Second on the Mount

"On the Move" – 2 Samuel 7:1-14a Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, July 21, 2024. "To think we have God figured out, to think we know all we need to know about God, to think God believes and wants exactly what we believe and want is to try to build a box around God. But God is here to say to Nathan, God is here to say to us, not, 'Thanks for the shiny box,' but instead, 'Try to k...

"Are You In?" – Galatians 2:11-21 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, July 14, 2024. "Paul raises up the cross and calls for faith—Jesus’ faith, not the faith of an eye-for-an-eye and revenge. He calls for Christ to live in and through us. And Christ will, when and where people embody his heart for peace despite what their fantasies might be." Read the manuscript on our website: https://...

"No Place Like Home" – Mark 6:1-13 Sermon by the Rev. Rachel H. Vogado, PCUSA minister and Media Assistant at Second Presbyterian Church, who was invited to preach on Sunday, July 7 while the pastors were away.

"Open Wide Your Hearts" – 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, June 30, 2024. "Beloved, open wide your hearts to the reconciling love and grace of God, for now is the time, today is the day; open wide your hearts so that having been reconciled by God you may be reconciled to one another. Whether rich or poor, honor or dishonor, known or unknown, in need or in plenty, in...

"Not Just a Children's Story" – 1 Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49 Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, June 23, 2024. "[David and Goliath] is a story the people of God need to remember. It’s a story that reminds us God’s help can come from unlikely places. It’s a story that tells us outward appearance isn’t everything. It’s a reminder that we have an invisible ally who loves and su...

"Family Recognition" – Luke 15:11-32 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, June 16, 2024. "At the end of God’s day, we are all related. At the end of God’s day, we’re all family; Jew and Gentile, sinner and saint, male and female. In the biblical worldview, all human issues are family issues, and all human problems are family problems. . . . When harm is done to another, whether of the spi...

"Say That Again" – Luke 15:3-10 Sermon by the Rev. Tom Are, Jr., Interim Pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, IL and our Evening VBS guest speaker, from Sunday, June 9, 2024. "Jesus is telling us that we have no idea how much joy God finds in us. In you. That just your existence is a source of joy for the living God. Jesus is clear. God knows an unreasonable amount of joy because of yo...

"God's Memory" – Exodus 16:2-13, Psalm 105:37-45 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, June 2, 2024. "When God saw Israel, God remembered Abraham. . . . The psalmist is reminding the people of faith of God’s remembering for a reason: they are to remember, too." Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/gods-memory/

"Buying In" – Acts 8:1-24 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Trinity Sunday, May 26, 2024. "We can all lose perspective at times and think it is about us. We can all get tricked into believing that this world is going to be saved by some pristine political or social ideology or agenda and the church just needs to fall in line and help. What our passage reminds us is that all we do even in addre...

"Seeing What Cannot Be Seen" – Acts 2:1-13, Romans 8:22-27 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 2024. "Here we don’t have to get lost in God told me this or God showed me that. We can focus on this inner realization that the person sitting beside you in the pew right now, and the people you least understand out there, and the people who are constantly being defined to yo...

"Bridging the Gap" – John 17:6-21 Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, May 12, 2024. "Jesus was sent into the world, set apart for a unique purpose to reveal the love and grace of God to a world that he knows will not listen, yet it is the same world that God so loves, as the famous verse puts it. As the Son of God and the Son of Man, Jesus bridges the gap between God and humanity, between...

"Upside Down Kingdom" – Mark 10:17-31 Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, May 5, 2024. "Jesus’ love leads. It leads and redirects and corrects and turns us right around. It isn’t afraid to offend. Jesus’ love shows us what we really are, not to shame or defeat us, but to deliver us. Are we ready for this kind of loving gaze?" Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.or...

"Church: Seen and Unseen" – Matthew 18:15-20 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, April 28, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/church-seen-and-unseen/  

"Owning Up or Doubling Down?" – Acts 4:5-22 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, April 21, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/owning-up-or-doubling-down/  

"Seeing Good" – Acts 3:12-21 Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, April 14, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/seeing-good/  

"It's Not About You, Thomas" – John 20:19-31 Sermon by Dr. Jacqueline E. Lapsley, President of Union Presbyterian Seminary, on the Sunday of the Kitty Susan Trent Symposium for Newly Ordained Ministers, April 7, 2024.

"Following: Loving, and so Following" – Mark 16:1-8 Lenten Sermon Series Part VII Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. "...so many cling to the resurrection hope in a desperate way, hoping for an out when death must come. Sadly, what often comes of this escapist hope is an escape from the moral demands of life. But a true resurrection hope is this: It is finding hop...

"Following: The Crowds" – Matthew 21:6-15, 27:15-23 Lenten Sermon Series Part VI Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-the-crowds/

"Following: Following at One's Own Pace" – John 3:1-8, 7:50-51, 19:38-40 Lenten Sermon Series Part V Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, March 17, 2024. Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/following-following-at-ones-own-pace/  

"Following: Paul's Conversion and Call to Follow" – Acts 9:1-20 Lenten Sermon Series Part IV  Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, March 10, 2024. "When the voice of God calls out to us, when the voice of the Lord calls us to follow, we enter into something bigger and deeper than individual salvation and vocation. Conversion is never an end in and of itself. It is a beginning. We step into...

"Following: Jesus Is Being Followed?" – Matthew 12:9-14 Lenten Sermon Series Part III Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, March 3, 2024. "We all have biases. Even Jesus in our story has a bias. He clearly stated a bias in the passage. You heard it. He prefers compassion and mercy over the literal keeping of a law that would prevent a man with a need from receiving help. His bias is towar...

"Following: Who Said She Could Follow?" – Mark 5:25-34 Lenten Sermon Series Part II Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, February 25, 2024. "Who says she can follow Jesus? Not the crowd. Not even Jesus who doesn’t know she is behind him. She follows Jesus because she gets it. She gets what makes it possible for any of us to follow Jesus, no matter how worthy we think we already are.  "Wha...

"Following: Peter, the Rock" – John 18:15-17, 25-27 and 21:15-19 Lenten Sermon Series Part I Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, February 18, 2024. "What is it that makes us chicken out—whether we’re 11 years old, 41 years old, or 81 years old? Why are we afraid to speak up? To live what we claim to believe? What is it that makes us vulnerable to this kind of behavior—the kind of b...

"Fan the Flame" Youth Sunday Sermons 2024 – 2 Timothy 1:3-7 Sermons by graduating seniors Trevor Waters (2:00), Claire Thielecke and Caroline Kepley (7:09), and Ellen Mikkelson (13:21) from Youth Sunday, February 11, 2024. Our Youth Group theme for the year is "Fan the Flame." May the flame of faith that lives inside of you burn brighter and become a guiding light in the world!

"Not Alone, but Lonely" – Mark 1:29-39 Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, February 2, 2024. "We are all lonely sometimes. No one can reach those inner parts of you that only God can reach. I encourage you to embrace sacred loneliness. In being alone with God, become comfortable with being alone with yourself. . . . Find your identity in being alone with God. That is where your clarity a...