Sermon Archive
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.
A 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.
HANDOUTS
Longing for Justice
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!”