Good Shepherd New York

Politics: the way human community is ordered and organized under a particular governing body. Pastor Drew Jackson of Hope East Village shows us from Philippians 1 and 2 that the alternative politics of the Kingdom of God is a radically others-centered way of life. This is what the Apostle Paul calls humility.

Jesus heals ten lepers and only one returns to say thank you. Pastor Michael looks at the healing power of gratitude through the lens of science and the wisdom tradition this story represents.

Forgiveness sounds great until it threatens our sense of justice or seems cheap. In this gospel text, Jesus invites his followers to radical forgiveness that still tells the truth only without the energy of revenge.

In one of Jesus’ most famous stories we have a great post-mortem reversal of the rich and poor. What was the rich man’s folly? What can we learn from his afterlife survival instincts?

The Parable of the Unjust Steward is widely considered to be the most confusing and mysterious of all Jesus's teachings. TriBeCa parishioner and Professional Magician, Tyler Schwartz uses logic, magic, humor, and psychology to shed some light on this obscure parable.

In this sermon, pastor Michael offers a subversive interpretation on Jesus’ familiar stories of the lost sheep, coin and son. Drawing on the work of AJ Levine, we explore the invitation to begin counting those in our lives that are invisible or lost. Perhaps this is the repentance that angels rejoice over.

Why would Jesus ask us to hate our family and our lives to follow him? Especially in a world already saturated with hate? And give up all our possessions? Pastor Michael examines the original context of this teaching to propose the idea of a holy hate that gets us to love.

Jesus deconstructs the networking culture where social capital is the backdrop currency and invites his us to consider transgressing this system by making room at our table for people who don’t advance our social standing.

Pastor Michael looks at the story of the crippled woman and asks the question, “how can we be liberated from the burdens that bend our souls low?” and “how can we be a liberating force in the world by simply paying attention?”

What kind of awareness does God want us to live with? How can we live both with sorrow and joy, care for both the living and the dying, at once? By waiting for God to surprise us by waiting with others in the midst of whatever they’re experiencing.