In the summer of 2020 I was a hospital chaplain. I was in my first year of seminary and I was nervous about it, and I would have been nervous anyway, but the global pandemic happening didn’t make anything easier. The chaplain supervisor at the hospital said, “I know you’re scared, but it doesn’t matter.” She said she needed all hands on deck becaus…

As we move through the Easter season, we’re invited into explore new life and resurrection in the texts. So too, as we continue the “A Place” sermon series that reflects our A Place for All campaign, we’re looking at these readings with a lens toward how we are called to create “a place” to best live out God’s vision. Holding all of that, three cen…

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away. At first she didn’t know where Jesus’s body had gone – and she was desperately sad, because she wanted a proper burial... The post Second Sunday of Easter appeared first on Wicker Park Lutheran Church.…

Today’s gospel reading jumped the gun in terms of the chronology leading up to Holy Week. You see, next week we’ll gather outside to process with palms as we recall Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem before his betrayal, sham trial, and execution. But today’s reading falls after Jesus’ triumphal entry and before his betrayal. Today we focus on J…

It is wonderful being here this third Sunday in Lent. To be back in this sanctuary leading worship with you is such a gift. Yet, knowing Wicker Park is an ever-changing community, there are many of you who don’t know me. My name is Pastor Paisley and I had the gift of serving as vicar here in 2019-2020. I accompanied Pastor Jason and the rest of th…

The passage we just read is from Mark chapter 8. This is the last time we’re going to hear from Mark until Holy Week, so I think we should take stock of where we are and where we’ve been in this gospel, so that we can locate ourselves in our story today... The post Second Sunday in lent appeared first on Wicker Park Lutheran Church.…

Today we are in a new season of the church year. This is the first Sunday of Lent! And there is something really special about Lent in the year of Mark, something you might not notice unless you pay very close attention. For each of the five Sundays of Lent, every reading from the Hebrew Bible will be about one of the five covenants that God has ma…

This is the Year of Mark. And something you gotta know about Mark is that he loves the word “immediately.” It’s a little hard to tell that sometimes in English, because translators have taken that word out in some places to make the text sound better to our modern ears, but if you were to read Mark in Greek, it’s just like a rapid-fire, go-go-go-go…

Today our first reading came from the book of Deuteronomy, which is the last book of the Torah. And Deuteronomy is a very special book, although it can be a little hard to understand sometimes. But we know this book and its stories are very important to God, because Jesus quotes Deuteronomy more than he quotes any other part of scripture, and it’s …

Listen to Sunday's sermon here! The post Baptism of Our Lord appeared first on Wicker Park Lutheran Church.WPLC

Flora and Fauna SundayWicker Park Lutheran Church