The Sermons at St. Paul's

The Rev. Lucy Strandlund connects Jesus’ parable of the vineyard with Isaiah’s call for justice, inviting us to consider how everyday acts of care for our neighbors, our communities, and creation help us experience a more beautiful world.

Wrestling with God's silence? The Rev. Erika Takacs preaches on Jonah, anger, and mercy, and asks: Is your anger fueling love and justice, or burning you up inside? Listen now.

What if strength isn’t pretending we always know where we’re going, but having the courage to admit when we’re wrong? The Rev. Nick VanHorn reflects on Jesus’ parable of the two sons—and how repentance means more than saying the right thing.

In this sermon from September 13 at the 11:15 AM service, The Rev. Dixon Kinser explores what forgiveness is—and what it is not. Forgiveness is not condoning, forgetting, or eliminating consequences, and it doesn’t require reconciliation or an apology. Drawing on Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant, Rev. Kinser invites us to name the wound, refuse revenge, and step into the continual flow of grace that frees us to release others and ourselves.

At the 10 AM service on August 30, 2026, the Rev. Dixon Kinser takes a hard look at our instinct for payback and the quiet pleasure we feel when others suffer. Drawing on Romans 12 and the image of “heaping burning coals” on our enemies’ heads, he shows how blessing those who persecute us is not weakness, but a powerful spiritual practice that reshapes our inner life, opens a path to reconciliation, and reveals what the resurrection life of Jesus really looks like in community.

We live in a world full of “imaginary Jesuses” — polite Jesus, Sunday-only Jesus, nationalist Jesus, feel-good meme Jesus. Many are “pretty good,” but none are the real thing. In this sermon, we explore how easy it is to shrink Jesus down to our preferences, and why the real Jesus is far more challenging, demanding, and life-giving than any projection we create. Standing in the tension between good guesses and the true gospel, we hear again his question: “Who do you say that I am?”—and are invited to become living answers in a world aching for mercy, justice, and hope.

What do viral “Pope hats” at a Chicago White Sox game have to do with Isaiah’s vision of a house of prayer for all people—and with the way you pass the peace on Sunday? In this sermon, The Rev. Dixon Kinser invites us to rethink a familiar ritual and asks: who would be hardest for you to offer peace to, and what might God be doing in that tension?

Preached on August 9, 2026 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the Rev. Nick VanHorn reflects on Peter stepping out of the boat and what it means for us to follow Jesus beyond our comfort zones. Drawing on everyday moments—from dropping a child off at college to stalled church vans and “chaotic evangelism”—this sermon invites us to ask: What happens when our desire to follow Christ takes us beyond what feels safe?

Discover how the church is more than a safe harbor, why discipleship is not about being fearless, and how Jesus continues to meet us in the storm, reach out his hand, and say, “Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.”

In this sermon preached by Rev. Lucy Strandlund on August 2 at the 10:00 AM service, we explore what “blessing” truly means beyond social media hashtags and polite phrases like “bless you.” Drawing from Genesis, the feeding of the five thousand, and insights from theologian Andrew Davison, Lucy unpacks the biblical roots of blessing as “speaking well of” and recognizing the inherent goodness of God’s creation.

In this sermon preached on July 19, 2026, the Rev. Erika Takacs weaves together a vivid image of Southern kudzu with Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares. Walking through a greenway overrun by “the vine that ate the South,” she names the fears we carry when weeds—whether bigotry, prejudice, neglect, abuse, corruption, violence, or our own complicity—seem to be taking over everything.