Haverhill Commons Church
Weekly sermons from Haverhill Commons Church located in Haverhill, MA.
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Weekly sermons from Haverhill Commons Church located in Haverhill, MA.
Reading the feed…
Standing on the edge of fiery furnace, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were able to actually embody what it means to have faith. To believe that God is good and trustworthy beyond the assurance of a guaranteed outcome. They knew God was not only in control of their story but walking it out with them. Their faith was not contingent upon whether God would save them. Even if God didn’t, it was enough for them to know that God could. It was enough to know that God would be with them regardless of the outcome. Whatever moment we think will swallow us up is swallowed up by the moment when Jesus gives
Rahab was a woman, a Canaanite, and a prostitute. She is the kind of person the Israelites would have written off and ignored. And yet, her faith in the God of Israel defies expectations. Before she even asked to be included amongst the people of God, she offers that kind of inclusion to the Israelite spies. In faith, she’s already done the very thing that she hoped God would do for her. As she welcomed enemy spies, she trusted that God would welcome her. As she provided safety to them, she prayed God would provide safety to her. As she protected the life of another by endangering her own, she
This was a special morning of worship we called More to Your Story. We dedicated an hour to sing and pray together, engage with scripture, and reflect upon our own stories. This summer we’ve been revisiting some of the most famous and familiar stories in the Old Testament and allowing the enduring powers of these narratives to shape and reshape our lives. But instead of asking these questions of an Old Testament narrative, we’re asking these questions of ourselves. You can use the handout attached below to answer these questions. You’ll also need three different colored pencils, pens, or marke
In The Odyssey, Odysseus’ crew couldn’t trust his promise that they would survive without eating the cattle. In Exodus, Israel couldn’t trust God’s promise while Moses was on the mountain. And in our lives, we struggle to trust God while we’re waiting for the next chapter of our own stories. Like the Israelites, who make and worship a Golden Calf, we often turn to other things to try to save us—whether approval, success, or security. The Israelites’ problem wasn’t that they stopped believing in God. Their problem was that God wasn’t moving on their timetable. And we do the same thing. We may n
None of us hear the stories of the Bible in a vacuum. We show up to them with our own values, assumptions, and life experiences and we use these things to help us make meaning out of these stories. Similarly, Abraham used his own values, assumptions, and previous experiences with the gods of the ancient world to make sense of this God, the God of Israel. But what Abraham soon discovers is that this God is different than all of the others. That this God has our best interest at heart. God proves this to Abraham in Genesis 22 and Jesus proves to us, that this God longs to bless us, so that we mi
Rocky. Mulan. Aladdin. The 1980 USA Olympic hockey team. What do they all have in common? They’re all underdog stories. And we love them. We often think of David and Goliath as an underdog story but there’s actually more to the story. It’s the story of what happens when people turn away from God and put their trust in something else. It’s a story about God giving his people what they wanted. It’s a story about a God who "having disarmed the powers and authorities, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." It’s a story with a hero, but we are not the hero. Neither is
Of all the ways God could have chosen to reveal God’s self to the world, why stories? Why not a systematic theology textbook? Or an easy to read list of principles? Why not just a giant collection of rules? Often we just want the point, the lesson, the answer, the takeaway, but stories, good stories, work differently. Stories invite us to slow down and get curious. To notice details and ask questions. This goal this summer is to allow ourselves to wonder and wander through the tried and true stories of the Old Testament and along the way, we might discover there’s more to the story than we tho
The road to healing, strength, and peace is not a smooth digital superhighway spanning the universe. It's a river that grinds away our rough edges so that we can embody the other-oriented love of God. The world tells us that the best life is one of comfort and ease, one without struggle, one that is padded and comfortable. But that’s a lie. The best life is the one that Jesus lived in the real world. And the real world is full of friction. It’s one full of difficulty and injustice. Jesus could have cheat-coded his way through this life and didn’t. He didn’t opt out of painful things, and he fo
What happens online stays online, right? Surely the rage baiting and the angry comments sections don’t have an effect upon the real world? Well, we’re learning they do and perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising when we consider that for the first 6 years of Facebook’s existence, the official slogan emblazoned on the walls of its corporate headquarters was “Move Fast and Break Things.” It seems that the whole world has adopted that slogan, moving faster and faster and breaking more and more things. But the good news of Jesus invites us not to move fast or to break things but to move slow and heal
It takes wisdom and discernment to navigate the complex realities of interpersonal or social conflict or to find truth in the sea of disinformation. So, how do we become wise? In this passage, Solomon recognizes he is still a child and does not know how to lead the people of Israel. Instead of asking for wealth, military victory, or a long life, he asks for “a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” When we turn in prayer to the source of infinite wisdom, with humility as we acknowledge our limitations and rely on God’s revealed word and the communit
Our passage this morning is one you’ve probably heard before, likely at a wedding. But Paul didn’t write these words for a wedding, rather, to a church that was in danger of falling apart. Paul says that they’ve championed some gifts over others, some people over others. He says that giving everything to the poor and similar other-oriented actions, though good, can be done with selfish motives for the approval of an audience. And if what we’re doing is performative, then we don’t have love. And if we don’t have love, Paul says we have nothing. We are nothing. And we’ve gained nothing. Real lov
In Greek mythology, after leading his fellow titans in a revolt against the Olympian gods, Atlas was condemned to hold up the heavens for all eternity. Over the centuries, the details of the story got kind of mixed up, so when we now think of Atlas holding something, we picture him holding the whole world. He’s, as we say, “carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.” We, however, carry the weight of the world, not on our shoulders, but in our pockets. Every injustice, every catastrophe, every outrage, piped directly to us, fast and loud. How then do we hear the still small voice of God
