Sermons on Luke
Peace without Spiritual Bypassing
This week’s Advent message wrestles with the theme of peace—not as an escape from reality but as a profound and embodied hope amid life’s struggles. The sermon critiques “spiritual bypassing,” a harmful practice where spiritual truths are used to suppress or dismiss valid emotions like grief, anger, or fear. This bypassing denies the real pain of injustice and suffering, fostering toxic positivity instead of genuine peace. Drawing from personal experiences and scriptural insights, the sermon highlights how Advent invites us…
Making Room for Humility
In this message, Pastor T. C. homes in on the theme of humility in the Magnificat using Mary as an example and draws upon insights from Dr. Dennis Edwards’ new book Humility Illuminated.
Material
The third Path Point of PAX’s Scripture StoryArc is Material: “Jesus is the key to understanding Scripture.” In this message, Pastor T. C. contrasts a Jesus-centered approach to Scripture to a “Flat Bible” approach. As disciples of Jesus, we should learn how to read Scripture the way Jesus did, through: 1. The Jesus Lens; 2. The Love Lens; and 3. The Obedience Lens.
Under God’s Wing
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the episode in Jesus’s story when he is warned that Herod wants to kill him but he is defiant, unflappable. But it’s what Jesus says next that has echoed through history. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and longs to gather its children to himself like a mother hen.
Missions
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the problematic concept of “missions” and reframes it as God’s dream for the world to restore Shalom. God tells Israel to “seek the peace of the city” in Jeremiah 29—and that city was Babylon. What if the mission Jesus sends his disciples on was never about “conversion” but about declaring and demonstrating the Kingdom of God? What the mission Jesus sends his disciples on was always about sharing God’s peace?