All Recordings from St. Gregory's Episcopal Church
Mar 28, 2024 |
Maundy Thursday
| Kristin SaylorMaundy Thursday
On the eve of his suffering and death, Jesus imparts his final teaching to his friends and followers: “love one another as I have loved you.” This commandment, or mandatum, is where this night gets its name. We remember Jesus’ commandment by sharing a meal together, by washing each other’s feet, as Jesus showed us to do, and by celebrating the sacred meal Jesus instituted this night, Holy Communion.
Mar 17, 2024 |
Hopelessness & The Future
| Rev. Dan PuchallaHopelessness & The Future
Did somebody say the word … election? Lord, have mercy. There’s no denying that the next several months will be filled with anxiety and angst as we approach the uncertain future of this project called the United States. There is no lack of pressing, important issues involved, and no lack of fuel to flame already hot passions and rhetoric. And most of us, despite the power of our one vote and other ways of peacefully participating, we will feel very much helpless in this whole unpleasant process. The future is so uncertain. There is so much to fear. What shall we do?
According to Jesus, we should start thinking about our gardens. They will teach us what we need to know.
According to Jesus, we should start thinking about our gardens. They will teach us what we need to know.
Mar 10, 2024 |
The Body's Betrayals
| Rev. Dan PuchallaThe Body's Betrayals
We are about halfway through our Lenten journey, and this week we turn our attention to our own bodies. Jesus had a body, just like ours. He sweated, he hungered, his feet hurt from walking, he probably stank a lot of the time. His body, like ours, also had a limit to what it could endure. It failed against the Empire’s cruel punishments, as all of our bodies will fail against something one day. What relationship shall we have with these bodies that both make our lives possible and which will ultimately betray us? This Sunday, a way through this riddle might be found in a secret conversation Jesus has with a stranger in the nighttime and an old story about desert magic.
Mar 03, 2024 |
Money and Debt
| Max SmithMoney and Debt
Jesus died for our sins. Sin is anything which deliberately separates us from God’s presence and love; and there are many stances, postures and actions which can do that. Like the mythical King Midas, we can become so absorbed by seeking ‘gold’ that we effectively commodify all that we love. And that is sin because greed deprives us of God’s presence and grace. Gold is a metaphor in the Midas story for any material resource that consumes our attention: money, wealth, status symbols, economic superiority, setting our hearts on ‘all the toys’ can devour us.Our authentic, true and lasting riches are in and with God. And we all know this.
So how come accumulating material resources is so tantalizing? Or perhaps the real question is: how can we have both? Aren’t we seeking to find the right balance? Be comfortably resourced and faithful? Isn’t that our goal? In our gospel this Sunday, the people just want to worship properly—by offering the required sacrifices. The temple vendors just want to make that easier, by providing the vessels—animals and currency—the congregants needed. The ends are great, why is Jesus so disturbed by the means? Let us wrestle together this week about ends and means. How and why do the means we use effectively eclipse the ends and goals we seek?
So how come accumulating material resources is so tantalizing? Or perhaps the real question is: how can we have both? Aren’t we seeking to find the right balance? Be comfortably resourced and faithful? Isn’t that our goal? In our gospel this Sunday, the people just want to worship properly—by offering the required sacrifices. The temple vendors just want to make that easier, by providing the vessels—animals and currency—the congregants needed. The ends are great, why is Jesus so disturbed by the means? Let us wrestle together this week about ends and means. How and why do the means we use effectively eclipse the ends and goals we seek?
Feb 25, 2024 |
Conflict and Guilt
| Rev. Dan PuchallaConflict and Guilt
What is the worst fight you’ve ever had with someone? How did you resolve it? Was it ever resolved? This Sunday, we continue our Lenten journey of healing by attending to the common crises of our lives. We turn our attention to the conflicts that occur in our relationships, and the guilt that often accompanies them. Our Gospel story is about a major conflict that erupts between Jesus and one of his closest companions, and it becomes an occasion for Jesus to teach something quite disturbing: maybe religion is not about being a “good person.”
Feb 18, 2024 |
Find God in the Desert
| Max SmithFind God in the Desert
For the Jewish people and for Jesus, the desert had been God’s proving ground. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years waiting to be ready to receive the promises of God. We read in this Sunday’s gospel that Jesus is sent to the desert by the Holy Spirit. For us, being sent to the desert could sound like a holiday. The desert is often romanticized— gorgeous, stark beauty. But that does not capture the meaning of the desert in Mark’s gospel. For Mark the desert meant an inhospitable, isolated, lonely place.
Perhaps, our desert is not a location, but a time or condition. Solitariness might be our desert, and stillness our wilderness; a place we might not willingly go, as it is too close to loneliness. We know loneliness is an epidemic in America. Probably many of us reading this feel lonesome often. The Christian antidote to loneliness is God, who is always with us and always emanating love and grace. But, honestly, how many of us feel that does alleviate deep disconnectedness? As we begin our Lenten journey, our first theme this Sunday is loneliness. Let us consider together what loneliness might yield if we look at it squarely and not race to escape it.
