Hyde Park United Methodist

Peter is one of the more notable figures in the New Testament, in part because he represents us so well. Like him, we are impatient, ambitious, and think more highly of ourselves than we ought. It often got him into trouble. John’s gospel ends with a powerful, private conversation between Jesus and Peter, in which Peter gets a second chance. As a result, he preached the sermon of his life and beca...

No person had it worse in the Bible than Job. His story does not fit cleanly into the chronology of the Bible. He is a kind of helpless pawn between God and the forces of evil, maybe in a way that we sometimes feel so helpless. But even though Job’s world fell apart, God’s presence and power became more real to him in the middle of his suffering. Job teaches us how to trust in God.

Since birth, Moses was fighting against the odds. He narrowly escaped murder by Pharaoh because of the sacrifice of his family. He lived a life of privilege but had to suppress his ethnic heritage. After committing murder, he was a lost soul on the run. But God found him, called him, and believed in him. The story of Moses is a reminder that each of us are part of God’s grand design. All we have t...

Few people had it worse in the Bible than Joseph. He was despised by his brothers because of his father’s favoritism. He was cast from the family into slavery, framed by a high official’s wife, cast into prison, and long forgotten by his family. But Joseph not only persevered; he maintained his faith and integrity. He is a model to us of how to keep going, no matter what hardship we are facing.

The Sunday after Pentecost is traditionally known as Trinity Sunday, the only holy day of the year named after a doctrine of the church, rather than a biblical event. The Holy Spirit which touched the earth on Pentecost is still active in our lives and throughout the world today. But for many, the Holy Spirit is the most mysterious member of the Trinity, one we often overlook when it comes to thin...

When the Holy Spirit touched down 2,000 years ago, it sparked a brush fire of energy and excitement that continues to draw people to follow Jesus from all over the world. The new creation that God is doing is nothing less than the entire redemption of this whole creation back to its originally intended order. And when we live into the vision of Hyde Park United Methodist, we participate in the wor...

Because we are connected to God, we can be connected to each other. In a time when we feel pulled apart from each other due to divisions and disagreements, we are called to lean into our connection. Together, we can be an interdependent, interconnected community of people, strengthening and encouraging each other.

John says that belief in Jesus brings us everlasting life. It is a kind of life that isn’t relegated to the time after we die. It is something we can begin living here and now. We can live out the abundant, everlasting life now, because of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. How might we be open to God’s grace, which fashions us to be more like Jesus every day. 

We do not face life alone. No matter what we go through, we are connected to God just as a branch is connected to the vine. We only have to be open to the work of God in our lives, and participate in the disciplines that strengthen and nourish our relationship with God. Doing so enables us to bear the fruit of goodness and beauty that the world needs.

Despite all that grips us with fear and grief, we can take solace in Jesus, who serves as our “Good Shepherd.” Together, we’ll learn how to hear his voice and lean into his comfort and protection to face all that threatens us.

The epistle of 1 John emphasizes right behavior, which complements the gospel of John’s emphasis on belief. Together, we get a well-rounded view of the kind of life that God wants us to live. Today, we will be looking at 1 John 3, in which we hear the importance of love as the center of our being. And we’ll discover the significance of what it means to be a child of God.

After the miracle of Easter, there were still some of the disciples who did not believe that Jesus was really resurrected. They needed more proof. Maybe you do too.

After six weeks of cultivating Christian character qualities and letting go of obstacles to faith, we join this Sunday in the celebration of the resurrection. Easter reminds us that in Christ, sin and death are not the last word, as God has conquered the grave and raised Jesus from the dead. Join us in remembering the Easter story, to make it a living reality in our lives today.

At the Last Supper, in the Upper Room, Jesus modeled servanthood for his disciples. Discover how  cultivating servanthood and letting go of ourselves can bring us joy.

Mary’s act of was one of such complete self-abandonment that it would mark her in the community for the rest of her life. They would never mention her name again without a reference—by story, by gesture, or by innuendo—to this day. Mary’s gift of perfume was large, but not to be compared with the gift of herself.

The reality is that both brothers live inside of us, the responsible one and the prodigal one. It is an uneasy coexistence made worse by the reality that neither is perfect, and that both make real mistakes. The good news is that we also get to hear the truth: God is waiting to come running down the road and welcome us back. Dutiful son, prodigal son, or a little bit of both … God knows us already...

We think we have all the answers. But what do we do when unexplained suffering becomes part of our story. How do we respond and how do we let go of the uncertainty suffering brings?

The antidote to fear is hope. Discover how Jesus teaches us to be hope-filled people of faith.

The Scripture for this Sunday contains the story of Jesus’ temptation by the devil. Jesus essentially endures a season of Lent in his 40 days in the wilderness. How does this time prepare him for his ministry? How might we, too, be shaped and emboldened in this Lenten season?

Jesus gives us the keys to living the wise life, rather than the foolish one. It begins with being non-judgmental, and concludes with building our lives on Jesus.

We are consumed with worry about things that, in light of eternity, really do not matter. Once we release our priorities to God, we are more easily able to release our worries to God. Therein likes the power of something like the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer, which puts into proper perspective who we are, to whom we belong, and all that we have.

The Lord’s Prayer as we know it today is drawn from a few different gospels, and has variations among different faith traditions. Praying the Lord’s Prayer draws us together in communion with God and community with each other. It properly sets the framework of prayer as being first an act of praise to God before it is an act of petition. It acknowledges our faults and confesses our sins, and notes...

Jesus calls out those who flaunt their charity and their piety in front of others. They need to be governed by an inner motivation that is right with God, a “hidden holiness” that is sourced from a pure heart. Our external behavior needs to be consistent with our inner motivation.

These verses contain some of the most unsettling and radical ideas in the entire Sermon on the Mount. Jesus takes Old Testament commandments about murder, adultery, divorce, oath-keeping, and revenge and takes them one step further. It is not enough, according to Jesus, to simply keep the letter of the law. That is just the starting point. To truly fulfill the law, we need to pay attention to what...

Few passages in the gospels are as iconic as the Beatitudes, the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount. The key, repeating word is “Blessed.”. These are also radical inversions of contemporary wisdom, in which we are unsettled (and even disturbed) by what Jesus is calling us to. This Sunday, we will go through each of the beatitudes, and discover their power in and through us.