Federated Church Sycamore Sermon Podcast

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the story of Jesus' transfiguration--a "coming out" story of sorts. Atop a mountain with his three closest disciples, Jesus reveals a truth about him that up to this point had not been fully seen or understood, even by them. The question that follows--for the disciples is how will they respond. Will they "listen to him," as the voice...

In this message, Pastor Eric explores a passage from the Gospel of Mark that includes a story of "casting out demons" and physical healing. How are we to understand these stories? What are we to make of demons? Is this just ancient superstition? Does this just reflect an antiquated worldview that we, with modern medicine, no longer have? Introducing us to the wider context of Jesus'...

Oftentimes, when we imagine God, we imagine a sort of superhero Being far beyond humanity. We imagine One who is "all powerful" and "all knowing." And yet, at the center of Christian faith is the God of incarnation--a God who is neither of these, but rather a God who is "all-vulnerable." A God who is not "self-sufficient" or "self-reliant," but a &...

In this Christmas message, Pastor Eric explores not only the meaning of God's incarnation--"God with us"--but what kind of "flesh" God took on: where, when, and to whom. How does the particularity of the story of God's incarnation illuminate the meaning of God with us in new ways? How might we hear the "good news" of God's salvation and peace and joy for all the world when we hear it in this way?...

In this message, Pastor Eric takes us more fully into the world of Mary in order to better understand who this young woman is that sings out in the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56) about God toppling tyrants from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. It is only in understanding the context in which she lived that we can truly understand what it means--how profound and world-altering it is--that God wou...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the story of the birth and naming of John (the Baptist), within the larger story of both Elizabeth and Zechariah's journey of grief, suffering, shame, weariness, and hopelessness and that of the brutal world in which they lived. The words and actions of Elizabeth and Zechariah reveals a profound transformation from where they began. How did that transfo...

In this message, Pastor Eric invites us to hear the story of the first Advent in Palestine—the story leading up to the birth of Jesus—by drawing us deeper into the story of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. By helping us imagine their lives—their hopes and fears, their struggles and weariness—he invites us to consider our own. In a world so focused on self-help and individualistic journeys of healing...

In this message, Pastor Eric invites us into the Advent season with this question: "How does a weary world rejoice?" What does hope look like in the face of the devastations of war? In the face of griefs that can't be wished away or fixed? Through the ancient story of a simple couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth, we are reminded that true joy and hope can only grow from this soil. O...

In this message, Pastor Eric invites us as individuals and as a church to consider: what is it that you primarily see yourself as stewarding and passing on to the next generation? Many of us probably think of material things. We pass on buildings/homes, collected treasures, money. We often think of our primary focus as ensuring that we have something of this sort to pass on. And yet, this is not w...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the historical shift that took place in the centuries after Jesus--from actively following Jesus and the Way of Love that he modeled to building and maintaining an institution. Going back to the early church, he invites us to imagine what it might look like for us to boldly and courageously embody this Way once again, to keep growing as a dynamic movement o...

"So, you say you love the poor? Name them." These words from the great Latin American Liberation theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez, remind us that love cannot be lived out at a distance. It is not merely about "being on the right side of history," believing the "right" things, or voting a certain way. It is a call to build authentic and deep community with one another; to...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the story of Elias Chacour, a Palestinian Christian who, as a child, experienced the trauma of his family and entire village being rounded up and violently forced to flee their homes in the founding of the State of Israel--and who yet would go on to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize two times, while receiving several other international peace awards. H...

In this message, Pastor Eric explores how the Gospels portray Jesus' relationship with his family, and in doing so invites us to reflect on our own--especially with regards to how we learned to give and receive love as children. By inviting us to see our families as our first "school of love"--where we are taught through words and actions what love is--Pastor Eric invites us to consider how these...

In this message, Pastor Eric invites us to consider the ways that we use spiritual beliefs and practices to avoid certain parts of the human experience. Sometimes, we can believe that being "spiritual" means rising above emotions (namely the ones we don't like, such as fear, anger, grief, pain or shame). Rather than seeking a spirituality that calls us to move through these "wil...

In this message, Pastor Eric invites us into a playful practice of imagining possible futures; of imagining what’s possible without getting bogged down in whether or not it’s realistic or how to do it, etc. Too often in our own lives and in the church, we can get stuck, and we lose the ability to imagine anything else to be possible other than what is or has been—or perhaps that, but slightly bett...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the famous passage from Ecclesiastes—“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, a time to die…”—and the central struggle on the author’s heart and mind: that life is filled with absurdities; the cause and effect “order” that we often want, simply doesn’t exist: bad things happen to good people. How does...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on how Moses encounters God in the strangeness of a "bush that is burning, but is not consumed" in order to connect how the ways we imagine God especially shape the way we respond/react to "strange" situations or "foreign" ideas or people. Does our theology open us to such moments and encounters or close us off from them? Do we allow such things, ideas, or peo...

In this message, Pastor Eric follows up his two previous messages reflecting on "where is God?" in order to reflect on what our answers to that question mean for the kind of community we can imagine--and therefore the kind of world we can work to create. Through the story of Philip's encounter with an Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, he explores what it meant to be a eunuch in the biblica...

In this message, Pastor Eric takes us on a journey through the story of creation’s beginnings in Genesis 1, inviting us to allow its familiar words to surprise and even challenge us toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Creator who is always drawing forth goodness and new life from the chaos of the world. Beyond the binaries of light and dark, land and sea, earth and sky, and so on, is God not...

In this message, Pastor Eric invites us to encounter the Divine Mystery we name "God" in new ways. Many of us have grown up with an image of God as a distant, angry, judging, old white-haired man whose approval we need to seek. The consequences of this image of God--even when we stop intentionally believing in it--not only negatively shapes our individual lives, but also the world that we imagine...

In this Pentecost message, Pastor Eric reflects on the strange, confusing, seemingly absurd ways that God shows up in our world and in our lives. But all too often, we try to domesticate God, we try to control how and where “god” shows up and what happens as a result. In short, we get stuck in our own patterns and ways. Pentecost is an invitation to open oneself to God’s Spirit, trusting that even...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the Apostle Paul’s radical transformation from a person of privilege to someone who chose a path that didn’t shy away from suffering when it resulted from boldly living out God’s love in a world of injustice. What came over him? What prompted this profound change of mind and heart and empowered him to live in this way? During the Guatemalan civil war and ge...

Continuing our Easter theme of celebrating a “season of Resurrection,” in this message Pastor Eric reflects on Jesus’ words to his disciples—and to us—when he says: “I tell you, the one who trusts in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” Can Jesus really be serious here? We’ll do greater things than him, if we trust i...

In this message, Pastor Eric continues his Easter series reflecting on resurrection and inviting us to look beyond "can I really believe that happened?" Instead, he invites us look for truth in what happens when the resurrected Jesus appears--namely, this week, when he appears to Peter. Peter, the one who had denied knowing Jesus, who had abandoned him in his greatest hour of need. What...

In this Easter season message, Pastor Eric explores how “believing in the resurrection of the body” doesn’t mean what most of us think it means! It isn't merely about proving that certain facts of history did or did not occur. It is a truth we are called to embody ourselves; it is a pattern, a reality, that we are invited to give ourselves to. What does it mean to believe in resurrection here and...