Sermons

Sermons at Pearl seek to engage the ancient stories, poems, and letters in the Bible through imaginative oration that rouses our wholeness as human beings. The act of the sermon at Pearl is space to ponder the sacred, opportunity to consider the mystery and love of God, and provocation to slow down, to think deeply, and to be stirred and inspired to bountifully live.

Current Series

Colossians: The Goodness of Christ

Written in the first decades of the early church’s life, the epistle to the Colossians holds out a vision of life in Christ that is simple, hopeful, and above all, good. In our exploration of this text, we aim to celebrate the way of Jesus that bears good and beautiful fruit—wisdom, unity, fullness, life—and that opens doors to encourage ongoing discovery of ever more goodness. Our hope is that this series helps us to hold our lives with joy, peace, gratitude, simplicity and hope.

Recent Series

Stories of Disappointment

The word “disappointment” refers to the sorrow that we often feel as a result of our unfulfilled hopes or expectations. But is sorrow the only outcome of disappointment? According to the Season of Lent and way of Jesus, difficult human experiences—even death itself—are imbued with unexpected surprises and possibilities. During this Season of Lent we’ll explore the life of Moses and his many disappointments. We’ll make space to lament our own experiences of disappointment while being intentional to consider the potential gifts that disappointment affords. Our desire is that this series grows our capacity to hold both sorrow and hope, in the midst of the sincere disappointment that we all encounter.

The Christian Mysteries

Throughout its long history, the Christian community has pondered a set of mysteries drawn from the life of Jesus. Mystery—this word, in its ancient sense, points toward something hidden, a dawning awareness that unfolds only slowly through musing, reflection, pondering. In this sense, these Christian treasures—Incarnation, Atonement, Resurrection, Trinity—are not fixed dogmas with singular meaning. In this series we will explore how these evocative images continue to disclose new meaning today, illuminating our lives as we hold the story of Jesus in conversation with our evolving understanding of justice, goodness, and reality itself.

The Joyful Mysteries

The Joyful Mysteries refer to a collection of five meditations in the Rosary. These meditations follow the life of Mary as she accepts Jesus into her very body, visits her relative Elizabeth, gives birth to Jesus, presents Jesus in the temple, and finds Jesus in the temple. This sermon series intends to explore a pattern of creativity toward which this collection of mediations point—a pattern that we can find within our own experiences of creativity. For certainly, the Divine invites us all into creating goodness with our lives. And this goodness can take on many forms, whether that be the creation of an idea, a project, or even a child. It’s our sincere hope that this sermon series nurtures joyful acceptance of that which we’re being invited to create, as well as gratitude, thrill, and ultimately release, by following Mary in sharing our creative expressions with the world.

Ancient Anchors

We inhabit an era of unprecedented change. New ideas, new technologies, new discoveries, and new challenges seem to come one after the other, exciting and disorienting and sometimes disturbing. And as Christianity itself evolves, what anchors us, here and now, in communion with followers of Jesus across the world and the ages? In this series, we will consider two embodied practices, known as “sacraments,” handed down through the centuries—baptism and eucharist. These ancient, enacted rituals help root us as participants in the Christian way, giving us incarnate experience of identity and inclusion.

Evolving Christianity

The notion of evolution precedes science. In its earliest form, evolution, from the Latin evolutio, referred to “unrolling,” meaning opening out or development. This idea—that life, this world, people, and even consciousness are ever-becoming—is consistent with what we see when we look back at human history. Over time, earlier forms of anything that continues to exist have developed and diversified. With this in mind, this sermon series has three aims. First, it intends to explore the development and diversification of Christian thought. Second, it will trace the roots of contemporary Christian thought in the ancient heart and way of Jesus. Third, it will celebrate the evolution of Divine Love, which is always propelling humankind forward into ever-more love and inclusion.

Why Be Christian?

After necessarily deconstructing Christianity that’s based on biblical inerrancy, Divine wrath, and exclusion in Jesus’ name, people often find themselves asking, “Why should I be Christian?” This important question comes from a place that is much deeper than cynicism. It’s an honest question. Why—if the Bible isn’t inerrant, God is love, and Jesus’ table is open to every person—should anyone identify as a Christian today, in 2023? This sermon series will explore non-violent and non-dominion reasons for being deeply, yet humbly Christian, today.

