a sermon on god’s rainbow promises

Second Sunday in Pride month | Text: Selections from Genesis chapters 6 - 9 | It is Pride month at St. Luke’s and worship today focuses on God’s rainbow promises. God’s promises are for everyone, and this month we remember that they are especially for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and more people—those whose rainbow identities and genders and sexualities brilliantly refract God’s love into this world like light through a prism...

a pentecost sermon excerpt

Friends, I want you to know that God’s Spirit is active and alive today. God’s Spirit is poured out among us even now. God kept God’s promise on that first Pentecost, and God is still keeping God’s promise...

a pastoral message on white supremacy

Today as we come before God, we are carrying the burdens of the week past, the terror and grief and outrage that another Black man, George Floyd, beloved by God, was murdered...

Psalm 23: the one who takes care of me

God is the one who takes care of me, the one who makes sure I have what I need...

a sermon on Jesus, God’s soul story

Palm and Passion Sunday | Texts: Matthew 21:1-11, Matthew 26:14--27:66 | The story of Jesus’s last few days of life on earth, including his betrayal, arrest, torture, and death, is one of the central stories of our Christian faith. We often call this story the “passion” of Christ. The word passion, when used in that sense, means suffering...

in Logan Square as it is in heaven

Presentation of Our Lord | Texts: Malachi 3:1-4, Psalm 84, Hebrews 2:14-18, Luke 2:22-40 | You might have read in the news this week that this has been the cloudiest January in Chicago in over 20 years. Clouds can make it hard to hope. It can be hard to remember the promise of the sun’s light and warmth that gives life to the world...

it’s not about Netflix

First Sunday of Advent | Texts: Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44 | Every Advent we are reminded to wake up to what God is doing. Something big is about to happen and already happened and is happening all the time...

it’s not a very nice sermon

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost | Texts: Jeremiah 23:23-29, Psalm 82, Hebrews 11:29-12:2, Luke 12:49-56 | I remember in high school one day, walking down the hall to English class with my friend. There were about two minutes left in the passing period, and she kind of curiously asked me to explain real quick what Christianity is and what Christians believe. (My friend was Hindu.)...

a sermon that doesn’t really matter

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost | Texts: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23, Psalm 49:1-12 , Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21  | This week is the one major time in our three year cycle of bible readings that we get to read from the book of Ecclesiastes. (It also comes up on the festival of New Year’s Eve, but would you believe not a lot of people spend their New Year’s Eve at church.)...