Sermons & Such
In this third teaching in the series, "Faith In the Exile", Leah looks at the practice of lament and considers the role it played for the exile community in processing pain and suffering. We look at the poem in Lamentations 3 and consider how cultivating practices for lament might be an important component in navigating faith in the pandemic exile and beyond.
Read Leah’s notes here or listen to the teaching via audio or video below.
Photo credit: H
This is the second teaching in a series called "Faith In the Exile". This series focuses on the experiences we are living through in 2020 and asks if our tradition might hold wisdom for us in the era known as the Babylonian Exile. In times of crisis, one of the ways we cope is to examine our histories and the stories that have formed us. This teaching takes a look at how that was done by our ancestors in the exile, the ways their work in that time touches us still, and in what ways we might follow their lead in our own exile experiences.
Review Leah’s notes here, listen along, or view the teaching below.
This week, Leah started a new teaching series exploring what a period of history in our tradition might teach us about enduring and finding faith in a prolonged period of crisis and disruption, like we are living through now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the struggle for racial justice, and more. In this first foundational teaching, she lays the groundwork for this new series by giving context for the period we’ll be looking to, the Babylonian Exile, and points us to a text that might help frame our own understandings of enduring exile today.
Review Leah’s notes here or you can listen to the teaching or watch the video below.
In this fourth and final teaching in the “Resurrecting Hope” series, Leah talks about jigsaw puzzles, eschatology, apocalypse, and future hope in the midst of so much grief and disorder.
You can read Leah’s notes here, listen to the teaching, or watch the video below.
In this teaching, Leah continues our series on “Resurrecting Hope”, looking at the story of Peter and Cornelius, and considers how the Spirit comes into situations that may seem impossible with new possibilities. In the midst of pandemic life, that is something I think all of us can appreciate.
Review Leah’s notes, listen to the teaching, or watch the video below.
Francesco Trevisani / Public domain
PC: Michael Coughlin
In this teaching given by Haven Teaching Team member Katie Kay, Katie tackles the question of how hope functions, and what it means to have hope without certainty. She explores another kind of resurrection story found in the New Testament that engages these questions, and invites us to consider hope in a helpful new way, in the midst of all the coronavirus uncertainty.
View Katie’s notes here, listen to the teaching, or view the video below.
On Easter 2020, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Leah began a new teaching series “Resurrecting Hope”. In this teaching she looks at the resurrection, as recorded by John, for some clues about what resurrection really is, and what it might tell us in terms of how hope might be present with us in a season of crisis.
You can read Leah’s notes here or listen to the teaching through audio or video below.
Emil Nolde - Crucifixion (1909) Hope found here
On Palm Sunday 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Leah shares the final teaching in this series on the work of Girard. In this teaching she takes a look at how the scapegoating mechanism plays out in the final days of Jesus life, as well as shares insights from a personal scapegoating experience.
You can review Leah’s notes here or listen to the teaching or watch the video below.
In this teaching, Leah continues the conversation about Girard and his scapegoating theory, by turning to the life of Jesus and examining how he responded when he found himself in the middle of a scapegoating event playing out. How does Jesus respond at an attempt at stoning? This is the first teaching preached from home in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in it Leah considers how Jesus’ response to scapegoating might also inform our own responses to this crisis.
The audio and video also include a 5-minute practice at the end that might be helpful in connecting with yourself and God in this time.
Look at Leah’s notes here, or you can listen to the teaching or watch the video below.
Why do humans have such a violent streak, and why is it often targeted in such cruel ways at innocent people? In this second teaching in our Lenten series, Old Stories, New Lenses, Leah lays out the heart of René Girard’s theory on human behavior: the “scapegoat mechanism”. Here she explains his take on how violence is expressed in human societies and then uses that framework to look at the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis. This teaching provides the heart of the ideas we’ll be exploring through the rest of Lent.
Review Leah’s notes or listen to the teaching below.
