Sermons & Bulletins
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Repentance is part of the work of preparation – and both activities have individual and collective elements. As crowds come to John for baptism, their repentance becomes a community event. Preparing the path of God also requires communities to engage in peace, love, and justice.
“Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.” But when? There is no holy itinerary for God’s arrival — no day or hour, no platform or gate. In Matthew 24, Jesus teaches us that if we want to live good and meaningful lives, we must keep awake: stay alert, attentive, expectant. God’s ever-dawning presence is
The Bible has a tendency to compare us to sheep. In the 23rd Psalm, it is a good comparison because God is the shepherd and God's pretty good at the shepherding business, leading us to still waters. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that sometimes human shepherds let God's flock down. How can we be helpful shepherds, fil
Amos was a small-town shepherd when God called him to be a prophet for justice. This relatively unknown "nobody" spoke boldly to those in power, railing against their policies and systems that favored profit over people. Join Amos on his quest for a fair and equitable society where justice rolls down like waters...
Elijah is a very relatable prophet. He has moments of great faithfulness, and moments where his fear gets in the way and his hope dissolves into despair. How does God respond to Elijah, and to us, in those moments when we forget just how great God's faithfulness really is.
Toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his disciples to be the 'salt of the earth' and 'light of the world'. How is God calling Calvary to be light for the world?
We must learn to let our spirits dance with God, even in the thick of this world’s confusion—with Halloween costumes, deep questions, and all the rest. Come ready for joy, mystery and a holy mash-up where darkness becomes the very place where God does her best work.
In an age of rising nationalism and executive power that feeds on our fear so it can take over, God offers us a new orientation. God looks to our hearts to guide our actions in the world.
Perhaps it was destiny, child, that Samuel heard God's voice calling his name in the night. God called him during a time when "The word of the Lord was rare" and "visions were not widespread." We live in similar times. In "Say My Name, Say My Name" Part 1, we learned God's name. In "Say My Name, Say My Name" Part 2, we
This story from Exodus 16 contains one of the best-known miracles in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible: when Moses and the people have no food to eat in the wilderness, God sends the miracle of manna to be their daily bread. The people eat that manna for the next forty years, as God sustains them throughout their wilderne
Perhaps it was destiny, child, that drew Moses toward that burning bush. There he learns God's name. Let's remove everything that separates us from holy ground and listen together for a new divine revelation.
Do you remember your dreams?
There are mornings we wake up and wish we could return to the narrative of our dreams, even as the details fade away. No matter how hard we try, we just can’t return to that particular dream story. It would be easier to grab hold of a cloud or catch a shadow.
There are mornings we wake up
The horrifying story of the binding of Isaac by his father Abraham is rightfully troubling to modern readers. Perhaps back then and still today, it challenges us to ask: "What have we sacrificed on the altar of religion, believing it was the 'right thing to do?'" Join us on Sunday as we grapple with one of the most cha
As we begin a new program year, we'll start at the very beginning. In the Book of Genesis, God creates the world. Humanity one of God's many and marvelous creations. How does our createdness inform our life together in community, with each other, with the other acts of God's creation?
A sermon full of showtimes showing the 'truth' in other's gospels
Song of Songs is a book of erotic poetry, neatly tucked into the middle of our Old Testament. How'd it get there? What might it have to say to us today? Join us for worship as we talk about this adult book, in a way that is appropriate for all ages.
Through ancient rhythms of growing and dying, giving and receiving, losing and saving, holding and letting go, God created a pattern and a season for the world. Times for work and times for rest were included in that first creation story. We live, however, in a time when the lines between work and play, busy...
Our scripture passage from the Book of Proverbs talks about the place of Wisdom in God's creation, and in God's creating. Wisdom is often a gift we receive later in life, and can feel somber to us, because of how long it took us to learn her lessons. But Wisdom is a joyful character in scripture, delighting in the worl
God's word continues to guide and instruct us still today. The Proverbs talk about wisdom and its importance. How can we be wise and faithful people of God?
