Welcome the Children

:: A Sermon on Mark 9:30-37 ::

In the face of all the tragedy in today’s world…we, like the disciples, may not understand. We may have our priorities backwards. We may be too afraid or ashamed to ask the questions of our hearts. We, too, can be paralyzed, retreating into apathy.

Gathering with others who see the hurt of the world and the hurt in our own lives gives us a chance to process and to mourn and to find new life. The rituals and traditions we enact serve as containers for our grief, providing safe space...

Call SearchJess FisherSeptember 21, 2015Church of the Pilgrimswelcome, children, community organizing, mark 9, sermon, theology, david lamotte, refugeesComment

Looking for Healing

:: A Sermon on Mark 6:30-34, 53-56, with Thoughts from The Wild Goose Festival ::

We often go looking for healing on our own, in a secluded place, but sometimes the only place we can find the healing we need is in the crowd of community.

There are many different kinds of healing - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational. In today’s story, I think it is both emotional and physical healing that Jesus tries to offer the apostles after their journeys. But of course, Jesus is interrupted...

Call SearchJess FisherJuly 19, 2015sharing, simone campbell, krista tippet, sermon, wild goose, theology, healing, loaves and fishesComment

Sermon Inspired Art? Yes!

"How about painting during my Easter sermon?" asks the senior pastor at my internship church.

We had just witnessed Shawna Bowman creating a communion table and other artwork at the 2014 NEXT Church National Gathering in Minneapolis.

Sure, I thought sarcastically. Easter, no pressure.

It's one thing to create a piece at your own pace and your own time but it's a whole other thing to create something meaningful in under an hour, while others are watching, based on the theme and words of another person. No big deal.

But, in the spirit of improv, which we've been exploring at Pilgrims, I said "yes!"

Call Search, Liturgical ArtJess FisherApril 14, 2014improv, art, Palm Sunday, sermon, artist, sermon inspired Comments

Wrestling with God

:: An Epiphany Sermon and Artwork ::

"Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak."

A little over a year ago, I found myself sitting outside a church on the cold, damp bench of a picnic table, dropping the F-bomb on God. Repeatedly.

I was halfway into a two week intercultural immersion with our unhoused, hungry, mentally ill, and abused neighbors on the Route 1 corridor of Fairfax County. We were meeting some of the most vulnerable people in society, hidden and invisible amidst...

Liturgical Art, Call SearchJess FisherFebruary 26, 2014art, sermon Comment