Photo credit: www.quotecatalog.com
What might the perspective of a 20th century Academic who studied literature, anthropology, philosophy, and more tell us about human behavior and Jesus-centered faith? This is the question we’ll be exploring over the next several weeks throughout the season of Lent, as we look at our ancient biblical narrative through the lens of Rene Girard. It’s a new teaching series called “Old Stories. New Lenses.” First up, this week Leah explored Girard’s foundational insight that pops up in the first chapters of the Bible, having to do with why humans want what they want. It also might give you a clue about why it’s so hard to stop scrolling through that instagram feed.
Read Leah’s notes here or listen to the teaching below.
In this third teaching in the “Habits for Health” series, Leah considers a habit that might help order our connection with the Divine. By looking at the teaching from Jesus to his followers about prayer, including a puzzling parable, we consider together Jesus’ philosophy of prayer, and how growing in the practice might impact our holistic health.
Review Leah’s notes here or listen to the teaching below.
As children we begin to express ourselves by holding tightly to things that we perceive belong to us. In this teaching Leah considers a parable of Jesus and what it might tell us about how we hold on to our things (or other resources) later in life.
This teaching also considers the local story regarding Moms 4 Housing in Oakland. Find an update here from after the teaching was given about the victory achieved as a result of their advocacy.
Listen to Leah’s teaching below or review her notes here.
In this teaching, Leah kicks off a new year (and a new decade) considering some habits of health for our life of faith that could be good to revisit, or learn for the first time. Here she focuses on the tradition of Sabbath practice as a means of bringing order to our relationship with time.
Listen to the teaching below or review Leah’s notes here.
Image by Lauren Wright Pittman from Sanctified Art LLC
In the last teaching of 2019, Leah reflects on why Mary sings the joyful song she does when she encounters her cousin Elizabeth (depicted above), what her song tells us about her character, and how revolutionary and relevant her song rings today.
Listen to Leah’s teaching below or review her notes here.
“Simeon and Anna Recognize the Lord in Jesus” by Rembrandt
On the first teaching in our Advent series, Leah looks at a passage from the end of the Christmas narrative to give us inspiration on how we prepare and participate in the coming that Advent marks. How might two elders of faith give us insight on how to live into the crying out for breakthrough in our time?
Listen to Leah’s teaching below or read her notes here.
Yu-Shuan Tarango-Sho of Sacred Roots
Pastor Erin Edwards of Live On Purpose Church
This Sunday, in our last teaching in the “Home We’re Building Together” series, Pastor Leah introduces us to two speakers representing organizations that are in some way partners in the work Haven is engaged in. Yu-Shuan Tarango-Sho shares about the organization she leads, Sacred Roots, that provides sanctuary housing and other resources to low-income people of color in Oakland, and Pastor Erin Edwards of Live On Purpose Church in Vacaville (aka LOP) talks about the importance of partnership.
Check out the recording of what each of them shared below.
Our time of interactive worship with adults, kids, and youth.
Jeanne Wong shares a vision for intergenerational community.
On this special Sunday, we continued our series on “The Home We’re Building Together” by considering what it means that the spiritual home Haven is building is for kids and youth, too. Jeanne Wong shared a brief message, sharing what this might look like as Haven grows, before we welcomed the kids back into the space for a gathering that brought us all together through a Godly Play story and other interactive activities.
Hear Jeanne’s teaching below or read her notes here.
As we continue our Fall Series, “The Home We’re Building Together”, Leah shares about what Peter had to say about building a spiritual home, and considers how that might apply to us. How might the ways each of us has been shaped in our life be a part of what God is doing in the building of Haven?
Check out Leah’s notes here or listen to the teaching below.
Those gathered at the Installation of Ordination Ceremony at our 2019 Haven Retreat.
The week after Haven’s retreat, which ended with the Haven community celebrating an Installation of Ordination service, Leah shares her reflections on what took place at the retreat, and where they as a community are at, five years from when the Martens arrived in Berkeley to begin the project that would become Haven. This “pastoral letter” is the second teaching in our series, “The Home We’re Building Together.”
Listen to Leah share her teaching below or read Leah’s notes and the text of the letter here.