Oversight Team Reflections

It's an annual tradition at Pearl Church to hear from the members of our Oversight Team. Each week a different Oversight Team member takes a turn to share, which gives us a chance to learn about their life and to hear what they dream of for Pearl. The Oversight Team’s role is to ensure that we are cultivating our rhythms according to our values. This team also oversees our practices, bylaws, budget, and lead pastor.

How We Spend Our Days

In her memoir, The Writing Life, Annie Dillard muses: “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and that one is what we are doing.” And we could add, what we do with this hour and that one, is sacred ground. What can feel mundane and ordinary to us—getting rest, doing work, eating meals, and paying attention—all this is truly the daily place where we can encounter the Holy. With the help of ancient voices from the monastic tradition, this series at the start of Ordinary Time will explore the common experiences of life, where we can welcome the Divine into the texture of our ordinary world.

Evolutionary Life

Eastertide is a celebration of resurrected life, which is very much the same thing as human flourishing. Central to human flourishing are Eastertide expressions such as hospitality, hope, charity, mindfulness, and mercy. However, according to evolutionary psychology, values like these aren’t easy to embody. Woven into our DNA is the natural selection of traits that have preserved our lineage over millennia. Yet, as evolutionary psychology notes, some evolutionary behaviors hold no benefit in current environments, and may even harm the pursuit of human flourishing. With this in mind, this sermon series will explore some of the inherent psychological barriers that can hinder human flourishing such as tribalism, pleasing, criticism, and the insatiable desire for more. And through the lens of neural plasticity, which is very much the same thing as repentance, we’ll be encouraged to have our minds—very literally—resurrected into new life.

Easter Sunday

Moving it All Forward

The Bible—this library of ancient documents, written over centuries by many authors—presents the modern reader with significant challenges. Inspired by the beauty of a psalm or the mercy of Jesus’ words, we turn the page only to read something that feels violent or backward. How can we hold this text as sacred story when much of what we find in its pages is clearly not good?

In this series, we aim to hold the Bible as a library with a trajectory. As humanity grows and its apprehension of God becomes richer, we see a record of movement forward from sacrifice to gift, from vengeance to mercy, from exclusion to inclusion, from ideas of divine violence to demonstration of divine solidarity. We’ll explore how passages that seem violent to us today, represented a move forward in the author’s time and culture—and how these stories can inspire us to look for where the Divine beckons us forward, today.

Voices from the Wilderness

In Epiphany the church basks in the light of Christ revealed to us. Yet simultaneously we live in a world divided by difference, riven by power structures that alienate and marginalize. To our surprise, the light of God shines upon us from the other, as God listens attentively to the voice of cries from the wilderness. In showing mercy to the oppressed, God is revealed to them in ways the powerful do not know, so that our salvation is wrapped up into listening to their voices.

This sermon series situates us as attentive listeners to theological voices that cry out from the wildernesses of oppression and injustice in our society. We will train our attention on global voices that articulate the theological vision of the oppressed. Across the power-divide of race, we will hear the witness of Black theology to the God who liberates. From the voice of Native American theology, we will the witness of the Harmony Way. From the voice of Womanist theology, we will hear the witness of community and table.

Making Space for Christ

“Let every heart prepare him room!” As we draw near to the Feast of the Incarnation, the songs we sing in this season stir up our longing to experience the peaceful presence of God-with-us. This Advent, we will be exploring four ancient practices which help us awaken to the Divine, who is pleased to dwell among us. By reconsidering rest, prayer, fasting and forgiveness, this series aims to hold up wise ways of making space for Christ in the goodness of our ordinary days.

You can also download our Advent Devotional, which connects to this sermon series and to our kids’ Sunday programs.

Ending the Church Year

As the church year draws to a close, we take time to remember the wide community of faith throughout history, the Good Gospel of Jesus, and the meaning of the Christian Year on Christ the King Sunday.

Theological Imagery

The Bible is full of ideas that blossom—from germination in Genesis to fruition in Revelation. At times, these ideas are grounded in metaphors that can be traced throughout the Bible. With this in mind, this sermon series will explore the development of a few core metaphors by paying particular attention to water, breath, fire, and tree throughout the scriptures. Our hope for this sermon series is that the goodness and beauty of biblical imagery rouses our imagination and nurtures our flourishing.

Cultivating Rhythms

As many of us return to more consistent pace and pattern after summer, it can be helpful to remember and reflect upon why we do what we do here at Pearl Church. This sermon series therefore intends to remind us of the rhythms that we are intentionally cultivating together. And we hope that this series encourages engagement in our Rhythms, as they become, over time, deeply embedded ways of being more fully human in this world.

