Alix Pridgen

In a world that celebrates the powerful, the successful, and the highly visible, Jesus tells a very different story. Beginning with a memorable account from preacher Fred Craddock, this sermon explores one of the most surprising promises in the Gospel: that the person who offers something as simple as a cup of cold water stands alongside prophets and the righteous in the Kingdom of God. Through or...

Some decisions are easy. Others leave us awake at night. In this sermon from Genesis 21:8–21, Abraham faces a painful choice between two loves, while Hagar and Ishmael find themselves alone in the wilderness with no clear future. Yet this difficult story reveals a surprising truth: God's faithfulness is larger than our failures, our fears, and the choices that seem impossible to make. When the fut...

Jesus looked at the crowds and saw people who were weary, burdened, and longing for hope. Rather than carrying the work alone, he sent ordinary people to share God's compassion with the world. Drawing on the story of Koinonia Farm and the witness of Clarence Jordan, this sermon explores what happens when Christians take Jesus’ call seriously—living as neighbors, serving those in need, and trusting...

Why does Jesus choose to sit with sinners? And what does that mean for us? In this episode, we explore a powerful moment from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus shares a table with those society rejects—and challenges the assumptions of those watching from a distance. What unfolds is not a denial of brokenness, but a profound declaration of grace: we are all in need of the healing mercy of God. Thi...

In Acts 2, the disciples are waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit — but Pentecost does not arrive as quiet comfort or private reassurance. It comes as wind, fire, noise, movement, and courage. In this sermon, “From Fear to Fire,” Rev. Dr. Alix D. Pridgen reflects on how the Spirit transforms frightened people into witnesses, turning silence into speech and fear into faithful action. Through...

In this episode, we reflect on Acts 1 and the moment after Jesus’ ascension, when the disciples are left in uncertainty. Instead of rushing into action, they gather in prayer, learning the discipline of waiting. [Easter 7A 2026 | Word] Through the stories of Apollo 13 and early wagon trains, we explore how restraint and careful discernment can be the difference between wisdom and disaster. When pr...

This week’s sermon reflects on Jesus’ promise in John 14 that we are never left alone. Long before the disciples understood what was coming, Jesus began preparing them—not with certainty or easy answers, but with the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Through stories of parents preparing children for the road, strangers showing up after disasters, voices of love that stay with us for decades, an...

Stephen stands before the powers of his world with nothing but his faith, his voice, and a vision of Christ. In this episode, we reflect on Acts 7 and John 14 through the lens of “lifting our eyes” in a fearful and angry world. Drawing on stories of courage, endurance, and grace from the Black experience in the Jim Crow South, this sermon explores how what we focus on has the power to shape us—and...

When faith falls apart, we don’t always make a dramatic exit—we simply begin to walk away. In this sermon on Luke 24:13–35, two disciples leave Jerusalem carrying the weight of shattered hope: “We had hoped…” What they believed about God no longer holds. And somewhere along that road of disappointment and confusion, a stranger comes near. This episode explores the kind of crisis that causes faith...

In this Easter sermon, the story begins where we often live—managing what feels finished, adjusting to disappointment, and learning how to carry what hasn’t changed. But resurrection doesn’t leave those assumptions intact. It disrupts them. The ground moves. The stone rolls away. And suddenly, the future is no longer what we thought it would be. This episode explores what it means to live in a wor...

Saved From the Grave What do you do when God feels late? In John 11, Mary and Martha send for Jesus as their brother Lazarus lies dying. They believe he will come. They believe he will heal. But he doesn’t. By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been in the grave four days—beyond hope, beyond help, beyond anything they imagined God might still do. We know this place. The place where prayers didn’t...

In this episode, Rev. Dr. Alix D. Pridgen reflects on John 4:5–42, the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. In a world filled with tension, fear, and lines that divide people from one another, this ancient encounter speaks with surprising clarity to our own moment. Lent 3A 2026 Jesus deliberately crosses a boundary his culture had learned to avoid, entering Samaria and sitting besid...

