Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast

Out of Egypt: Introduction - Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - a2cc.org. Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - vimeo.com/annarborcommunitychurch  Summary:  This sermon opens the fall series Out of Egypt, in which we read Exodus alongside Acts. Exodus is the story of God freeing a people from empire and teaching them to trust; Acts is the story of that same God pouring out the Spirit and forming a new family that crosses every border. Why tell the story of a people held in captivity? Because getting out of Egypt is one thing; getting Egypt out of you is the work of a lifetime. Pharaoh, who is never named in the story, represents the powers of empire: fear, greed, violence, material wealth, and scarcity, and everyone in the story is confronted with the same choice, empire or God. Every week this fall we will return to one invitation: Name your Egypt. Trust the God who brings you out. And take another step toward becoming the people God is forming. The heart of the sermon is Exodus 1:1-14, read slowly as a plan that unfolds in four phases. First, Pharaoh attacks the nation’s memory: a new king comes to power “to whom Joseph meant nothing,” refusing to remember that Egypt is standing because of a refugee, which is exactly where Stephen begins his own retelling in Acts 7. Second, he misrepresents the Hebrews to exploit social divisions, teaching his people to “look” at their neighbors as a threat over a betrayal that had not happened. Third, he enforces division through forced labor, building store cities for a king who had all the grain in the world and still believed there was not enough. Fourth, he institutionalizes it as a caste system, bitter labor in brick and mortar with no rest for anyone, not even for Pharaoh. God is not named anywhere in these fourteen verses, and yet “be fruitful and multiply” is still running underneath Pharaoh’s feet: the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied. The sermon closes by looking at the fear behind the plan. Pharaoh’s anxiety is fear of the future, and it asks him to partner with evil today to prevent tomorrow’s evil, what the sermon calls a demonic imagination, against which God invites us to a prophetic imagination of liberation, peace, healing, and jubilee. Then the text turns and looks at us: forget the ones who saved you, teach the people to see their neighbor as a threat, build the warehouses. It is read from the good book, not the newspaper, but the pharaohs are not only out there. There is a pharaoh of fear, of scarcity, and of exclusion in each of us. The invitation stands: name your Egypt, trust the God who brings you out, and take another step. God is not named in these verses, but God is not absent. God is in the “And.” God is in the multiplying. And next Sunday the story reaches the delivery stool, where God is finally named in the hands of two women who decided they were not afraid of Pharaoh.  

Waking Up: Our Vision - Pastor Hannah Witte - a2cc.org. Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - vimeo.com/annarborcommunitychurch  Summary:  What happens when we move through life—or even our faith—on autopilot? What does it cost us? Others? In Ephesians, we’re invited to wake up to God’s presence and the beautiful vision God has been unfolding for centuries: a people being transformed by Jesus, learning to belong to one another across differences, and living with freedom, joy, and boundless generosity. Pastor Hannah explores how we can move from simply going through the motions to becoming more awake to what God is already doing in us, among us, and around us. There are several directions we're heading as a church community to press into our vision and move toward God's dreams together this year. We'd love for you to take a step with us toward becoming all God made us to be.

Prodigal: The Merciful Father - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - a2cc.org. Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - vimeo.com/annarborcommunitychurch  Summary:  After three weeks with the younger son and the older son, this sermon turns to the one character in the parable who never gets a name: the Father. The sons are the mirrors; the Father is the point. Jesus tells this story, along with the lost sheep and the lost coin, in answer to the Pharisees’ complaint that he welcomes sinners. They say exclude the lost; Jesus reveals a Father whose heart is a picture of pursuit, with a party thrown at the end. And if “prodigal” means recklessly extravagant, it is the Father, in his mercy, who is the truly prodigal one. The first thing the story shows us is a Father whose love does not hold anyone hostage. Asked for the inheritance, he lets his son go because he would rather have a son who is free to leave than a prisoner who stays. The heart of the sermon is Luke 15:20 and its six verbs, every one of which belongs to the Father before the son has said a word. He saw him because he had been watching the road every day. He was filled with compassion, not anger. He ran, something no dignified man in that world would do. He covered his shame, meeting the boy on the road so he would not have to walk the village’s gauntlet of contempt alone. He threw his arms around him: the son deserved punishment and received an embrace instead. And he kissed him while the rehearsed speech was still in the boy’s pocket. The embrace and the kiss are forgiveness offered before repentance is spoken; the Father forgives first, and the confession comes second. When the son does begin his speech, he never finishes it. The Father interrupts his repentance with mercy and calls for the robe, the ring, the sandals, and the feast. The Father then leaves the house a second time, going out to the older son, who refuses to come in. He does not defend himself or argue about fairness; he pleads. He is entitled to justice from both sons and collects it from neither because, as Paul says, it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. The sermon closes by asking about our picture of God, which A. W. Tozer called the most important thing about us. If God is a master to be served, we will live like the older son—in the house but never at the party. If God is a creditor waiting to collect, we will stay in the far country. But if you have been the younger son, the Father is already running. If you have been the older son, the Father is standing in the yard with you. You can stop behaving like a servant because you were always a son. The prayer is simple: Give us the Father Jesus gave us, whose love for us is unrelenting.

Prodigal: The Older Son - Pastor Hannah White - a2cc.org. Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - vimeo.com/annarborcommunitychurch  Summary:  In the second week of our Prodigal series, we step into the story from the perspective of the older son. While the younger son’s rebellion is loud and obvious, the older son’s lostness is quieter—comparison, jealousy, entitlement, and a transactional relationship with his father. Jesus reveals that both sons have misunderstood their father's nature, and both are invited home by a father whose love cannot be earned. The father’s words to the older son—“My son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours”—invite us to let go of our report cards and receive the gift of being God’s beloved daughters and sons. Pastor Hannah calls us to allow God's imagination to change us. What would it look like to become a people who celebrate rather than compare, repair relationships rather than keep score, and make room at our dinner tables for people who look, think, and live differently from us?

Prodigal: The Younger Son - Martha Balmer - a2cc.org. Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - vimeo.com/annarborcommunitychurch  Summary:  Martha Balmer kicks off our three part series sitting in the story of the Prodigal Son, focusing on the experience of the youngest son. Martha brilliantly highlights how the greater the distance one is from God, the more profound the experience of God’s mercy, love, and grace upon return—and consequently the greater one's security in that love, not to mention the greater the love, gratefulness, joy that wells up for God. When entitlement has no place in our hearts, then everything is a gift. Martha's preaching invites us to see this parable with fresh eyes and a soft, humble heart.