Bethany UCC

The kind of sermon that elicited applause from the congregation! Rev. James Pennington preached from the book of Luke* for the final week of Show and Tell: a faith made for sharing. Joining the disciples who walked the road to Emmaus on the first Easter, Rev. James said we better pay attention, we better look around, because Empire teaches us to categorize, but Jesus teaches us to recognize. Instead of labels, Jesus gives us names. Give it a(nother) listen and then ask yourself, “Were not our hearts burning within us???” * Luke 4:18-19, Luke 24:13-16, 30-32

Preaching on things lost and found, Pastor Rebecca’s sermon this week tells the story of Lambie by Susannah Pratt, while also citing Kathryn Schulz' Lost and Found.

Pastor Vince’s sermon centers an historical marker in Kentucky commemorating the site of a divine revelation. He ponders on a world where more moments of spiritual connection are given tangible, historic form.

Pastor Rebecca on the importance of hiring the right nanny for your baby. (Kidding! Sort of!) We kicked off our Show and Tell theme with some of the 5 words the gospel-writer would use to describe Jesus (bible-based, guest, revelation) and some of the 5 words he’d use to describe us and other disciples (remember-ers, witnesses) as he shows and tells in Luke 24: 28 - 32. (*Plus* stories about nannying.)

To close out our “Bless this Mess” theme, Pastor Vince preaches about the temptation to resolve the conflict between our messiness and blessedness. To paper over our problems or deny our goodness. But God calls us to hold both fiercely.

Last month, Pastor Vince led a group of Bethany members on a pilgrimage along St. Cuthbert’s Way in Scotland. This week in worship, we heard reflections from some of those pilgrims describing their journey.

As part of our “Bless this Mess” worship theme, Vince preaches about the challenge of human relationship and the inconvenience (and necessity) of human connection.

In his first sermon back from his trip to Scotland, Pastor Vince reminds us that when trying to do difficult tasks, it generally doesn’t help to add a countdown. On the subject of mortality, he also reminds us that a countdown to death doesn’t do us much good either.

On listening toward enthusiasm, a hermeneutic of generosity, and the ways that being part of a faith community leads to a family resemblance (or, the ways that dogs start to look like their people, but that's neither here nor there).

Rebecca’s sermon this week covered Luke 4:14 - 21, some Seminary 101 vocab words, the Golden Girls theme song, and lessons learned by pausing for CTA trains.

Lists from a best friend, an op-ed columnist, the Apostle Paul and Romans 12: 9-21 — on what is and isn’t Christian. BONUS CONTENT: A Grieved Soul

Pastor Rebecca kicked off our Theme Songs series wondering: Could she be a show-runner? Hear some of her 3-season arc for a prestige program based on Samuel’s life, and the theme song for the same, sung by his mother in 1 Samuel 2. (The donkeys are from Season 2, Episode 1 but that got cut for time.)

This week, Pastor Rebecca shared some hard lessons she’s learned about finances: sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know until you find out. Preaching on scripture from the Book of Acts, her sermon explains that God is always trying to reveal to you, again and again, what more is possible.

This week, Pastor Vince preached on Acts 2, as well as Glottophobia (the tendency to judge others based on how they speak). Regardless of what kind of language you use, Vince’s sermon encourages you to tell what you know about the God of Love.

Pastor Vince’s sermon this week is all about magic, starting with scripture from Deuteronmy 8, leading to the Magic Hedge bird sanctuary here in Chicago, and ending with the every day gifts that we might take for granted if we don’t stop to notice.

To kick off our “Spring Migration” theme, for the first time in 9+ years, Vince repreached a sermon he preached at Bethany in 2017. This one centered on Isaiah 65 and Vince's unabashed disdain for the Cowbird.

This week, we ordained Bethany member Alaina Hoffman. Pastor Rebecca preached on Luke 4, and covered geese, penguins and improv along the way.

