What Other Option Do I Have

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Sermon for Sunday, May 25, 2025 || Easter 6C || John 5:1-9

Last week we talked about embracing new life and new ways of being. This embrace of newness aligns us with the God who says, “Look! I am making all things new.” I told you that I found the idea comforting – the idea that I was continually being made new; even at 42 years old, I am in the process of becoming the newest version of myself. And so are you, no matter your age. What I failed to talk about last week was why we so often don’t embrace new ways of being. And that’s where we are going to start today in this accidental sequel to last Sunday’s sermon.

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All Things New

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Sermon for Sunday, May 18, 2025 || Easter 5C || Revelation 21:1-6

Today’s sermon is about newness, and it springs from the reading from Revelation in which God says, “Look! I’m making all things new.” We’re going to dig into the concept of newness and celebrate our opportunity to be renewed again and again, while also recognizing that everything new is made up of everything old.

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Fearing Death

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Sermon for Sunday, May 11, 2025 || Easter 4C || Psalm 23

Today, on this beautiful Sunday morning in springtime, when plants are growing and animals are having babies, we’re going to talk about…death. Now, as you can probably tell, I am not dead. So I have no special information to impart to you about what happens after we die. I have only my hope in the resurrection, that the essence of who God created us to be embraces new and abundant life in a way that we cannot even imagine in the midst of our physical existence. I have only this hope in the resurrection and my faith in the promise that Jesus makes to prepare a place for us and bring us to himself, so that where Christ is, we may also be.

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The Other Side of the Boat

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Sermon for Sunday, May 4, 2025 || Easter 3C || John 21:1-19

Let me start like this: I am not going to talk about Star Wars today. I was all prepared to write a sermon chock-full of Star Wars references because today is the unofficial Star Wars holiday, May the 4th, as in “May the Fourth be with you.” (And also with you.) But then I read the Gospel lesson for today, the story of Peter and the others fishing after the resurrection, and a powerful memory from my recent life surfaced. I feel compelled to share this memory with you instead of talking about Star Wars. And if you know me, then you know this compulsion must be pretty strong. So I’m going to spend a good chunk of this sermon sharing the story of my last conversation with a 101-year-old man the day before he died.

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Resting All My Weight (Updated)

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Sermon for Sunday, April 27, 2025 || Easter 2C || John 20:19-31

Today we are going to do Part Two of last Sunday’s sermon. We’re going to dig into the meaning of the word “believe” because it is central to the story of the disciple Thomas and to our stories as well. Let’s start with the scene in which the Risen Christ encounters Thomas a week after standing amidst the others. Jesus invites Thomas to touch his wounds, saying, “No more disbelief. Believe!” Thomas immediately responds with the highest form of adoration in the entire Gospel: “My Lord and my God!”

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The One Whom Jesus Loves

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Sermon for Sunday, April 20, 2025 || Easter Day || John 20:1-18

Good morning and welcome to St. Mark’s on this Easter Sunday morning. I am so glad to be here worshiping with you today on this most sacred of all Feasts of the Resurrection. On this day, we proclaim that nothing in all creation, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in the power of the Risen Christ. On this day, we celebrate the emptiness of the tomb and the fullness of new life granted through the Resurrection. On this day, we run alongside Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter to witness the miracle of miracles.

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Three Definitions of Passion

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Sermon for Sunday, April 13, 2025 || Palm/Passion C || Luke 22:39–23:49

At the end of today’s service, we will read the Passion Gospel together. This is the tragic and beautiful story of Jesus’ last hours, one of only a handful of stories that appears in all four accounts of the Gospel. We call this reading the “Passion” Gospel because the word “passion” comes from the Latin “passio,” (and Greek “pathos”) which mean “to suffer.” In English, when we say “passion,” we’re usually talking about a type of overwhelming devotion to something or an intense romantic connection to someone. But both of these English definitions benefit from the word’s origin, for both are things we will suffer for.

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The Capacity to Act

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Sermon for Sunday, April 6, 2025 || Lent 5C || Philippians 3:4b-14

Two-thirds of the way through this sermon, I’m going to bring today’s second reading into it, but first I need to set the stage. Today, we’re talking about power, which is one of those tricky words because it can mean many different things to different people. We’re going to talk about three understandings of power, and I hope you will stick with me because the third one is the one we are aiming for.

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Racing to Meet Us (updated)

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Sermon for Sunday, March 30, 2025 || Lent 4C || Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

This sermon is about shame. And I’m going to start with an illustration from that time of life that seems to invest everyone with some sort of secret shame – and that is middle school.

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The Foundation of Being

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Sermon for Sunday, March 23, 2025 || Lent 3C || Exodus 3:1-14

I need to apologize in advance for this sermon because it is going to be both theologically and grammatically dense. Today we’re going to talk about God’s response to Moses when Moses asks God what God’s name is. God has just given Moses his mission to bring the Israelites out of Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land. Moses is aware of his severe lack of credentials, so he says, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

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