The digital age promised a revolutionary new world marked by connection, life, and the sense that we’re all a part of something greater than ourselves. And it has somehow done the exact opposite. There’s something different about these online spaces. It’s as if they’re trying to replicate something that we can only truly experience when we gather together in a room with other people. The book of Acts is Luke’s description of the effects of the Gospel. It chronicles the spread of the good news of Jesus and the birth of the early church. In it, we see that when the body of Christ gathers to part
For most of human history, relationships were entirely local. Studies of medieval church records find that most people lived their whole lives within a 10 to 30 mile radius from where they were born. Friendships were maintained through physical presence, shared meals, and working side-by-side. The internet has changed everything. We can maintain meaningful, instant, on-going contact with one another regardless of distance. Technology is training us to live this kind of disembodied life, separated from other people. Screens connect us while at the same time creating a physical barrier between u
Most depictions of technology we see in popular culture arrive at the same conclusion. Technology is going to end us… Now the Bible doesn’t mention iPhones, the internet, or social media apps, but it does have a lot to say about why things keep going off the rails, and what God has done to put it right. It is not a list of self-help practices, but it does show us how to be healthy and whole human beings in a fallen, thorny world. To be made in the image of God, as it says in Genesis, means that humans have the capacity and the potential to reflect, to reveal God, to reveal the attributes of th
Today, we conclude our series on the gospel of Mark and instead of sermon, today is an opportunity to engage and come up with our own takeaways to a question central to the gospel. It’s the same question that Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” There isn’t one right answer to this question. Our relationship with Jesus is not static but dynamic. Our thoughts about Jesus change through the years. They’re influenced by our circumstances, the stage of life we’re in, things happening in the world around us, in our families, and with our friends. But for a few minutes, we invite y
Can you think of times in your life when you were really surprised? Like, really stunned. How did it feel? Three women arrive at Jesus’ tomb expecting one thing… only to find something they were not at all prepared to deal with. A moment that would change the trajectory of their whole lives. Sometimes the surprise is so shocking, so earth shattering, so eternally consequential… and so good, that it’s hard to believe it. Sometimes we’ve been through so much, been disappointed so many times, that it’s hard to believe “happily ever after.” Sometimes we look for Jesus and Jesus is not where we exp
Good Friday is the day we remember God's great love to us, expressed to us in the person of Jesus. On this night we gather at the church to sit at the foot of the cross and consider Jesus' crucifixion and death. But who is Jesus? What does his life have to do with anyone else’s? What does his life have to do with ours? Does what Jesus said and did 2000 years ago speak to us today? Three of our own, Katie El, Katherine, and Zach, agreed to share their own answers to the question, “Who is Jesus to you?” Tonight, we bear witness to their words and stories, as we consider our own.
Jesus tells Peter that he will deny ever knowing Jesus, not once, but three times. To which Peter adamantly proclaims, “even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” Then, after Jesus is arrested, Peter is recognized. The fear of possibly being arrested too takes over, and Peter says the first thing he can think of to distance himself from Jesus. Later, Peter is recognized again... and again and proceeds to deny ever knowing Jesus again… and again. Peter recognized his failure and is so ashamed that “he broke down and wept.” Can you think of a time when you responded to something o
It’s often easier to just let someone else make the call. Pilate did not think that Jesus was guilty of the crimes he was accused of. However, he tried to avoid making a call: he sought more information, he tried to buy time, he basically phoned a friend. He was in a position to protect an innocent man, to alleviate his suffering. He had an obligation to do what was right; to bring justice to an unjust situation. Yet, he shrugged off responsibility, ignored his own convictions, and disengaged with the situation at hand. In doing so, sentenced Jesus to death. What does it look like for us to en
“How does following Jesus inform the way we worry about the world?” In Mark 13, Jesus says to his disciples that the temple will be destroyed, which would have meant the end of the world for the disciples and the rest of the Jewish people as they knew it. Four of them took Jesus aside and pressed him, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What signs can we look for?” They wanted to know when and how this would happen. But instead of answering “When is the world going to end?” he answered, “How are we going to live in a world that is going to end?” Because of what we believe about Jesus, we trul
When asked to sum up all the commandments into one, Jesus says, “You will or you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” And the second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The word Mark uses here is the Greek word agape. Agape is different than say romantic love, affection, or friendship. Agape is less of a feeling and more a state of the will. It is an unconditional, self-sacrificial power that bends our will toward the well being of another. And what does this love look like. A few verses later we meet a widow who has lost everything. She canno
What’s the one thing that made Jesus mad? Like, really mad. As Jesus enters Jerusalem, he sees their magnificent temple and passed through its fortified walls. The place is bustling, but Jesus sees through it all, claiming the temple had become a den, a home, an assumed place of comfort, for those who were not living their lives in a way that reflected God’s glory. Tragically, the church, instead of following Jesus, often does the exact same thing. It puts forward an image of holiness and hospitality, but upon closer inspection, it is hostile toward those who do not fit in. But Jesus welcomed
In Mark 10, James and John, approach Jesus with a bold request, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” In the ancient world, the person on the right of the king was the second in command. The person at the left was a dear, intimate friend. Just make us the two most important and most powerful people in your kingdom. The disciples knew what it felt like to be powerless, dehumanized, and unjustly targeted. They wanted to rise to the top and the wield the same kind of power wielded over them by the Romans. But to this, Jesus says, “Not so with you.” “For whoev
Our community believes God cares deeply for kids who need homes. We partner with Fostering Hope to care for children in vulnerable circumstances. Their founder and director, Jonathan Reid, shared with us this Sunday. We also heard from one of our own members serving on a Care Team. The God who is high above all things bends His power toward the powerless: the fatherless, the widow, the sojourner, three groups marked by relational loss, people without the structures of support God designed us to live within. This reminds us that God created human beings to flourish in safe and faithful relation
