Just the Sermons Please

Sermon – June 22, 2025 “What Possesses You?”

What Possesses You? – June 22, 2025

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Gospel Lesson: Luke 8:26–39

This Sunday, Pastor Chris took us into the haunting landscape of Luke 8, where Jesus confronts not just a man in torment, but a system of possession—a legion of forces that isolate, dehumanize, and silence. For many, this story of demons and drowned pigs might seem distant. But through the lens of lived experience, it is painfully present.

The man among the tombs represents every soul shackled by shame, trauma, or the lingering weight of injustice. And the pigs? They represented profit—economic value. When Jesus liberates the man, the cost is immediate. The community’s fear is not about the healing—it’s about the disruption. Liberation always unsettles those invested in the status quo.

Rooted in Jesus’ piercing question—“What is your name?”—Pastor Chris challenged us to examine what possesses us. What binds us? What are we protecting by refusing to name the demons among us? In our time, Legion has a name: white supremacy. And evil, when confronted, resists being named. We see it in white fragility. In denial. In our silence. But refusing to name evil is itself a kind of possession—a surrender to the very systems we claim to resist.

Throughout worship, the bulletin’s prophetic voices—Cole Arthur Riley, Kaitlin Curtice, and Kelly Brown Douglas—echoed this truth: healing begins with honesty, and liberation with courage. Jesus doesn’t turn away from the man’s agony. He steps toward it. He restores him. And then he commissions him to testify.

We are called to do the same. Like the man once chained, we are sent not just to be whole—but to bear witness. To tell the hard stories. To speak what evil begs us not to say. To name the demons we’ve buried in systems and silence.

By God’s grace, may we become truth-tellers. Fearless and free.

Thanks be to God.

Sermon – June 15, 2025 “A Spirit for These Times”

A Spirit for These Times – June 15, 2025

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Gospel Lesson: John 16:12-15

On this Trinity Sunday, Pastor Chris delivered a powerful reflection on trust, memory, and divine presence in uncertain times. Rooted in Jesus’s promise from John 16—“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth”—the sermon explored the gift of the Holy Spirit as both continuity and comfort, challenge and companion.

With vulnerability and grace, Pastor Chris shared how his father’s steady voice—often captured in the simple, loving refrain, “just do the best you can”—has remained a guiding presence in his life. That quiet wisdom, spoken in love, mirrors the kind of guidance the Holy Spirit offers: not control, but relationship; not certainty, but reassurance. When someone we trust steps away, we might wonder how to go on. The disciples surely felt the same. And so Jesus promises another voice—one that will remind them, and us, of who we are and who we are called to follow.

In a time when Jesus’s name is too often weaponized to justify exclusion or harm, Pastor Chris offered this critical reminder: the Spirit will never contradict the life and teachings of Jesus. The Spirit will never sow hatred, division, or domination. Instead, she leads us deeper into truth, compassion, and beloved community.

Drawing on the bulletin’s poignant quotes, we were reminded by theologians like Barbara Brown Taylor, Shannon Kearns, and Carter Heyward that the Spirit shows up in unexpected ways: not to solve our problems, but to remind us that God is already here. The Spirit nudges us toward justice, calls us to community, and stirs us toward our truest selves.

This Spirit is not abstract. She’s real. She may even sound like the voice of a loving parent whispering, “just do the best you can.” And in that voice, we remember that we are not alone. The Spirit is still speaking. Still guiding. Still making us whole.

Thanks be to God.

Sermon – June 08, 2025

Sermon – June 08, 2025

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Christian Lesson: Acts 2:1 – 18

This Sunday, Holy Covenant gathered in the spirit of Pentecost to celebrate the wild, wondrous movement of God’s Spirit — a Spirit that shows up in “strange places, at unexpected times, and uses unlikely people,” as Bishop Yvette Flunder reminds us. Guest preacher Rev. Melissa McQueen-Simmons led us in a service filled with sacred disruption, radical welcome, and communal renewal.

The sanctuary was alive with fire and breath: from the Introit “Like the Murmur of a Dove’s Song” to the shared affirmation, “God accepts us exactly as we are, in all our beauty, pride, and love.” Our reading from Acts 2:1–18 invited us to listen deeply as the Holy Spirit poured out among “all humankind.” As scripture declared:
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as she enabled them.” (Acts 2:4)

Rev. Melissa’s message, poetry, and prayer illuminated the Spirit’s call to gather, to breathe together, and to speak words “strange to our ears” — not for comfort, but for transformation. In music, in silence, and in shared blessing, we remembered that Pentecost is not a one-time miracle, but an ongoing movement of liberation and love.

