Tribalism

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Eastertide is a celebration of resurrected life, which is very much the same thing as human flourishing. Central to human flourishing are Eastertide expressions such as hospitality, hope, charity, mindfulness, and mercy. However, according to evolutionary psychology, values like these aren’t easy to embody. Woven into our DNA is the natural selection of traits that have preserved our lineage over millennia. Yet, as evolutionary psychology notes, some evolutionary behaviors hold no benefit in current environments, and may even harm the pursuit of human flourishing. With this in mind, this sermon series will explore some of the inherent psychological barriers that can hinder human flourishing such as tribalism, pleasing, criticism, and the insatiable desire for more. And through the lens of neural plasticity, which is very much the same thing as repentance, we’ll be encouraged to have our minds—very literally—resurrected into new life.

Criticism

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Eastertide is a celebration of resurrected life, which is very much the same thing as human flourishing. Central to human flourishing are Eastertide expressions such as hospitality, hope, charity, mindfulness, and mercy. However, according to evolutionary psychology, values like these aren’t easy to embody. Woven into our DNA is the natural selection of traits that have preserved our lineage over millennia. Yet, as evolutionary psychology notes, some evolutionary behaviors hold no benefit in current environments, and may even harm the pursuit of human flourishing. With this in mind, this sermon series will explore some of the inherent psychological barriers that can hinder human flourishing such as tribalism, pleasing, criticism, and the insatiable desire for more. And through the lens of neural plasticity, which is very much the same thing as repentance, we’ll be encouraged to have our minds—very literally—resurrected into new life.

Repentance

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Eastertide is a celebration of resurrected life, which is very much the same thing as human flourishing. Central to human flourishing are Eastertide expressions such as hospitality, hope, charity, mindfulness, and mercy. However, according to evolutionary psychology, values like these aren’t easy to embody. Woven into our DNA is the natural selection of traits that have preserved our lineage over millennia. Yet, as evolutionary psychology notes, some evolutionary behaviors hold no benefit in current environments, and may even harm the pursuit of human flourishing. With this in mind, this sermon series will explore some of the inherent psychological barriers that can hinder human flourishing such as tribalism, pleasing, criticism, and the insatiable desire for more. And through the lens of neural plasticity, which is very much the same thing as repentance, we’ll be encouraged to have our minds—very literally—resurrected into new life.

From Empire to Community

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The Bible—this library of ancient documents, written over centuries by many authors—presents the modern reader with significant challenges. Inspired by the beauty of a psalm or the mercy of Jesus’ words, we turn the page only to read something that feels violent or backward. How can we hold this text as sacred story when much of what we find in its pages is clearly not good?

In this series, we aim to hold the Bible as a library with a trajectory. As humanity grows and its apprehension of God becomes richer, we see a record of movement forward from sacrifice to gift, from vengeance to mercy, from exclusion to inclusion, from ideas of divine violence to demonstration of divine solidarity. We’ll explore how passages that seem violent to us today, represented a move forward in the author’s time and culture—and how these stories can inspire us to look for where the Divine beckons us forward, today.