Sermon Archive
August 29, 2010
I went to see the
Movie Dinner for Schmucks, assuming that it was about Holy Communion.
August 22, 2010
What happens when we encounter God?
August 15, 2010
Mary would not have made it in the National Football League.
August 08, 2010
There are some real life questions that I suspect some of us have experienced.
August 01, 2010
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God, writes the author of Colossians.
July 25, 2010
Today's gospel reading has the weighty significance of being the only episode from Jesus' life told by all four gospel writers and the license plate of Karen Stetins' car.
July 11, 2010
What is your agenda?
July 04, 2010
Our American Declaration of Independence boldly claims our right to the pursuit of happiness, which is probably why we chose the name
Chase for one of our biggest banks.
June 27, 2010
With a baptism and other new members being received today, we have again abbreviated our entrance rite, so there was no order of confession with assurance of forgiveness.
June 23, 2010
I bring you warm greetings from The Rev. Wayne Miller, Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who regrets that his schedule prevents him from accepting the invitation to preach and celebrate with us tonight.
June 20, 2010
Today's gospel is one of those Bible stories that is hard to believe, not because demon possession is so hard for us to understand, but so easy.
June 13, 2010
You've probably been to a party in the neighborhood...held in the early summer.
June 06, 2010
In a few moments we will sing and smile and rejoice together as we celebrate a funeral procession.
May 30, 2010
When I walked to Wrigley Field yesterday afternoon, it was for more than a Cubs game.
May 23, 2010
Today, we will enjoy a rare privilege.
May 16, 2010
The old man hurried to the ringing telephone.
May 09, 2010
I remember discovering an ornament on the Christmas tree one year that I was home from school.
May 02, 2010
This weekend, North Side baseball fans are being greeted by demonstrators at Wrigley Field protesting something they consider somehow even more egregious than the Cubs' bullpen and baserunning.
April 25, 2010
The church where I was baptized had, like so many others, a stained glass window of Jesus the Good Shepherd, carrying a lamb tenderly in the crook of his arm, leading other attentive sheep through a peaceful pasture.
April 18, 2010
Last week we heard the last story, the final narrative about Jesus and his disciples along with John's tidy conclusion, the end of his gospel.
April 11, 2010
He is nearing the end.
April 04, 2010
It's frustrating enough when you can't find your keys. When you return after the sabbath to the tomb of the one you love, and you can't find the body, real panic sets in.
March 21, 2010
When someone raises your brother from the dead, what do you do?
March 14, 2010
The story ends exactly where it begins.
March 07, 2010
There is a great and growing worry among the watchers of Lake Michigan that our Great Lake is in danger of being overrun by Asian carp.
February 28, 2010
The Pharisees have long been the whipping boys of Christian preachers, excoriated from pulpits far and wide as upright moralists, hypocrites, dullards and enemies of Jesus by us pastors who, for the most part, are upright moralists, hypocrites, dullards or enemies of Jesus ourselves.
February 21, 2010
A word of warning to the parents and godparents of the three children who will be baptized today: the devil doesn't show up in Jesus' life until after he is baptized.
February 17, 2010
There is a danger for us in reading this gospel lesson where Jesus encourages us to pray in private and practice our religion in secret, where only God can see.
February 14, 2010
His mother is a mystic; his father is a geologist.
February 07, 2010
The herring were running in icy Maine off Prout's Neck.
January 31, 2010
When little Ryan Pacholek-Mayer is baptized today, listen for the echoes.
January 24, 2010
The first person to be served at today's potluck following the annual meeting isn't here.
January 17, 2010
When I met with Jonah's parents and godparents yesterday to prepare for his baptism, I told them to watch the movie
The Lion King.
January 10, 2010
Mom, Dad, big sister, big brother, godparents, grandparents, friends, family, the faithful gathered around: so many people are excited about today's baptism. Luke is not one of them.
January 03, 2010
Hip-hop mogul, artist and celebrity Sean "Diddy" Combs has the same problem I do, namely that he didn't get to pick his parents.
December 27, 2009
According to our trustworthy ushers, there were 260 people in worship with us on Christmas Eve.
December 24, 2009
We don't need angels anymore, because now we have CNN to bring us whatever news we might need.
December 20, 2009
Yesterday, Gladys Johnson turned ninety years old. The day before, Lily Weaver turned eight.
December 13, 2009
Are we there yet?
December 06, 2009
Ten years ago, the people of this congregation were preparing the way of the Lord. Our magnificent little old building was being renovated, and the faithful here made a couple of significant decisions.
November 29, 2009
Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, Jesus warns.
November 22, 2009
Before the church ever realized it should worship him as Christ the King, the disciples asked Jesus the rabbi to teach them to pray.
November 15, 2009
Play with children and with building blocks sometime.
November 08, 2009
Our wider church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is facing tough times.
