Amos 5:18-24 | 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 | Matthew 25:1-13

Jeremy Richards

This past Tuesday (and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday), we, as a nation, learned something about waiting in vain. We tasted the disappointment of waiting for election results that didn’t arrive. Of course this isn’t the first time we’ve had to wait for something. Waiting is part of life. We’ve all waited for something that never materialized before. We’ve waited for friends who forgot about our lunch date and never showed up. We’ve waited for buses that never came around the corner. We’ve waited for visitors to arrive at our homes only to get the message that they had car trouble or the roads were bad and they had to get a hotel for the night, but they’ll be there in the morning.

Micah 3:5-12 | 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 | Matthew 23:1-12

Jeremy Richards

Awhile back, someone I’ve gotten to know a little bit but don’t know well, and who is a Christian but has never been to Grant Park, asked me something like, “Do you think your congregation focuses on the gospel enough, or do you think they care too much about justice and the gospel just kinda gets pushed aside.”

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Jeremy Richards

(Video)

Psalm 23

Jeremy Richards

(Video)

Matthew 17:1-9 | 2 Peter 1:16-21

Jeremy Richards

The modern church historian Robert Louis Wilken says, “Christian thinking is inescapably bound to the witness of others.” He says in another place, “What we know of past events depends on the testimony of those who have witnessed them. Historical events are unique and singular, and one cannot run an experiment to verify whether what is reported is true.”

In other words, every historical event, everything that happens within a specific time and place that we don’t personally witness requires that we trust those who did witness it.

Isaiah 58:1-12 | Matthew 5:13-20

Jeremy Richards

As most of you know, I’m currently enrolled in a two year program at the Center for Action and Contemplation called the Living School. I applied to the Living School because I recognized that I needed help bringing these two complimentary strands that I knew were integral, but hadn’t yet figured out how to integrate, together: action and contemplation, justice and spirituality, inner and outer, etc. (I’ve told you all this before).

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.