Oversight Team Reflections 2022

It's an annual tradition at Pearl Church for our Oversight Team to share their hearts for our church during the month of August. Each week a different Oversight Team member will take their turn, giving us a chance to hear what they dream of for Pearl.

The Five Scrolls

Megilloth is a Hebrew word that refers to“The five Scrolls,” which were read in synagogues on five annual Jewish holidays:

• Song of Songs during Passover

• Ruth during Pentecost

• Esther during Purim

• Lamentations during the Ninth of Ab

• Ecclesiastes during the Feast of Booths

It’s generally understood that a major shift in the observances of Israel’s festivals took place in the 7th century when localized agricultural celebrations were transformed into national celebrations, which required a pilgrimage to the central sanctuary. This move toward a theological rendering of the year was an effort to encourage a ritual ordering of time that reflected Israel’s loss of monarchy and its experience of exile in Babylon. In this way, Israel’s ritual observances became a means for establishing an orderly rhythm for the life of the community. While observing these sacred days and seasons, Israel gathered from all the villages of Palestine and from across the roads of the diaspora to remember who they were, to find motivation and direction for continuing their lives of faith, and to orient their lives in the words of scripture and the deeds of God.

Similarly, as we meet together this summer—throughout our Christian Season of Ordinary Time —we intend to learn from these Five Scrolls in order to remember who we are, to find motivation and direction for continuing our lives of faith, and to orient our lives in the words of scripture and the deeds of God.

New Creations

The Season of Easter and the Gospel of John are both celebrations of life. In his attempt to celebrate life, John intentionally mimics the creation account of Genesis. However, in John, rather than seven days of creation, which conclude with God resting, seven miracles are followed by the resurrected Jesus who meets with and talks to Mary Magdalene in a garden. The imagery of Jesus and Mary in a garden is a picture of new life in a new world that slowly builds in John’s gospel, miracle by miracle. Throughout the Season of Easter, this sermon series titled New Creations will explore the goodness of Jesus’ life in this world, one miracle at a time.

Animating Images

In the early church, the Apostles’ Creed was used as a catechism for those who were baptized. Thus, its language was central to Christian imagination. Throughout Lent, our Animating Images sermon series intends to recapture ancient Christian imagination by engaging the Apostles’ Creed. However, rather than using the creed to explicate faith, this series will invite us to ponder creedal statements as icons that animate our lives by Divine Love.

Voices from the Wilderness

In Epiphany the church basks in the light of Christ revealed to us. Yet simultaneously we live in a world divided by difference, riven by power structures that alienate and marginalize. To our surprise, the light of God shines upon us from the other, as God listens attentively to the voice of cries from the wilderness. In showing his mercy to the oppressed, God is revealed to them in ways the powerful do not know, so that our salvation is wrapped up into listening to their voices.

This sermon series situates us as attentive listeners to theological voices that cry out from the wildernesses of oppression and injustice in our society. We will train our attention on global voices that articulate the theological vision of the oppressed. From the United States, we listen to the voice of Mujerista theology, giving voice to the Latina experience of God. From Korea, we listen to Minjung theology, the exploited who see the Suffering Servant among them. From India, we listen to Dalit theology, the “untouchables” who belong at the table of the Kingdom of God.

An Advent of Womanist Vision

Womanist theology is a form of reflection that places the religious and moral perspectives of women at the center of its method. It intentionally engages theological problems such as class, gender, and race. Furthermore, womanist theology intends to reimagine old religious language and symbols to give them depth, texture, and relevance for today.

Womanist theology is a helpful corrective for the Season of Advent, which has traditionally focused on male characters. For example, Joseph and Zechariah, the shepherds, the Magi, and even the angels, are said to be male. These characters quickly become the focus of most Advent storytelling. However, to be clear, without women, there is no Season of Advent. This sermon series will therefore highlight women in the biblical account throughout the life of Jesus, primarily during the days leading up to his birth. It will elevate their experiences and perspectives, thereby shining Advent-light into darkness that is often neglected in Christian imagination.

Reimagining a Community of Peace

The scriptures tell a story that begins with God placing two people in a garden and instructing them to multiply, to steward creation, and to cultivate the land. At the end of the story, the very end, these two have multiplied into a throng of humanity, and all of creation—which began in a garden—is cultivated into a heavenly kingdom marked by peace. It is a world in full bloom.

