, sound, and solidarity as we center a table of remembrance and reflect on the cross of Christ. This Good Friday Observance included musical, poetic, and visual exploration where we meditated on the unjust crucifixion of Jesus and sought solace in the divine mystery of our God fully revealed in Christ crucified.

March 24, 2024 | Bobby Harrison | Mark 11

In our bilingual Palm Sunday service, we reimagined the biblical narrative of Jesus riding in on a donkey through the eyes of a little girl and her family. May this immersive, imaginative tale bring new eyes and ears to a familiar pillar of our Easter experience. And in it, may Jesus be revealed to you again and anew, as a King who cries.

Keywords: Story, Lament, Hope, Imagination, Faith, Familia

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March 17, 2024 | Sandy Lee Schaupp | Matthew 26:26-29, Revelations 7:9

This sermon explores the question, "What keeps us from pondering heaven?" Sandy vulnerably shares her own journey with how the fear of death or assumptions about who gets to be in heaven blocked her from pondering heaven. She invites listeners to actively nurture a robust vision of heaven which would increase our hope and joy now and into eternity.

Keywords: Death, Heaven, Hope, Feasting, Deconstructing

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March 10, 2024 | Bobby Harrison | John 12:23-25

In this sermon, we look at the invitation Jesus gives us in the Gospel of John to release our whole lives unto God in order for the fullness of God to have its way with us.

Keywords: Hope, Surrender, Release, Redemption, Life, Healing

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March 3, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | John 6:1-14 In the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, if we count women and children, Jesus actually fed about 15,000+. Jesus sees the marginalized and hungry crowds and invites his disciples to provide. A young boy brings his sack lunch that maybe his mom baked and his tio caught the fish. Jesus gives thanks for the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish and miraculously provides for the masses. What would it look like for Jesus to provide living bread for you in this season now? What would it look like if we all brought our “5 and 2”?

Keywords: Feeding of 5000, Barley, Bread, Fish

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Feb 25, 2024 | Angela Scott Lee

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February 18, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | John 6:25-36 THE VOICE translation Pastora Inés introduces us to our Lent series: Bread and Body which will carry us all the way to Easter. In this story, Jesus invites us to the tables that he sets and calls himself the "bread of life". As we enter into Lent, how may we retrain our appetites to hunger for the true bread that gives life? How might we be attentive to our bodies? How might we fast from or add a rhythm in our life that purges us from false breads and moldy water?

Keywords: Lent, Bread, Body

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February 4, 2024 | Bobby Harrison | Luke 15

In this online service, we took time to re-read together the story of the prodigal sons in Luke 15. And through the lenses of social locations and cultural backgrounds, we gave ourselves the gift of reimagining this story in such beautiful, collaborative ways. The reflections we all shared back throughout the service helped cultivate together a sermon like never before.

Keywords: Grace, Forgiveness, Healing, Communal, Bible, Joy, Liberation

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January 28, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Mark 4:1-10 In the parable of the sower, Jesus invites the conditions that would make the seed of the Word to remain, take root, sprout, and bring forth fruit. Soils need sustainable rhythms to receive this word. Instead of asking “What soil am I?” perhaps our agency invites us to choose what soil we will be.

Keywords: Soil, Seed, Sower

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January 7, 2023 | Bobby Harrison

In this sermon, we look at wilderness seasons and stories throughout the Scriptures, from cover to cover. And we see our own stories, and receive a deeper understanding that so much of life is found in “wilderness seasons”. What we then are called to ask, is how God can meet us even — and especially — here.

Keywords: Grace, Hope, Jesus, Justice, Wilderness

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January 21, 2024 | Nicola Patton | Psalm 133

It’s easy to get caught up in doing so much church that we forget about community. But God cares more about community than about church. We have been created in and for community by a communal God. It is part of our human nature to need each other and exist fully together. Sometimes we want to love people without needing them. But we lose our humanity when we lose sight of community, when we lose the truth of community, when we lose the safety and love of community. It is scary and risky to be vulnerable with each other but community is where we find God.

Keywords: Community, Humanity, Unity

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December 17, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Ruth 4:11-12 → Luke 1:46-55

Mother Ruth secures the steps and seeds of the Messiah and we hear echoes of her hope in Mary's Magnificat. Our very own Nicola Patton re-writes Mary's Magnificat in Ruth's voice. We linger in Mary's words. She speaks from her soul. She magnifies El Shaddai which means "from the bosom of the mother". And she sings overshadowed by the Spirit. Ruth and Mary invite us to sing a song ourselves.

Keywords: Ruth, Mary, Magnificat, Advent

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December 10, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | Ruth 1, 4

In this sermon, we look at the story of Naomi in the book of Ruth. And from this matriarch of the faith, we find space for blessing to be birthed even in bitterness. Asking God to do just the same in us and our lives. And honestly holding space for the weariness we’re feeling while longing for more.

