Grace Chicago Church

Homily Preview:

We are back in the Gospel of Matthew this Sunday where Jesus assures his disciples that "whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple" will be rewarded. The words come at the end of a discourse about mission and hospitality, a discourse full of dire warnings and triumphant hope. This Sunday we will think about the little ones are in the verse cited above and what it means to demonstrate hospitality in the name of Jesus in our place in time.

Homily Preview: In our homily this Sunday we will talk a bit about compassion. Matthew uses this word to talk about Jesus’ reflexive response to the vast human need he witnesses (Matthew 9:36). We will explore the context in which Matthew makes his remarks and we will use that exploration as the jumping off point to think together about what it looks like to respond in compassion to the great human need we witness every day.

Earlier this week on Trinity Sunday we pondered the mystery that God reveals God's self in three co-equal persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We tapped into the wisdom of the early church and thought together about God's love as the energy  and motivation for all God does in creation, redemption, and even in judgment. We will continue to ponder God's triune nature this week in part two of that homily, as we think about the way in which God's unique nature enables him to join with us in our suffering, brining transformative hope to situations that would otherwise be Godforsaken.

As we said last week, the triune nature of God is deep mystery but what it reveals about God's character brings us joy and hope.

I took quite a few Spanish classes in high school and college. At one time I could read a Spanish language newspaper with reasonable comprehension. Sadly, I have lost - for now - much of what I knew. I still make a feeble, yet sincere effort, to say something that might be comprehensible to those I know or meet who speak Spanish as their native tongue. I especially try very hard when I can tell the person doesn’t speak English at all.

What always amazes me is how gracious folks are when I say something to them, however imperfectly, in the language of their birth. Beyond being gracious, I think most folks are genuinely moved by the gesture (something I don’t alway think about). Hearing someone speak to you in the language of one's birth is the phrase that the people use to describe the miracle that occurs while they are listening to Peter preach on the day that we now call Pentecost Sunday.

To be sure, Pentecost is a story of the Spirit’s power in the miraculous event itself.  But the way to understand its fullness is by seeing how it fits into Luke’s overall story of a new humanity wherein a diverse group of people retain their diversity while uniting to each other through the gift of the Spirit.

Homily Preview:

Last week we spent some time talking God making his home with us and inviting us to make our home in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This week we talk about what that looks like on a daily basis as we think about the promise of the Holy Spirit, God's empowering presence in human beings, the church and the world.

In the Christian calendar we are coming up on the end of Eastertide. We will celebrate The Feast of the Ascension on Sunday, May 21st, followed by Pentecost Sunday on the 28th. So, it is fitting that the next two Sundays have us thinking about Jesus' promises to the disciples about what life will be like after the cross, resurrection, ascension and pentecost. This next Sunday and the following Sunday we will be in John 14 as we consider the promises associated with the powerful presence of God's Spirit with the church. While all of this may sound very heady and abstract I assure you that it is not. If we are to act justly in this world, love one another well, and the like it will be because of our reliance upon God's Spirit.

The homily is from John 10. This is the passage where Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd. The scripture reading before communion is from Acts 2, where the the early church community is described as being one where people organize their lives so that each may be a blessing to the other. We are going to put these two passages together as we think about what sort of community is formed by the good shepherd. We will also ask ourselves what our responsibility looks like as stewards of the community of the good shepherd. Looking forward to our time together.

Homily - Pat Hecker

Homily Preview:

First Sunday after Easter and our gospel reading takes up where last Easter Sunday's reading left off. This week we have more in the way of amazing encounters between the risen Lord Jesus and his followers. This Sunday we meet Thomas, sometimes called doubting Thomas. Jesus accommodates Thomas' doubts, even as he accommodates ours.

Homily Preview: This Easter Sunday, like every Easter Sunday, we will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. Our focus will be on the way in which the early church understood Jesus's resurrection. His followers, who will found the church of which we are a part two millennia later, had expected to relate to Jesus as a martyr and ponder all of what that might mean for continuing his work. Instead, they are confronted with a resurrected human being who will continue his ministry through them. They had categories for thinking of Jesus as a martyr. They had no categories for thinking of Jesus as the resurrected Son of God. But through God's empowering presence they learn that Jesus's resurrection from the dead is the beginning of a new chapter in God's relationship to the world. The new chapter summons the church to show the world a new way to be human.