But how exactly do we help move the world forward, toward the peace of God? This sermon series will address obstacles that hinder movement toward a world in full bloom. However, rather than focus on obstacles alone, this series will seek to elevate ways of being that help to nurture a community of peace, into which Christ invites every person.

Our Values

Four years and eight months ago we began dealing with the difficulty of a president who preferred cynicism, marginalization, othering, and violence as means to leading our country. Eighteen months ago we began dealing with Covid 19 and the havoc it’s wreaked on our world and individual lives. And fifteen months ago we began newly waking to white supremacy and systemic racism in our country. In the midst of it all, we’ve marched, screamed, voted, scoured for toilet paper, sown masks, choked on smoke, experienced power outages, and felt, perhaps more than ever before, at the end of ourselves. In light of all that we’ve been facing, many of us are feeling untethered and are wondering, “What is this?” and “Where am I?” and even “Who am I?” When life feels like a ship riding out a wild storm, we risk being tossed to and fro, without any sight of the end. However, below the surface, at the soul level of who we want to be is the clear and steady guidance of our values, which reflect the life of Jesus who invites us into his way of being in the world. It’s our sincere hope that this sermon series on our community’s values can cast an elevated vision for the kind of life that we desire to embody, no matter what we face in life.

The Story of the Bible (2021)

Each year around Labor Day we take time to look over the story of the Bible, exploring this library of ancient, messy, intriguing and sacred stories that ground our community. This second part of two explores the books in the Bible that move the chronological story forward.

Oversight Team Reflections 2021

It's an annual tradition at Pearl Church for our Oversight Team to share their hearts for our church during the month of August. Each week a different Oversight Team member will take their turn, giving us a chance to hear what they dream of for Pearl.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like…

For the last six months we participated in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, which culminated in theological concepts such as ascension, pentecost, and trinity. Now, for the next six months, the church calendar invites us to intentionally exist in a season known as “Ordinary Time.” During this season of the church we are invited to grow and to cultivate life in the world. To use Jesus’ language, we are invited to participate in a kingdom like heaven. But what exactly is a kingdom like heaven? This series will observe several parables in the book of Matthew in which Jesus likens—rather than defines—a kingdom called “heaven” to the complexity and mystery of human activity such as scattering seed, resting in trees, finding treasure, and casting nets. By exploring these parables it is our sincere hope to encourage a community that more fully embodies a kingdom like heaven, which gestures toward the mystery of God and life of Christ in this world.

The Feast Days

At the end of Eastertide and beginning of Ordinary Time we celebrate three Feast days: Ascension of the Lord, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday. These feasts turn us from the first cycle of the Church Year—Advent through Eastertide, where we walk along with Jesus through birth, life, death and resurrection—to the second long cycle of Ordinary Time, where we recall the ongoing work of God in our midst.

Good Gospel

Throughout the season of Easter, the Church intentionally abides in a garden full of hope and possibility, wondering, “What might grow up, here?” and “What good can be done, now?” With these important Easter questions in mind, this sermon series will explore the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts to try and better understand Jesus’ good gospel. Through the lens of these various books, we hope to more fully appreciate Jesus’ life, into which he invites every person.

A Critique on Violence in Religious Story-Telling

Throughout the Season of Lent, the Church intentionally walks with Jesus through experiences of suffering and death. However, ultimately, this annual journey of descent culminates in resurrection, which encourages our lenten pilgrimage to see what gifts and lessons may be found in the darkness.

This year, rather than exploring experiences of suffering and death that culminate in resurrection, we’re considering violence in religious story-telling, which finds its end, not in resurrection, but in the perpetuation of increased violence. The past few years our country has been witness to a president whose stories have harmed—more than anyone else—the marginalized among us, and these stories have found resonance in the hearts of Christians, evangelicals in particular. This sermon series will deconstruct religious stories that give rise to bad news, misogyny, bigotry, and tribalism in Jesus’ name. But rather than concluding in deconstruction, this series intends to reimagine these same stories so that they more thoughtfully and reasonably cohere with Jesus who declares, “The favor of the Lord upon you.”

Epiphany Light

Throughout the Season After the Epiphany the church basks in the light of Christ revealed to us. Yet simultaneously we live in a world divided by religious difference. To our surprise, the light of God shines upon us from the other, as God is made manifest through a diversity of mediums.

