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.
Love: Orientation that Abides
We live in a world in which things are always changing—certainty, health, relationships, even the version of faith we grew up with. And yet Paul, writing to a community tearing itself apart, lands on three things he insists will outlast everything else: faith, hope, and love. To be clear, these aren’t achievements to master or doctrines to defend, but the very shape of a life oriented toward God. In this series, we'll sit with these three ancient, yet lasting gifts and seek to rest deeply into them, even when everything else is stripped away.
This week, Mike closes out the series with love—not as a feeling to chase, but as the direction a life keeps turning toward. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John's claim that God is love, we find that what's actually left standing once the old scaffolding of certainty and dogma comes down is not wreckage, but ground.
Hope: Critique that Beckons
We live in a world in which things are always changing—certainty, health, relationships, even the version of faith we grew up with. And yet Paul, writing to a community tearing itself apart, lands on three things he insists will outlast everything else: faith, hope, and love. To be clear, these aren’t achievements to master or doctrines to defend, but the very shape of a life oriented toward God. In this series, we'll sit with these three ancient, yet lasting gifts and seek to rest deeply into them, even when everything else is stripped away.
This week, Pastor Mike turns to hope—not as a comforting feeling that helps us endure, but as something that refuses to make peace with the way things are. Drawing on Isaiah, the Gospels, and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, he asks what it looks like to let hope unsettle us into action rather than lull us into waiting.
Faith: Mystery that Grounds
We live in a world in which things are always changing—certainty, health, relationships, even the version of faith we grew up with. And yet Paul, writing to a community tearing itself apart, lands on three things he insists will outlast everything else: faith, hope, and love. To be clear, these aren’t achievements to master or doctrines to defend, but the very shape of a life oriented toward God. In this series, we'll sit with these three ancient, yet lasting gifts and seek to rest deeply into them, even when everything else is stripped away.
This week we begin with faith—not as a set of beliefs to hold correctly in your head, but as something closer to trust: a load-bearing ground you can stand on and lean your weight into. For those of us who have torn a lot down, what remains underneath the rubble may be less a list of right ideas than an ocean of mystery—resurrection, incarnation, Trinity, atonement—wide enough to wade into and deep enough to hold us up.