Oak Church Sermons

4/10/16 Mike Boone Luke 24:13-35 “You’re pretty good with words, but words won’t save your life.” -Craig Finn from The Hold Steady’s Stuck Between Stations “The moment of recognition comes only as they sit at the table and Jesus breaks the bread with them – an action that recalls Jesus’ last supper with his disciples in Jerusalem. This point, too,  is […]

4/3/16 Chris Breslin Mark 16:1-8 “We interpret Scripture rightly only when we read it in light of the resurrection, and we begin to comprehend the resurrection only when we see it as the climax of the scriptural story of God’s gracious deliverance of Israel.” -Richard B. Hays, Reading Scripture in Light of the Resurrection from The Art of Reading Scripture […]

3/27/16 Chris Breslin John 20:1-18   “Easter was when Hope in person surprised the whole world by coming forward from the future into the present.” –N.T. Wright   “The Word through whom all things were made is now the Word through whom all things are remade…Jesus’ resurrection is to be seen as the beginning of the new world, the first […]

3/20/16 Chris Breslin Mark 11:1-11   The Donkey G.K. Chesterton   When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born.   With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil’s walking parody On all four-footed things.   The tattered outlaw of the earth, […]

3/13/16 Joe Longarino Mark 13:1-27   The Coming R.S. Thomas And God held in his hand A small globe. Look he said. The son looked. Far off, As through water, he saw A scorched land of fierce Colour. The light burned There; crusted buildings Cast their shadows: a bright Serpent, A river Uncoiled itself, radiant With slime. On a bare Hill […]

3/13/16 Rachel Breslin & Meg Hoffman reflect about their week in Newark, DE at the Ecclesia Network National Gathering.

3/6/16 Chris Breslin Mark 12:28-44   Flickering Mind Denise Levertov   Lord, not you, it is I who am absent. At first belief was a joy I kept in secret, stealing alone into sacred places: a quick glance, and away—and back, circling. I have long since uttered your name but now I elude your presence. I stop to think about […]

2/28/16 Joey Morningstar Mark 12:13-17   From Thee to Thee Solomon Ibn Gabirol   When all within is dark, And former friends misprise; From them I turn to Thee, And find Love in Thine eyes. When all within is dark, And I my soul despise; From me I turn to Thee, And find love in Thine eyes. When all Thy […]

2/21/16 Chris Breslin Mark 10:32-52 Lightenings (xii) Seamus Heaney   And lightening? One meaning of that Beyond the usual sense of alleviation, Illumination, and so on, is this: A phenomenal instant when the spirit flares With pure exhilaration before death— The good thief in us harking to the promise! So paint him on Christ’s right hand, on a promontory Scanning […]

2/14/16 Chris Breslin Mark 10:17-31 The Place Where We Are Right by Yehuda Amichai   From the place where we are right flowers will never grow in the Spring.   The place where we are right is hard and trampled like a yard.   But doubts and loves dig up the world like a mole, a plough. And a whisper […]

2/7/16 Chris Breslin Exodus 16 “Sabbath” by Amy Imbody Sabbath: You make demands upon my heart, upon my hands, and, certainly, upon my mind: a quietness, profound, benign where receptivity will find its satisfaction: fruitfulness flows from this place of deep repose.   “Feasting is the fun and festivity of a weekly eschatological party.” –Marva Dawn “From the very beginning, […]

1/31/16 Joey Morningstar Ezekiel 20:10-17   “Embrace” by Gregory Orr With their embrace They chose Each other, Which is To choose death And all that comes Before it: Sufferings And joys And infinite Unintended harms.   Large choice For such small arms.   Sabbath Planning Worksheet & Sabbath Starters Sabbath Planning Worksheet & Sabbath Starters (for Students)   Further Sabbath […]

1/17/16 JR Briggs Exodus 20:1-17,Hebrews 4:1,6-9 J.R. Briggs of Ecclesia Network & Renew Community J.R. Briggs serves as Cultural Cultivator of The Renew Community a Jesus community for skeptics and dreamers in Lansdale, PA – a suburb of Philadelphia, which he helped start. He is the founder and director of Kairos Partnerships an initiative that partners with leaders, pastors and church planters […]

1/10/16 Chris Breslin Genesis 2:1-4, Exodus 5 Testimony by Nate Hood (27:50)   “God rested! God enjoyed a work stoppage!…It is good that order defeats chaos. It is good that the world is ordered for fruitfulness. It is “very good” that creation bears the life-giving power of the creator. It is very good indeed! And then, reported at the culmination […]

1/3/16 Chris Breslin Psalm 23 “It takes a long time to ruin a life. It all starts with the stories we live by.” -James Bryan Smith “A great benefit of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of us — not by becoming passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts […]

12/24/15 Chris Breslin Luke 2 “Love achieves its creativity by being perceptive.” –Oliver O’Donovan   Advent Resources Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany edited by Sarah Arthur Cardiphonia Resources for Advent compiled by Bruce Benedict God is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Oak Church Advent Resources compiled by Chris Breslin Living the […]

12/20/15 Joey Morningstar Psalm 29 Noise. It radiates from Tobacco Plus, the busstop and the 5-stop sign free for all. Car doors slam, stereo kits rumble, brakes screech, hydraulics sigh, and strangers yell. The noise seeps in through the windows, humming an anxious lullaby through the night. Do you hear what I hear?   Radio gloom breaks briefly muted mornings. […]

12/13/15 Chris Breslin Psalm 98, Luke 2:10-11 “The joy of God has gone through the poverty of the manger and the agony of the cross; that is why it is invincible, irrefutable.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil” –God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins “Does God […]

12/6/15 Chris Breslin Luke 2:8-20 Go Tell it on the Mountain by Jane Schroeder (First Things)   Advent Resources Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany edited by Sarah Arthur Cardiphonia Resources for Advent compiled by Bruce Benedict God is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Oak Church Advent Resources compiled by Chris Breslin […]

11/29/15 Chris Breslin Isaiah 11:29 “He who sings, prays twice.” –Saint Augustine “To listen seriously to music and to perform it are among our most potent ways of learning what it is to live with and before God.” –Rowan Williams O Antiphons Durham Herald-Sun article about Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham Vigil Advent Resources Light Upon Light: A Literary […]