Grace Chicago Church

This Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Per our tradition, our children will process with palms early in the service. Please find Kelsey, Director of Grace Kids when you arrive. You are welcome to walk with your little one if that is the encouragement they need! On Palm Sunday we celebrate Jesus’s entry to Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover. The crowds give him a royal welcome and they a...

It is often noted that Transfiguration Sunday, which we celebrated two weeks ago, marks the transition from the Season of Epiphany to the Season of Lent. Culminating with the transfiguration, the Season of Epiphany has revealed the glory and power of Jesus. Lent, culminating with events that lead us to Good Friday, reveals that with Jesus, power and glory are there for our sake and for our salvati...

The Third Sunday in Lent. This Sunday our Scripture readings prompt us to remember that human wisdom does not enable us to grasp how God is at work in the world. For that, we need God’s wisdom revealed in the person of Jesus. We will explore what that means for us in the nitty gritty of daily life.  It is often noted that Transfiguration Sunday, which we celebrated two weeks ago, marks the tr...

The First Sunday of Epiphany January 6th, marks the Feast of the Epiphany on the Christian calendar. We will celebrate Epiphany this Sunday during the worship service. Year after year, for centuries, the church has celebrated on Epiphany the revelation that Jesus’ redemptive love is for all people, the whole world. This marvelous truth is manifested in the visit of the mysterious Gentile pilgrims,...

Homily Preview: This Sunday we join churches all over the world in celebrating the Reign of Christ, sometimes referred to as Christ the King Sunday. Click here for a brief overview of how this Sunday fits into the church year. One theme that is common to this special Sunday is the sovereignty of Christ and its implications. We will take that theme up on Sunday and highlight the way in which God's...

The homily this Sunday, is based on a reading from the Gospel of Mark. The context is the same context we have been working with the last few Sundays. Jesus is in Jerusalem during Passover. He will soon be delivered up to Pilate in a collusion between the corrupt religious leadership and the Roman authorities. Jesus is taking these last few days before the crucifixion to teach the disciples in a v...

Matthew 25:14-30 This Sunday we will be back in the Gospel Matthew. We will hear a parable that Jesus taught about the urgency of paying attention to what God is doing in the world. We will think about its message in its original context and then ponder how to apply it to our setting in our place in time. Jesus’ words about the importance of paying attention to God’s work in the world is a good re...

Matthew 23:1-12 We return to the Gospel of Matthew this Sunday and continue where we left off last week, contemplating the implications of what it means to wholeheartedly love God and our neighbors. Homily Preview 11/05/2023 Bob Reid Download Communion Reflection Mary Davenport Download

We are back in Matthew this week for our homily. Last Sunday Leigh Pylman preached a great sermon on the passage where Jesus says: "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's". If you didn't hear it, I encourage you to listen to it online. This Sunday I I come along a few verses later in the same general context of Matthew where the religious leaders, the elite who hold power in...

Matthew 22:15-22 This week, Jesus has another peppery encounter with the religious elite in Jerusalem. He is asked about paying taxes to the Roman occupiers. In Jesus fashion, he reframes our questions, categories, and suppositions. He invites us to consider how to give God, what belongs to God - everything! If we live as Jesus followers with this understanding, we can (on our knees!) strive to se...

This Sunday we will reflect on all three scripture readings from our liturgy. Our Call to Worship is from Psalm 133, a song of unity. Our First Lesson takes up the theme of unity again, as Paul urges two of his co-workers to have the same mind in the Lord. Finally, our Gospel Lesson is from Matthew. It is another parable of Jesus that illustrates God’s broad and scandalous welcome. Homily Preview...

This Sunday we look forward to hearing another parable that Jesus taught. Like many of Jesus’ parables, the language and images are meant to jolt us. In the instance of the Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32) we will think together about what a life marked by wholehearted devotion to God looks like. Does it mean being perfect? No, that is not possible. But then what DOES it look like? Looki...