November 01, 2009
On this day of the Christian year that we remember and give thanks for those who have died, it seems appropriate that we should hear God's word from the final pages of Scripture, and so our second reading comes from nearly the very end of Revelation, setting the Bible's final scene.
October 25, 2009
For several weeks now we have been working our way through the central, pivotal section of Mark's gospel introduced in chapter 8 by the awkward healing of a blind man, who comes to sight only gradually, with much effort from Jesus.
October 11, 2009
There is so much not to like about this fellow.
October 04, 2009
I do not remember her name, but I cannot forget her story. She was a waitress in California.
September 27, 2009
Our father, who art in trailer, was thrilled to have all three of us boys together for Thanksgiving a number of years ago at his place, which some of you may remember is a two and a half acre parcel of California paradise decorated with the metallic and sentimental residue of many decades and known to us affectionately as The Ranch.
September 13, 2009
Let's begin with full disclosure, Sunday School will not help your children get ahead.
September 06, 2009
Presumably the man who was healed by Jesus was standing there as part of the crowd when Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone.
August 30, 2009
I confessed at a breakfast meeting this week, as I worked my way through an absurdly enormous omelet, that I suffer from clean plate morality.
August 23, 2009
First, I would like to take a quick moment of privilege to publicly express my gratitude to all the members of Resurrection for your ongoing support of my journey toward ordained ministry
August 16, 2009
For several weeks now, I have been encouraging you in voice and in print to keep our wider Communion, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in prayer as voting members from around the country prepare for the churchwide assembly in Minneapolis.
August 09, 2009
My brother and his girlfriend came to Chicago to visit me last weekend, and she and I bonded in the morning, united in the gauntlet that is getting him out of bed.
August 02, 2009
Even though she has been in the back, watching it happen to others with wide eyes for several weeks in a row now, Sophia Margaret Admire has no idea what is about to happen to her.
July 26, 2009
She is not much, despite her plump cheeks, Delilah Chloe Durek is still just a tiny thing, only a few months old.
July 19, 2009
How many of you skipped breakfast this morning?
July 12, 2009
When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb. John's disciples knew the story, but maybe you don't, so I'll fill you in.
July 05, 2009
In early March I went to a conference in Madison entitled "New Visions for the Long Pastorate," a workshop designed to encourage and to help pastors stay in the same congregation for an extended number of years.
June 28, 2009
1997. That's how long 12 years ago was. Take a trip back - what were you doing in 1997?
June 21, 2009
Don't blame the disciples; this wasn't their idea.
June 14, 2009
Jesus picks up right where Pastor Jen left off.
June 07, 2009
One in six American adults suffers from chronic insomnia.
May 31, 2009
My standard nightmare has been replaced.
May 24, 2009
Last week was our first round of town hall budget information meetings here at Resurrection, dealing with the complex workings of our finances and the unpleasant news about our current cash flow shortfall.
May 17, 2009
Have you been converted?
May 03, 2009
"We need a vision."
April 19, 2009
Ava Diane Meder has no idea what she is getting into.
April 12, 2009
You know the young man dressed in the white robe is from God not because of what he is wearing...notice who wears the white robes in this place...but because of what he says.
April 09, 2009
I'm going to ask you to do something dirty tonight.
March 29, 2009
Because they are so deeply and desperately in love with each other, this week I warned a couple preparing for marriage that they might be in for some disillusionment in the days after their wedding.
March 22, 2009
In the weekly magazine
Time Out Chicago there is a section in each issue entitled "heard on the street."
March 15, 2009
Last Thursday night Resurrection hosted a chili dinner meeting for residents of the Diplomat Hotel around the corner from us on Sheffield Avenue.
March 08, 2009
Over the years, a handful of people have been observant and curious or offended enough to ask me why, during the reading of holy Scripture in solemn Sunday worship, I, the pastor, was giggling like a tipsy schoolgirl.
March 01, 2009
40 days. In Jewish numerology, 40 means "a lot."
February 22, 2009
After several weeks in Mark chapter one, today we are fast forwarding to chapter nine. We are missing a lot, which is ironically appropriate, because Jesus' disciples are too.
February 15, 2009
His uniform is always immaculate, sharp, crisp, clean, perfectly pressed.
February 08, 2009
Healing. Cures. Casting out demons.
February 01, 2009
From the Associated Press, January 31, 2009:
GOP criticizes new [Governor] Quinn on his first day
January 25, 2009
I thank and appreciate all of you who were either startled or snickering or worried when I introduced the gospel from the seventeenth chapter of Mark.
January 18, 2009
Two score and six years ago, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shared his dream.
January 11, 2009
Forget Christmas.
January 04, 2009
The turn of the calendar year and its annual flurry of year-in-review articles and video montages renewed my interest in the year that was...1968.