This sermon series situates us as attentive listeners to other religious traditions. After declaring the light of God upon all people and laying a theological framework for particularity amidst plurality, we will train our attention on three particular sacred stories—Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism. Each sacred story will be expressed by a religious leader who will speak to us out of their own tradition while making connections to values we at Pearl hold dear—gratitude, inclusion, integration, peace, renewal, and transformation. Our hope for this series is to encourage understanding, empathy, appreciation, and connection to our religious neighbors who, alongside us, seek out the light of the Divine. 

The Feminine Divine

The language we use to describe God shapes our perception of God. God as shepherd, God as king, God as warrior—all are metaphors that rouse images in our mind’s eye. Of course, no single word or image captures the totality of Divine essence, and some language can inhibit our imagination. Therefore, it’s important for us to reflect upon our God-language. 

Throughout the centuries, the primary metaphors used to describe the Divine have been masculine. However, throughout church history and earlier, in Jewish history, there have always been feminine images used for God. If these feminine expressions are rarely used, then we risk picturing God through solely masculine metaphors. God as mother, mother bear, mother eagle, and mother hen; God as nursing mother, woman in labor, and woman searching for a coin—these expressions give fuller shape to our perception of God. 

During the four weeks of Advent, this sermon series will pay special attention to feminine notions of God that elevate aspects of longing and hope for light, in the midst of darkness. We will cast an elevated vision for the Divine who is neither male nor female, but who may be more fully appreciated through language that is explicitly feminine. 

Discerning Good

If the Bible isn’t a rule book or a clear-cut moral guide for every decision that we need to make, how do we go about discerning what is good? This is a question that our pastoral staff spent a few months discussing, which resulted in an ethical framework for discerning good in an array of circumstances. This framework considers collective and personal stories, principles, as well as several questions that can be asked in order to inch closer toward goodness.

Perhaps you’re in the midst of making a big decision, or perhaps you wrestle with knowing how to discern what’s best when making decisions, or perhaps, as you’ve come to realize that the Bible doesn’t definitively direct particular judgments that you need to make about life and godliness, you’re looking for a thoughtful way to make wise decisions. If any of these statements speak to where you’re at, then we’re hopeful that this sermon series—which will draw from our ethical framework—will inform, support, and encouragement your flourishing, especially now, when discerning goodness is increasingly important.

September 2020

Words of Wisdom

The Bible’s wisdom books span the conventional wisdom of Proverbs to the evocative wisdom of Song of Songs. Between these two extremes are Ecclesiastes and Job, which invite us into the muddle of every day living that can range from the mundane to the unfathomable.

Today we find ourselves in a season of life that is demanding wisdom. But what does wise living look like? The books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs will help us to explore a diversity of wisdom. More so, the ancient-ness of these books will be an encouraging reminder that, although our experiences in this world feel novel, they are indeed as old as language itself. Lastly, this series intends to draw on these books as a means to encourage careful observation and dynamic responses to our ever-changing world so that we and our world may flourish.

Pearl’s Story

Each year on the first weekend in August, we take a moment to pause and look back at our story, and all the ways our community has changed and grown over the years. On this, our 19th anniversary, Pastor Mike reflects on the way being a church together has caused us to change our mind, again and again, toward love.

From Supremacy to Community

The past weeks have been disruptive, in ways both difficult and sad, true and good. As our nation has grappled with its embedded, systemic racism, as we have mourned and listened and protested, we want to do more than sign petitions, hold signs, march or post anti-racist messages on social media. But what?

Facing down racism in America will take all of our creativity in all our many fields of expertise and spheres of influence, including within Christian theology and practice - and so over the next two weeks we begin a short series in Revelation (which, it turns out, is a wonderful text for those seeking to overturn oppressive systems). We'll begin by exploring how Christian history created the conditions for white supremacy and racism in America, by drifting from the subversive teaching of Jesus toward the seductive pull of Empire (or, as Revelation calls it, "Babylon"). Then we'll turn to build a new imagination for how Christianity can again become a signpost toward the good, peaceable city God is building in the midst of the human family.

Lament

The Book of Lamentations provides a helpful framework for processing one of humankind’s strongest emotions—lament. Although Lamentations specifically addresses the destruction of Jerusalem that occurred in 587BCE, its use of words to describe lament and its progression of ideas that shape lament transcend Israel’s particular cataclysmic event.

Today we lament the effects of a world-wide pandemic. Today we lament the violence against people of color. Today we lament our country’s systemic injustice and inequality. Today our hearts are outraged, confused, afraid, and sad, to name just a few prevalent emotions. 

