Federated Church Sycamore Sermon Podcast

Everyone hates conflict. And yet, every real and authentic relationship has it. Conflict simply means that we have differences--different opinions, backgrounds, expectations, assumptions, cultures, etc--and now we have to learn how to move through those differences as we learn to live together. The challenge lies in the fact that most of us have learned unhealthy ways of dealing with conflict: we...

Before Jesus has done anything significant in his ministry; before he has any followers, has preached any public messages, performed any healings; before anyone looks at him and calls him "the Messiah," he joins the ranks of people being baptized by John in the Jordan River. At that moment, a voice from the heavens makes public what has always been true: Jesus is God's beloved child, with whom God...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the surprising, unsettling and often overlooked fact that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were forced to seek asylum as refugees in Egypt shortly after Jesus’ birth. It is in this context that the meaning of the magi gains it’s significance, and both the invitation and challenge that they hold out for us as we move into a new year and consider our own intentions in...

Pastor Eric continues reflecting on the Christmas stories in this message, inviting us to consider what "birthing God" and "raising Jesus" would have required for Mary (much like any parent). At the heart of this invitation--for Mary and for us--is an invitation into all those small, every-day moments that are required to raise an utterly dependent newborn into an adult. It's an invitation into no...

In this Christmas message, Pastor Eric reflects on the Light that shines in every darkness, and that no darkness can put out. More than the "power of positivity," what is the heart of the Christmas message than is capable of providing hope in even the most dire of circumstances: for one hiding from Nazi soldiers; for a refugee; in the face of a serious health diagnosis or a divorce or job loss or...

In this Advent message, Pastor Eric reflects on the story of Joseph finding out that Mary is pregnant with a baby that is not his, his response, and God's intervention to call him to a better way. In this brief story, we see a Joseph who would have had to process some difficult feelings in order to make some incredibly hard decisions. Given the challenge that many of us have with sitting with feel...

In this Advent message, Pastor Eric reflects on the stereotypical images many of us have of Mary, the mother of Jesus: sweet, serene, docile, submissive. He then peels back the layers of the story of Mary in Luke 1 to reveal how distorted this image is from the one that actually appears, for there we meet a young woman who is bold and dares to question God; we meet a prophet with the courage to ac...

Whose stories get told when we tell the story of “us”—in our families, in our church, in our society? Whose stories get silenced, lost to history? And how does the way we tell these stories—whose is included and what we know about them—reflect our own values, prejudices, and limits? Pastor Eric reflects on these questions as he explores the names of the four women specifically named in the genealo...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the question of what makes for a vital church? Is it having a large choir and Sunday school attendance? Is it lots of butts in the pews? Or is it possible to have all of these and to still not experience true vitality? Is it possible to be a small and vital congregation? Similarly, in our own lives, can we experience vitality, true life, even amidst hardshi...

Many of us live our lives seeking to please our parents and ancestors—those who have gone before us. But what if we lived with the awareness that WE are ancestors? How might we live differently if we focused not on pleasing those who have gone before us, but on creating a better world several generations from now? What is the world that we dream of for our grandchildren’s grandchildren? What is it...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the mission that Jesus gave his disciples just hours before he was crucified: "Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another." In this season of stewardship, he invites us to reflect on how churches have at times lost sight of this mission and focused instead on buildings, membership, dogmas, and/or doctrines. But our mission remains the same: to l...

In this message, Pastor Eric begins our new sermon series reflecting specifically on stories about Jesus that take place at/around the table/meals. Jesus always seemed to be going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. More than just a setting, it represents a crucial image of Jesus' mission and God's dream for the world. This message reflects on Jesus' parable of the Great Dinner Banquet in...

In this message, Pastor Eric explores one of the most famous of all biblical passages—John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world…”)—and the verses surrounding it. This message brings together the new understandings explored in previous messages of this series—a reframing of what it means to “believe” and to be “saved”—in order to explore how Jesus speaks about eternity life. Importantly, deconstructin...

In this message, Pastor Eric deconstructs what most of us have been taught it means to be "born again." In doing so, he invites us to hear it anew, as if for the first time, and the powerful invitation it actually offers us. This is not about accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior so as to secure your ticket to a heavenly afterlife. This is an invitation to a journey of transformation in...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the concept of salvation in Christianity. Most of us were taught that "to be saved" means that one has accepted Jesus as their Lord and is therefore going to heaven. They are saved from sin and hell. Whether you cringe at this or agree with it, most of us think that this is the foundation of Christianity; that without this notion of salvation, there is no C...

In this message, Pastor Eric reflects on the surprising history of the words “faith” and “belief.” Did you know that they didn’t always mean what they do today? How were they used and what difference does it make? Well, it makes a world of difference! Find out how in this first message of Pastor Eric’s new series: “Meeting Christianity Again…For the First Time.”

"Don't be a Jerk." That's one way some have said you could summarize the gospel. But in a time of historic disruptions and climate change, in this message Pastor Eric invites us to consider a vision for our faith, our lives, our church--for the world--that meets the magnitude of our moment; the kind of vision that Jesus offered his world 2,000 years ago amidst its own great disruptions. What dream...

In this final message of Pastor Eric's summer sermon series--"What the Faith?!"--he reflects on the question: Why Christian? Why be/remain a Christian in light of scripture's inconsistencies? In light of the fact that the Bible contains texts that are sexist and xenophobic--are violent in various forms? Why be Christian in light of the epic and tragic failures of Christians and churches throughout...

In this message from Pastor Eric's "What the Faith?!" sermon series, he moves from last week's exploration of our individual anger/rage in response to being wounded or violated ("How to Destroy Your Enemy") to exploring collective / communal responses to this, for instance those whose nation or city is invaded by a foreign military, enslaved communities, and other marginalized communities. Is it O...

In this message from Pastor Eric’s “What the Faith?!” sermon series, he explores Psalm 137 and others that call upon God for violent vengeance. If we believe scripture is somehow instructive and revelatory for us as people trying to follow Jesus, what do we do with such passages? How are we to read them? How are we to understand them when we lift them up alongside Jesus’ call to “love your enemies...

This is the fourth message in Pastor Eric's summer 2022 sermon series, "What the Faith," exploring pressing issues in our larger culture and the surprising, conflicting things the Bible says about them. How do we read the Bible if it doesn't offer a straightforward answer? How do we live faithfully today as God's people if we can't just do/apply what the Bible says? In this message, preached in th...

In this third message in Pastor Eric's "What the Faith?!" sermon series, we read and reflect on what to make of the fact that scripture contains both passages that tell women to remain silent in church, to be subordinate to their husbands, and to have no authority over men with the fact that other parts of scripture describe a reality in early churches where women were encouraged to speak up, were...

Were you taught that the Bible is perfect in every way and that, in order to be a "good Christian," you must obey everything in it? Well, in this second message of Pastor Eric's summer sermon series--"What the Faith?!"--he challenges this idea. After all, he asks, "how do we obey scripture when scripture doesn't even obey itself?!" So... if "obedience" isn't the most faithful way of reading script...

In this message, the first in our summer sermon series, "What the F@!+H?!" (What the Faith), Pastor Eric reflects on the different ways that God is imagined and depicted throughout scripture: As a father, shepherd, and a mighty warrior, but also as a mother, a midwife, and a baker woman; God is our rock and light, a cloud, fire, bread, wine, and water and much more. God is each of these, all of th...