Bethany UCC

Pastor Rebecca kicked off our “Hand to God” series with a hard story about what is and isn’t ours to promise. She preached about a summer spent with "no body-talk" and how it changed her.

Pastor Vince's sermon this week is all about Darwin, God’s unnecessary love and a quest to understand the mysteries of birdsong. If you listen, you'll even get to hear Vince's impersonation of the White-Throated Sparrow!

Pastor Vince's sermon this week reminds us that there’s no shortcut past the anxiety of not knowing. But, he reminds us that God is always present to us, in the ups and the downs.

Pastor Rebecca's sermon this week was all about bread, yeast and community. "Jesus said the kingdom of God is like leaven. It’s at work among us all the time, without our input. It’s alive. When we put our attention, hands, and energy to it, we can be co-creators of something delicious."

Pastor Rebecca kicks off our “Everything That Has Breath” series with a sermon about pool safety, deep diving, gym rats, lung capacity, and the Holy Spirit. Give it a listen!

Happy Easter! Pastor Vince starts his sermon by claiming "no one has ever believed the story of resurrection". See if you agree with him by giving the sermon a listen!

Pastor Vince's sermon this week surprisingly begins with naval history! Along the way, he also covers the boardgame "Othello", palm Sunday and dead crows. By the end, he makes a case for reclaiming sacred spaces and finding enchantment everywhere.

Pastor Vince's sermon this week describes two of his recent pilgrimages: one to visit St. Cuthbert's bones, the other to visit the the grave of Matthew Shepard, a young man who was murdered in 1998 for being gay. His sermon weaves these two stories together to examine promises that beg to be fulfilled, stories that long for a resolution.

Pastor Rebecca’s sermon this week is all about beauty; the superficial, the sincere, beauty that is honest, or reverent, or even beauty that is terrifying. Her sermon gathers up all these elements of “God’s beauty standard” and puts them into perspective through stories of connection, loss, honesty and healing.

In his sermon this week, Vince tells the story of some abandoned kittens he encounters on an hike and how he feels there’s nothing he can do to help them. Comparing this experience to stories from the Bible, he delivers a sermon examining the distance between action and miracles, a space that we sometimes have to fill for ourselves.

In her sermon this week, Pastor Rebecca preaches on the subject of superstitions or "enchanted realities", and the power they have to shape our more science-oriented world.

In her guest sermon this past Sunday, Pastor Alaina preached on the power of mistakes (or more specifically, the power of being vulnerable enough to admit to them). Often in Christian culture, we "conflate being without sin with being perfect". But Alaina points to examples of Jesus' humanity, moments where even he makes mistakes and learns from them. She reminds us that we have the opportunity to do the same.

In his sermon this week, Pastor Vince recounts an overly generous gift he recently received and the feelings of anxiety it brought him to accept it. He compares this experience to receiving the grace of God, and considers why we humans are often so weird about receiving good things.

In her sermon this week, Pastor Rebecca challenges typical notions surrounding confession. She asserts that "feeling bad is not the mechanism on which change is made", and centers confession as a means of righting our relationship with God, and with others.

In this sermon, Pastor Vince Amlin describes the repetitive cycles in our lives that feel like déjà vu (the hardships we face with incredulousness, thinking: haven't I already fought this battle before?) Reflecting on such moments in his own life, Pastor Vince helps to give meaning to these repetitive cycles.

In this sermon, guest preacher Xander King questions whether leaps of faith require an abstract faith in God, or if we might allow our morals and principles to lead us to God, telling us when it's time to leap.

In our first sermon of 2024, Guest Preacher Johnny Buranosky recollects on his childhood and considers the many "leaps" he's taken in regards to life, faith and queerness.

Pastor Rebecca preaches on the subject of happiness this week, thinking on when joy is a thing that comes passively, versus seeking it out with intention.

Pastor Vince used the metaphor of "desire paths" in this sermon to describe the repeated, well worn paths we walk to find our way to God.

Pastor Vince preached this Sunday, describing advent as a season where we can tell God what we really want, without holding back.

Pastor Rebecca preached on the subject of "choice" this Sunday. What decisions are made for us, and which ones do we have a hand in?

Pastor Vince compares our faith the a threaded string of beads and wonders: what happens in those moments where our faith is tested? What happens when the thread breaks?

Pastor Vince recounts a comment from his Spanish teacher that "the world is so bad now". In this sermon, he wrestles with this idea: how do we hold joy in the midst of so much suffering?

Pastor Alaina received a standing ovation for her final sermon at Bethany UCC. Give it a listen here!

Bethany Member and University of Chicago Divinity Student Xander King preaches our final sermon for October, finishing out our theme of Apocalypse Now.

On Sunday, Rev. Vince delivered this sermon centering New Revelations, being present in the current moment and exploring endings. Give it a listen here...

Kate Leeman was preaching last Sunday, thinking about awe and wonder. About all that is bigger, and stranger, and more beautiful than we can take in.