“The Spirit is like the wind. It blows where it will. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes.” Faith, Jesus is saying, doesn’t always begin with certainty. Sometimes it begins the way wind begins — quietly, mysteriously, moving through places we didn’t expect. I once knew someone who wandered into church almost by accident. She didn’t know the stories. She didn...

“Be attentive… as to a light shining in a dark place” — a word for a loud and unsettled age. The world feels loud right now — constant news, constant reaction, constant pressure to respond. In this Transfiguration sermon on 2 Peter 1:16–21, we listen to Peter’s calm witness: Christian faith is not built on speculation or spin, but on encounter — “we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” Rather than o...

Blessed Are You—Even Now Epiphany 4A | Matthew 5:1–12 | Numbers 6:24–26 We often think of blessing as evidence that life is going well—health, stability, success, peace. But in the Beatitudes, Jesus speaks blessing in places we would least expect: poverty of spirit, grief, mercy-weariness, persecution, longing, and quiet endurance. In this sermon for Epiphany, Rev. Dr. Alix Pridgen invites us to h...

In a world that insists on dividing us—by politics, class, geography, and identity—this sermon asks a piercing question straight from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “Has Christ been divided?” Rev. Dr. Alix Pridgen invites us to step out of the noise of competing allegiances and into the deeper truth of the Gospel: unity is not something we manufacture, defend, or negotiate. Unity is God’s gift....

We’re used to a God who visits. A God who shows up for a season, a service, a holy day—and then politely stays out of the way. But the Gospel of John tells a different story. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God didn’t stop by. God moved in. In this episode, we sit with the unsettling and hopeful truth that God has taken up residence in the middle of ordinary life. Not just in sanctuaries...

“A decree goes out. Not a conversation. Not a question. Not a community forum. A decree. A registry. A journey demanded. A law passed in an office far away from those it would affect. No one asked if Mary was tired. No one asked if Joseph was worried. No one asked where they’d sleep… or what they’d eat… or who would be there when the baby came. Empire never asks those questions. ”

John the Baptist is usually pictured waist-deep in the Jordan—wind in his hair, fire in his voice—calling the world to repent and get ready. But in Matthew 11, John isn’t outdoors. He’s chained in an underground dungeon, and the waiting has begun to press on everything he thought he knew. Advent 3A 2025 Advent 3A 2025 From the dark, John sends his question to Jesus: “Are you… the one who is to com...

This Advent 2A message explores Isaiah’s stunning vision of a world remade in peace—a world where wolves nap beside lambs, children play safely near vipers, and creation remembers the harmony it was made for. Pastor Alix begins with a chilling story from Howard Thurman: a baby girl gently stroking a rattlesnake while the adults look on in breathless silence. From childhood encounters with Louisian...

“Christ the King Sunday isn’t about power—it's about presence. On a hill with three crosses, a dying man whispers, ‘Jesus, remember me,’ and the dying King replies, ‘Today you will be with me.’ Maybe that’s where the kingdom really begins: in remembering, in mercy, in hope stronger than despair.”

In this episode, we explore Jesus’ unsettling words from Luke 21:5–19 — words that refuse to calm our fears, yet offer us something far deeper than comfort. When the world feels chaotic and the headlines keep tightening the chest, Jesus doesn’t promise escape. He promises presence. He reframes crisis as calling: “This will give you an opportunity to testify.”

In Luke 20:27–38, Jesus refuses the Sadducees’ small and defensive questions and opens a world shaped by resurrection rather than fear. This episode explores how we still cling to familiar categories—maps too small for the life God is giving us—and how changing the question can change everything. From lost hikers in the Rockies to a city transformed by imagination to students rediscovering real co...

Title: Two Prayers, One Mercy Scripture: Luke 18:9–14 | Romans 3:21–28 Description: Two men step into the temple — one sure of his goodness, the other barely able to lift his head. Only one goes home right with God. In this episode we explore what happens when our need to perform gives way to the grace that meets us in honesty. From the Pharisee’s proud prayer to the tax collector’s seven-word cry...

A story about a widow, a weary judge, and the God who never stops listening.