Keywords: Hope, Lament, Loss, Blessing, Belief, Advent

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December 3, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Ruth 2:8-12 NRSV

In Ruth 2, we observe that the steps of Ruth plant the seeds of the Messiah and prepare the way for the Messiah. Mother Ruth, a foreign Moabite woman steps into the field of prophetic promise where God has been cultivating a path of shalom for generations. She reaps the compassion that she has sown onto Naomi, and she plants the seeds of the inbreaking of the Kingdom.

Keywords: Ruth, Boaz, Advent, seeds

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November 19, 2023 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Matthew 14:13-12, 15:12-39

In recognition of Native American Heritage Month, we chose to honor the land we occupy by delving into its history and acknowledging its original indigenous inhabitants. Among our community, Armando David Scott-Canchola centered the ancestral lineage of his maternal Chumash Native heritage. Through the telling of a Chumash creation story, Armando interwove the narrative with the subversive teachings of Jesus, offering a unique perspective on identity and spirituality, revealing that all are welcome at the Table of the Lord.

Keywords: Native Storytelling, Native American Christian, Chumash, Canaanite woman

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November 12, 2023 | Bobby Harrsion | John 11:33-44

As Jesus makes his way to the stone-cold tomb where Lazarus is sealed shut, we’re invited to see the “tomb seasons” in our own lives. The spaces and places where we find ourselves in lament and loss. And where we ultimately long for God to comfort us and call us back to holy and whole healing.

Keywords: Lament, Loss, Grief, Hope, Healing, Community, Migration, Resurrection

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November 5, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Ruth 1:16-18

Migration is a means of God's love and God's company. In the story of Comadre Ruth and Naomi, we see the embodied hesed love of God in the friendship vows that Ruth makes to Naomi in times of crisis and duress. Comadre Ruth did not know that she carried the seed of the Messiah and her actions secured his arrival in the coming generations.

Keywords: Ruth, Naomi, migration, comadre

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October 22, 2023 | Camille Hernandez | Judges 4:17-22 As we continue to witness the atrocity of war, retaliation, and genocide let us turn our eyes to the actions of Jael who teaches us how to boldly go where God leads and end conflict. This is a sermon that is meant to meet this moment while also honoring the genocide victims in Palestine, the Philippines, and throughout the globe. Using a nonviolent approach and trauma-informed analysis, we will use the story of Jael to understand our role as peacemakers and justice pursuers.

Keywords: Jael, Israel, Palestine, genocide, peacemaking

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October 15, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | Mark 5:25-29 In this sermon, we look at the woman in Mark 5 who has been bleeding for 12 years. And we let her story lead us to look at an even more ancient shared suffering of blood between Israelis and Palestinians. While asking Jesus to end this loss of so much life. It’s ultimately a word of shalom seeking more shalom for our broken world.

Keywords: Suffering, Mercy, Shalom, Jesus, War, Tragedy, Loss, Hope

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October 8, 2023 | Meleca Consultado | Genesis 16: 7-8

As I (Meleca) have been sitting with Spirit this last week, She brought me back to a story that has ministered to me more times than I can remember. The story of an Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, who had to endure wickedness and abuse done to her, who lacked power, was vulnerable and might have been erased from the biblical narrative altogether until she was met in the wilderness by the angel of the Lord, who asked her two questions, that I find grounding amidst this liminal space that is staring into one's past while wondering what sort of future awaits you/us.

The question(s): “where have you come from, and where are you going?”

And the invitation I have for you Pamilya, will you carry this story with me?

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October 1, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | Matthew 1-2

We look at the story of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus as they are forced to migrate over 1,200 miles over the course of three years. And in their perilous journey, we find glimpses of our stories of movement. All the while reflecting on how God's faithfulness and our ancestors' faith made a way for us to make today.

Keywords: Faith, Ancestors, Migration, Movement, Spirit, Doubt, Jesus

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September 24, 2023 As we celebrated our 3-year church anniversary, our community shared honestly, vulnerable, and joyfully what this place has meant to them as a faith community. We also marked our last day at the Missiongathering church building where we made our first in-person home since the Fall of 2021. As of October 1st, we migrated to a new church home at the Pasadena Mennonite Church property four blocks north!

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September 10, 2023 | Armando David Canchola Scott | Isaiah 11:1-9

This Sunday was the beginning of a season where our church familia began to center and celebrate Latinx Heritage Month. In honor of that, Armando David Canchola Scott explored Isaiah 11:1-9, where the poet prophets give audacious vision of hope and peace; and how that connected to his own story of his own cultural heritage.