In its final chapters, Revelation gives us a vision of a world healed, restored, and bursting with light. The New Jerusalem is not as an escape plan but a divine promise for this world—where there are no temples of exclusion, no gates shut to the outsider, and no more night for the weary. God’s justice includes rivers
In Revelation chapter 6, the seals on the scrolls start to be opened, unleashing the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse on the earth, and an earthquake happens, and the stars fall from the sky. The world is coming undone. This week, in chapter 7, we’ll consider what it takes to put the world back together after it comes undo
In today's passage, Jesus is getting caught up on his correspondence, writing letters to the churches in Asia Minor, giving them both praise and correction. What do we think Jesus would say to Christians in the United States today, if he wrote us a letter?
As we continue reading the Book of Revelation as a book of resistance, we encounter a story of a woman who gives birth in space, while a dragon waits to eat the baby. Hopefully, none of our own birth stories are that dramatic.
But there are days, and sometimes years, when life comes at you in ways other than you predi
"Why dost thou doom scrolleth even now?"(Victor 3:16) On this Queer Pride Sunday, we worship the One who shows us how to live with integrity and profound joy. That which is against God shall not stand! As the world unravels, celebration reveals our power to resist.
The book of Revelation includes scary beasts with horns and special marks with numbers revealing who they are. But rather than foretelling future events, what if they were unveiling current rulers and empires who preyed on their people? Let us slay the beasts of oppression and injustice as we resist the empire and embr
This week we will begin a sermon series on the Book of Revelation. It is often used by Christians to predict future events, but it wasn't written for that purpose.
The Book of Revelation was written to call people to resist the Roman Empire. It carries on the tradition of 'apocalypse' which is Greek for 'revelation'. In apocalyptic literature, God reveals, or makes clear, how to respond to the world in which we find ourselves. But it is written in a way that obscures the message from the people who it critiques.
The story of Pentecost is a story of adoption. God takes strangers and makes them family. And while adoption is good news for those of us who experience it, that good news doesn't make it easy. God brings strangers together and makes them family, but God doesn't make us all the same. We are adopted into God's family with all of our differences and our disagreements. How can we celebrate the differences between us, rather than using them as wedges to divide us?
This week's story from the Book of Acts speaks of the importance of hospitality when life is difficult and dangerous. Where does God call the church to be when people are facing exile, persecution, and danger?
Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow's sermon for May 25, 2025
A queer preacher takes on a notorious “clobber passage” and its history of pain and death. The sin of Sodom has nothing to do with same-sex marriage or trans children—and everything to do with willfully ignoring God's command to welcome strangers and practice hospitality. Let them know we are Christians by our love.
When I have offered hospitality, often I thought I was doing something kind for someone else. And I sometimes have tried to figure out how to get out of it, because it is work to welcome people in to your life. But it has almost always ended up being a much bigger gift to me than it might have been to the person I thought I was helping. God uses the people we meet and encounter in our lives to call us deeper into God's mystery of grace.
The Book of Acts continues the story began in the Gospel of Luke. The Good News of the Gospel is being taken to the ends of the Earth, because the Spirit is on the loose!
From being a movement of people who knew Jesus, and people who had heard him teach and speak, it grows. Exponentially.
From Jerusalem, to the rest of the Middle East, and then to Europe, Asia, and even San Francisco.
This is the Good News--that God's Spirit will not be limited or constrained.
How do we welcome and celebrate the differences that come with the Spirit's invitation? How does hospitality create, and re-create the church?
After the resurrection of Jesus, he walks with two men to a village called Emmaus. But his companions do not recognize who he is until they sit down and break bread with him. When have we walked with Jesus without even realizing it? How might we recognize Jesus in others and in the world?
At the start of Lent, the children 'buried' an alleluia in worship. We put the word away during a season. On Easter, we bring it back.
On the first Easter morning, the women went to the tomb, assuming their alleluias were going to stay buried forever. Their rabbi was dead. Their hopes and dreams, buried with him.
An encounter with the angels in the empty tomb makes them reconsider what they thought they knew of death, of endings.