Let us continue to move with that Spirit, together.

Sermon – June 01, 2025 “Forgotten by Empire, but Not by God!”

Forgotten by Empire, but Not by God! – June 01, 2025

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Christian Lesson: Acts 16:16 – 34

This week, Pastor Chris offered a powerful message drawn from the story of Paul and Silas — imprisoned by empire, yet liberated by faith and divine presence. But the call reached far beyond the pages of scripture.

Empires, Pastor Chris reminded us, are not always armies. They show up as Christian nationalism, white supremacy, corporate greed — systems built on fear, silence, and domination. These empires still punish truth-tellers and suppress voices that call them out.

Yet God has not forgotten those who have been erased. And neither can we.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to speak truth to empire — to expose injustice, challenge the economics of exploitation, and stand in solidarity with the silenced. Our faith calls us to disrupt, to restore, and to resist with love.

Just as the Spirit shattered prison walls for Paul and Silas, we are empowered to move with holy fire — not fear.

“Go forward,” Pastor Chris proclaimed, “not with fear… but with fire.”

May we carry that fire into the world — unafraid to name empire, unwavering in our hope, and alive with the Spirit of liberation.

Click to watch on YouTube

Sermon – May 25, 2025 “Do You Want to Be Made Whole?”

A wheelchair-accessible path leads across the sand to the water’s edge, affirming that all belong — wherever the journey leads.

Do You Want to Be Made Whole? – May 25, 2025

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Gospel Lesson: John 5:1 – 9

In this week’s stirring sermon, Pastor Chris invited us into the deep waters of John 5—a story of a man at the pool of Bethesda, waiting not just for healing, but for wholeness. With compassion and clarity, we were asked to reconsider what it means to be made well—not merely fixed, but fully seen.

Drawing on voices of disability theologians and advocates, Pastor Chris dismantled the false equation of healing with worth. “Do you want to be made whole?” is not a question of bodily perfection—it is a divine invitation into belovedness, dignity, and community. Wholeness, we were reminded, is not the absence of pain or difference, but the presence of justice, equity, and radical belonging.

Through the lens of Judith Heumann’s call for equity, Nancy Eiesland’s image of the resurrected body, and Eli Clare’s affirmation of self-worth, we were challenged to embrace a theology that honors all bodies and all minds. In Christ, every body is blessed, every mind is beloved, every spirit is embraced.

To be made whole, Pastor Chris proclaimed, is not to be changed into someone else—it is to be gathered up in love and called into new ways of being community together. Wholeness is not a miracle reserved for the pure—it is the everyday grace of God who makes no exceptions and holds no conditions. He closed his sermon with a powerful call to action to Get Up! Get up and Rise because we are needed in the healing of this world! “Holy Covenant, the Spirit is already moving within Us…Get Up!”

Thanks be to God, who makes us whole. Amen.

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Sermon – May 18, 2025 “Things Change”

John of Patmos watches the descent of New Jerusalem from God. From La Jérusalem céleste, a 14th-century panel in the Tapestry of the Apocalypse, Château d’Angers, France.

Things Change – May 19, 2025

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Christian Lesson: Acts 11:1 – 18

In a stirring reflection on Acts 11, guest preacher Rev. Terry Perrish invited us to consider how the early church faced transformation—and how we, too, are called to embrace change with faithful hearts. Through the lens of Peter’s vision, he unpacked the tension between tradition and revelation, showing how the Spirit expands our understanding of who belongs in God’s beloved community.

With gentle wit and a wide-ranging journey through scripture and story, Rev. Perrish reminded us that while our world, our theology, and our circumstances shift—God’s nature does not. In progressive Christianity, we affirm that God does not make mistakes. The challenge and gift of faith is learning to let go of the illusion of permanence, and trust the Spirit’s movement toward justice, inclusion, and newness.

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Sermon – May 11, 2025 “The Ministry of Mothering”

Colorful threads woven together with hands, symbolizing love, nurture, and community in the Ministry of Mothering.

The Ministry of Mothering–  May 11, 2025

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Christian Lesson: Acts 9:36 – 43

On this Mother’s Day, Pastor Chris offered a moving and expansive reflection on what it means to embody the ministry of mothering — a sacred vocation not limited by gender, biology, or social expectation. Grounded in the story of Tabitha (also known as Dorcas), whose life of compassion and care rippled outward through a grieving community, we were reminded that mothering is more than a title — it is a way of living God’s love into the world.