Keywords: chicana, chicano, Isaiah 11, Latinx, Latinx heritage month, multicultural church, Peace, shalom, Zion

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August 27, 2023 | Nicola Patton | 1 Kings 19:1-15 We won’t always be dazzled by the Spirit. Much of our lives are spent in mundane, even wilderness places. But the Spirit meets us in all those places and moments, creating space for us to be quiet and reflect. It’s in that silence we can take the time to hear the Spirit gently and curiously ask, “What are you doing here?”

Keywords: Holy Spirit, Silence, Rest

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August 13, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | Luke 3:21-22

In this sermon, we look at the /Spirit’s involvement in Jesus’ baptism. And the Belovedness that is spoken over him in that moment. And we do so as a recognition that this same Belovedness has been gifted to us as well.

Keywords: Belovedness, Grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Love

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August 6, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | 1 Cor. 12:4-14 (NRSV)

Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that God has dispensed power from above for them to live the resurrected life. This same Spirit grants individual spiritual gifts that are meant for the common good and to edify the body. Lastly, this power is power from in-between as each member of the body helps the body move, and live and breathe and have its being.

Keywords: Corinthians, Holy Spirit, Paul

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July 30, 2023

In this service, we do not have a sermon. Instead, we embody the listening practices engaged in the month of July and have a communal time of reflection beginning with the lighting of Palo Santo until Communion. The stories are the sermon as we engage with art, wordless worship, palo santo, and the word bank.

Keywords: Listening, Communal Reflection, Worship

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July 23, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | 2 Cor. 2:14-17

Christ is sufficient and the Spirit is supreme to make us competent to fulfill our calling. In Christ, we are empowered to be the aroma of Christ and sometimes, well, Jesus smells like a mango empanada.

Keywords: Aroma, Fragrance, 2 Corinthians

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July 16, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | 2 Cor. 3:1-6

The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian church a letter of encouragement about their witness. They are letters. Letters of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the ink. Letters that give life and liberation. We can be confident that God is competent to write our stories and not only that, that we are co-creating a Spirit-story with our very own lives.

Keywords: Corinthians, Paul, Letters, Holy Spirit

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July 9, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | Romans 8:22-27

In this sermon, we look at lament and grief. And all the ways it comes to fruition in our lives. But as we continue in our series, The Story of the Spirit, we realize that the Holy Spirit is not just our comforter in times of grief. But actually prays for us on our behalf.

Keywords: Lament, Grief, Hope, Love, Waiting, Longing, Praying, Holy Spirit

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June 25, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | Acts 16

We look at the story of Paul and Silas in Acts 16 to see how the Spirit is moving them to unveil a more expansive vision of the gospel than most of us inherited growing up. It’s right in line with Jesus’ call in Luke 4 to set captives free. Our hope is that we would continue to say Yes to this gospel growing in us in even more expansive ways.

Keywords: Gospel, Salvation, Justice, Equity, Good News, Faith, Spirit

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June 18, 2023 | Phil Allen, Jr. | Luke 4:18

The experience of the enslaved who were actually free in Texas long before 1865 (what we now celebrate as Juneteenth), like the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness who were set free from Egypt, become metaphors for a liberating God who remembers us and is attentive to us when opposing forces attempt to keep us in bondage. This message is about discerning the truth-proclaiming, liberating Spirit of God over the spirit of oppression and lies during liminal, uncertain times. We know the Spirit of liberation by knowing and being faithful to the truth she proclaims. If the Son makes you free, you will be free, indeed (John 8:36). Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17).

Keywords: Juneteenth, Freedom, Liberation, Holy Spirit, Truth

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June 11, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Acts 16:1-10

The Holy Spirit pulls some stops in Paul, Silas & Timothy's journey on their way to Philippi. The Spirit actually stops and redirects them 2 times. When we pause and read in between the lines we see the gift of uncertainty that holds space for listening to the Spirit and releasing our control of life's twists and turns. Uncertainty lends itself to listening to the Spirit as a practice that is contextual, habitual, and communal.

Keywords: Paul, Philippi, Holy Spirit, Uncertainty

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June 4, 2023 | Rev. Bert Newton | Isaiah, Leviticus, Ezekiel, Luke, Matthew

Rev. Bert Newton of Making Housing and Communities Happen in Pasadena joined to cast a Biblical vision of equitable housing and stewardship of the land. We looked from cover to cover in the Scriptures, from Jubilee to Jesus, to bear witness to God’s heart for all people.

Keywords: Housing, Justice, Equity, Shalom

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May 21, 2023 | Dr. Cindy Lee | Ezekiel 37:1-10

What does an East Asian worldview teach us about engaging with and experiencing the Spirit? This message, based on Ezekiel 37:1-10, looks at the Spirit as a life-giving force and breath of life within us known as qi in a Chinese worldview.