This sermon series therefore invites us into the ancient and holy process that is lamenting cataclysmic events. More so, this sermon series will explore how lament can give shape to effectual change through the lives of people marked by brokenness, sorrow, suffering, and death.

New Being

The mystery of Resurrection is first announced in a garden. From barren, stone-sealed shadowy tomb, into loamy, breeze-breathed, sun-dappled soil bursting with life, Easter interrupts deathly endings with new-day budding potential. This mysterious way of Jesus is meant to open us to new-creation stories, habits and belonging that bring our truest, God-breathed selves into fully- formed being.

This sermon series will explore the way of Jesus through the lens of formation. After building a foundations of how narratives, practices, and community rhythms deepen us into new ways of being, we’ll turn to explore the classical disciplines that have opened Eastertide living throughout the ages, bringing these ancient tools into our modern setting. Each week will invite us into practical ways of inhabiting the Resurrection mystery and finding new creation already blooming among us.

Wilderness Findings

Lent is a season to intentionally face suffering, which is part of every human experience. Such intention is necessary because suffering is difficult. And yet, part of being Christian is to follow after Jesus who willingly participated in the shadows, in the decaying, and in the death. With this in mind, this sermon series intends to notice and to celebrate the surprising good—not easy but good—that springs up out of the darkness.

Ways of Seeing

Epiphany celebrates the light of Christ revealed to all people. However, we are preconditioned to notice those who are strong, affluent, beautiful, and victorious. This is true not only for how we see the world but for how we read the Bible. This sermon series intends to help us see and appreciate the marginalized in scripture. By being challenged to notice and to compassionately understand those with little to no voice in the Bible, it’s our hope that these skills can be applied to compassionately see the marginalized all around us, so that, in the spirit of Epiphany, we may be able to celebrate the light of Christ shining through the “other.”

Criminal Justice Sabbath

The season after the Epiphany is a time in which we remember and celebrate that the light of Christ has come for all people. On this particular Sunday we will join with the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon to participate in a Criminal Justice Sabbath, which is an opportunity to make connections between our faith traditions and the legal system we are part of, and to see our shared responsibility to participate in healing. To help us make these important connections, Dr. Graham Reside, Vanderbilt University Divinity School Assistant Professor of the Practice of the Sociology of Religion will speak on restorative justice and the sociology of incarceration, and he'll help us to ask how our religious and moral commitments can shape our approaches to crime and punishment.

Hymns of Hope

The season of Advent is filled with longing. We long for rest; we long for special times with loved ones; we long for the re-enactment of traditions; we long. Isaiah’s prophecies about the nature and work of messiah ache with longing. Isaiah longs for a messiah who enacts justice, sets people free, and creates a new humanity out of the old. During this season of Advent, our sermon series will encourage this ancient longing by pondering prophetic poems about messiah, which will warm our hearts with hope and prepare us to sing, once again, “Merry Christmas!”

Christ the King Sunday

This Sunday is the festival of Christ the King. Christ the King Sunday is the climax and conclusion of the Church’s liturgical journey through the life of Christ and the Gospel message. Its purpose is to celebrate the culmination of Christ as king and his completion of the renewed creation that marks the fullness of his kingdom. As we look back along the church year and its seasons, we'll explore how Jesus reveals a new, revolutionary idea of king and kingdom, in ways that make for peace.

Child Safeguarding (Feast of All Saints 2019)

The Feast of All Saints celebrates the faithful women and men, known and unknown, past and present, whose lives have been marked by the love and grace of God. It is an opportunity for us, as a church, to thank God for them and to remember the roles they have played in bringing God’s kingdom into our lives and into this world.

This year, instead of celebrating the saints, we took time to do the opposite, reflecting on how the church has failed children by not proactively keeping them safe from abuse. Not only has the church been silent and allowed abuse to flourish, but in many cases the church itself has become the perpetrator of child abuse and a haven for abusers. In this service we grieve and confess the church’s part in this terrible evil, honor and stand in solidarity with survivors and resolve as a community to do better. The sermon time educates and empowers our community to take active and practical steps toward this resolve.

We know child abuse is a heavy, difficult topic that will be triggering for many of us. As a community we want to lean in to it courageously, and we also want to practice good self-care. At the link below we’ve provided resources for reporting, counseling and support. Please take care of yourselves well. Reach out if you need help.