Maybe you've buried a lot of your hopes and dreams recently too. What might the Easter story have to say to us anew this year?
Calvary's 7am Easter Service
As Jesus enters Jerusalem, he is greeted by raucous crowds. It is a celebration of him. It is also a counter protest to Rome. The crowds have gathered and are crying out "hosanna", which means "save us".
Save us from injustice. Save us from cruelty. Save us from crushing poverty.
Jesus does not silence the crowds. And he responds to their cries by weeping over Jerusalem and by turning over tables in the Temple.
It is easy these days to say who we are against. Maybe it has always been easy to do so.
What is harder is to create space for people to change their minds, change their views, change their behavior.
As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he stops in Jericho and accepts an invitation to eat at the home of someone who society wanted to cancel.
How can the story of Zacchaeus help us give space for each other?
The Good Shepherd calls home all of the sheep, even "those" sheep. No matter how far you've wandered, no matter who has tried to separate you from God's fold, Jesus is waiting. It's time for a homecoming.
Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem and his disciples ask him a question as they walk. They want him to answer the questions we always want God to answer for us too—why do bad things happen to good people?
Join us as we consider Jesus' answer to the question.
The story of Mary and Martha is often painted as a story where one does right and one does wrong. We know, however, that life is often more complicated than that.
We know that faith is embodied through being present and taking action—and everything in between. Join us on this second Sunday in Lent as we consider, how can we live along the spectrum of faith and works.
In today's scripture reading, someone asks Jesus who, exactly, qualifies as a neighbor. Jesus tells the story of a person found half dead on the side of the road, but seen by at least one passerby as half alive, a neighbor worthy of care. Join us as we consider the question for today's world.
Stay woke! Or we might miss the glory of God (at least according to Luke's gospel). The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the story of Jesus's transfiguration on the mountaintop. But only Luke records that the disciples witnessed this amazing transformation because they had stayed awake. In a time when we are tired and overwhelmed with exhausting news, how can we stay awake to witness what God is doing in the world and in our lives?
In today's story, a woman washes Jesus' feet with her tears, drying them with her hair. It's an intimate scene. An emotional scene. A costly scene. And it makes the rest of the guests uncomfortable.
We don't know her story, but we see her response to Jesus. How do we respond to grace, forgiveness, and second chances? Do we welcome second chances for others or just for ourselves?
What makes for a trustworthy prophet? Let’s learn a spiritually sound way to vet our current-day prophets. We need clarity—and hope—for these troubled times. And, friends, there is hope!
In today's story, Jesus interacts with people outside of his own community, and offers healing to people some would say were unworthy. How do we build community and healing across the lines that divide us?
Rest and sabbath are necessary. As such, work was prohibited on the sabbath in observance of God's example in creation and commandment in Exodus. But when do our rules hinder rather than promote healing, wholeness, and shalom in our lives? Are Sabbath Day sins allowable in certain circumstances?
In today's Gospel lesson, we'll hear the story of the disciples becoming disciples--the moment they followed Jesus.
Do you have a moment when you followed Jesus? Or did it happen over time? Are you still figuring out what it means to follow Jesus? Come and see what God is calling us to today.
Jesus preached a message that still changes the world. Dr. King received it and heeded it—God's undying promise of release, recovery and repair.
When John shows up in the wilderness, baptizing the crowds and preaching a message of repentance, all of the people asked him, 'what then should we do?'
2,000 years later, we are asking the same question. How do we live faithful lives in a complicated world? How can we follow Jesus, together?
When it is dark outside, your eyes adjust to the dark and shadows, even if you can't see quite as well as you would by day. But if someone shines a bright light at you when you're used to the dark, it takes a while to adjust to the light.
What was it like for people to adjust to the light of the world after growing accustomed to the shadows? Join us as we celebrate Epiphany, which is the day the church marks the arrival of the magi to see Jesus. On this day, we’ll receive our star words in worship when we come forward for communion. Each star has a word written on it that can be a prayer prompt for you in the coming year. Start the new year with Epiphany at Calvary.