Lent 3A-23 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago Our preacher today is Adriana Rivera, Minister of Youth and Household. Greetings, friends, and may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you on this third Sunday of Lent and during Women’s History Month. I’m happy to be here with you this Sunday to reflect on […]
Lent 2A-23 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago I’ll tell you something you already know. We are shaped by what we can perceive. Beyond what we can imagine is the great unknown unknown. Think how understanding about what is real and what’s not expanded with the invention of the telescope, or the microscope, or the transistor, or today, […]
Lent 1A-23 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago After his baptism, there was no celebration, no cake, no candles. Instead, ‘Jesus, was led by the Spirit into a place of isolation and death (Matthew 4:1). He goes into the wilderness alone, without fanfare, or survival gear. He goes without a map or an extra pair of sandals. After […]
Transfiguration A-23 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago 500 years before Christ, Rabbis called Mount Tabor “the navel of the world.” The peak rises abruptly, yet gently, from the plain like the belly of a pregnant woman. It is modest, covered in pine, about 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee. It rises almost 2,000 feet above […]
Epiphany 6A-23 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago Sometimes announcing, “the gospel of the Lord” feels like it should be followed by a question mark. I know Christians have hurled these words of Jesus like rocks to bruise, shame, and torment one another. I know Christians quote verses like these to paint a picture of God as a […]
Epiphany 5A-23 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:13-14). Salt and light are your superpower. They are reflections within you […]
Epiphany 4A-23 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago Most mornings, I wake up and start scrolling thru headlines. This week was rough. Police violence. Mass shootings. War in Ukraine. Political strife. What would it be like to wake up to good news? The prophet Micah seems to wonder the same thing. These leaders, he wrote, “tear the skin […]
Epiphany 3A-23 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago It was New Year’s Day, 1929. The University of California at Berkely Golden Bears played the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the Rose Bowl. Halfway through the second quarter, Golden Bears defensive tackle, Roy Riegels, scooped up a fumble by Georgia Tech’s Jack “Stumpy” Thomason, 30 yards from the end-zone. […]
Epiphany 2A-23 Immanuel Lutheran Two weeks ago, on New Year’s Day, I went to church with extended family on vacation. New Year’s Day is what we call a ‘low Sunday.’ Yet, to my surprise, the worship center, built to hold 1,600 people, was mostly full. Parishioners were eager to maintain a right relationship with Jesus […]
Christmas Eve – 22 Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago The prophet Mohamed, peace be upon him, describes the nativity scene at the birth of Jesus in the Quran (Surah 19) featuring a great tree. It’s the first Christmas tree if you will—centuries before the tradition developed among Christians. The tree is not an evergreen, but rather, a […]