Grace Chicago Church

In the Christian calendar we are coming up on the end of Eastertide. We will celebrate The Feast of the Ascension on Sunday, May 21st, followed by Pentecost Sunday on the 28th. So, it is fitting that the next two Sundays have us thinking about Jesus' promises to the disciples about what life will be like after the cross, resurrection, ascension and pentecost. This next Sunday and the following Sun...

The homily is from John 10. This is the passage where Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd. The scripture reading before communion is from Acts 2, where the the early church community is described as being one where people organize their lives so that each may be a blessing to the other. We are going to put these two passages together as we think about what sort of community is formed by...

Homily - Pat Hecker Homily 04/23/23 Pat Hecker Download Communion Reflection 04/23/23 Mary Davenport Download

Homily Preview: First Sunday after Easter and our gospel reading takes up where last Easter Sunday's reading left off. This week we have more in the way of amazing encounters between the risen Lord Jesus and his followers. This Sunday we meet Thomas, sometimes called doubting Thomas. Jesus accommodates Thomas' doubts, even as he accommodates ours. Homily 04/16/2023 Bob Reid Download Communion Refl...

Homily Preview: This Easter Sunday, like every Easter Sunday, we will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. Our focus will be on the way in which the early church understood Jesus's resurrection. His followers, who will found the church of which we are a part two millennia later, had expected to relate to Jesus as a martyr and ponder all of what that might mean for...

March 26, 2023 Leigh Pylman Download Fifth Sunday in Lent John 11: 1-45 This Sunday we have the opportunity to sit with the incredible story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. This passage includes a beautiful discourse between Mary of Bethany and Martha of Bethany (Lazarus’ sisters) who come to their Teacher, Jesus, with their grief and their questions. Together, we will ponder Mary and Mar...

Fourth Sunday in Lent John 9:1-41 This week is the Fourth Sunday in Lent. In our homily text we are looking at the miracle of healing the man born blind. John’s Gospel is filled with long discourses describing Jesus’s divinity. In here, John 9 gives us a glimpse of the kingdom of God, where creation is redeemed, and opens our eyes to the greater purpose of suffering in life. Jesus corrects His dis...

Homily 03/12/2023 We are delighted to had the Rev. Frances Nelson in our pulpit this week. Rev. Frances is a dear friend of Grace Chicago and is part of the City Classis community. We are eager for her to guide us through this remarkable passage of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Frances graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary with an MA in Counseling. She served at Redeemer Pre...

This week is the Second Sunday in Lent. In our homily text we meet the fascinating Nicodemus. He is captivated by Jesus and his teaching but he doesn’t want to be seen talking to Jesus by others. He comes to see Jesus under the cover of night. He is from the aristocratic class and a religious leader in Israel - he has a lot to lose. In their brief but intense conversation Jesus challenges Nicodemu...

First Sunday in Lent Matthew 4:1-11 This Sunday is the First Sunday of Lent. From ancient times the church has set aside the forty days leading up to Easter as a time of reflection, a preparation to meet the risen Lord, During Lent we are encouraged to ask God to enable us to take stock of our lives, to show us the patterns of thinking, feeling and being that oppose God’s work of redemptive love i...

Transfiguration Sunday Matthew 17:1-9 This Sunday during the worship service we will celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus. Transfiguration Sunday comes right before Lent begins. Lent is the season of the year when, in a very focused way, we ask God to enable us to take an honest look at the darker side of what we are capable of as human beings. It is a time to name those deep-set patterns of fee...

Homily 02/12/2023 Bob Reid Download This Sunday we continue in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. There will be a lot to ponder. I would imagine that even if you are hearing this passage for the ten thousandth time that Jesus' words will probably set you on your heels a bit - they do that to me every time. The sermon is meant to stimulate our imagination about what it looks like to live in this world as...

Homily 02/05/2023 Bob Reid Download Last week we took a look at the Beatitudes through a wide angle lens and with particular questions in mind. We thought about things like the importance of recognizing them as being addressed to a community, a group of people who, through Christ’s empowering presence, enact patterns of behavior that are consistent with God’s coming kingdom. Living like this will...

Homily 01/29/2023 Bob Reid Download Homily Preview: This week we look forward to reflecting together on the Beatitudes during the worship service (Matthew 5:1-11 is our reading right before the homily). The beatitudes are fairly familiar but they are often very misunderstood. Sometimes they are thought of as blessings that are earned - kind of like entry requirements. Other times they are thought...

Homily 01/22/2023 Bob Reid Download Homily Preview: The passage in Matthew where Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow him, to be his disciples. Their vocation is fishing. Jesus calls them to a new vocation, saying that he will teach them to be “fishers of people”. What a phrase! What does Jesus mean by it? What does he not mean by it? Communion Reflection 01/22/2023 Danielle Tullie...

Homily preview: This Sunday we hop over to the gospel of John for one week to consider John’s account of Jesus’ baptism and the calling of the first disciples. There is much for us to ponder together as we continue in this season of Epiphany, contemplating the revealing of Jesus as the Son of God, and what it means that God is human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As we ponder this text togeth...

Homily 01/01/2023 Bob Reid Download Homily Preview: Matthew 25. In the portion we’ll be reading and prayerfully considering during the homily, Jesus tells a story to illustrate how God thinks about the vulnerable and the weak, and what our responsibilities are towards these sisters and brothers. We’re looking forward to the Spirit’s leading as we ponder Jesus’ words and seek to align our lives to...

Communion Reflection 12/11/2022 Communion Reflection 12/11/2022 Bob Reid Download

Homily Preview: Homily Preview 12/04/22 Bob Reid Download Communion Reflection 12/04/22 Calvin Handoko Download

Homily Preview: Advent always begins with a bang. We get apocalyptic language and the like. It is sometimes asked, why does the church calendar begin a season as cozy as Christmas with the jolt of apocalyptic imagery? The answer is that the church has always recognized that the time in which we live is in between two advents, Jesus’ incarnation and the future advent of Christ the King when he will...

Homily Preview: Momentous day ends the Liturgical Calendar and our time in Luke. Join us as we reflect on our journeys through Luke culminating in Luke 23 and Christ's crucifixion. There is much for us to consider as we reflect on how the humiliation and rejection of Christ on the cross offers us a picture of the reign of Christ and points us to the upside down kingdom of God. November 20, 2022 Le...

Gospel of Luke. The passage before us includes Jesus' prophecy that the Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed. This did come to pass in the year 70. But you are probably wondering how Jesus' words about that historical event can speak to us today? Well, our concerns are different in their particularity than were the disciples when they heard this prophecy. However, if you ever feel afraid or uncerta...

Homily Preview: We are looking forward to reflecting on another remarkable story from the Gospel of Luke this Sunday. The reading recounts an incident in which some of the more powerful religious leaders of Israel ask Jesus a question that is designed to trick Jesus into giving an answer that in one way or another could be shown to be flawed, thus embarrassing Jesus in front of his followers. Jesu...

Homily Preview: This Sunday we look forward to being back in the Gospel of Luke where we will read a remarkable story about a man named Zacchaeus. He hears that Jesus is going to be passing by so he climbs up into a sycamore tree to make sure he has a good view. Jesus spots him up there and tell him to hurry down. Then, in front of everyone, Jesus says: hey, Zacchaeus, get your guest room ready -...

Bob preaching about we will take a look at yet another of Jesus' parables: Luke 18:9-14. In this parable we learn that God is not impressed with those who are impressed with themselves, even in the slightest. But God does show mercy, without hesitation, to those who know they need it. We will also think together about another dimension of the parable: one cannot be right with God while taking plea...