Matthew 5:1-11

Jeremy Richards

Audio recording: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/02-02-20-youre-in-the-right-place-if-jeremy-richards/id1479727299?i=1000464938474

I never used any form of the word “bless” until I was a pastor. Actually, it all started when I was applying to Grant Park, and I was emailing with Shelley, herself an accomplished minister with more experience than me, and she ended every email to me with the farewell, “Blessings, Shelley Varner.” I thought to myself, I guess that’s how pastors and ministers end their emails, I guess I better do the same.

But the word “bless” is such a churchy word.

Psalm 27:1, 4-9 | Matthew 4:12-23

Jeremy Richards

A few weeks ago, we heard the beautiful, mystical opening of John’s Gospel, when the Word, who was with God and was God, the Word who all things came into being through, came and dwelt among us. While John does take some pains in his prologue to ground this mystical idea in concrete reality, it remains pretty abstract. It’s almost like poetry. It’s beautiful, it’s full of meaning, but it creates in us more a sense of wonder than a logical conclusion. It’s a passage that washes over us, one that is felt more than comprehended.

But in our reading from Matthew this morning, the abstract has found its footing in the tangible.

Psalm 121 | John 14:25-29

Margaret Marcuson

Audio recording: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/01-19-20-sermon-margaret-marcuson/id1479727299?i=1000464957807

Isaiah 42:1-9 | Acts 10:34-43 | Matthew 3:13-17

Jeremy Richards

Audio recording: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/01-12-20-what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-christian-jeremy-richards/id1479727299?i=1000462966112

When I decided to go to seminary, I had hardly read any real theology or biblical studies. I didn’t know who the modern day theologians and scholars were. I was told by my religion professors at Concordia that Duke Divinity School was one of the top schools and that I should apply there. In addition to it being a good school, I grew up cheering for Duke basketball, so when I got in, it was a pretty easy choice. But like I said, I didn’t know who any of the professors were. But I quickly learned there was a name that seemingly everyone but me knew about, a name that was synonymous with Duke Divinity School: Stanley Hauerwas.

John 1:1-18

Jeremy Richards

Words “are powerlessly powerful.” Words “make or break living breathing people,” says Noor Unnahar…

I once heard a sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor, preaching on James 3, where she said our words create worlds, like bubbles that float away from us, and once the worlds are created, we can’t change them, can’t take them back. They float on to their recipients. The worlds we create with our words can be beautiful and life-giving, or they can be ugly and violent. They can stab without a single weapon, Noor Unnahar says.

What kind of world would God’s Word create?

Isaiah 35:1-10 | Luke 1:46-55

Jeremy Richards

In 2006, the popular singer John Mayer released a song called, “Waiting on the World to Change.” This song, which I’m sure most of you have heard, sounds at first listen like a catchy, even hope-filled song, but it is, in fact, one of the most hopeless songs I’ve ever heard. In the song, Mayer claims that he and his generation see the problems in the world, but the problems are too big for them to do anything about, and so they’re waiting on the world to change – apparently all on its own.

Psalm 46 | Colossians 1:11-20 | Luke 23:33-43

Jeremy Richards

For many of us, Grant Park Church probably seems like a pretty liturgical church, at least for those of us who grew up in what some call the “Free Church” – Pentecostal, Baptist, Anabaptist, and most non-denominational churches. In our last book study meeting, someone shared that they were surprised we use the lectionary the first time they came to worship here. In addition to some call and response in our service, the use of the lectionary is probably the thing that feels the most liturgical about Grant Park.

Isaiah 12 | Luke 21:5-19

Jeremy Richards        

On one hand, Jesus’ teaching from Luke 21 sounds pretty apocalyptic – wars and insurrections, earthquakes and famines, good people being slandered and hated and even executed. On the other hand, it sounds like the evening news. Nations are rising against nations. civil unrest is a common theme across the globe – governments are being toppled, there are corrupt elections, our own country is in the midst of an impeachment process. Global warming has, indeed, led to famines and other natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis. So Jesus’ teaching doesn’t sound too outlandish.