Last week we heard a parable about mercy. This week we hear a parable about grace. Like last week’s parable, this story is meant to shock us. God’s grace, like his mercy, is unfathomably generous. So generous, that we will always struggle to understand it. As we consider the Parable of the Vineyard Workers (Matthew 20:1-16), we will ponder the depths of God’s grace and the relationship between gra...

This week we will pick up where we left off last week in the Gospel of Matthew. Peter asks Jesus a question about how many times we should forgive. Jesus' answer is drawn from the very heart of God and its meaning is at the center of how God will redeem the whole world." Please let me know if you need anything else! Homily Preview 09/17/2023 Bob Reid Download Communion Reflection Bob Reid Download

F ifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Romans 13:8-14 A community where love is the reason for everything. This is one way of talking about the new community that the Spirit of Christ has called into existence through the life, death,  resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. What does it mean for love to be the reason for everything? We don't love perfectly in this world where we still st...

Matthew 16:13-20 Our Seminarian in Residence, Leigh Pylman is preaching. This week, Jesus asks us the piercing question, "Who do you say that I am?" So simple, and yet, our response to this question will inform our whole worldview. Who do you say that Jesus is? We'll ponder Peter's response to Jesus, and consider how Jesus, as the Messiah and builder of the Church, incorporates you and me into the...

“ A desperate Mother reveals the depth and scope of God's love for all people" Talking about a passage like this in a short homily is challenging. But in all the commentary and speculation, the takeaways are clear. We can trust in God’s promises, even when God seems silent. Even when what we hope for can’t be seen. We can argue with God. God invites our hurt or questions, our calling to account. T...

This Sunday we welcome Tony Pizarro to the Grace pulpit. Tony is a friend of Grace who attends when his schedule permits and often supports out volunteer efforts with Breakthrough Urban Ministries.  Tony works at North Park University as Assistant Director of the Writing Center and Lecturer.  He also serves as a steering committee member for the Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in...

This Sunday’s homily will be a reflection on Jesus’ parable which is often referred to as the Wheat and the Tares. It is a story that encourages us to live faithfully, patiently, hopefully and lovingly in a world where evil things continue to happen. In her homily, Laura Winn, will ponder several important questions, among them this one as framed by New Testament scholar, Klyne Snodgrass: “how can...

This week our text for our homily is Jesus’ Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13. It is a parable about hearing Jesus’ words in such a way that, as one New Testament scholar puts it: “the whole person is captured”. This parable is a very timely one for 21st Century Christians who, when we are honest, must admit that it is hard to hear Jesus for all the other noise in our culture. How can we help e...

Homily Preview: We are back in the Gospel of Matthew this Sunday where Jesus assures his disciples that "whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple" will be rewarded. The words come at the end of a discourse about mission and hospitality, a discourse full of dire warnings and triumphant hope. This Sunday we will think about the little ones are in t...

Homily Preview: In our homily this Sunday we will talk a bit about compassion. Matthew uses this word to talk about Jesus’ reflexive response to the vast human need he witnesses (Matthew 9:36). We will explore the context in which Matthew makes his remarks and we will use that exploration as the jumping off point to think together about what it looks like to respond in compassion to the great huma...

Earlier this week on Trinity Sunday we pondered the mystery that God reveals God's self in three co-equal persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We tapped into the wisdom of the early church and thought together about God's love as the energy  and motivation for all God does in creation, redemption, and even in judgment. We will continue to ponder God's triune nature this week in part two of t...

I took quite a few Spanish classes in high school and college. At one time I could read a Spanish language newspaper with reasonable comprehension. Sadly, I have lost - for now - much of what I knew. I still make a feeble, yet sincere effort, to say something that might be comprehensible to those I know or meet who speak Spanish as their native tongue. I especially try very hard when I can tell th...

Homily Preview: Last week we spent some time talking God making his home with us and inviting us to make our home in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This week we talk about what that looks like on a daily basis as we think about the promise of the Holy Spirit, God's empowering presence in human beings, the church and the world. Homily 05/14/2023 Laura Winn Download Communion Reflection 05/14/202...