December 15, 2024 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Isaiah 11 / Luke 2:8-16 On this 3rd week of Advent, Pastor Armando tracings the wise roots of shrewd peace through the story of King David’s ancestral lineage. Isaiah the poet prophet gives us a vivid picture of how God provides us with a picture of audacious […]
December 8, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | 1 Sam 2:1-10 Luke 1:46-55 Mother Hannah in 1 Samuel has a melody of hope that is harmonized by Mary’s Magnificat. Both matriarchs of the faith point to an ancient present hope as we are rooted in the promised Messiah to arrive. They give us the gift of […]
November 24, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Hebrews 12:1-3 The liturgy of the leaves teaches us something about letting go as a spiritual practice that nourishes our understanding of Hebrews 12 v1-3. In the fall, toxic waste is secreted in the leaves that fall. If the trees don’t let go of this waste, the leaves […]
November 17, 2024 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Luke 18:1-8 In celebration of Native American Heritage Month and sacred act of remembrance, Pastor Armando shared stories about his Chumash ancestors’ resilience and the sacred shrewdness. Armando weaved it with the shrewdness of the persistent widow we see in Luke 18. In addition, Salena shared about […]
November 10, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Psalm 31, Matthew 5 The gift of lament in Psalm 31 is a reminder that we can openly call out and say that things aren’t as they should be. It reorients us towards the sermon on the mount where Jesus speaks to a community marginalized by both […]
November 3, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | 1 John 1:1-5, 1 Thess 4:13-18, Heb. 12:1-3 Abuelito John writes to a diverse community of churches in 1 John in the latter part of his life. He writes as an old man to churches that had not been eyewitnesses of Jesus, thus highlighting that they had […]
October 27, 2024 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Mark 10:46-52 In this service, we “grew young” and center our emerging generation of youth and young adults. It was such a vital moment to acknowledge the growing number of young people who have felt disenfranchised from the American Church. We sat, listened and communally processed the […]
October 20, 2024 | Gillian Garcia | Jeremiah 29:4-11 (NRSV) In this sermon, guest preacher Gillian Garcia draws a parallel between the Babylonian Exile and the Filipino American experience to point out that God calls God’s people in exile (be it an external, geographical exile, or an internal kind of exile) to recover their humanity. […]
October 13, 2024 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Mark 1:21-24, 3:20-35 In this series, we have drawn from the margins of scripture to see how God is setting a pattern of disruptive radical inclusion. In this sermon by Pastor Armando, we explore how this belonging reaches its culmination in God becoming flesh to dwell […]
October 6, 2024 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Psalm 139 v1-16 Belonging begins IN our bodies and belonging is cultivated in community. The beginning of our belonging begins in the womb of God’s imagination and in the womb of our mothers who carried us. In Psalm 139 we see that Creator God who gave us […]