With God on Our Side // Rev. Matt Kennedy // Oct 25 2026
In the ancient world, most religions centered on which deities could be of best help to your project. Would a rain god provide enough precipitation for your crops? Could a fertility goddess help you conceive a healthy child? Would a warrior deity grant you strength on the battlefield? It's tempting to read the Old Testament in a similar way, but careful reading of the Hebrew Scriptures actually subverts these expectations.
One of the most iconic stories in the Book of Joshua is the Battle of Jericho: a miraculous victory over a fortified city (Joshua 6:1-25). But something crucial happens right before the walls come tumbling down. Joshua meets a Divine warrior and asks, "Whose side are you on: ours or the enemy?" The captain of heaven's armies answers simply, "neither" (Joshua 5:13-14).
It's a sharp reminder that the Almighty isn't a mascot for our projects or a divine power to enlist in our battles. The question isn't whether God is on our side, but how we get on His? In a world of increasing polarization it is tempting to sort people into allies and enemies, but the scriptures have a subtle and provocative alternative: instead of assuming God's endorsement for our tribe or party, we are called to humbly submit to his strange and divine will. In this we may find a richer faith where God is not so much a tool in our hand, but that we become tools in his hands.
30 Oct 2026
Heart for Harvest // Rev. Scott Nelson // Oct 18 2026
Isaac Newton's laws of physics don't just describe objects in space, but they can be used to describe the life of institutions like the church. Bodies in motion tend to stay in motion and bodies at rest tend to stay at rest. Congregations are similar. In the heart of the gospels Jesus often told his followers, "Go!" Look for new places to proclaim the good news and help the hurting (Matthew 9:35-38; Luke 10:1-3). When we forget that church is a movement and a mission, it can become difficult to rebuild momentum for trying new work for the kingdom and reaching new people with the gospel.
This week we welcome the Rev. Scott Nelson as our guest preacher. Scott is Associate Superintendent of the Northwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church (our local denominational branch), and a large part of his work is helping mobilize congregations for developing leaders, missional movement, and church planting ("sending workers for the harvest"). He will bring us a word this week to encourage our reaching out.
12 Oct 2026
A River Runs Through It // Rev. Michele Arndt // Oct 11 2026
If you ask most of my freshman students at Bethel, names and places don’t always capture the attention they deserve when we read our Bibles. Whether the name of a mountain or a river, it can seem like inconsequential information. When it comes to the Jordan River, it seems to be running through the entire story of our Bibles. It features prominently in the wilderness years of the Israelites as they are preparing to cross into the Promised Land, but the story doesn’t stop there.
The river winds a long way (135 miles to be exact!) to connect this milestone moment in Israel’s history with the stories of other significant moments in scripture where the Jordan River is “the place”! In 2 Kings, we read of an army commander named Naaman who is given unusual instructions involving the Jordan River to cure his leprosy. And just pages into the New Testament, we find that Jesus himself is dunked in this river to be baptized. Perhaps like a scarlet rope dangling out a window, the Jordan River is stringing us along to see much more than just a single frame in the story of God’s people.
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