Keywords: Chinese spirituality, Chi, Qi, Ezekiel, Holy Spirit

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May 14, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | Philippians 2, John 20

In this sermon, we look at Spirit Christology: the theological exploration of Jesus’ life lived fully empowered by the Holy Spirit. And as Jesus exhales his divinity — lives into his humanity — and breathes in the Spirit, so we are invited to do the same.

Keywords: Breath, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Power

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May 7, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Exodus 15:1-13

Miriam leaves the place of slavery in Egypt and the one thing she brings is a tambourine. Jewish tradition teaches that Miriam led the women and people of Israel in song and dance at God’s liberation. She danced on dry land. Her tambourine is a witness of her trust in God’s faithfulness out of slavery into liberation.

Keywords: Exodus, Miriam, Song, Tambourine

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April 30, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | Zechariah 1-8

In this sermon, we lean into the Spirit’s writing through the prophet, Zechariah. And we imagine a world without walls — a vision of humanity where all that has historically divided has now been cast aside in the name of coming together in Spirit-shaped oneness.

Keywords: Oneness, Grace, Division, Justice, Hope, Healing, Peacemaking, Holy Spirit

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April 23, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Genesis 1:1-3

Pastora Inés dives into an overview of the Ruach Elohim and scans the presence and power of the Spirit within the Old Testament. The same Spirit that hovers over the waters of creation falls upon prophets and prophetesses. She leans into the language we use to talk about the Spirit to reclaim the feminine divine in metaphors and images. She invites us to pay attention.

Keywords: Ruach, Holy Spirit, Feminine Devine

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April 16, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | John 20-21, Luke 24 Jesus’ post-Resurrection life is filled with such simple but profoundly meaningful moments of reconnecting and reconciling with those closest to him. Let’s look at three vignettes of these sacred stories together. And then remember and recall the resurrection stories the Spirit is writing in our own lives.

Keywords: Forgiveness, Restoration, Reconciliation, Grace, Resurrection, Humanity, Holy Spirit

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April 9, 2023 | Bobby Harrison | John 20:1-18

In this Easter sermon, we followed the footsteps of Mary Magdalene as she bravely stayed at the tomb, even as others had fled. We also took note of Mary’s courage in looking into the tomb and we're invited to look into the tombs of our own lives as well. And in so doing, to be met by the Resurrected Christ who awaits us there amidst darkness and death.

Keywords: Resurrection, Life, Death, Hope, Faith, Courage, Waiting, Longing, Lament, Joy

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April 2, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Luke 19:35-40

Triumphal entries were a thing in ancient Rome. Kings would come back from a conquest showing off their spoils of war by marching in a procession in a conquered city. Victors would show off the conquered (enslaved) peoples, conquered kings and queens, and seized property/land. In contrast, Jesus has to prep his own parade with a borrowed donkey and no signs of enslaved peoples, no stolen land in his resume, and no enemies colonized. Our humble king walks in triumphing by a different ethic of love and mercy.

Keywords: Palm Sunday, Triumphal Entry, Donkey  

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March 26, 2023 | Sarah Dornbos & Inés Velásquez-McBryde | 2 Thess. 5:23-24, Mark 12:30-31 In this message, we’re reminded that spiritual transformation is an ongoing process that involves our bodies, spirits, and souls (not just our minds)! Spiritual Direction is one resource mentioned to help us sustain a faith that is both Holy & Whole. A guided Contemplative Body Scan is also provided.

Keywords: Spirit, Soul, Body, Mind, Transformation, Embodiment, Witness, Grounding Practices, Contemplation & Action, Spiritual Direction, Lent

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March 19, 2023 | Bobby Harrison, Eleanor Baylan, Rocio Kang, & Jed Meyers | Matthew 11:28-30

In this panel, we listen and learn from three mental health practitioners in our local church and community. We leaned into Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11 as our framework. And we talked about the importance of fully integrating our faith alongside mental health care.

Keywords: Anxiety, Faith, Mental Health, Soul Care, Spiritual Formation

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March 12, 2023 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde and Nicola Patton | Psalm 32:1-11

The psalm shows an anatomy of confession: it moves through reflection and confession all the way to joy. We learn from it that there is indeed nothing that can keep us from God and that confession is good for our souls and bodies. Unconfessed sin burdens and dirties us, but it does not change that God calls us good: holy and whole.

Keywords: Confession, Holy and Whole, Lent, Original Goodness, Original Sin

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In this sermon, we look to Jesus as our source of peace, while naming the human reality of anxiety in our lives. The hope is that Jesus becomes our center as we seek a peace of mind. While also being compassionate to ourselves in our own journeys of mental health.

Keywords: Peace, Mental Health, Anxiety, Prayer, Fear, Rest

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