Harrowing Of Hell

Category: Kingdom of God

The Great Inversion

Sermon | November 9, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. We must learn to see, to recognize the living God, even when the world around us looks like loss. Over the past few weeks, in sermons, liturgies, and forums, we have been digging into this theme as we’ve addressed topics of grief, death, and hope. This sermon is about

The Heaven Can’t Wait Book Club

Sermon | September 28, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. When I was growing up, my family had this ritual. On the last Friday of each month, my mother would take my sister and me to Little Professor Bookstore. It was this cozy, independent bookshop and whenever we walked through that front door, the booksellers always remembered us, and

Freedom and the Frictionless Society

Sermon | September 14, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. When I was in college, I spent two years tutoring prisoners in Cell Block One at Cook County Correctional Facility on the south side of Chicago. Once a week I’d make my way into that ominous, imposing building. Every time the guards treated me as if I were new,

Alertness and the Crisis in Gaza

Sermon | August 10, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. Good morning. I’m glad to see you here. As I mentioned last Sunday, the topic on the table today is Gaza. I know this probably won’t be a sermon that meets everyone’s expectations. In fact, I’ve already received a pile of emails with opinions and information to “help” guide

Truth in a Post-Truth World

Sermon | June 8, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. I was watching the news the other day and I heard something that might startle you… Out of the mouth of a national leader I heard something I quickly perceived, based on a smattering of history, a little bit of science, and some common sense… I heard a bald-faced

Joseph’s Mother

Sermon | May 11, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. I recently returned from my annual retreat in Montana, where I gathered with six men I went to seminary with. We’ve been praying together for 25 years. Once a month we talk by phone, and once a year we gather in Montana to review our lives, to wrestle with

Identity and the Reversals of Life

Sermon | April 13, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. Well, here we go: the church’s annual soul-churning, week-long emotional roller coaster ride. It begins today, a day of ironies and paradoxes, of parallels and reversals.  Today we begin on a high note. I find it thrilling to enter into the scene in which Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem,

Guardians of Grace

Sermon | March 30, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. Part of my job as your priest is to pray every day. I use the Daily Office. It’s a rhythm of prayer and scripture reading that places me inside the unfolding story of God. It’s fascinating, sometimes challenging, sometimes consoling, but always insightful. I want to thank you for