Pastor Vince preached on Acts 1:6-11 this week. His sermon is about love - not love at first sight, or infatuation. Instead, he speaks about love that sticks around, the kind that is messy and takes work, the kind that isn’t always fun, but resists the temptation to run away.

Pastor Rebecca’s sermon this week covers Psalm 8, the Artemis space landing and how much water one should use while brushing their teeth. But does any of that really relate to her sense of Christianity? Her sermon has some answers

This week was Easter, so naturally Pastor Vince preached on pro wrestling. Centering Matthew 28 and the human fascination with good and evil, Vince reminds us that while evil might be loud, good always gets the job done in the end.

Preaching sweatpants this week, Pastor Vince shares his learnings about the Gate Theory of Pain, and describes how Jesus escapes to Bethany as his comfortable place during the most painful week of his life.

This week in worship, we were proud to partake in the commissioning and ordination of Bethany member Jen Pope! Reflecting on Genesis 12:1-4 and Jen’s leap into the unknown through pursuing her call to ministry, Pastor Rebecca’s sermon puts focus on a God who reveals themselves more and more fully as we follow after them.

Some may think Jesus was being avoidant when he started writing in the sand, rather than confronting the agitators there to bait him in John 8:2-11. But as Pastor Vince suggests in his sermon, maybe Jesus wasn't writing at all; maybe he was drawing. Demonstrating, perhaps, that we were created to create things ourselves, rather than destroy....or, ya know, maybe Vince just got the translation wrong. Listen to his sermon to decide for yourself

One of the worst thing Jesus did, as far as some people are concerned, was to let people off the hook. Where did he get off? Pastor Rebecca's sermon this week covers Matthew 11: 28 - 30, email debt forgiveness, and the audacity of Jesus' love.

This week, Pastor Vince preached on the story of Balaam and the Donkey from Numbers 22, and the power that lies in refusal.

Pastor Vince starts his sermon this week with an apology: he might’ve mis sold our theme for Lent by portraying retreat as something that’s only gentle and relaxing. Preaching on Matthew 4, Vince’s sermon reminds us that retreat can be hard work, but it brings with it the power of resistance in a world that wants to keep us preoccupied.

This week, Pastor Vince preached on Psalm 8 and physicist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s idea that “we are creatures of matter who long to matter”. Confronting free will, nihilism and teenage trollery, his sermon encourages us to sit in the discomfort of contradicting truths and to emerge choosing whatever story feels most beautiful to us.

This week, Pastor Vince continued our “Unspeakable” theme for Lent by recounting his recent visit to the Musuem of Memory and Human rights in Chile. Centering Mark 15-: 33-39, he identifies despair as a mark of our faith.

We were glad to welcome longtime Bethany member Alaina Hoffman to the pulpit this weekend. In her sermon, she shares a heartfelt testimony of her recent time spent in Minnesota, where she provided support against the ongoing chaos spawned by ICE raids. Preaching on Mark 3:1 - 6, her sermon centers the sacred power of anger, and how that anger can be used to confront harm.

Pastor Rebecca is a rank beginner. Among other things, at guitar. But not for the first time. In the final week of our Beginner’s Mind series, she preached on John 3:1-7 and practice after the novelty has worn off, when natural aptitude and gifts run out, and church as a place to practice what we’re not good at. And then she played guitar. Badly.

To look with a beginner’s mind includes the risk and possibility of awe. Pastor Rebecca’s sermon this week is all about that experience: a moment that can be uplifting or devastating but either way, transformational.

On Sunday morning, Jan 11th, we started worship by staring at the front of our bulletins, acting like absolute newbies.  Together we asked: What’s going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find?The questions come to us from Visual Thinking Strategies, by way of some people doing great work on the value of uncertainty in medicine and what’s possible when doctors really pay attention to the person in front of them.In her sermon (from Luke 13), Pastor Rebecca said God has given us infinite pictures to try and really look at: Pictures of the world as God dreams it. Likenesses of what They themselves are like. Images of how They will save us. Listen with us to the image Jesus offered in his parable about decisive landowner and a gardener who had eyes of love and resources to waste. *More on “uncertainty in medicine” from The Nocturnists and Alexa Mille here

Pastor Rebecca started the year with Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18: 1-5 that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, we’ve got to change and become like little kids — after everything we’ve learned and accomplished??? But the unself-conscious humility of children is, apparently, where it’s at. 

