Good News—Sons of God and Saviors

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Good News—Sons of God and Saviors
Mike Roth

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.”

The Light of Transfiguration

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The Light of Transfiguration
Mike Roth

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. 

Jewish Light

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Jewish Light
Rabbi Michael Cahana

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. 

Muslim Light

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Muslim Light
Imam Mohamad Jamal Daoudi

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. 

This week’s guest speaker is Imam Mohamad Jamal Daoudi. Imam Jamal was born in Damascus, Syria. He graduated from Damascus University in 1988 with BA in English Literature, continued his Islamic education at The Islamic Call College/Damascus and graduated with BA Shari’ah / Islamic Sciences and Arabic Language in 1991. He came to the US in 1995 and started his first position as Imam at The Islamic Center of North Valley, Lancaster-CA. He earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary. Imam Daoudi is specialized in the areas of Quranic interpretation “Tafsir”, Hadith, counseling and interfaith dialogues and activities. He works with the Trifaith Initiative. Imam Jamal is a United States citizen and is a father of three, a daughter and two boys.

Buddhist Light

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Buddhist Light
Thomas McConkie

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. 

This week’s guest speaker is Thomas McConkie. Thomas McConkie is the founder of Lower Lights School of Wisdom and has a passion for the world's Wisdom traditions. Raised LDS, at 18 years old he discovered Buddhism, which remains a wellspring of inspiration over 20 years later.

He is trained as a developmental researcher, facilitator, and mindfulness teacher. He hosts the Lower Lights Sangha in Salt Lake City, Utah with the intention of creating a generative environment where seekers of diverse faith orientations can discover new depths and heights in their evolving personhood.