Which is what worship is about. Whether you’re already in that awe-filled place, or coming off of an awful week, you’re welcome here. We hope you will find a little of what you need here.

Pastor Alaina preached this last Sunday, in partnership with the Lighthouse Foundation, they were asking CARE churches to partner alongside them and preach a sermon on the importance of Workforce Development for Black LGBTQ+ folx and how accomplices can participate in that work. Here is an interpretation of the Parables of the Talents.

Pastor Alaina gave the sermon this past Sunday on how animals bless us by participating in our spiritual care. Listen now.

Rev. Vince is preaching the sermon about making believe we are God! Taking a God’s eye view of others and of ourselves. Continuing the Make Believe theme, we're thinking about seeing ourselves as God sees us.

We welcome you to listen to our Rev. Pastor Vince Amlin speak on from Sunday, September 10th on our Make Believe theme with the focus on eye contact, seeing from the marginalized perspective, All the people Jesus chooses to see, to make eye contact with. Imagining ourselves as the ones who are seen. Imagining ourselves as the ones looking away.

From this past Sunday, we welcome guest Virginia Gilbert as she preaches the sermon this week speaking on seeing the light, trusting our experiences, experiences of understanding, recognition, being understood and recognized.

Pastor Alaina preached about our new series - Make Believe!

Rev. Vince Amlin preaches about the idea of "Desperation Pie", how the humblest foods become the favorites, desperation becomes pie.

Pastor Alaina gave a sermon this past Sunday on spiritual comfort food as part of our August sermon series on “Family Recipes.”

Rev. Vince is back to talk about ruminating on marinating on tradition, slow cooking, and how so many family recipes are based on taking time. Listen now!

Pastor Alaina is preaching about this month's theme: Family Recipe. Sometimes we add too much to a recipe over time and lose what a recipe is supposed to really taste like. Christianity can have a lot of filler added that dramatically impacts flavor. What is it supposed to taste like? Love.

Rev. Rebecca Anderson gives her last sermon before she leaves on a 3 month Sabbatical. How can Bethany UCC learn to sing together? Let's come together, understand other perspectives and sing. Listen now.

Our sabbatical pastor Alaina continued our "Living in Harmony" series with a sermon on conflict. How do we fight and fight well while living in harmony? As well as some commentary on the abuse of various scripture, listen for a sermon on harmonious conflict.

Rev. Rebecca continues out "Living in Harmony" series by co-preaching with the incredible Elise laBarge about learning to live in harmony. Its all about coming to understand what the others will do (and each their own tendencies).

Pastor Alaina preached for our "Living in Harmony" series with what harmony means. Harmony is adding your own tune to someone else’s song—not just obeying their melody or remaining silent. We each bring something to add!

Interim Pastor Alaina wraps up our Beyond the Binary series with a sermon on Joseph's coat of blessing. We're finishing this series (for now) with the blessing of beyond the gender binary in the Bible with Joseph.

Ann Ridge provided an amazing sermon on the climate crisis for our first worship of July. Hellfire and brimstone: the state that people are living in right now. Hell and fire are here now. She reminds us that we are people of action. We’re people with responsibility. We’re able to take action.

Rev. Rebecca preached our third week of "Beyond the Binary" about the good happening in-between. In pastoral care class in grad school, a guest speaker talked about the ways people early in romantic relationships tend to project onto each other, to the extent that they miss some of what’s really there. If and when those relationships deepen, people often go through a painful but necessary pulling back, which allows the other to exist fully. He summed it up by saying that “everything good — play, music, conversation, sex — happens in the in-between.”

We had the AMAZING Johnny Buranosky as a guest preacher with us to continue our June series! In this sermon, Johnny is expanding beyond the binary of thinking we will walk only one path. Dolly Parton famously said “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”

Interim Pastor Alaina kicked off our June series with a sermon about nourishment for body and soul. This Pride month we are going beyond the binary where we are looking for God in the wide colorful expanse beyond this it that, black and white, either/or, thinking!

Guest preacher and Bethany member in discernment, Xander King, provides our next sermon in the weirdest stories of the Bible series! With Numbers 25 as the base, it's just a scriptural mess but it could be an interesting exploration of how the "weird" and disturbing stories in the Bible are often the result of historical tension in the story itself. Tune in to hear!

Interim Pastor Alaina continues our series by addressing how we interpret the story of the blind man in Mark 8. It's often interpreted to be only about healing and therefore miss the vision of the blind man. Listen as she uplifts a different understanding of disability and interprets this message in a non-ablest light.

Rev. Rebecca kicks off our May series with the weird, weirder, and weirdest stories of the Bible. This time, we're covering the she-bears and why they are in 2 Kings. Tune in all month for the wackiest stories and most unusual of characters!

Catch Rev Vince's last sermon before leaving for sabbatical for three months! He's gearing up for sabbatical with a sermon....about not necessarily being ready.