by Stacey Hilliard | Sep 22, 2024 | Sermons
This last week of looking at heresies and ideas that have divided the church, we are revisiting an issue we mentioned in passing during our visit with Pelagius. Are human beings truly free to choose our actions and direct the course of our lives or does God have a plan with all that mapped out ahead of time? Is the meaning of our lives given to us from beyond or made by us as we live? It’s actually a question that bedevils science as well as the church. Watch and listen (or read) to learn more about that and more!
– Pastor Anne Robertson
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by Stacey Hilliard | Sep 15, 2024 | Sermons
In the catalogue of church disputes across the centuries, few loom as large as the question of whether we are saved by faith or our works. The second chapter of James is on point that the two things belong together, but that hasn’t kept us from fighting about it. Watch and listen (or read) to learn more about that and more!
– Pastor Anne Robertson
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by Stacey Hilliard | Sep 8, 2024 | Sermons
In this sermon, we’re back with the heretics, taking a good look at the heresy that made Constantine the Great convene the Council of Nicaea. Arius is the name of the man who started it all. Why are there Medieval legends about St. Nicholas punching Arius at the Council of Nicaea? Watch and listen (or read) to learn more about that and more!
– Pastor Anne Robertson
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by Stacey Hilliard | Aug 25, 2024 | Sermons
“I verily believe, the real heresy of Pelagius was neither more nor less than this: The holding that Christians may, by the grace of God, (not without it; that I take to be a mere slander,) ‘go on to perfection;’ or, in other words, ‘fulfill the law of Christ.’”
– John Wesley
Who was Pelagius? Why did the church brand him a heretic, and why did John Wesley stand up to defend him more than a thousand years after Pelagius death? Watch and listen as I introduce you to another one of my favorite heretics.
– Pastor Anne Robertson
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by Stacey Hilliard | Aug 18, 2024 | Sermons
Since Christianity separated itself from Judaism around the particular question of Jesus’ resurrection, the debates about the importance of body vs spirit were present in Christianity from the get-go and have never really gone away. Why do we have so much trouble with this? At the start of the pandemic, the fur was flying around whether we were really celebrating Communion if we were together in a Zoom room but not in the same physical space. On Sunday we’ll look at the many ways that Christians have tried to sort this out and how one belief or another affects our ability to engage the problems we face.
– Pastor Anne
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by Stacey Hilliard | Aug 11, 2024 | Sermons
In seminary, it seemed every time I read ideas that resonated with me, the person was burned at the stake for heresy. Did you know that the root of the English word “heresy” is the Greek word meaning “to choose?” What’s the difference between a heretic, a reformer, and a dissenter? Over the next month we’ll look at those across Christian history who chose to challenge the orthodoxy of their day. Some of those ideas became mainstream, others still divide us. What do you believe? Who decides what heresy is? Is having different beliefs in the same religion a help or a hindrance?
– Pastor Anne
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