Wrestling with Words

This sermon series intends to consider, ponder, mediate upon, and wrestle with really beautiful, really important, Christian words that have been so overused or so misused or so narrowly used, that, for many of us, they have lost their meaning. The goal of this series is not to perfectly understand every word, nor is it to precisely define every word. Instead, the goal of this series is to wrestle with words in order that we might be able to reimagine their profound beauty, texture, and depth. Genesis 32 sets a narrative context for this sermon series. In this passage Jacob is blessed by wrestling with God. It is in the wrestling, not the conclusion of the wrestling, that Jacob is blessed.

Fall Vision

Each year, autumn is a time with rhythms begin again: school year, leaves changing, we return from the play of summer into our normal patterns. It’s a good time to refresh our vision on our sacred story, make room at our common table, and consider how we are animated to participate in and by divine love.

Oversight Team Reflections 2019

It's an annual tradition at Pearl Church for our Oversight Team to share their hearts for our church during the month of August. Each week a different Oversight Team member will take their turn, giving us a chance to hear what they dream of for Pearl.

Reconstructing Romans

How do you help different groups of people with different ways of living, imagine and ultimately desire, life together? This is the rhetorical task of Paul in Romans. The revelation of Jesus as messiah leads Paul to reimagine the scriptures, people groups, salvation, and community. Unfortunately, since the medieval age and Luther’s focus on individual salvation, Romans has often been used to divide people and to debase those who do not believe specific precepts. In this sermon series, we will examine Paul’s provocative attempt to knock down walls of hostility in Jesus’ name. Furthermore, we will follow in Paul’s footsteps to consider how the messiah, as revealed through Jesus, helps us to reimagine and ultimately desire life together in a world rife with difference. 

Practicing Resurrection

At the center of the sacred story we tell, week in and week out, is Resurrection: life from death, light from darkness, creation from chaos. This story has occupied a central place in the Christian imagination because it points to a new way to live. In this series, we are exploring the way of life Jesus sets forth in his Sermon on the Mount. The Resurrection speaks over every life, “You, whoever you are, whatever your circumstances, you are blessed because God is with you.” This vision of the with-God life opens up resurrected ways of being such as belonging, love and trust in community, and non-anxious relationship with one another and with the Divine. This series will suggest practices for living Christ’s wisdom within the texture of our ordinary lives.

Stations of the Cross

The Stations of the Cross are a fourteen step Catholic devotion that commemorates Jesus’ final day on earth, which culminates in his death and burial. The fourteen devotions, or stations, focus on specific events of his last day, beginning with his condemnation. The stations are commonly used as a mini pilgrimage as individuals move from station to station. The stations are commonly found in churches as a series of fourteen small icons or images. They can also appear in church yards arranged along paths. At each station, individuals recall and meditate on a specific event from Jesus’ last day, specific prayers are recited, and then individuals move to the next station until all fourteen stations are complete.

This sermon series invites us into pilgrimage with Jesus. From his condemnation to his being laid in the tomb, we will sit before pictures—painted by words—that invite us to ponder Jesus’ last hours. Sitting, observing, and ultimately feeling, we will be encouraged to more deeply experience Jesus’ suffering, which we hope will evoke sorrow, compassion, and gratitude. Ultimately, it is our desire that by entering into the depths of Jesus’ despair, that longing for resurrection will be aroused and burst forth from within us as we begin to look past death to the hope of Easter life.

Community of Welcome: Epiphany 2019

Jesus conversed with tax collectors late at night, he visited the homes of those that the religious called “sinners,” and around a table on the night he was betrayed he broke bread and poured wine while declaring, “This is me, for you.” Sharing at Jesus’ common table reminds us that God sustains everything, includes everyone, and is drawing us all together to feast as one. This sermon series therefore intends to elevate our Christian vision of hospitality by pondering ancient stories that cast anti-hospitality and hospitality narratives. Our hope is that these stories awaken in us divine love that facilitates a way of living that recognizes God’s sustenance, makes room for others, and urges us toward generosity and self-giving.

Voices From the Wilderness: Epiphany 2019

In Epiphany the church basks in the light of Christ revealed to us. Yet simultaneously we live in a world divided by difference, riven by power structures that alienate and marginalize. To our surprise, the light of God shines upon us from the other, as God listens attentively to the voice of cries from the wilderness. In showing his mercy to the oppressed, God is revealed to them in ways the powerful do not know, so that our salvation is wrapped up into listening to their voices.