There were a lot of bells and whistles, and musicians, and candles, and decorations, and kids, and people, and shadow puppets* on Christmas Eve but the story is always the same: it’s about God’s embarrassing attachment to us, and the unnecessary lengths they’ll go to, out of love.

This week, Pastor Rebecca preached on Psalm 130, which isn’t a reading you typically hear on the 4th Sunday of Advent. But, with our worship this month centered on Keeping Watch, this reading reminds us that God is listening and God is on the way, as sure as the morning is coming.

In his sermon this week, Vince grapples with the privilege of being reliable, and what it means to let go of control and really wait on God.

On Sun, Dec 7, Pastor Rebecca preached about the obligations we may incur by keeping watch. She preached on Deuteronomy 22: 1 - 4 and referenced the poem Every Riven Thing by Christian Wiman. We hope you enjoy!

Many of us in Chicago have spent the last two months on high alert, on watch for danger. But what is it we’re watching for in Advent? What is the vigilance that saves us?

In which we end and celebrate our stewardship campaign and November series, both called Free-for-All with a litany of thanksgiving from Bethanian Dave Scott, and some interstitial preaching from Pastor Rebecca from Ephesians 3. You’ll also hear the laughter, cheers, and noisemakers from the congregation. It was truly a free-for-all to end all free-for-all’s.

Using Genesis 1 and the Exodus story, as well as a heavy dose of inspiration from the Neo-Futurists and Rev Will Bouvel, Pastor Rebecca preaches our first free-for-all sermon — which really lived up to its name.

Does Vince believe in levitation? He wants to! Preaching on Matthew 19: 16-26, his sermon asks: what value is there in believing in the impossible?

Perfect pitch is rare (although maybe not as rare as you’ve heard…), but relative pitch is all you need, and widely available. Using a passage from Psalm 119, and a poem she worried was too sexy for worship, Pastor Rebecca preached that *spiritually* the best any of us can do is relative: listening to God, again and again, reminding us of the tonic, the root chord, “do ti do.” That’s home. And then we can live in relationship to that. Returning to it as often as we need. Which is all the time.

William Billings’ song AFRICA was a greatest hit of the 18th Century. A banger. It’s a shapenote song, aka Sacred Harp, aka “the heavy metal of the pre-Civil War era”. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is one of Pastor Rebecca’s heart songs; just one of the many, diverse ways God has given us to sing about Their faithfulness.

Pastor Rebecca knew she was walking a fine line by comparing our relationship with God to our animals’ relationship with us. But the longer she thought about it, the more it seemed worth considering…

 Pastor Vince is basic...but so is everyone else! We are merely human- that’s the bad news. The good news is: merely human means being filled with the glory of God.

Do you remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked what he’d need to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus told him: you know, just sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and follow me? And then how he went away sad?This sermon is not about that.

We're so glad Pastor Vince is back with us and feeling better! Starting with a humorous anecdote, his sermon preaches on the nature of suffering, and how as Christians, we find belonging when we can listen and respond to it.

After a month of Red Flags, Pastor Rebecca finally preached about green flags (!) — the ones we need and the ones we have to offer, as a church.

Rev Dr. Katie Hays brought us greetings from Galileo Church (a Disciples congregation on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas) and a dispatch from “the badlands,” preaching that in the Gospel reading (Luke 9:57-62), Jesus waved his own red flags.

As part of “Red Flags” worship theme for August, Pastor Rebecca’s sermon this week centered on regret: the regret of a lost love, the regret of electing the wrong leader, and even the regrets of God themself. Focusing on 1st Samuel and an anecdote about time travel, she reminds us that the only path is forward.