With tenderness and truth, Pastor Chris acknowledged that Mother’s Day stirs a wide range of emotions — joy, grief, gratitude, pain — and affirmed that there is room here for all of it, and all of us. We honored the mothers who raised us, the ones who failed us, and the ones who found us. We honored those who have mothered through love, mentorship, solidarity, and service — regardless of biology or title.

To mother, Pastor Chris shared, is to weave a divine tapestry of care, one sacred thread at a time. It is to nourish life, to protect joy, to mend brokenness with grace. In this holy calling, we are all invited to be life-bearers — to nurture justice, offer tenderness, and rise to the divine caretaking that changes the world.

This is the ministry of mothering. And it belongs to us all.

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Sermon – May 4, 2025 “Do You Love Me?”

Love as We Have Been Loved” by Maximino Cerezo Barredo – A vivid expression of Christ’s call to love one another with boundless compassion and solidarity..

Do You Love Me?

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Gospel Lesson: Mark 5:21 – 34

On the peaceful morning of May 4th, Pastor Chris Czarnecki delivered a stirring and thought-provoking sermon titled “Do You Love Me?”, drawn from the Gospel of John’s tender account of the Risen Christ meeting his disciples on the shore.

As the disciples returned to fishing—retreating into the familiar after a season of upheaval—Jesus appeared, not in grandeur, but in gentleness. He stood on the shore and offered them breakfast. This moment, Pastor Chris reminded us, is not just about fish and fire. It’s about grace that meets us where we are—and love that calls us beyond ourselves.

The sermon explored our very human impulse to retreat when life gets hard. When we are overwhelmed, uncertain, or hurting, we tend to go back to what we know—just as Peter and the disciples did. But instead of chastising them, Jesus simply asked, “Do you love me?” Not once, but three times—each time pairing the question with a commission: Feed my sheep.

This was not a call to comfort—it was a call to service. Pastor Chris invited us to see that loving Jesus is not a private emotion, but a public commitment to care, to act, to lead with compassion. We were reminded that discipleship is not about retreating into safety, but stepping forward into purpose, even when it’s hard.

In true Holy Covenant spirit, this sermon was a bold invitation—to resist the pull of disengagement, and to embrace the sacred work of tending to one another and the world. Whether we are newly confirmed or long on the journey, Jesus is calling each of us: Come to the shore. Be nourished. And go feed the sheep.

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Sermon – April 27, 2025 “The Earth is Bleeding: Will We Offer Our Healing?”

At Holy Covenant UCC, we celebrate Earth Sunday by affirming our call to protect creation, seek environmental justice, and honor the sacredness of our planet.

Earth Day Sunday

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Gospel Lesson: Mark 5:21 – 34

In a sermon woven with urgency, tenderness, and sacred challenge, Pastor Chris invited Holy Covenant into a moment of deep reflection and bold action. Preaching from Mark 5:21–34—the story of the woman who, after years of suffering, reached out and touched the cloak of Jesus—Pastor Chris drew a profound parallel between her long, unseen pain and the woundedness of our Earth.

The woman’s faith, persistent and aching, stirred Jesus to a radical act of unselfish love. He did not withhold healing. He did not count the cost. He offered wholeness freely, even when tradition and the powers of the day would have condemned her. So too, Pastor Chris urged, must we reach out—not only in desperate hope but in determined action—to heal the bleeding Earth.

He warned that healing will not come without sacrifice. We must lay down the comforts and conveniences that are harming creation. As an example, he called attention to the alarming North Carolina Senate Bill 261, which threatens to unravel environmental protections under the guise of “regulatory reform.” If we are serious about offering healing to the Earth, we must also be serious about resisting the forces that continue to wound it.

Pastor Chris called each listener to be a living vessel of Earth’s healing—not in passivity, but in active, loving defiance against harm, rooted in the radical compassion of Christ.

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Sermon – April 20, 2025 “I Have Seen the Lord”

Easter at Holy Covenant UCC celebrates the power of resurrection and renewal—Christ is risen, and love leads us forward.

Easter Sunday

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Gospel Lesson: John 20:1 – 18

On Easter Sunday at Holy Covenant United Church of Christ, Pastor Chris delivered a thought-provoking and heart-stirring sermon titled “I Have Seen Jesus,” based on John 20:1–18. In the light of the resurrection morning, he invited the congregation to remain open to encountering the Risen Christ—even in the shadows, even in the grief-soaked silence of the tomb. The message called us to recognize resurrection not only in the expected places of joy and renewal, but also in the unconventional, overlooked corners of our lives where love insists on rising. Pastor Chris’s words echoed with a sacred challenge: Where do you see resurrection? The sermon became a call to action, a summons to live as people who have seen the Lord—and who dare to believe that resurrection is not a moment, but a movement.​

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