Due to weather conditions, all in-person daytime and evening programs have been canceled across the church’s locations for Wednesday, except for the Recovery programs and Food Pantry at Overland Park. Decisions for Thursday daytime programs will correspond with local school district decisions and will be posted on the church’s website.
Scheduled programming has resumed for Thursday, February 13 at all Resurrection locations.
I hope your Thanksgiving was blessed. Thank you to all who prepared and donated food and groceries, and who served yesterday, blessing Kansas City area people with a Thanksgiving meal! I’m so proud of you.
This weekend Advent begins! Our sanctuaries at each location are decked out in greenery and lights, and we’ll be lighting the first Advent candle, and singing the Advent and Christmas carols all month long. This is my favorite season of the year and I’m so looking forward to worship this weekend!
This month we’ll focus on the Christmas story as recorded by Matthew’s gospel. Half of his telling of the Christmas story, 17 of his 37 verses, is Jesus’ genealogy. He records 42 generations of Jesus’ ancestors. Why did he devote so much of his telling of the Christmas story to this? And what are the surprises in Jesus’ genealogy? That’s what I’ll focus on this weekend in my message on The Genealogy of Jesus.
Our study of Matthew’s account of Christmas will reach its climax on Christmas Eve when we’ll turn to his telling of the wise men coming from the east to honor the newborn king. Only Matthew tells this story, and, like Jesus’ genealogy, there’s more here than meets the eye.
Worship each weekend of Advent will be filled with beautiful Christmas music, the lighting of the Advent candles and inspiring worship. Christmas is the perfect time to invite someone to join you for worship. Here’s the link to a short promo video for this sermon series that you can share with them.
If you have not yet made your 2025 commitment, would you take a few minutes today, tomorrow, or in worship this weekend to make your commitment to the ministry of our church for 2025? If you are able, I’m encouraging you to join LaVon and me in increasing your giving for 2025. You can make your pledge online by clicking here, or we’ll have
commitment cards in worship this weekend.
Here’s what I appreciated about the film: It portrayed how Hitler and the Nazi party managed to convince German Christians that they could embrace both Hitler and Jesus even though these two were incompatible. It gave a glimpse of the myriad ways that Nazism sought to manipulate and control the churches and religious leaders. And it highlighted the struggle some Christian pastors and lay people were willing to embrace in order to oppose the heresy of Nazism. Among the most powerful scenes was when pastor Martin Neimoller preached against Nazism to a packed out church and is arrested shortly after it.
I also found the film’s portrayal of Bonhoeffer’s own internal debate between his Christian pacifism and his willingness to support the effort to assassinate Hitler. Some have argued that the film’s portrayal of his role related to the plot to assassinate Hitler may be overstated. Perhaps. But I still appreciated the film capturing the struggle which Christians experienced between loving their enemies and stopping them from harming others.
The film invites us to think about the ways in which Christian faith can be distorted to justify and support unchristian leaders in the light of what happened in Germany under Hitler. It points to the allure a powerful and charismatic political leader (Hitler) had to some German Christians. It also makes clear that there were real Christians who were willing to risk a great deal to oppose Nazism. And it begs the question today: What “cost” would Christians, pastors and laity, be willing to pay to speak up were history to be repeated?
Reverend Adam Hamilton is the senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection and the author of 22 books. He has been married to LaVon since 1982, and she has been a critical partner in every dimension of Adam’s work. They have two daughters and one granddaughter.
Adam’s writings are known for helping readers make sense of challenging theological questions, exploring the significance of the biblical stories, and equipping Christian leaders to be more effective in their work. He earned his MDiv from Perkins School of Theology and graduated with honors from Oral Roberts University with a degree in Pastoral Ministry.