Perhaps, our desert is not a location, but a time or condition. Solitariness might be our desert, and stillness our wilderness; a place we might not willingly go, as it is too close to loneliness. We know loneliness is an epidemic in America. Probably many of us reading this feel lonesome often. The Christian antidote to loneliness is God, who is always with us and always emanating love and grace. But, honestly, how many of us feel that does alleviate deep disconnectedness? As we begin our Lenten journey, our first theme this Sunday is loneliness. Let us consider together what loneliness might yield if we look at it squarely and not race to escape it.
Feb 11, 2024 |
Sermon for the Last Sunday after Epiphany
| Max SmithSermon for the Last Sunday after Epiphany
In the Episcopal Church, we often say that praying shapes believing, so how we worship in word and action shapes how we believe and respond to God. We are physical creatures made in God’s image, and the physical nature of our worship helps us to connect more fully to God.
Jan 28, 2024 |
Annual Meeting and Demons
| Rev. Dan PuchallaAnnual Meeting and Demons
Since I will be talking a lot at the Annual Meeting about big concepts that will shape our work going forward, my sermon will be short and to the point. And that point is this: we need to reclaim exorcism as a ministry of the church. That’s quite a shocking claim to make. To make sure your priest hasn’t lost his mind, you’ll have to come Sunday to hear more and to decide for yourself.
Jan 21, 2024 |
The Feel of Discipleship
| Rev. Dan PuchallaThe Feel of Discipleship
I hope you are all staying warm and safe during this bitter cold snap. This Sunday, I invite you to leave behind this Chicago winter and join me on the warm shores of the Sea of Galilee, to take a leisurely stroll through gently lapping waves, as we watch the charmingly rustic scene of fishermen casting and mending their nets. Just feel that sun and the soft salt breeze. Take a nice deep breath. That’s nice, isn’t it? Feel your heart slowing. Feel your muscles easing. Might this be what it feels like to follow Jesus?
Jan 14, 2024 |
We Are What We Love
| Max SmithWe Are What We Love
St. Augustine declared: “ we ARE what we love.” It’s an interesting idea: to tie love to identity. What or whom do you love?
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. loved God’s people. He was therefore an incarnation of love. Yet aren’t we all? King believed firmly that as God is love and as we are created in God’s image, we are meant to be love. Not love as passion, not love as detached concern, but love as actively seeking to eliminate separation, alienation, hate and segregation. We become more and more God’s image, we become who we authentically are, as we actively love.
This Sunday we celebrate, commemorate, and give thanks for the life and legacy of MLK by thinking about the demands of love.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. loved God’s people. He was therefore an incarnation of love. Yet aren’t we all? King believed firmly that as God is love and as we are created in God’s image, we are meant to be love. Not love as passion, not love as detached concern, but love as actively seeking to eliminate separation, alienation, hate and segregation. We become more and more God’s image, we become who we authentically are, as we actively love.
This Sunday we celebrate, commemorate, and give thanks for the life and legacy of MLK by thinking about the demands of love.
Jan 07, 2024 |
The Feast of the Epiphany
| Rev. Dan PuchallaThe Feast of the Epiphany
Happy Christmastide to you all! During this special season, we have been focusing on imagination and how the stories of Jesus’ birth ignite and liberate our imaginations for the impossible wonders that God makes possible.
All of our music is covered under our CCLI license #11167839.
All of our music is covered under our CCLI license #11167839.
Dec 31, 2023 |
Illumination & Amplification
| Max SmithIllumination & Amplification
On this first Sunday after Christmas, let us consider whether the light of Christ which illumines our sight also turns up the volume of the voice in our heads? Of our thoughts?
These thoughts seem to come completely unbidden — all the head chatter. Yet they also come, sometimes it seems, as the voice of God. Let us consider together the way all our senses take in The Light.
Dec 17, 2023 |
Odd Duck
| Rev. Dan PuchallaOdd Duck
Just as we’re starting to feel all Christmassy right about this time of year, this Sunday we are interrupted by that reliable buzzkill, John the Baptist. John screeches about repentance, right when we’d rather be baking cookies and wrapping presents. John is an odd duck. He did and said weird things. Each of the gospel writers struggled to figure out how he fit into the story of Jesus, and they all came up with different answers. But John also seemed to be doing something that many people didn’t know they needed until he did it. This Sunday we talk about odd ducks, and how they show us the way, and why this matters in the Christmas story.and divine?
Dec 10, 2023 |
Who are we waiting for?
| Max SmithWho are we waiting for?
The Savior is coming! That's the message of Advent. In our very own particular, personal life, what would it mean to have a savior arrive? What would you want the savior to do for you, change for you? Transform? Fix? Eradicate? Establish? Jesus the Savior is coming and his people are expecting one set of circumstances but are about to get another—or so it seems to them. We, too, await the coming of our Savior, the embodiment of hope. But what does that hope mean to us now? Wars, poverty, hate, loneliness continue unabated, so who are we waiting for?