This sermon series situates us as attentive listeners to marginalized theological voices that offer the wisdom of community and belonging to our fracturing power structures. After laying a theological groundwork for attentive, non-reactive listening to marginal experiences of God, we will train our attention on three voices that are too often diminished at the table in American Christianity. From the voice of Native American theology, we will the witness of the Harmony Way. From the voice of Ecotheology, we will hear the witness of creation. From the voice of Womanist theology, we will the witness of community and table.

Christmastide 2018

Apocalyptic Light: Advent 2018

The Church intentionally established the seasons of Advent and Christmas during the darkest time of the year. It is during this dark period that our hearts especially long for warmth and light. Biblical apocalypse is a kind of light that shines into the darkness to warm our hearts. It is a light that illuminates difference; it is a light that calls us forward into the very heart of Divinity. This sermon series therefore intends to ponder a few of the apocalyptic writings in Revelation that distinguish kings, kingdoms, endings, and ultimately, nativities. It is our sincere hope that this series is an advent of light that warms our hearts and prepares us to sing once again, “Merry Christmas!”

Christ the King

Rhythms and Values

As many of us return to more consistent pace and pattern, after summer, it can be helpful to remember and reflect upon why we do what we do. This sermon series therefore intends to remind us of the rhythms that we are intentionally cultivating together and it celebrates our values, which define the fundamental elements of our essence and character.

Bible Primer

It is common to spend time reading particular verses, sections, chapters, or specific books in the Bible. However, this practice makes understanding how the whole Bible fits together and comprehending its larger motifs, difficult to follow. So, this series intends to cover every book in the Bible, in two weeks. Week One will propose a framework for how all of the books of the Bible work together and it will begin to cover the books that do not progress the Bible’s overall story. Week Two will pick up where Week One left off by covering the remainder of the books that do not progress the biblical narrative and then it will conclude by telling the story of the Bible. 

Oversight Team Reflections

During the month of August each year, we take time to hear from the hearts of our Oversight Team as they share their dreams for Pearl Church.

Galatians' Glory

This sermon series explores an ancient letter that remains relevant for Christians today, who like the Galatians, come to realize that their Christianity is not actually representative of Jesus’ good news to the world. The apostle Paul is indignant with the churches in Galatia because they have turned from a gospel of grace to a gospel of works. According to Paul, this means that the Galatians have forsaken good news and replaced it with bad news. He therefore writes a letter to remind the Galatians about the good news of Jesus and to compel them to return to a gospel of grace. This series therefore intends to do the same: to remind us that Jesus’ gospel is deeply good, and to compel us to live abundant lives enveloped and animated by glorious grace.

Pondering Divinity

This sermon series intends to ponder divinity. To be clear, the point of this series isn’t to boil divinity down to fifteen points, or one hundred points, or one thousand points – as if we can exhaust definition for the ineffable. Nor is this series an attempt at explaining God in systematic theology categories such as communicable and incommunicable attributes. That’s been done before and it’s often onerous, which ironically, doesn’t feel very divine. Instead, this series seeks to delight in pondering crazy, confusing, beautiful, and textured attempts at understanding and appreciating ultimate reality, by considering ancient stories and thoughts about God in the Hebrew scriptures and in the New Testament.

An Ode to Easter: Eastertide 2018

An ode seeks to celebrate a particular subject in the form of a song or poem. In this same spirit, this sermon series intends to offer odes to several Easter themes that encourage our celebration of the sheer glory of Easter. Those themes that we will seek to laud will include gardens, peace, repentance, care, fruit, and love. Our hope in celebrating these themes however, is more than joy or thanksgiving. It is participation. We desire these themes to have meaning, relevance, and consequence for our community in this season of Easter, 2018.

Cross Carrying: Lent 2018

Five times, Jesus is quoted as telling his followers to take up their cross. But what exactly does that mean? Is cross carrying a metaphor for suffering? If so, how does one carry suffering? Is cross carrying a path that leads to crucifixion? If so, what does that look like today, when people aren’t being crucified? Throughout Lent we are encouraged to participate in Jesus’ passion, which includes suffering, cross carrying, and death on a cross, but what does it mean for us to carry a cross, today? What does it look like for us to be the kind of Jesus followers who do what Jesus exhorts, which is to pick up their cross and follow him? 

This sermon series seeks to explore the meaning of cross carrying. Then, in the midst of this exploration, it intends to offer practical ways of carrying crosses that align our lives with Jesus’ way of being in the world. Finally, this series hopes to cast a vision for cross carrying that extends beyond just suffering and death, to the glory and new life that Jesus says is the result of following him.