Bethany UCC

Bethany UCC Chicago
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Sermons and stories from Bethany United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL.

  1. 26.02.08. Sermon. Unspeakable: A Cross and a Question

    2D AGO

    26.02.08. Sermon. Unspeakable: A Cross and a Question

    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.

    16 min
  2. 26.02.01. Sermon. Unspeakable: Anger

    FEB 4

    26.02.01. Sermon. Unspeakable: Anger

    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.

    19 min
  3. 26.01.25. Sermon. Beginner’s Mind: Practice

    JAN 29

    26.01.25. Sermon. Beginner’s Mind: Practice

    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.

    14 min
  4. 26.01.18. Sermon. Beginner's Mind: Awe

    JAN 21

    26.01.18. Sermon. Beginner's Mind: Awe

    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.

    15 min
  5. 26.01.11. Sermon. Beginner's Mind: Uncertainty

    JAN 15

    26.01.11. Sermon. Beginner's Mind: Uncertainty

    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

    17 min
  6. 26.01.04. Sermon. Beginner's Mind: Humility

    JAN 6

    26.01.04. Sermon. Beginner's Mind: Humility

    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.

    12 min

  7. JAN 2

    25.12.24. Sermon. Christmas Eve: Fiddly Little Things

    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.

    6 min
  8. 25.12.21. Sermon. Keep Watch: Those Who Watch For Morning

    12/23/2025

    25.12.21. Sermon. Keep Watch: Those Who Watch For Morning

    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.

    14 min
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Sermons and stories from Bethany United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL.

Information

  • Creator
    Bethany UCC Chicago
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    281
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Bethany UCC Chicago